Blackbuck Hunt with Traditional ML

[Sparkitoff]

I've been trying to put together a re-enactment of sorts with an exotic hunt. Come to find out, other than hogs and some Axis deer in the 1860's in Hawaii, the US doesn't have a history of hunting exotics with traditional muzzleloaders. Europe and other continents have history, but in those places at least some, if not most of the animals are not introduced or were introduced in the 1800's. So the best I could come up with for right now is the Blackbuck Antelope. These antelope came from India in the 1930's and were introduced in the Edwards Plateau region of Texas (and elsewhere).

I've worked hard to get permission from several adjacent land owners to hunt the free-range blackbuck that I see frequenting this particular spot. In total, there is about 2700-acres that I have access to. There are some barbed wire fences that serve as property lines and some geographical landmarks that will keep me in the right places. Full disclosure, this is not a "free" hunt. Some of the land owners wanted a small fee to access their land. All of them want a "price" if I get a Blackbuck on their property. The prices were inconsistent so I went back and made an agreement on what I think is fair and all owners accepted the same offer. There is no season nor bag limit because they are "exotics". I plan to take a good buck if I can and then let my son try to get some females. The land owners are "funny". They asked me to shoot some females because there is an abundance. In scouting, I saw over 150! Yet if I am successful they set a price on them, and although it's reasonable, you'd think they'd want them taken out for free. Only one of the owners said if I took a buck on her land I could take a doe without additional cost. Such is Texas hunting ....

I started today on an 800-acres piece of property where there has been a few smaller groups of 5 to 15 Blackbuck. I am trying a blend of old and new. I have a HECS suit under my buckskin jacket and pants, with moccasins and brown hat. I have a set of black goat horns attached to my hat. I am hoping to walk within a hundred yards or so of some blackbuck and then crawl right in among them like I am another animal. Anything inside 100-yards makes them fair game for my .54 caliber flintlock sporting rifle The closer the better.

The first stalk doesn't work out. I was about 50-yards away when I decided to close the gap a little more. When I did and looked up again, the Blackbuck were gone. About a half-hour later I located a different group and tried the same thing. This time, at around half-way into my crawl and 75-yards from the antelope, I put my knee down on a cacti. Yeeow! I'm sitting there picking needles out of my knee that is burning like a lit match is being held to it. When I am done with this set-back, the antelope are no longer there.

I walk back to the truck and put some water on my knee and wrap it. I then drive to the road and wander the pavement looking out into the ranches I am allowed to hunt. Eventually, I do see a group of blackbuck. After parking the truck I try to cut through a thick spot to gain some distance on them. Well, I didn't expect a creek to be in my path. The moccasins don't do well on the damp rocks and I end up with both feet in the water. I continue on with wet feet and find the opening where the blackbuck were. I see them in the brush moving around at about 150-yards. I plan to wait them out here since they are moving my way. I hear something. Then again, and again. Like tapping.... I'm looking around to figure it out. Suddenly I realize it is raining! The pitter-patter is on me and the rocks nearby. Dang it... back to the truck. No rain was in the forecast and I am not prepared to keep this flintlock dry. To be continued...

 

[sb 54 cal.]

Plz keep the story going

 

[D.Summers]

Some pictures!! Por favor

 

[ny griz]

Liked your adventure so far.Griz

 

[MIOutdoorsman]

I’m enjoying this thread too. Pics would be even better, but I’m enjoying your descriptions very much.

 

[Patocazador]

Blackbuck are neat. Besides being very attractive with their tight spiral horns, I love the way they "pronk" when they get alarmed.

Practice hitting a bouncing volley ball and you should be fine.

BTW, are the males dark now or still brown? I used to raise them just for fun but they all caught malignant catarrhal fever and died or became blind.

 

[Sparkitoff]

Yesterday afternoon turned into a scouting trip only. One of the quills broke off in my knee so I had to get that taken care of first before resuming the hunt. Today I woke to heavy fog and rain but it appears to be lifting so I am getting ready to head out. Updates later....

 

[zerosprk]

Fun story so far. I'm willing to bet that I'm not the only one living vicariously through you at least for a brief moment or two...

 

[Sparkitoff]

Today was a great day with a big surprise. One of my sons decided to come and and hunt with me. I told him where to find me and we met up. I went and got permission to have him join me and everyone was welcoming. He is primarily a bow hunter but he does have two muzzleloaders, a sidelock .50 percussion gun from a kit and a "fantasy" unconventional muzzleloader that is a percussion rolling block that never really existed in the past. He's a teenager and he likes the old looks but some of the more modern features. His brother likes the old school and he has a .62 smoothbore and a .54 CVA Hawken(ish) rifle.

We thought this might be easy as we sat on downside of a hillcrest where antelope came through yesterday and there is a worn trail. Not too long after daybreak we saw them coming. The problem was, there was probably 100 of them. That's 200 eyes and ears and 100 noses. They got to around 50-yards and then veered off and started running. We waited 2-hours in case there were stragglers, but no more came.

We moved to a different part of the properties. This part was interesting and unique. It was kind of like hunting in somebody's backyard at times. These smaller 25 to 50 acre properties were in crests and valleys on the upper end of our permission zone. In the not-too-far distance here and there we could see a house, a barn, cows or a road. There were some Blackbuck, more or less on someone's front lawn. We snuck in near them but about 100-yards was all they would tolerate. After a few sneaks that all resulted in the same thing, we gave up and moved to more open country.

We found a pond in the distance that the Blackbuck seemed to hang around. On our first attempt to get near them they went around the back of the bank and continued through a narrow opening. This funnel point seemed to be where someone cut a path for a car or tractor to get to the pond. The antelope gained distance and we lost sight. When we went back by the pond about an hour later they were there again. They did the same exact thing as before. Now a plan came together. We were going to go all the way around to the way the antelope ran. If we bumped into them we'd figure out what to do. However, if we got to the funnel point, we could set up a make-shift blind and just wait them out. After about 2-hours we saw movement. The Blackbuck were coming behind the bank and to the funnel in front of us. Just when they were about to clear some brush and be in the open in front of us around 60-yards, they started to run. There was a long line of them and we couldn't count them all but figured there were around 45 of them, some males and mostly females. One male was a lot bigger in body and horn and a lot darker colored than any of the others. He was going to be on our hit list.

Two more hours go by and suddenly there are Blackbuck coming at us from the front. When they got to about 100-yards we thought it was the same group that went the opposite direction before. There were about 45 of them and one dark buck stood out among them. I offered to let me son try to shoot with his muzzleloader that can easily reach out 100-yards but he wanted to try his bow first. The blackbuck turned to our left at the 100-yard mark and crossed a big open filed and went in the front section of the bowl where the pond was.

 

[Sparkitoff]

My son was getting a little frustrated and thought we should move around again so we went off walking again. As we passed the front of the bowl the Blackbuck ran through the pinch point right past where we just came from. I checked a few other areas and saw a few groups of 5 - 10 but they were a long way off in pretty wide open country. After discussion, we agreed that our best chance on a good buck was to stay in our little blind at the funnel point and just wait them out. We got settled in an made sure he could draw his bow and I could maneuver the flintlock in the tight space. We settled in and time seemed to stand still. One hour....two hours... it was already a bit after 2:30PM and we hadn't had lunch. Without warning a couple of female blackbuck trotted through the funnel and stopped out in front of us. We got real still and quiet. At least 5-minutes went by when a few more Blackbuck started coming through and grouping up in front of us. I encouraged my son to shoot his bow as some were passing 25 yards of less from us. He was ready, but none ever stood still or when they did they were bunched up. The big buck ran past us and started herding groups of females around in circles out about the 150-yard mark. We now had 6 or 7 males and 30 or 40 females strung out from about 40-yards to 150-yards. Another 5-minutes went by and the big buck started making his way back towards us shuffling the females and poking them along. At one point he decided to spar with another male of equal size horns but his chosen opponent was a little smaller and more yellowish - telltale signs that he was a younger generation. The buck got pretty close and I told me son to shoot him with the bow. He said it was still too far and the buck was never really motionless. I told him to use his rifle. He said, "Dad, this is your hunt and I want to see you get one. Besides, I'm shaking already and we didn't even aim at him yet. That's a really big Blackbuck and I want you to shoot him, I will get one later".

 

[Sparkitoff]

I eased up the .54 caliber flintlock and pulled the frizzen stall off. I put the sights on the buck but did not do anything else to get ready to fire yet. The buck was in and out of the females and constantly in motion. He started coming towards our position so I pulled the cock back and settled in. The buck kept coming and looked like he was intent on coming to the end of the line to push the last (and closest) females. Once I knew he was inside the 50-yard mark (well I was pretty sure) I put pressure on the set trigger and I heard and felt the "click". There was a little opening about 2 Blackbuck body lengths long between the closest doe and a bush. I figured if the buck stepped into the opening I would have a second to shoot and it would probably be at a moving target. I put the sights right at the beginning of the opening. The buck stepped in it and I followed with the sights on him. My mind said aim on the shoulder a tad forward because he is walking and the ball will land further back. When the sights and shoulder lined up a put pressure on the trigger and there was a "boom" and the wonderful cloud of smoke. There was not a lot of wind but the smoke seemed to clear quickly with the cloud drifting to my right. What I saw next was a strange sight. The buck was almost standing upright, his horns and right front leg stuck on skinny branches from the bush that was right behind him. My son said, "Whoa, you literally knocked him over"! The buck was clearly dead but sitting on his rump with his head erect and his arm over a branch, like he just pulled up a comfortable seat at the bar. I did not notice any blood on the animal or on the ground. My son and I high-fived and hugged and took inventory of our stuff. We waited maybe 10-minutes and there was no movement from the buck. We went out there and pulled him loose. We figured out how to put the buck across both of our shoulder and carry it to a lean-to that a man said we could use for "skinning, napping, eating or whatever". It was a long couple of hundred yards to reach that shelter with this buck hitching a ride.

 

[Sparkitoff]

We hung the buck in the lean-to to take a rest and then get to work on him. While he was hanging there we realized there was a small hole in the high shoulder that I shot at. There was no blood on the animal and no apparent exit hole. The buck was quartering to me at the shot and the sight was on his shoulder but I expected the shot to be a little further back because he was walking. When the bucks insides were removed there was a huge amount of damage to lungs, liver and spleen. After skinning a blood-shod area stood out on his left ham. Upon inspection, I found the ball that was now partially flattened. It had gone from the front right shoulder to just under the skin on the back left ham. I've not found many .54 caliber balls in animals and usually get a pass-through. A combination of factors must have cause this ball to stay in. First, the range was closer than I normally shoot game. Second, I hit the shoulder plate squarely. Third, the ball travelled on an angle through the entire body. No wonder it looked like the impact knocked the buck over. I've guided a lot of hunters on Blackbucks in the past but frankly most were fenced ranches and the Blackbuck size was known. We measured this one and ended up with 23-inch horns. It does have a little yellow on the back of the neck and on top of the rump but it is a dark yellow and looks smoke grey at the right angle. He has a scar above his left eye that is likely from a previous fight. These factors along with examining the teeth lead us to believe it is probably a 3 or 4 year old buck. We left the buck at the lean-to and went for the truck. Once we loaded the buck I went and found the landowner to ask where to put the carcass parts we didn't want and to pay for this buck as we agreed. The landowner hadn't noticed this buck around but he said it looked like it was 5 or 6 years old. I'm not sure and it doesn't matter. It's a pretty cool buck taken with my favorite flintlock in the company of my son.

 

[Sparkitoff]

Here’s some of the terrain we hunted...

 

[Sparkitoff]

 

[Sparkitoff]

 

[Sparkitoff]

Since my son is not using one of the "talked-about" muzzleloaders acceptable to this forum I will keep the rest of the story brief. One of the property owners came out in his truck and got us. He said there were Blackbucks by his "lake". He dropped us off a few hundreds yards from the lake and left us with the words "good luck". We crawled, knee-walked and rolled over a rise and through some wetland vegetation and came out where there were 7 blackbuck females. At 100-yards, my son dropped that one in it's tracks. We got it out to the field and started to walk back when the landowner showed and because he heard us shoot. He gave us a ride down to his barn. Right when we go there a different landowner called and said they could see Blackbuck from the road. The guy we were with drove us down to meet this neighbor. We saw the antelope from the road and figured out how to drive about half way to them by going up the neighbors driveway and through the backyard, then walking around a woodline and crossing a little field. The plan worked. We crested a hill and about 30 Blackbuck were below us. The closest one was at 110 yard and was another female. My son shot and they all ran. At first he thought he missed but on second look there was a lone doe out there. She began wobbling and quickly fell over stone dead. That's it for this hunt. My son has school tomorrow and I have to take care of 3 Blackbucks, 2 rifles and a bunch of other stuff.....

 

[Sparkitoff]

 

[MIOutdoorsman]

Neat hunt. Thanks so much for sharing it with us. The details were great to read and I felt like I was almost there with you. Congrats on a great hunt with your son.

 

[Sparkitoff]

Here's the flattened ball that was recovered....

The ball is .530 and 224 grain. I sorted them from 223.8 to 224.1 so this one probably didn't loose any weight. The MV is right around 1750 fps.

 

[Spikebuck]

Great hunt story. That buck is a beautiful animal. Congrats to both you and your son.