Hunting Stories

My First Black Buck
 

By Jim Autrey First impressions are not always correct! I was invited down to Kerr County in South Texas to hunt a Black Buck Antelope with Chip Harmon of Ultimate Safaris.  It had been set up by Wade Derby of Crosshair Consulting.  Trey, my oldest son and I arrived about 10:00 am and were met by Chip, who would be our guide on what turned out to be a real ultimate safari. On the first day, Chip took us out for a little window shopping.  We saw the many different types of animals offered on his exotic and whitetail hunts.  I was amazed at the selection and number of different species, we saw on our tour.  It must be a combination of good wildlife management and supplemental feeding that allows so many animals of such quality to flourish in this south Texas setting.  We saw a lot of Black Buck and I was beginning to get a better idea what I might expect to harvest. Thursday morning, it was misting rain and a little cool as we started on our way to a couple more ranches where we would see more different exotic species and a lot more Black Buck.  This would give be more to choose from as I decided which one I  wanted to hunt.  Chip said, "there are more Black Buck in Kerr County than in India, their native home" and I had seen many of them. There were two Black Buck on Chip's home ranch that caught my eye.  One was the Harem Buck and the other was Fat Boy, each appropriately named because of their behavior.  The Harem Buck was always with the does, working to keep them in line while running off any other bucks that tried to steal one of his group.  Fatboy was so named, because of his broad hips and his behavior.  He was always eating or looking for a place to lay down.  Chip felt that either of these bucks would be a Gold Medal Class trophy and would probably make the record book maintained by the Exotic Wildlife Association, known as Trophy Game Records of the World. How was I to know that the decision to try to harvest Fatboy, was by far the easiest part of the equation. We started Thursday afternoon, hunting the spot and stalk method.  This meant, we would drive around in a Gator and try to spot and identify Fatboy, which wasn't easy on a ranch with so many Black Buck.  Once, we had made the identification, we would get out and try to stalk into a range offering a clear shot.  This turned out to be a real challenge on a ranch with so much cover and some many spooky animals to spot and tell the world of your approach. As much as, I love whitetail deer, I was wishing there were a lot fewer of these nervous, sharp eyed, snorting creatures on this particular ranch. The hunt continued into and through all day Friday.  The wind was blowing from 25 to 30 mph and always from the wrong direction.  Fatboy was turning into one of the most challenging hunts I have every experienced.  At times, he would completely vanish and eventhough we would see others, Fatboy was nowhere to be found.  Then suddenly, he would appear in the wide open far out of range of the handgun I was using, he had learned quickly the distance and cover to maintain in order for him to have all of the advantages.  Saturday morning came and it was 22 degrees with a heavy frost.  We started out early trying to find this elusive creature, while all of us were about to freeze to death.  I finally suggested, we go to Junction for breakfast and give the sun an opportunity to warm things up, a whole lot.  Needless to say, all were in favor.  Saturday was a day longer than the three days I had planned for this hunt.  The handgun, I had been using was traded for my rifle, hoping this would tilt the odds in our favor a bit.  Now all we have to do is find Fatboy and get the guide, the shooter and the cameraman all in position.  First, we have to find him.  We had been back from breakfast about an hour when we spotted him.  The Gator was abandoned and we started out on foot walking down a road with a lot of rock making a silent approach all but impossible.  We rounded a corner and standing in a heavily wooded creek bottom is our buck looking straight at us about 75 yards away.  All is set and I pull the trigger and everything seems good, the guide shouts, "good shot".  We all wanted it to work so much, but I think we all knew something wasn't right. That short walk to where the buck had been standing proved that our doubts were justified.  What could have happened?  There was no antelope, no hair and no blood.  After a lot of looking, I found the answer, I had killed a tree!  Fatboy had been standing with a 3 inch Spanish Oak tree in front of his vital area and my shot had gone right through the center of that tree.  After reviewing the video, we discovered that the bullet had been deflected and had hit him in the left back hip.  We thought, we had been successful, then one of my greatest fears in hunting comes to light, a wounded animal.  How bad was he hit? Where is he?  Will we find it?  It wasn't too long before, we spotted the antelope with a red spot on his left back hip.  It appeared superficial but, one thing is for sure.  If, we had thought he was elusive before,  you should have tried finding him within shooting range now.  Five and a half hours passed before we had an opportunity to take another shot at this elusive creature.  The shot was a good one and the Black Buck was in the Gold Medal Trophy class. I have often heard, "all is well, that ends well".   This hunt ended well.  I have harvest a great trophy and more importantly, I have made another memory.  If your first impression of exotic hunting is ......., let me assure you, I am looking forward to my next exotic hunt. For information about hunting with Chip of Ultimate Safaris:  Contact Wade Derby @ Crosshair Consulting