Eaten Up with Hunting Austrian Mouflon
“Alten rahm!” Or, something to that effect is what my Hunt Austria Miesenbach guide said, lowering his binos and pointing toward a lone mouflon 450 yards away. He indeed was a handsome ram, with deep sweeping and curling horns.
It was taking a goodly bit of concentration on my part to recall my guide’s Austrian, which was mightily close to the German dialect I spoke almost exclusively during pre-school days of my youth. After the first full day, I found myself remembering those days sufficiently to understand much of what my guide spoke.
Using hand signals, he indicated we should try to get a bit closer. I nodded in agreement.
We side-hilled the steep and rain-soaked slope toward the ram, taking advantage of handholds to keep us from sliding downslope. Because we were filming my hunt for a “DSC’s Trailing the Hunter’s Moon” television show I wanted to get within 200-yards before pulling the trigger on my .375 Ruger loaded with Hornady 270-grain Soft-Points.
Up ahead was a stand of leafy underbrush and, next to it, a pile of leaves. If we could make it there, I would have a good solid rest. We eased forward, wind in our face. Rain-threatening, overcast skies loomed overhead. A few more feet, and I could use a downed log as a solid rest. As I was about to step forward, my guide grabbed my shoulder and jerked me backward.
As I was jerked backward, the ground almost under my right foot erupted three-striped piglets, immediately squealing.
“Run quickly!” demanded my guide, who spoke perfect English. I had asked him to speak to me only the local dialect unless an emergency and English was required. Apparently, he felt that the situation!
We ran backward for twenty yards. While doing so, the brush “spit forth” three fully grown sows, threateningly popping their jaws. The small sounder of wild hogs, grown and pigs, turned and ran toward where we had last seen the bigram. Mere heartbeats later, wild hogs, and mouflon had disappeared.
Guide, hunter, and cameraman all breathed a sigh, some of it in relief but also exasperation! The ram we were stalking was more than full-curl, great mass and broomed tips, one of which dreams are made. He reminded me of an old desert bighorn ram.
Our encounter with wild hogs had not been our first. Several times they had been in the path of our stalks and each time spooked us with their aggressive actions and, of course, the rams we were after.
In setting up our hunt through Global Sportsman with Patty Curnutte, she had told us the area we would be hunting with Hunt Austria Miesenbach was home not only to a goodly number of alpine ibex, fallow deer, roe deer, chamois, red stag, and mouflon but also many wild boar. Tim Fallon, Dr. Tim Doucet, and I hoped to each take an alpine ibex, they several other species, and me also a mouflon. More about my ibex hunt at another time.
Our week-long hunt was passing way too quickly. The closer we got to the end, the more it rained all day long!
Just the afternoon remained. We had hoped to hunt the highest ridges but were being forced further down the mountain due to fog so thick there was no way to see animals. We retreated downslope.
About halfway down the mountain, my guide suggested we leave the vehicle, walk to a point where we might have a little better visibility. It was raining, hard. We, sans any raincoat, started walking a narrow path. Then, fifty yards ahead, a mature, long-horned, massive ram stepped out to the edge of the path.
I knew he was a good ram and heard my guide comment as much. I set up shooting sticks, brought the rifle to shoulder and the crux of the sticks, removed the red neckerchief tied around my scope to protect it from the rain, then got the ram in my scope. Crosshairs settled, safety pushed to fire, finger on the trigger, quickly release all my air as I had been taught at the FTW Ranch’s S.A.A.M Hunter training and started squeezing the trigger.
At the shot, the ram shuddered, obviously hit through the vitals, then bounced down the steep slope. “He’s hit hard!” said my guide in perfect English, “He will not go far!”.
Walking to the spot where the ram had been standing, we found a heavy blood trail going downhill. “Rather than drag uphill. We will drive down below on the next switch-back. I know exactly where to stop; then we can drag him down rather than up.” Suggested the guide. I liked the idea of dragging downslope rather than up.
It took us about 15 minutes to get to where we were nearly directly under where I had shot my ram. “Should be close….” Said my guide. Just then, guide, cameraman, me and now also one of my grandsons, Jake Johnson, who served as a cameraman filming Tim Fallow, saw a monstrous wild boar run, side-hilling the slope. It had looked like he had been eating on something when we disturbed him.
“Your ram should be right about ….” My guide was saying when he pointed to what remained of my ram. The wild boar had eaten over half of my mouflon. Thankfully head and much of my ram’s skin remained, but little meat. I did not know whether to be sad or thankful!
Professional wildlife biologist/outdoor communicator, Larry Weishuhn, known to many as “Mr. Whitetail”, has established quality wildlife management programs on over 12,000,000 acres throughout North American and other parts of the world. He has hunted big game with rifle and/or handgun on six continents. Larry is a Professional Member of the Boone & Crockett Club, life-member of numerous wildlife conservation organizations including the Dallas Safari Club, Mule Deer Foundation, and Wild Sheep Foundation. He currently serves on the DSC Foundation Board of Directors, is one of three co-founders of the Texas Wildlife Association; is a member of the Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame and the Muy Grande Hall of Fame; he too, received the Zeiss Lifetime Achievement Award among many other honors.