Barbary - NM 29 & 30

[grizzly_]

My friend drew a Barbary tag for this year in 29 & 30 and we're planning on giving it a whirl. From looking at maps, I think we're going to try The Rim area that is SW of Carlsbad. We don't know where to go, but it looked good on maps.

Where should we stay? A nearby town (or Carlsbad) or set up a camp in the unit somewhere.

Just mainly looking for road info from anybody that knows the unit since it's hard to know how long it would take to drive on those roads to the sheep. Thx.

 

[TLowell02]

I would camp. That is a long drive to do twice a day.

 

[jmgraham1986]

I'd def recommend camping as well. Hunting Barb's can be a war of attrition.

 

[prhunter]

Ive hunted 29&30 for barbs in the past. There is plenty of blm land out there for you to camp out.

 

[grizzly_]

Thx. We are making the 16 hour drive on Saturday. Hoping to shoot some quail while we're there, too.

It should be a nice break from the sub-zero temps and 3 feet of snow on my lawn.

 

[Foxtrot1]

Good luck. Post pics when you can. Always wanted to hunt Aoudads.

 

[grizzly_]

I can't post pics because it wasn't my tag so it's not my sheep, but my friend got it done on public land in an hour this morning. The guy that took us couldn't believe how lucky we were. We stalked within 30 yards and the sheep were bunched up under/inside a tree so we couldn't really tell them apart. My buddy shot the first one that cleared and it turned out to be a really old ewe with tumors and only one eye. She was actually bigger than most rams you'll see.

The sad part is a 28" ram stood up after the shot and watched us from about 45 yards for about 30 seconds. Oh, how I wished I had a tag but we're now 4 for 4 on Barbary over two trips, so that's good.

They're fun to hunt, but I'm sure the odds will even out and we'll eat our share of tag soup in the future. We talked to one hunter that hadn't even seen a sheep in a week, so it can be really tough to get one. Better to be lucky than good, I guess.

 

[nuevo_eph]

Congrats to you and your friend. Try to get permission on the photos since that would be interesting to see!

 

[grizzly_]

Here's the pic of the sheep. You can see one of the tumors on her left shoulder. It was really dense and quite hard and about the size of a softball. She had another one on her back flank.

You can also see that her left eye is missing. When we were caping her out, her eye looked like a deflated and dried grape. I felt bad for the ol' girl.

 

[OriginalOscar]

Congratulations. and great success. 4 for 4 on anything is excellent.

 

[redwoood]

Gnarly looking old gal.

 

[VAOutdoors]

Congrats to you and your buddy.

 

[Lefty315]

That's a very cool hunt, nice job yo your buddy.