In this episode of the <1 Club Kicked Out stories, Maddie Richards sits down with Mike Aiazzi to talk about his journey to drawing a coveted sheep tag in Nevada. Together, they explore the emotional weight of the hunt, the preparation it required, and the meaningful role of family and memories in the experience.

Mike shares insights on the challenges he faced in the field, the beauty of Nevada’s landscapes, and how this hunt has shaped his work with the Wild Sheep Foundation. This episode highlights the deeper connections hunting can foster and underscores the vital importance of conservation.

Celebrating its 80th year of manufacturing some of the finest, fastest, accurate, hardest-hitting, and most innovative firearms and rifle cartridges in the industry, Weatherby, Inc. is not letting the recent downturn in the firearms and ammunition community slow them down. The post-pandemic surge in sales of both firearms and ammunition, as well as recent tariffs and the uncertainty they have spawned, has caused a short-term malaise in firearms and ammunition purchases. But rather than pause, the Skunkworks in Weatherby’s Sheridan, Wyoming-based factory and HQ, is in hyperdrive. Mindful of 80 glorious years, retro clothing, ammunition packaging, and new rifles and shotgun offerings are keeping Weatherby in the game…and at its top.

Sheep Fever co-host Gray N. Thornton is joined by Weatherby CEO Adam Weatherby and COO Luke Thorkildsen for a deep dive into the industry, it’s future, and why this fine brand keeps designing, producing, and offering rifles that epitomize Roy’s mantra from decades before – Tomorrow’s Rifles Today. From the bold, yet universal 307 platform, fine yet affordable shotguns, to the just-launched 80th Anniversary Mark V, masterfully combining yesterday’s classic design with today’s materials and innovation, to top secret hints of what’s to come, this episode it spot-on for the Weatherby enthusiast, collector, mountain hunter, wing shooter, and firearms aficionado.

Recent data from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) estimates that there are ~100,000 free-roaming aoudad west of the Pecos River. To put that in perspective, that is more than the entire bighorn (Rocky Mountain, California, & desert) population in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Texas was home to more than 1,800 desert bighorn sheep just a decade ago – a historical high and a success story population re-established through efforts by TPWD, WSF Affiliate Texas Bighorn Society (TBS), the Wild Sheep Foundation, and other Texas-based hunter/conservationist organizations. Today, that number has dwindled to about 400. Desert bighorns in Texas are in jeopardy of being extirpated for a second time. The cause? Competition for forage and water, and disease from the invasive aoudad, first introduced as a hunting species by TPWD in 1957 in Palo Duro Canyon.

To some, aoudad are a trophy species and an alternative to high-cost indigenous wild sheep hunts. But at what cost? Are we willing to lose native desert bighorns in Texas and replace them with a non-native invasive goat-like alternative? This is what is at stake.

Aoudad females can breed twice a year and usually give birth to twins. Compared to the desert bighorn ewe’s once-a-year and normal single lamb, desert bighorns are at the wrong end of the reproductive dynamic. And, like feral hogs, aoudad outcompete native bighorns, mule deer, and even domestic stock in the arid and fragile habitat they inhabit. As some Texas biologists have stated, “aoudad can eat rocks and thrive on them.”

So, what can be done? WSF recently adopted a policy to prohibit the promotion of (exotic) aoudad hunting in our Award programs, publications, messaging, raffles, and conventions. Is this enough?

In this episode, Sheep Fever co-host and WSF President & CEO Gray N. Thornton discusses this issue and WSF’s new policy with Texans WSF Director, and TBS immediate past president Sam Cunningham, TBS president and former WSF staffer Clay Brewer, and COO and EVP of Conservation Corey Mason.