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Axis Deer, Aoudad Sheep & Blackbuck

In May, 2002 I went to the South Hills Ranch, 2 hours west of San Antonio. This ranch is bow only and I went there to bowhunt axis deer and black buck. I was hunting with Bill and his son Wil Watson. Bill's lovely wife Jolene is also a great help. The hunts run $150 a day, plus a 5-day non-resident, exotic license for $35. You stay in a very comfortable bunk house with private clean bath and shower, and a kitchen. You cook for yourself, but everything is there except the food. You then pay for the animals you harvest. The area at the ranch is over 1200 acres, and fenced. There are axis deer and blackbuck there, and a ton of whitetails and wild hogs as well. We hunted axis at another unfenced ranch nearby, and I took a super stag on day four. The axis deer is a beautiful cervid and mature bucks weigh in at over 250 lbs. The horns of a mature buck always have the same number of points, but they get bigger as the buck ages. They are very wary, and tough to get on, but Bill knows how to do it. A great hunt, as you can see from the photo. The trophy fee is $1000.

A bonus of this hunt was my aoudad ram. This sheep is native to northern Africa, but they are doing quite well in this area of Texas. They live in remote hill country, are very wary, but Bill has figured out how to get close. His last 5 bowhunters all took aoudad rams. I bowhunted for them one afternoon and got lucky. This 3-day bowhunt costs $900, plus $600 for the ram. Just a super bowhunt for a challenging species.

The last day I returned to South Hills and shot this beautiful black buck. This animal is native to India, but they do well in Texas. They are wary, territorial, and I got lucky. The buck I got had injured his skull when young, thus one horn grew askew. Still a great trophy. The trophy fee is $850.