One Heck Of A Ride

76 The Texas Exotics After leaving Thompson’s ranch, Paige and I traveled to another ranch in the Hill Country to hunt blackbuck and axis deer. As we entered the ranch, we saw an axis buck with exceptional antlers. After briefly watching it, we drove to the ranch house to let the manager know we were on the property and get permission to shoot the buck we’d seen. “Go back and take him,” he said. “So far, nobody has seen him when they’re out hunting.” Well, we couldn’t find that big buck, either. The next day, our guide, Paige and I were stalking a blackbuck when she had a call from nature. She was out of sight behind some bushes when we heard her yell “Rattlesnake!” Everything ended fine. Paige took home a set of rattles and the skin of that snake, and I shot the blackbuck we’d be stalking and a fine axis deer to cap off another successful hunt in Texas. I took another free-ranging trophy aoudad a few years later when I hunted the Williams Ranch next to the Hearst Ranch in California with Don Anderson. It was a great hunt with an experienced outfitter and guide. I cannot disagree with the text in the SCI Record Book Of Trophy Animals that says, “The aoudad is a superb game animal, exceptionally challenging when free-ranging and difficult even where fenced.” Nilgai On The King Ranch Three years after taking that aoudad, I returned to Texas to hunt a free-ranging nilgai on the world famous 825,000-acre King Ranch near Kingsville. Someone from the ranch met me when my flight landed in Corpus Christi in February 1994, but for some reason my luggage and rifle continued on to Florida. We eventually arranged to have my things delivered that evening to the motel where I had booked a room before leaving home. Back then, I still belonged to the Vaqueros de los Ranchos, a Central California trail-riding club, and I had booked a cow nilgai hunt so I could donate game meat for the club’s annual big game barbecue. I enjoyed the club’s three- and four-day trail rides. (There were a number of such clubs in Central California. The one I joinedwas founded in 1939 as a working-man’s group whose members included farmers, ranchers, and small businessmen like me, and we had great times together. A few years ago I “went Viejo,” the Spanish word for “old,” which means I now only spend one or two days on the club’s three- and four-day rides. It also opens a spot for a new and younger member.) While waiting for my hunting clothes and rifle to catch up to me, I met my guide, a King Ranch employee named Gus Puento, and visited the ranch’s impressive museum. At the time, the King Ranch also had its own hunting club with two nilgai, several white-tailed deer, use of various ranch facilities, and other benefits included in its pricey annual membership fee. If I lived in South Texas instead of central California, I might have considered joining it. Gus and the King Ranch’s hunting operations manager were great people and took good care of me on this hunt. Our first morning was spent chasing a herd of nilgai that seemed to know exactly what we were thinking even before we thought it. We would locate animals we believed were unaware anyone was within miles of them and, before we could plan a stalk to get closer, they would suddenly bolt and run off. We had several botched stalks on several small herds before I killed a cow with my .300 Weatherby. Nilgai (also called blue bulls) are large antelope that many hunters say are tough to put down. They apparently hadn’t used the proper rifle or ammo, or didn’t make good shots, however. I shot a second cow for meat for my family, then two more for my guide, and a big bull I wanted for a shoulder mount. I put all five down with either my first or second shot with no fanfare. Getting