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  1. jt13

    Pretty Fly for a Nilgai

    I'm going to do a European mount of the bull. Bringing home as much as I did was a logistical hurdle, adding two capes and heads would've been difficult to handle
  2. jt13

    Pretty Fly for a Nilgai

    The same fella the lent me the plastic sled let me use some freezer space, I also used the freezer in my AirBnb, as well as dry ice. Nearly all of it was rock solid in the 30 hours or so it had to cool down. I brought along 4 collapsible cooler bags for transport. I was able to fit...
  3. jt13

    Pretty Fly for a Nilgai

    The final chapter is a series of canceled flights, travel woes, lost baggage, and general ridiculousness that came with this winter weather. It's almost too ridiculous to even try and adequately explain so I'll just leave it at me, the gun case, my luggage, and 211 lbs of boned out nilgai meat...
  4. jt13

    Pretty Fly for a Nilgai

    Guttin' and gillin' part two. Front and back of a 385 gr. Remington Accutip, stuck in the hide on the opposite side of her: She was quartered up and I took one load back to the truck that was parked just about exactly one mile away. I returned with a borrowed plastic sled, loaded the...
  5. jt13

    Pretty Fly for a Nilgai

    Sunday came and I found myself on the last day of the hunt. A 3 day hunt like this is a whirlwind affair but yesterday's success removed all pressure off my shoulders. Anything else from here on out would be a nice bonus. My sore back and legs from the long pack out the day before led me to...
  6. jt13

    Pretty Fly for a Nilgai

    This particular National Wildlife Refuge has a check station and a walk-in cooler to use. Once I got him all loaded up in the truck, that's where I headed. It was about a 45 min drive, but well worth it. I met several other successful hunters there, some volunteers, TPW staff, and refuge staff...
  7. jt13

    Pretty Fly for a Nilgai

    It's not quite over yet! Stay tuned
  8. jt13

    Pretty Fly for a Nilgai

    I carried quarters out to the trail and got them tied up in a tree. It's 75 degrees outside and temps are rising. Thankfully that coastal Texas wind is keeping the bugs down and helping cool the meat. Meat tree: From there it was 3.2 miles back to the truck. I went back to where I left Walmart...
  9. jt13

    Pretty Fly for a Nilgai

    Now the fun part! Or as as @Big Fin would say the guttin' and the gillin'. Organized chaos: Shots #1 & #2: After disassembly:
  10. jt13

    Pretty Fly for a Nilgai

    On the morning of hunting day 2 of 3 I get to the gate exactly 90 minutes before sunrise. I grab gear and Walmart bike and start to load up. The first hurdle of the day came early, as I've got a completely flat front tire. I whip out some tire Slime and the little portable pump I bought and got...
  11. jt13

    Pretty Fly for a Nilgai

    For the evening of day one I headed to the most remote part of the unit. I hiked around it on the scouting day and liked what I saw. It burns a lot of boot leather but only one other guy and myself were dumb enough to hunt this section: I got to where I wanted to be and sat on a water hole...
  12. jt13

    Pretty Fly for a Nilgai

    Sorry, I failed to mention that. I'll edit it in somewhere up top. Shotgun and muzzleloader only hunt. Theyre more or less elk size - bulls are 350-550lbs on the hoof, cows are around 250-350.
  13. jt13

    Pretty Fly for a Nilgai

    After my first failed stalk ended in about a square mile of open salt flat. I felt pretty confident that all the animals in that particular section had moved on. I was about 3/4 mile from the truck at that point so I headed back and drove up to a different parking area. I utilized the cheapest...
  14. jt13

    Pretty Fly for a Nilgai

    On the first day of the hunt I headed into the refuge at exactly 90 minutes before sunrise, as early as you're legally allowed to enter. I had an area picked out that was kind of the confluence of where I saw a number of nilgai run. Unfortunately, someone jumped the gun and entered the preserve...
  15. jt13

    Pretty Fly for a Nilgai

    What becomes immediately apparent is how tuned in these things are. As soon as anything unnatural moves they lock on to it and when they spook they run FOREVER. Also, while I was expecting pretty open terrain this place was something else. Knee high cactus filled grass, massive tidal salt...
  16. jt13

    Pretty Fly for a Nilgai

    On these refuge hunts, you're generally allowed one day of scouting prior to the 3 day hunt from sunrise to sunset. I wanted to make the most of the experience, I did a lap pre-dawn and then was the first one through the gate. Being early put me in a great position to catch a ton of animals in...
  17. jt13

    Pretty Fly for a Nilgai

    Jumping forward to January. The trip down wasn't without excitement with a last minute flight cancelation. I ended up needing to drive to another airport a few hours away to make it all work out reasonably on time. Airport beers: Final descent:
  18. jt13

    Pretty Fly for a Nilgai

    E-scouting, hunting forums, and more. As I've done with all my DIY hunts I use what I can to shorten the learning curve. Being that this was such a low odds draw, less than 1%, people were pretty open to help and give information. The offers for help and support were amazing - I received phone...
  19. jt13

    Pretty Fly for a Nilgai

    **Edit: Forgot to add this hunt is shotgun or muzzleloader only.** About a week later the trials and tribulations of messing around with shotgun slugs started: I started a thread titled “Sabot Slugs vs Nilgai”. We went through the zeroing and trial and error process of finding the best...
  20. jt13

    Pretty Fly for a Nilgai

    So let's go back to October…I'm on our annual grouse hunt with my wife. We have a brief conversation about keeping saving up money for next year's South African safari hunt. She takes off into the brush with the dogs, I stay behind at the truck with the kid. Just then, and I mean just then, I...
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