1/16/2015 Archery Sika Buck Hunt
If you ask someone what is the next exotic you want to hunt, few people ever say sika. Texas just has some many cool critters I wanted to hunt and I found myself always pushing thoughts of sika to the back burner. I mean if you had to pick between axis deer, black buck, scimitar oryx, aoudad or even fallow deer or a sika buck most everyone I know would pick something other than sika. I have been fortunate enough to enjoy good success on a variety of exotics in Texas and New Mexico and sika hunting had been on my back burner. I always figured I would focus on them one day, and then along came a chance to hunt sika with Cash Joy's Hill Country Hunting Adventures.
The things I learned while researching sika is that the Japanese is the most common with the smallest body and horn configuration and the Dybowski is the largest in both body and horn. The Dybowski sika usually sports some spots where as his Japanese cousin usually is chocolate brown. There is also a Manchurian sika which is not as common as the other two varieties.
I also had some previous hunting experiences where we crossed paths with sika en route to other game. I was guided a whitetail hunter and we wandered across this chocolate deer that was whistling and grunting at us so we ground checked him much to client’s delight. I had also lobbed an arrow at a skittish sika buck while I was out chasing axis only to have him duck the arrow and leave the county. In these field encounters, I observed that sika look and act a lot like miniature elk, they even “whistle” instead of bugling as if they were prepubescent malanistic miniature elk.
My sika hunt was to take place in Ingram near the YO Ranch and according to Cash the sika there have some Dybowski genes mixed in their blood which makes for some better than average horns!
After a very wet September and October, the western hill country of Texas was lush and green and looked beautiful. I spent three days in late October in a bow blind with one sika sighting. He was a shooter but I did not get a shot opportunity due to my hunting buddy, Quaylito, being on the side of the blind I should have been on. Lesson learned is that a 4.5 year old still takes up enough room to cramp a popup blind. There was no wing and Quaylito hasn’t quite mastered the art of stealth and the opportunity quickly disappeared. We heard other sika “whistling” out in the oak forest but they never joined the scores of white tail and turkey that cleaned up the corn each hunt.
If you ask someone what is the next exotic you want to hunt, few people ever say sika. Texas just has some many cool critters I wanted to hunt and I found myself always pushing thoughts of sika to the back burner. I mean if you had to pick between axis deer, black buck, scimitar oryx, aoudad or even fallow deer or a sika buck most everyone I know would pick something other than sika. I have been fortunate enough to enjoy good success on a variety of exotics in Texas and New Mexico and sika hunting had been on my back burner. I always figured I would focus on them one day, and then along came a chance to hunt sika with Cash Joy's Hill Country Hunting Adventures.
The things I learned while researching sika is that the Japanese is the most common with the smallest body and horn configuration and the Dybowski is the largest in both body and horn. The Dybowski sika usually sports some spots where as his Japanese cousin usually is chocolate brown. There is also a Manchurian sika which is not as common as the other two varieties.
I also had some previous hunting experiences where we crossed paths with sika en route to other game. I was guided a whitetail hunter and we wandered across this chocolate deer that was whistling and grunting at us so we ground checked him much to client’s delight. I had also lobbed an arrow at a skittish sika buck while I was out chasing axis only to have him duck the arrow and leave the county. In these field encounters, I observed that sika look and act a lot like miniature elk, they even “whistle” instead of bugling as if they were prepubescent malanistic miniature elk.
My sika hunt was to take place in Ingram near the YO Ranch and according to Cash the sika there have some Dybowski genes mixed in their blood which makes for some better than average horns!
After a very wet September and October, the western hill country of Texas was lush and green and looked beautiful. I spent three days in late October in a bow blind with one sika sighting. He was a shooter but I did not get a shot opportunity due to my hunting buddy, Quaylito, being on the side of the blind I should have been on. Lesson learned is that a 4.5 year old still takes up enough room to cramp a popup blind. There was no wing and Quaylito hasn’t quite mastered the art of stealth and the opportunity quickly disappeared. We heard other sika “whistling” out in the oak forest but they never joined the scores of white tail and turkey that cleaned up the corn each hunt.
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