Nilgai - King Ranch - Finally!

[Greenheadless]

Nice! Hunt of a lifetime.

Guessing you were hunting Norias?

[SCHC]

Very nice, that is on my short list.

[KX500]

Yes, hunted Norias-the way the guide talked, that may be the only place they do much Nilgai hunting.

My hunt was pretty cheap - $1200 deposit & $1300 fee for the bull, which is one of the reasons I went with King Ranch. They have raised the price substantially since them, think it is $1500 + $1750 now, but they do a good job of knowing when you booked and charging you the price quoted.

Lots of good reasons to go to King Ranch but another big one for me was asking myself 'why not go where the Nilgai population in So. TX. got started?"

Many places don't ask for the deposit that King Ranch does - but then I doubt they have many no-shows! And you are kind of gambling that the weather on the day of the hunt won't be wet & cold, which the guide said is the worst for Nilgai hunting. But with the climate down there, I don't think those days are super common.

[Paycheck]

Very nice. Congratulations

[Gumbo Man]

That bull is a hammer. Congrats

[RifleBowPistol]

That's a nice looking bull. That pig is fat, looks like she spent all her life, laying under shade trees, and eating, definitely did not have a rough life living on the King Ranch, other than her last day.

[Hornfan]

Do they take the meat to the processor in Kingsville? I think I heard someone on TBH say that after a precious hunt.

[Bucknaked]

Congratulations

[68rustbucket]

OP, nice bull! So your guide was OK with you shooting .308? I’ve heard some don’t like anything smaller than .300 WM. What bullet weight?

[Ætheling]

Outstanding. You wont ever forget that day.

[KX500]

The convenience of taking the meat to a local processor Was very appealing. The cost to ship it back to me was a huge nogo. It wasn't really a problem to get it back home. The high the day I hunted was 90 and it was in the high 20s when I got home a couple days later-ice melting too fast wasn't much of an issue and it was great to have the meat & head home and not 16 hours away.

.30 Cal or larger is recommend. Part of the hunt info they send out includes info stressing you want tough bullets made for big/thick skinned game and then they list several bullets they recommend; Barnes TTSX, Accubond, etc - basically don't bring the most common and easiest to find made-for-deer bullets. The guide did ask (before I got there) what I was using & when I mentioned Barnes TTSX, he said 'yeah, that's my favorite bullet'. We talked guns quite a bit and he said he was more concerned about the bullets than the caliber. He's seen plenty of hunters with big magnums who didn't shoot them very well.

I had planned to use my 30.06, until I realized I just don't shoot it that well, off sticks, at longer distances. Practice with the 308 quickly got me to a point where I had some confidence. And then when I looked at the ballistics of available loads, I realized that the Barnes 150 grain TTSX 308 round, at 2900 fps was basically the same speed as normal 30.06 150 grain loads, so no real difference. Just about all advice on Nilgai bullets is use 'heavy' ones, but pretty sure this is based on jacketed lead bullets that will shed weight and when that happens, you'll still have enough bullet mass to get the job done. Since an all copper bullet doesn't really shed any weight, you can go with a lighter bullet and get the increased muzzle energy.

The guide did say that he always tries to get clients close-something like 100 yards or under. I don't know, maybe they all do. The unsaid part of that is basically that caliber selection and shooters ability matter a whole lot less at 100 yards than they do at 300 yards!

[MooseontheLoose]

Great looking bull KX. Sounds like an awesome day of hunting. Congrats!

[salth2o]

What an awesome trip! Congrats on the beast.

[TX_Kevin]

Congrats on a beautiful bull. I love hunting the Norias Division. That sucker will look great on the wall, and is really good on the table too!

[Mike D]

Congrats on the animals.

Was this a day hunt, meaning show up and leave the day of the hunt or did you stay overnight at the KR?


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