It's a fun place, with a ton of animals. To me, it's far from a easy hunt. I will continue to go back. I am going to try to make the July hunt this year.
I've been the last two years and this year we will hunt the third weekend in June. The group of 20-22 guys I go with are a solid crew that have been going for the past 6-7 years. As mentioned above, it is a challenge and is not easy to say the least but there is a ton of animals. It is all a spot and stalk hunting in the summer on these group bowhunts and lends a ton of fun. Be prepared for heat, snakes, skeeters and hangovers.
2015: I hunted a pasture (by myself) that was easily over 1,000 acres. Drew back on a 22"-24" black buck within minutes on my first evening hunt. I elected to not take the shot at 70 yards with a frontal shot on such a small animal. Hours later I heard an axis buck fight and I was told that if you hear that walk straight to the sound, and I did just that. Low and behold a 34" buck walked with his does within 40 yards- well by time I able to get all the stars to align he made it to 54 yards and I let fly. Double lunged him and found him a short 60 yards later. Hunted axis does the rest of the time and ended up shooting a hog. Awesome trip.
2016: Hunted the same pasture and got in close on several smaller bucks and elected to pass on them at $850. Shoot a hog one morning and another one late one evening. When I returned to camp one evening, a guy shot a Corsican ram and I thought it looked pretty cool so I traded pastures with him and ended up shooting 2 rams and recovering only one. during the chase of the 2nd ram I had a sitka doe almost run me over and also got into a herd of axis with about a 30-32" axis buck at 16 yards- Had I not just shot 2 rams I would've shot that buck.
With all that being said, if any of you have a chance to go do yourself a favor a go. A lot of fun, and great practice for the upcoming elk hunts.
You won't find a much better deal even with the "price increases". I put that in quotes just because I never hunted out there before they raised prices haha. But if you pay $350 plus the $850 you're looking at $1200 for an axis buck. Hard to beat. And if you shoot some does.. really hard to beat. If you go in October and shoot a WT doe and a turkey hen. EVEN BETTER DEAL. I like that I can choose whether or not to shoot a buck, and decide if he's worth the price tag. And still get my money's worth and then some if I just shoot some does.
I had a 3+ curl blackbuck. Probably 20-22" walk 13yd in front of me on the trail/creek I set up on. But told myself going in, I wouldn't spend the $1300 on one that year. He was awesome though.
They used to include a blackbuck doe in the $350 years ago apparently. But the owner's husband told me his father in law sold off A LOT of blackbuck years back (let someone trap em) so that he could finance an Africa hunt. (Selfish). So for now blackbuck does are off limits in efforts to re-stock them quickly. Said there used to be way more blackbuck than axis. Which is hard to believe. Between driving around and walking around I would see 30-50 axis a day. Not in bow range. But I would see them.
Definitely recommend hunting away from the feeders for any kind of deer. Saw a lot more action that way. Very nice people as well.
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Last edited by afishinman14; 08-12-2017, 03:27 AM.
Hunted here on the summer bow hunt 3 times. Had a great time. Bonnie is very sweet and accommodating. Took me 3 times to learn the ranch and patterns. The 3rd time I got an axis doe. Had a decent buck in easy range but not quite big enough for what I wanted. Not easy hunting but the challenge makes it fun.
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