The author and guide Bill Barton show their pronghorn, which was shot with a Ruger
M77 Hawkeye rifle, a Trijicon 3-9X scope and Hornady's soon-to-be-announced
line of high-grade ammo. Photo by Andrew Chilkiewicz.
Branching Out
If I had to limit myself to hunting only one species of game, it wouldn't bother me a bit; I'd continue to be a whitetail hunter to the end. But there's a diverse world of big-game hunting out there, and earlier this month, I decided to explore more of it.
Leading into this trip, I had to go all the way back to 1990, when I shot a velvet-antlered axis deer at La Coma Ranch in South Texas, to find a case in which the animal I took was something other than a whitetail. That goes for game birds, too; I can't recall having shot one of them since sometime in the '80s, and I couldn't tell you where it last happened -- or even what fashion of fowl it was. The decoys I own are for deer, not ducks, and my lone shotgun has a rifled barrel for shooting slugs. The only "grand slam" I'm ever likely to conquer is on the breakfast menu at Denny's.
So it was with more than the usual sense of uncertainty that I arrived in Fort Davis, Texas, on Oct. 2. A few months back, I'd received an invitation to participate in the "Yamaha Single Shot Challenge," which was to be held in the desert country of far-west Texas the first week of October. The event was headed up by Van Holmes and the rest of the public relations team responsible for Yamaha's smooth-steering Rhino UTV and Grizzly ATV lines. However, there also would be representatives of a number of other top companies in the hunting market, including Hornady, Ruger, Under Armour, Trijicon and Surefire. That's an impressive list of heavy hitters, and several other media representatives and I were being offered the chance to spend time with them in the field.
Going after pronghorn antelope, no less.
Okay, so you figure I'm joking. Here it was, the first weekend of bow season for whitetails in many states, and I'd be way out in the desert, going after something that always qualifies as a "forkhorn"?
Well, yeah, that's what I'd be doing. But you know what? Now that this affair is in my rear-view mirror, I can honestly say it was a blast.
Of course, it didn't hurt that I ended up with a real trophy pronghorn, a buck with horns nearly 15 inches in length. We saw a bunch a bit smaller than him, but none bigger. Luckily for me, my hunting partner, Andrew Chilkiewicz of Trijicon, had tagged out on a fine buck of his own earlier in the day. It just happened to be my turn when an even bigger one showed up.
Antelope are known to be skittish, but on the big ranches where this event was held, the hunting pressure historically has been light, and many bucks will let you approach to within reasonable rifle range. In my case, the shot wasn't hard at all: maybe 160 yards, and broadside, as the buck fed through some low brush and grass in late afternoon. After a short stalk, all I had to do was wait for him to step out from behind a few scattered twigs that were in my line of fire. As he did, I placed the Trijicon 3-9X scope with its illuminated dot on his lungs and squeezed off a round. The Hornady bullet from my Ruger M77 Hawkeye slammed him hard, and he went down as if . . . well, as if hit by a well-built bullet traveling 3,000 feet per second, which this one was. The "thump" of the impact was somewhat like the sound you'd get if you hit a mattress with a Louisville Slugger.
As it turned out, my luck continued throughout the event. The buck proved to be the largest taken by any of the writers in attendance, showing just how big a role plain old fate can have in a hunt. I don't know nearly as much about antelope as do some of these guys, so there's nothing to call my win other than good fortune. And that luck includes having been in the care of a savvy guide, Bill Barton, who definitely knows where to find the bucks and how to judge their racks.
So a tip of the cap to everyone who helped make this event a memorable one, from the sponsors to the outfitter (Hunter Ross of Desert Safaris; www.desertsafaris.com), his savvy guides and Pat, the truly masterful camp cook. Just an enjoyable time all around, despite uncharacteristically wet weather by desert standards.
From there, it was 400 miles or so to the east, to the historic town of Salado, Texas, for a rendezvous with one of my best buddies, Dr. James Kroll. "Dr. Deer" and I had arranged to meet at the ranch of our mutual friend, Bill Grace, whose Mustang Creek Ranch (www.whitetailbuck.com) holds some of the biggest fallow deer around. NAW TV editor Josh Viste would be coming in as well, to shoot video of a hunt for these fascinating animals from the Old World.
Now, in case you don't know, the fallow (Dama dama) has perhaps the deer world's longest documented history of interaction with man; with its origins in the Middle East, it's truly the deer of The Bible. The rack consists of upright, palmated beams somewhat resembling those of a caribou, though not as tall. And, unique among deer, this species is commonly found in a range of distinct color phases, with the coat ranging from snow white to spotted to chocolate/charcoal. Bucks even have a prominent "Adam's apple" in their throat, to use for their low-pitched vocalizations during the rut. A mature buck is a spectacular trophy, and Bill's ranch is among the top places to go in search of one.
I'd met Bill back in 2002, when Mustang Creek served as host location for North American Whitetail University, the deer hunting/management short course NAW occasionally conducts in partnership with James' Institute for White-tailed Deer Management & Research. Ever since then, Bill has been inviting me to return to the ranch to hunt the exotic (non-native) game that share his Hill Country property with native whitetails and Rio Grande turkeys. But for one reason or another, I'd never made time to actually get there. I suppose it always came down to being too busy with whitetails.
The impetus for changing that came from a new project James and I are working on. While I don't have a lot of details to share just yet, I will say it involves covering the wide world of deer in a way only a biologist known as "Dr. Deer" possibly could. So I finally had a professional reason to get back to Mustang Creek for a few days with James and Bill, and tacking such a visit onto the end of the Yamaha Single Shot Challenge seemed to make sense. Early October is squarely in the fallow rut, making it a great time to go after a trophy.
Based on scouting reports from Bill and his guides, we knew several really big fallow bucks had been seen around a freshly planted plot of Buck Forage oats. This species' rutting behavior is a bit odd, in that bucks hang around a location known as a lek, and the does go to them . . . not the other way around. Sure enough, the first afternoon a group of several bucks eased in to feed in the lek as the clouds lifted following a heavy rainstorm.
The idea was for James to shoot if a mature buck walked into crossbow range; otherwise, I'd take the shot with my 7mm-08. Unfortunately for my friend, the best shot opportunity we got that day was at a range of around 70 yards. While a bit much for a crossbow, it was a snap for my Savage 116FCSS. A single 140-grain bullet through the heart anchored this beautiful spotted trophy. Walking up to the buck and examining his bladed rack was a special experience I'll always remember sharing with my friends.
Gordon's fallow buck was shot at Mustang Creek Ranch in Salado,
Texas. A Savage 116FCSS in 7mm-08, fitted with a 3-9X Swarovski scope, did
the job on this palmated trophy. Photo by Josh Viste.
The bucks didn't come into good crossbow range of our brush blind the next day, either, but Josh was able to get plenty of great video of rutting behavior. In late afternoon, a spotted fallow similar to mine crossed the opening, and James set down his bow and picked up his rifle. I can now report to you that a .270 WSM is plenty of gun for a Texas fallow, as this one crashed instantly upon taking a hit to the point of the shoulder. Our second trophy in two days was down and out...just before the rain set in again.
Yeah, I could get used to these other species of big game, especially when the scenery and camaraderie are exceptional and the weather warm, if not exactly dry. All in all, it was a great couple of weeks in the Lone Star State, and I can't wait to get back there -- even if all I get to hunt next time is a whitetail!
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