I’ve been wanting a Nilgai Bull for a long time and finally bit the bullet and booked with Tony Median out of San Benito. It was a thermal night hunt.
I drove down Monday and we met about 4:00 and started the hunt. He told me to make sure and bring waterproof boots which I did. I have Magellan snake boots that have been good for turkey and deer hunting the last two years. Unfortunately they are advertised as waterproof, but they are not! 10 minutes into a two-day hunt and my feet were soaking wet. It sucked!
Right after dark we had a coyote show up and I took a shot at him. I hit him but he ran off and went unrecovered. We saw several pigs and we decided to take one to make sure the rifle was on. It wound up being a nice size boar. Man if this had been a hog hunt, we could have loaded the truck down, we saw a lot of pigs during the hunt. We saw several Nilgai on the first night but couldn’t get it done. We did a lot of walking and spotting which was fun seeing all the critters through the thermals. We tried to stalk several bulls but the were always going the opposite direction. We moved once to get on two bulls and when we made it to where they were they were moving off. While we were trying to stalk them a bull came out and walked right where we had been set up. Ugh! If we had stayed put he would have walked right to us.
On the second night we went to a different property and while driving on a county road there was a monster bull standing right on the side of the road. It was awesome, I don’t have any experience hunting these things, but I instantly knew it was a bull and a big one! We got a quick glimpse of him as we drove by.
We made our way to Tony’s hunting grounds and entered a field and there were Nilgai everywhere. I think there were about 15 or so. We singled out the biggest bull in the group and made our stalk. We got to within 150 yards and that’s as close as we could get. The moon was super bright the entire hunt and there was no cover between us. I set up on the shooting sticks and squeezed a shot off. I was surprised by the shot, and it felt really good. I was shooting suppressed, so it was easy to hear the bullet hit the Nilgai. I knew I connected but lost sight of the bull in the thermal. Tony told me to shoot him again and my heart sank. I know they have a reputation for eating led and being difficult to track. I chambered another round but by the time I was searching for him in the Thermal Tony told me he was down!
When we walked up to him, I was amazed at the size of these things. I knew they were but dang! I was thinking that the heck are we going to do with this dead horse out here. LOL!
We took some really good pictures and got him in the cooler. It was an awesome hunt. I cant wait to get this meat back from the butcher. All I hear about is how good these things are.
Check out that back strap!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I drove down Monday and we met about 4:00 and started the hunt. He told me to make sure and bring waterproof boots which I did. I have Magellan snake boots that have been good for turkey and deer hunting the last two years. Unfortunately they are advertised as waterproof, but they are not! 10 minutes into a two-day hunt and my feet were soaking wet. It sucked!
Right after dark we had a coyote show up and I took a shot at him. I hit him but he ran off and went unrecovered. We saw several pigs and we decided to take one to make sure the rifle was on. It wound up being a nice size boar. Man if this had been a hog hunt, we could have loaded the truck down, we saw a lot of pigs during the hunt. We saw several Nilgai on the first night but couldn’t get it done. We did a lot of walking and spotting which was fun seeing all the critters through the thermals. We tried to stalk several bulls but the were always going the opposite direction. We moved once to get on two bulls and when we made it to where they were they were moving off. While we were trying to stalk them a bull came out and walked right where we had been set up. Ugh! If we had stayed put he would have walked right to us.
On the second night we went to a different property and while driving on a county road there was a monster bull standing right on the side of the road. It was awesome, I don’t have any experience hunting these things, but I instantly knew it was a bull and a big one! We got a quick glimpse of him as we drove by.
We made our way to Tony’s hunting grounds and entered a field and there were Nilgai everywhere. I think there were about 15 or so. We singled out the biggest bull in the group and made our stalk. We got to within 150 yards and that’s as close as we could get. The moon was super bright the entire hunt and there was no cover between us. I set up on the shooting sticks and squeezed a shot off. I was surprised by the shot, and it felt really good. I was shooting suppressed, so it was easy to hear the bullet hit the Nilgai. I knew I connected but lost sight of the bull in the thermal. Tony told me to shoot him again and my heart sank. I know they have a reputation for eating led and being difficult to track. I chambered another round but by the time I was searching for him in the Thermal Tony told me he was down!
When we walked up to him, I was amazed at the size of these things. I knew they were but dang! I was thinking that the heck are we going to do with this dead horse out here. LOL!
We took some really good pictures and got him in the cooler. It was an awesome hunt. I cant wait to get this meat back from the butcher. All I hear about is how good these things are.
Check out that back strap!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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