I went and hunted the salt lake

[Riverbottomkid]

Great story. Awesome hunt, Thanks for sharing.

[bbbuck]

Great write up. The only suggestion would be to move the jerky pictures to the end. Congratulations

[Huntindad]

I have read some of your posts, I would say this place and the one next door would be better for you to hunt, than Laguna Atascosa. I could have walked in maybe 1/4 mile sat down on the edge of the brush and had a shot at the same six nilgai, shot one, cut it up and drug it out. Good luck on your hunt for a nilgai, remember when you finally get a shot at one, shot placement is important. These things don't bleed externally.

I put in for all the hunts. So far all I have drawn for is LANWR. I have an ebike and homemade trailer. I just try to stay 5-600 yards from the road. the first year I was drawn and used a regular bike and trailer bout wore me out. I'll get a Nilgai one of these days. count on it.

[RifleBowPistol]

I put in for all the hunts. So far all I have drawn for is LANWR. I have an ebike and homemade trailer. I just try to stay 5-600 yards from the road. the first year I was drawn and used a regular bike and trailer bout wore me out. I'll get a Nilgai one of these days. count on it.

If yo can keep getting drawn, you will get one. I don’t know how long it will take for me to get drawn again. Last year, I got whitetail and exotics at Laguna Atascosa, then exotics at La Sal Del Ray. I am going to bet it will take numerous years before I get drawn for another hunt, that I will give me the option of going for nilgai. Probably a good thing I got one on this trip.

Good luck getting a nilgai. Be wise on which hunts you get drawn for and choose to pay for. That hunt I went on last year, was the last of the season, I did not see, much of anything. I would not mind, except, I had to start over collecting points for that hunt. I now know that lady hunt of the season, was not worth paying for. The hunt I went on this year, was probably the last for the season, I did not check. It turned out to worth paying for.

I am starting to learn a little about this drawn hunt game, I am definitely not an expert at it. I notice other guys who manage to go to Laguna Atascosa at least once a year, if not twice a year. I don’t ask how they pull that off. They obviously know something or somebody I don’t.

[jnd1959]

I think, but am not sure, that you lose your points even if you don't pay for it.

[RifleBowPistol]

I think, but am not sure, that you lose your points even if you don't pay for it.

This is the fourth year, four hunt I have gotten drawn for, by far the best. The first hunt, I had never heard of the place, really did not think it was a good idea to take off work at the time of the hunt, so I did not pay for that hunt. It did not seem to take any of my points away. Maybe it did and I did not notice. The three I have paid for, points were definitely taken away.

[RifleBowPistol]

Update on the Nilgai

Since getting the nilgai butchered and put in the freezers, was not all going to fit in one freezer. We could use a bigger freezer, if I ever hunt anything this big again.

It's a tradition in our family that while we are butchering an animal, whatever I have killed, whitetail, mule deer, hogs, now nilgai that we pick out a piece of meat to cook that evening. The day we butchered the nilgai, my wife picked out some steaks, marinated them, then she cooked them that evening. We were impressed with the flavor, it's identical to beef.

Since then we have cooked or my wife has cooked, back strap multiple times, and steaks multiple times. Then she has done stew two or three times. All of those meals came out great. The one thing that we cooked, or I cooked that did not come out good, were the ribs we did in the smoker. I was pretty sure the ribs were going to come out like dog chew toys and I was right. We have cooked pork ribs in the smoker that came out great, but they were by no means juicy, they were very good. The pork ribs having a lot more fat than nilgai ribs I was sure the nilgai ribs were going to come out very tough and they did, my wife would not believe me till we were done and they came out as tough as I expected. We still have a lot of ribs left, we have to come up with a different way of cooking them. My wife's brother, said he boils ribs for 2 hours, before putting them in his smoker, we might try that with some more nilgai ribs, but just tossing nilgai ribs in the smoker seasoned, makes some great dog chew toys.

I forgot, we did nilgai fajitas also, they came out pretty good, a bit on the tougher side, but typically fajitas are a bit tough. The fajitas turned into dinner for three nights. When we do fajitas, the first night, we do fajita tacos. Then the left overs, my wife makes this meal where she cooks some Mexican rice, then puts the fajita meat on a bed of the Mexican rice, then a layer of Mexican shredded cheese on top. Then heat it in the microwave, to heat it all up and melt the cheese. It's good stuff. She made that two nights out of the nilgai, came out tasting just like the fajita meat we normally use.

Yesterday my wife got some nilgai back straps out of the freezer, marinated them. Then last night she had me cook them, she told me how long to cook them. She knows what she's doing, they came out great.

We have given out some nilgai to a few people, our freezers are still stuffed. My wife won't let me buy anything that needs to go in the freezer. On that subject, the day before we butchered the nilgai, we went to Academy and bought the bigger LEM vacuum sealer they sell. I think it can use up to 14" wide vacuum seal rolls. That has turned out to be a great investment. Had we not got that, we would have had to buy a larger freezer no doubt about it. Having butchered and freezer paper wrapped many deer over the years, both my wife and I were sure there was no way the nilgai was going to fit in our freezers, that we were probably going to have to buy a larger freezer. The vacuum sealed bags definitely take up much less space, than wrapping the meat in freezer paper. So we did not have to buy another freezer. We definitely would have had to buy another freezer, if we had used freezer paper.