I haven't killed an exotic in probably 5-6yrs and being only two hours now from Hunt's Bowhunting Ranch near Avery, TX, I thought I would try to get after it.
We got to the ranch and my wife and I got settled in and then Mr. Hunt took us around the ranch. We saw fallow, black buck, water buffalo, sika, red deer and rams. It was very neat to see such a wide variety of animals. The ranch is a mix of hardwoods, drainages and open fields. The high grass and areas of 2-3ft terrain changes in the field were vital as you will read.
I had narrowed it down to blackbuck, rams and sika that I would hunt. I wish I would have done my research on the sika, because they were some of the prettiest deer I have seen, I just didn't know how to judge their trophy quality. They had never been high on my kill list until I saw them at Hunt's. I will be going back for one.
Saturday morning I hunted a stand in a hard wood thicket. I had a beautiful sika buck broadside at 24yrds, but I held off because I didn't know anything about their antlers, what made him big or tiny so I passed. After the morning hunt I had permission to slip out and go spot for rams. As I was walking and glassing I saw several animals and even crawled within 20yrds of a beautiful fallow that was grazing.
I spotted the rams towards the furthest back part of the ranch and used a hard wood thicket to circle back and move in front of the rams direction of movement. At this point I was in an open tall grassy field. I was able to crawl about 100yrds towards them towing my bow in hand and closing the gap to 60yrds. There were little 2-3ft elevation changes, little mini "hills" in the pastures which were vital to keep me hidden as I crawled towards the rams. At that point I had about a 30min wait where I couldn't do anything but glass and try to pick out a ram. As luck would have it, the rams started feeding towards me and closed the gap to 30yrds. The lead ram was this large corsican. I slowly sat up and drew my bow, the ram stopped and I hit him.
This was probably the best ram hunt I have been on and for sure the most wild spot and stalk I have experienced. The ram will hit gold medal, I am very pleased.
The Hunts are great people. They make you feel like old friends, we talked about hunting and parts of Texas we had in common. They are truly a family about the outdoors and just high quality people. I couldn't say enough good things about them. Taking a nice ram was just a bonus. Hunting with them made the experience great.
We got to the ranch and my wife and I got settled in and then Mr. Hunt took us around the ranch. We saw fallow, black buck, water buffalo, sika, red deer and rams. It was very neat to see such a wide variety of animals. The ranch is a mix of hardwoods, drainages and open fields. The high grass and areas of 2-3ft terrain changes in the field were vital as you will read.
I had narrowed it down to blackbuck, rams and sika that I would hunt. I wish I would have done my research on the sika, because they were some of the prettiest deer I have seen, I just didn't know how to judge their trophy quality. They had never been high on my kill list until I saw them at Hunt's. I will be going back for one.
Saturday morning I hunted a stand in a hard wood thicket. I had a beautiful sika buck broadside at 24yrds, but I held off because I didn't know anything about their antlers, what made him big or tiny so I passed. After the morning hunt I had permission to slip out and go spot for rams. As I was walking and glassing I saw several animals and even crawled within 20yrds of a beautiful fallow that was grazing.
I spotted the rams towards the furthest back part of the ranch and used a hard wood thicket to circle back and move in front of the rams direction of movement. At this point I was in an open tall grassy field. I was able to crawl about 100yrds towards them towing my bow in hand and closing the gap to 60yrds. There were little 2-3ft elevation changes, little mini "hills" in the pastures which were vital to keep me hidden as I crawled towards the rams. At that point I had about a 30min wait where I couldn't do anything but glass and try to pick out a ram. As luck would have it, the rams started feeding towards me and closed the gap to 30yrds. The lead ram was this large corsican. I slowly sat up and drew my bow, the ram stopped and I hit him.
This was probably the best ram hunt I have been on and for sure the most wild spot and stalk I have experienced. The ram will hit gold medal, I am very pleased.
The Hunts are great people. They make you feel like old friends, we talked about hunting and parts of Texas we had in common. They are truly a family about the outdoors and just high quality people. I couldn't say enough good things about them. Taking a nice ram was just a bonus. Hunting with them made the experience great.
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