My pal Chuck Forbes and I booked with Greg Simons and Wildlife Systems for a combo hunt. Nilgai / Scimitar / Javelina and Feral Hog for me, Scimitar / Zebra for Chuck. There was a request that a nilgai cow be taken for meat so Chuck stepped up to the plate and got it done. The facility at the H Yturria Ranch is wonderful.
The camp has numerous well appointed and comfortable cabins (with air conditioning), a central fire pit, a game processing area with a large walk-in cooler and a cook shack which contained a large separate kitchen, a really wonderful and spacious dining room connected to a screened in deck which we also had lunch on one day.
After a wonderful home cooked lunch with homemade tortillas (served with every meal and rapidly became my favorite), we unpacked our guns and went to the range. All of our firearms were off…by a significant margin (thank-you Continental). Chuck was shooting an Encore pistol in .308 with factory 180gr Rem Corelokts and brought a .300win as backup. Both of his firearms shot low and right. I brought a Rem700 CDL in 35 Whelen shooting a 225gr TSX along with another Rem bolt in .223 as Javelina was also on my list. My rifles were shooting high and right. After a few adjustments we were good to go.
Our guides were Rudy Bazan and Mike Gray, and just the best folks you'd want to be with. Chuck shot very well and downed each of his animals with 1 shot. I shot rather poorly, a bit low on my Nilgai which resulted in a 2 hour track in the dark, but Mike was all that I expected he was and we found the bull very much alive and staring at us from the brush. The only reason we saw him was because the beam of the flashlite made his eyes shine. After a finisher, I suspect that I now have the new #1 Texas Nilgai taken by flashlite!!
My Scimitar was 1 shot DRT on day 2 after a long and frustrating day of stalking several small herds and an equal number of blown stalks because of wind shift or being made by one in the group. With scimitars, if one goes, they all go! I finally got the shot and took one late in the afternoon and by the time we got it dressed and back to the camp, it was too dark to hunt so we called it a day and commences with the skinning.
On day 3, we were after javelina and hog if I found one to my liking. At about 10am we saw a few hogs and there was a nice black/white spotted one that would easily go 200lbs. The group went into the brush and then came back out. At about 60 yards, I took the shot but rushed it hitting the boar way too far back. It spun around and took off into the brush. We followed blood for 2 hours till it ran out. Came back later with Chuck and Rudy for 2 more hours and did not find the hog... my fault, no excuses..... Later that afternoon, we hunted or should I say assassinated javelina. I shot 2 with the 223 at under 20 yards each.
Chuck and I highly recommend Wildlife Systems and will use them again!
I took quite a few pics of the flora and fauna at the Yturria. They are posted on my website so please have a look!
