The Nilgai Post

[Cynoscion]

I’m with Dos Amigos. I’m not a high shoulder shot fan on any critter with a big hump. It seems to me like the hump gives the shooter the impression to go too high resulting in an animal that drops at the shot, wiggles around a whole bunch, gathers himself up and then gets the heck out of the country never to be seen again.
I’m a big fan of directly in the shoulder or slightly behind the shoulder. In my experience, if the animal doesn’t know you’re there and you’re shooting suppressed, hit him here and he runs a short distance and falls over dead.
The young man in the pic above looks like he put it in the perfect spot. Bad thing is, you’re probably going to lose a whole shoulder’s worth of meat. Good thing is, you didn’t lose the rest of the animal.

 

[Cynoscion]

I’m a TAMUK wildlife program alumni btw. I’m sure I graduated WAY before he was born though

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

The young man in the pic above looks like he put it in the perfect spot. Bad thing is, you’re probably going to lose a whole shoulder’s worth of meat. Good thing is, you didn’t lose the rest of the animal.

Not arguing against match bullets, etc. But shooting an animal straight up from the elbow doesn't ruin a whole shoulder if you 're shooting a .30 cal mono metal. Only a couple inches of trimming to do going in and out. Just my two cents on the matter. Nilgai has a fantastic reputation for table fare, so if I ever get a bunch of money to hunt one I'm inclined to try and get as much off it as possible.

 

[Jesse Jaymes]

I've got two questions that kinda perplex me. I've paid to hunt Texas a couple times. All you people talking about culling and whacking 100s or 1000s of critters-

• Why are these hunts so difficult to obtain or find? Why do they seem impossible for a regular dude to find? I have worked with kids that grew up in Texas. Parents ranched or family worked/guided for the ranches. They would piss around from age 4 on up and shoot 1000s of critters before leaving for college. For free. If you're a FlatLander...that's $3000 for you. For us...is going over to my buddies place with a rack of Busch Lite and driving around all afternoon.
• Dogs- I am a dog guy. Have circles that intermingle with Texan dog guys. Not everyone down there runs a dog? Mini Jagdterriers, blood dogs, etc? Not sure how even a $10 Marketplace schitt eater cant work a gut shot critter in that country. Seems there should be lots more Finds.

 

[Jmoore]

I’m a TAMUK wildlife program alumni btw. I’m sure I graduated WAY before he was born though

Well he’s loving it. Probably the guiding gig more than class.

 

[S-3 ranch]

I've got two questions that kinda perplex me. I've paid to hunt Texas a couple times. All you people talking about culling and whacking 100s or 1000s of critters-

• Why are these hunts so difficult to obtain or find? Why do they seem impossible for a regular dude to find? I have worked with kids that grew up in Texas. Parents ranched or family worked/guided for the ranches. They would piss around from age 4 on up and shoot 1000s of critters before leaving for college. For free. If you're a FlatLander...that's $3000 for you. For us...is going over to my buddies place with a rack of Busch Lite and driving around all afternoon.
• Dogs- I am a dog guy. Have circles that intermingle with Texan dog guys. Not everyone down there runs a dog? Mini Jagdterriers, blood dogs, etc? Not sure how even a $10 Marketplace schitt eater cant work a gut shot critter in that country. Seems there should be lots more Finds.

There not difficult to find! But are now more expensive than the average person wants to spend! $4-5000 for a two day hunt ! IMO is insane for a nilgai !

 

[HandgunHTR]

There not difficult to find! But are now more expensive than the average person wants to spend! $4-5000 for a two day hunt ! IMO is insane for a nilgai !

I think he was asking about the cull/crop depredation hunts.

In my case it came about by having former military friends that ended up managing/owning family land and parlaying that relationship into making friends with neighboring farmers/ranchers. More recently I am beginning to move in circles where businessmen are paying for me to come on hunts with them or bringing me and some of my customers to their ranches in order to establish business relationships.

 

[Cynoscion]

Not arguing against match bullets, etc. But shooting an animal straight up from the elbow doesn't ruin a whole shoulder if you 're shooting a .30 cal mono metal. Only a couple inches of trimming to do going in and out. Just my two cents on the matter. Nilgai has a fantastic reputation for table fare, so if I ever get a bunch of money to hunt one I'm inclined to try and get as much off it as possible.

For sure and your point is very true. My point was simply quickness of lethality. Match bullet to the shoulder or directly behind the shoulder generally results in dead nilgai within sight. Mono metal bullets with similar shot placement, in my experience, end up in longer runs to sight of death.

 

[Cynoscion]

There not difficult to find! But are now more expensive than the average person wants to spend! $4-5000 for a two day hunt ! IMO is insane for a nilgai !

I’m glad not everybody thinks so or else I’d be out of business

 

[Cynoscion]

I've got two questions that kinda perplex me. I've paid to hunt Texas a couple times. All you people talking about culling and whacking 100s or 1000s of critters-

• Why are these hunts so difficult to obtain or find? Why do they seem impossible for a regular dude to find? I have worked with kids that grew up in Texas. Parents ranched or family worked/guided for the ranches. They would piss around from age 4 on up and shoot 1000s of critters before leaving for college. For free. If you're a FlatLander...that's $3000 for you. For us...is going over to my buddies place with a rack of Busch Lite and driving around all afternoon.
• Dogs- I am a dog guy. Have circles that intermingle with Texan dog guys. Not everyone down there runs a dog? Mini Jagdterriers, blood dogs, etc? Not sure how even a $10 Marketplace schitt eater cant work a gut shot critter in that country. Seems there should be lots more Finds.

I’m not sure I understand the questions exactly but I’ll try to answer what I think you’re asking.

South Texas is BIG country and BIG cow country. We live in a semi arid environment which means we average 25” or less rainfall annually. All this to say that nilgai and cattle are competing for a limited resource (grass). Landowners have realized that hunters will “help” them with their problem but they aren’t just opening up their family ranches to the general public so they allow trusted outfitters/leases/land managers to vet clients and allow them guided access to this resource for a fee. This is just how hunting in Texas works for the most part.

On the dog question, I raised, trained and bred bred my own blood dogs for a very long time. For the most part, you aren’t looking for a dead nilgai, your dogs are trailing, baying and catching hunter wounded nilgai. I would bet that 80% or more of my dog work over those years was live wounded animals. Very few dead ones and nilgai don’t give up easily. Their response is always to run unlike a whitetail who will stop to fight a dog. Most live, wounded nilgai trails with dogs are multi hour ordeals covering miles and miles of country unless of course you can pitch a dog out right on top of a fresh, hot trail.
Hope this helps.