
Brush Country Nilgai
Story and photography by Bob Zaiglin
Pursuing a free-ranging blue bull is not only exhilarating, but a challenging event.
In stealth mode I followed my guide Jimmy DeLoache on a sparsely vegetated sandy sendero, intensively scanning openings in a dense stand of mesquite, paralleling each side of the road for a nilgai bull, anticipating the opportunity to harvest one of the magnificent animals in the heart of nilgai country, Brooks County.
Following a lengthy stalk, Jimmy hiked back to the truck while I remained at a well-used game trail with my rifle on the sticks just in case a bull would cross my path. Upon his return, we drove to another location, and with the wind in our favor, hiked another stretch of South Texas brush country on a crystal-clear cool spring evening.
The maze of mesquite paralleling the senderos afforded little visibility, but the mild hikes were enjoyable as the brush line was scanned. Various brush species that are highly desirable to whitetail deer were identified which is something I inherently do whenever in deer country. Actually, it kept my mind preoccupied, as we were not seeing any sign of nilgai and only a few fleeting whitetails.
On our third stalk, Jimmy suddenly came to an abrupt halt, spotting three bulls bedded down amongst several wind-blown mesquite trees not 50 yards from us, but I failed to see the ambiguous figures before they erupted from their beds and dashed off. We saw the bulls again almost three-quarters of a mile up the sendero, and although the dense vegetation erased any opportunity for a shot, my optimism escalated as we had been hunting for no more than two hours and saw three bulls.
************************************************************************
To read more, click here to SUBSCRIBE