Hunting Season?

[Ranch Dog]

What is up for you guys?

Even though I hunt hogs year round I always look forward to the first front through my part of the State, tells me I will be chasing whitetails soon. Despite daytime highs in the 90s, the night time temperatures are in the mid 60 so we get to sleep with the windows open. It is nice to hear the night life out there beyond the house; coyotes, foxes, and owls. Plus, the hogs always seem to be fighting with each other.

Texas Parks and Wildlife sent me a notice online that my Managed Land Harvest Recommendations where ready and I accepted the permits which I will receive in a weeks time. Use to a day and all month to get them processed. Yesterday, I received an email that I was drawn for a whitetail/nilgai hunt at the Laguna Atacosa National Wildlife Refuge. This is one of my favorite public hunts, a hard "pack" type hunt in some tough country. This refuge is home to the ocelot in the USA. A friend of mine, a Game Warden, was on the application with me so he will be glad to hear we are going. I actually stay at a nice "fish camp" on the Arroyo Colorado so I can fish all night. Mainly, Mike and I are interested in the nilgai but would not turn down a whitetail in the 160 class. I will carry either my Rio Grande 45-70 or a 92 in 45 Colt or 480 Ruger as a nilgai is one tough critter.

The refuge system is the "green" on this map, it is the end of the US on the Texas Gulf Coast.



Here is what a nilgai looks like.



What are you guys up to over the next several months? My Marlins are all well experienced so I though I would give some of the new Rossi's a workout. Anybody treating their Rossi to something special?

[akuser47]

Can't wait to hear the deatails of the hunt and how it turns out for you sounds like fun.

[Steelbanger]

Hello Michael,

October 13th is our opener with muzzleloaders. Mike has a T/C Omega 50 cal and mine is a T/C Encore 50 cal. One week season for antlerless deer only with the final three days open with conventional rifles for junior and senior hunters. Those three days are where the cast bullets will be loaded into one of my Marlins. Right now I am leaning toward a 38-55 but may decide on either a 45-70 or a 444. All these leverguns are scoped as are the T/C's.

Our deer are not exactly the size of your nilgai but we enjoy hunting them, especially the ones that outmaneuver us! We have stands about 300 yds apart both of which overlook a cornfield of about 40 acres. We're both hoping that the corn is harvested before the season opens.

Since we're not archers the next season we hunt is the regular firearms season which opens the Monday after Thanksgiving and runs for two weeks. This two week season is the time of the year in PA where one day it can be sunny and mild, with rain the next day changing to ice as the temperature drops and the wind starts up. Never saw a fogged Leupold scope but it probably happens in PA every year but never to one of ours.

The final deer season which sometimes finds us out with a remaining tag is the flintlock season which runs from the day after Christmas to about mid January. This is the coldest time of the year here and most days are brutally cold. One year I had one tag left and Mike talked me into hunting New Years morning. Temp was 8º with calm winds. I didn't have time to get cold as three deer walked into me and everything worked. The flint sparked, the charge in the pan ignited and the main charge in the barrel fired sending the 425 gr. 54 cal maxi ball to the deer. Down went the doe and our season was over. I still have the bullet which we found on the floor of Mike's butchering shop. Even after that success I still prefer to stay in bed rather than hunt the flint season. However the rabbit hunting is great in Jan & Feb. so my beagle gets to do what he loves which is chasing rabbits and sometimes we even get a few. Shotguns of course.

Frank

[Ranch Dog]

Good luck Frank, hope to hear a good report and see some pictures later in the year!

[Rooster59]

My wife's from Texas but we didn't hunt when we lived there. Kinda glad as that nilgai is ugly enough to be from the wrong side of the Bible! Wow.

Firearms deer season opens tomorrow here. We hunt west of Cape Girardeau where the flood plain ends in the edge of the hills. The weekend forecast is mid to upper 60's then thunderstorms Sunday night possibly turning to snow Monday eve. Wish me luck that I get one by Sunday at dusk. Just no fun sitting in a stand when it is wet, windy, and 40 degrees.

There are enough deer strolling thru our backyard that I should suit up in my "aged deck wood" camo and pop one there. My wife is doing just that. She's been seeing 2 young 6 pointers tearing up one of her young pine trees. When you mess with Momma's landscaping she sees red! Last year it was a huge pussywillow that bit the dust. She's foregoing the hunt this year to avoid kenneling our 6 month old Viszla pup (we have three total). She's not proficient at dressing deer so a neighbor who hunts locally is "on call" to handle it if she gets one.

Good luck to all this season.

Jeff

[pricedo]

So that's what a nilgai looks like.
I was expecting something deer-like.
Looks like a refugee from the plains of Africa.

[Ranch Dog]

So that's what a nilgai looks like.
I was expecting something deer-like.
Looks like a refugee from the plains of Africa.

Actually, the coastal areas of India/Pakistan. There is a lot of stories about how they arrived on the King Ranch but I tend to believe the version offered in a written history of the Ranch. Some honcho from Pakistan arrived for a winter of hunting in 1929 and brought with him a boat load of the critters as a gift. When the guests departed the word was given to take the boat containing them off the coast in the Gulf of Mexico and sink it. Remember this is cattle country and an antelope grazing was, in their eyes, not a gift by any stretch of the imagination. Despite the distance, they swam back as not only are they agile on land but take to water real easy. Once they were "uncontained" they could not catch them.

I'm glad they did not drown as they have become the premier game animal of South Texas. They are quite a beast with the eyes and speed of a pronghorn and the stamina of a eland. They are a huge critter up on their long legs, those legs give them elevation the elevation advantage over a human in the flat country they occupy. You have to get flat as a snake to get up on them. Of course, in this country acting like a snake gets you down in with the snakes! Being down in the dirt, literally, also creates problems with ticks. You get coated with them.

[izzyjoe]

that rascal look's big, what's the average weight of them? what's the meat taste like? that sound's like some fun huntin'.

[Ranch Dog]

that rascal look's big, what's the average weight of them? what's the meat taste like? that sound's like some fun huntin'.

300 to 600 pounds here in Texas. Back in their home land I think the run about 250 to 500 pounds. They reside on the large ranches below Corpus Christi to Brownsville bounded to the west by US77. Toward the south end of that range there is a pretty good NWR system that has public draw hunts.

[pricedo]

The meat from a critter that nasty looking must be tough & stringy.
When you cook 'em do you eat the meat or the oven door?

Seriously, how easy is nilgai meat on the palate?