One of our outfitters has been offering aoudad hunts ever since we started working with him more than 20 years ago. He operates in New Mexico and Texas on private land where the animals are NOT penned in by high fences.

These are truly wild animals and have been roaming these rugged desert mountains ever since the Texas and New Mexico game departments introduced them.

Well-known trophy hunter and author Craig Boddington got a nice aoudad with this outfit.

Having been on hunts for aoudad, desert bighorn sheep and Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep in southeastern Utah's desert canyons,

I can say that hunting for all three is quite similar except that aoudads are much more common on these private ranches than are bighorns in the wild. Aoudads also tend to gather in larger herds though big rams often are alone.

You'll need to be prepared to hike, but the mountains are not as high as most ranges where you'll find bighorns, so you do not have to be in as good shape as if you had drawn a tag in some of the desert sheep areas I know.

Be prepared to shoot long distances because aoudads see just as well as bighorns, and sometimes you're better off taking a 400-yard shot from a dead rest than stalking closer and perhaps ending up spooking the animals and being forced to take a moving shot or none at all.