February 26
Nilgai Antelope Bowhunt
| Hunt Introduction This hunt takes place on an 8,000 acre ranch in Old Mexico, between Nuevo Laredo and Piedras Negras, not too far from the Texas border. Many hunters have become familiar with Nilgai Antelope over the last half dozen years, because of the hunting opportunities available for them on the King Ranch and other areas along the lower gulf coast of Texas. Many years ago some Nilgai - an antelope native to India - were brought over to the King Ranch. They have proven to be VERY prolific and extremely adaptable to the dry south Texas climate. This ranch in Mexico (with game-proof fencing around the 8,000 acres) brought in some Nilgai in the early 70's, and since then the herd has grown to number almost 500 animals, which have only been lightly hunted - ever. I am hunting with outfitter Klint Graf, who just started taking hunters to the ranch last year and so far has had 100% success on both rifle hunts and bowhunts for Nilgai. For those of you who have hunted Nilgai on the King Ranch, particularly with a bow, you know what a challenging quarry they are. I have bowhunted for Nilgai three different times on the King Ranch, collectively about 12 days, using spot and stalk tactics, and I have yet to even draw my bow. They make the idea of stalking whitetails seem like a walk in the park. All of their senses are extremely alert and they are very edgy animals. Even at long ranges they tend to be very skittish, evidenced by the fact that many rifle hunters shoot Nilgai on the run. Bowhunting success on them is very low. They are also extremely tough and tenacious of life, more so than their closest North American equivalent in size, elk. The outfitter for this ranch in Mexico told me that these Nilgai had seen practically no hunting pressure to speak of, and were not nearly so flighty as the ones on the King Ranch. So, I had to come see for myself. I found out very quickly that he wasn't kidding one bit. Tuesday We saw probably a dozen Nilgai just in the 1 mile drive from the gate to the ranch house. I was impressed. I was more impressed by the fact that most of them just stood and watched us, and didn't take off running at the speed of sound. The plan was to hunt them from a Double Bull ICE Blind set up at one of several windmill water tanks on the ranch.  brushing up my Double Bull blind  the waterhole - my blind is right beside the big tree in the middle of the photo We arrived at the water hole we were to set up on, and I was pleasantly surprised that it was only about 30 yards by 30 yards. I was even more pleasantly surprised to see the tracks everywhere around the water hole, and about 4 different MAJOR game trails leading to the water. Nilgai tracks were everywhere. There were also at least 10 different large Nilgai communal dung piles in site within 50 yards. Nilgai have a habit of always defecating in communal piles. There is no question when there are a lot of Nilgai using an area, as the piles get quite large! See the picture below. This pile was probably 10'x10'.  a huge Nilgai dung pile Looking at the water hole, the ranch habitat, and also hearing from the outfitter that there were a large number of Blue Wildebeest on the ranch, all combined to make me feel kind of like I was in Africa. There was only one really good place to set up my blind where it would have some cover. That was beside a big mesquite tree that gave me shots to different areas of the water, all in the 12-25 yard range. We set up the blind and spent a good deal of time cutting brush and piling dead limbs around the blind to break up the outline. We got everything in the blind and set up and the waiting game was on.  a Nilgai cow comes to water  a herd of Wildbeest come running into water     a different Nilgai cow comes to water We didn't have long to wait, as the first Nilgai was coming to water less than 5 minutes after we got in the blind. Within 15 minutes of getting in the blind, we had seen about 8 different Nilgai, including a few nice bulls. Early on the wind was blowing in the wrong direction and several bulls winded us and left. Then thankfully the wind switched in a better direction, and before we knew it there was a bull coming into the water from the left side, right along with a group of about 30 Wildebeest! He walked right in front of me at about 15 yards, but I wanted him to be still when I shot, so I held off for a better shot. He walked to the water, as luck would have it, with my mesquite tree between us. So, I patiently waited while he drank (he drank a LOT). When he was done he turned around and came back the same way, although this time stopping quartering away at about 13 yards. I placed the pin in line vertically with his opposite side leg, halfway up the body, and let the arrow fly. It hit him with a hard "whack", pretty much where I was aiming, and he tore out of there with the arrow still sticking out a little on the entrance side. Knowing how big and tough their shoulders are, though, this didn't bother or concern me.  this huge Nilgai bull came to water after I had already shot my bull  not sure what to think about us  taking a long drink As he ran away, I could see blood pumping out of the entrance wound, so that gave me confidence that I had made a good shot. We waited in the blind for about a half hour to get pictures of more Nilgai (which we did, as we had several more bulls come to water in that time period), then we got out to blood trail my bull. We didn't locate any blood for about 100 yards, but when we did, it was pretty steady and in good amounts. A little difficult to see because the sun had baked it into the red dirt, but there was enough to follow. The bull also brushed up against a number of bushes, where the blood was more visible for us to follow.  the bull left a good blood trail We followed the trail, marking it every little bit with orange flagging tape, for about 800-900 yards over the next hour or so. While I felt that he should have died more quickly than that, I wasn't excessively worried, as long as he was bleeding, knowing their reputation for being extremely tough. I knew we weren't going to find him in 50-100 yards like a whitetail. Pretty soon the blood trail led to the bull in some thick brush he had run to. It was a long trail, but it was a good one and we were happy to find the bull without any problems. Upon field dressing the bull we saw that my shot had indeed been a double lung hit, entering about midway back and angling forward into the vitals. The arrow had been prevented from passing completely through by the opposite side leg bone. Talk about TOUGH!  my bull was a pretty good one I was quite overwhelmed by the whole experience, from the shot to the kill. To think that I had hunted Nilgai 3 different trips and never even drew my bow, and then hunted this place and shot a bull within 20 minutes of being in the blind, was pretty difficult to believe. I know there are a LOT of guys who hunted Nilgai on the King Ranch with bow and arrow and went home like me, empty-handed and frustrated. I frankly couldn't believe the numbers of Nilgai on this ranch, many more than I ever saw on the King Ranch. I also could clearly see a big difference between Nilgai that are heavily hunted and Nilgai that aren't. It would be no exaggeration, after my experience in just an hour today, to say that any bowhunter should be able to get a shot at a bull Nilgai at a waterhole on day 1 of a hunt on this place, barring terribly inclement weather like heavy rain, wind, etc. The Wildebeest may also be hunted, and I could easily have shot half a dozen good bulls on today's hunt. What can I say but that I HIGHLY recommend this hunt! Nilgai, by the way, make very fine table fare. I have eaten it several times, and the flavor is delicious. If interested in possibly hunting this ranch for Nilgai, Wildebeest, or both, see the web site link below. I can assure you won't be disappointed.  this photo shows how big bull Nilgai really are
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