Hunting Stories

Ultimate Safari's Daily Log

By Jim Autrey Wednesday (Chocolate Fallow) Trey , my oldest son and  I arrived in Kerr County about 10:00 am on Wednesday where we were met by Chip Harmon of Ultimate Outfitters.  We were there to hunt a Black Buck Antelope.  The Black Buck is from India but there are more in Kerr County at this time than in their native home land.  Chip suggested that we take a look around, window shop per say, so I would have a better idea of what type of Black Bucks were available.  He also mentioned that there was an elusive Chocolate Fallow on his ranch that needed to be harvested.  We thought this would be an excellent opportunity for Trey and would also give our viewers an opportunity to experience a Fallow Deer hunt, if we were successful. After driving around on a couple of the ranches hunted by Chip, we had seen a lot of Black Bucks and other exotic species.  This gave me a lot better idea of what to expect and helped me to better understand the concept of hunting exotic animals in South Texas.  After returning to Chip's home ranch, he suggested that we load up in his Gator and try to find the elusive Chocolate Fallow.  This particular deer had been wounded several months before by a muzzle loader hunter.  After that, they did not see the animal for over three months.  The next encounter with hunters resulted in several shots fired and still no animal harvested.  It was almost like a ghost fallow deer.  So, you can imagine how surprised we were to find the deer in less than an hour, but once again he vanished into the brush, just like a ghost. Chip decided that the best way to get a shot at the elusive Fallow would probably be by sitting in a stand and waiting for him to come into an opening.  So, about 4:30pm the three of us huddled together in a 4'x4' stand to wait. The first animals to come into the area were several Black Bucks.  This is what we are going to be hunting later, but that is the way it goes.  If you are hunting bucks, you see does, if you are hunting does, you see bucks.  Now, we are hunting Fallow and we see Black Buck.  The Black Buck milled around for a while and then we saw a Simitar cow come in from the right of us.  The main problem with this was the wind was blowing fairly strong from us to them.  She winded us and away she went.  The fallow does then made an appearance in the same location as the Simitar, and they also winded us.  They were a little more determined to pass our way.  We watched as the fallow milled around in the thick brush, then all of the sudden there he was, the Chocolate Fallow buck we were wanting to harvest. It seemed like an eternity, but it was probably only about 20 minutes before they started across a small clearing, single file with the buck bringing up the rear.  This opening was small and did not offer enough time to get a clear shot.  Our only hope was that they would come into the open at the far end of the clearing we were watching.  A long time passed, then the does started crossing the back of the clearing one at a time.  I didn't realize that there were as many does as there was in this group.  Where is the buck?  It seemed like once again he had eluded the hunters and then out he stepped into a small clearing while holding in close to a large cedar tree.  Chip and Trey decided this may be their only chance.  The buck was not offering a broadside shot that we would all like to have, but at least he was standing still and no more than a hundred yards away.  The camera was on and the gun reported and the buck disappeared into the cover behind the clearing.  Trey and I were in shock.  We neither one could believe he missed.  Of course if you have never hunted with a camera over your shoulder it is hard to understand the added pressure.  While, we set there stunned at the whole event, Chip assured us that it was a good shot, hitting square on the point of the animals left shoulder.  I asked, why he didn't go down and he explained to me, that exotics are just harder to bring down than whitetail.  We waited about 5 minutes and proceeded to where we should find the animal and after a careful approach, there was Trey's elusive fallow.  The shot was perfect and we all felt a lot better.  The fallow had 21 scroe able points and weighed close to 300 lbs.  A real trophy in any ones book.