Have you hunted exotics?

[Troggy92]

I may book an exotics hunt in early spring. I have no experience hunting them. Of the sheep and goats what is the most challenging and which one has the best meat? I was told Mouflon or Barbado and of course there is also hogs to hunt,3 kinds, Feral, "razorback" and Russian Boar. This is a "put 'n take" operation so Im not expecting the hardest hunt in the world just wondering of those mentioned what animal would pose the biggest challenge in this sanerio. Im not shooting at a "friendly" animal. Tools will be open sight RSBH 44mag, T/C contender pistol 30-30 and a Marlin 30-30. So long story short..best eating aside from hogs and biggest challenge to hunt? Thanks!

[86er]

There are many factors involved besides the species. First, the challenge comes from the animals having vast natural cover for a lengthy period of time. Second is the lack of human contact and supplemental feeding. Lastly, they behave differently if there are ewes on the property. Any of the short haired sheep species are edible but the older the ram the more stringy and dense the flesh becomes. As far as the rams: a pure bred mouflon is expensive, the older the ram the more expensive. This last auction they were around $1000. A lot of high fence places will sell a hybrid with heart shaped configuration in the horns as a mouflon, but neglect to tell you it is not a pure bred. You can shoot TX Dall, Black Hawaiian, Corsican or Barbado for as little as $175 and up to $1500 depending on size and facility. I suggest you obtain a copy of my book for a thorough explanation and details on exotic hunting. You can get a copy at: http://www.publishamerica.net/product86647.html
or PM me and I'll get you one directly. Feel free to call me or e-mail for any info I can help you with. Our operation is the longest existing same owner high fence ranch in Texas. I probably know the folks and the reputation of any place in the US you are going so I can give you some pointers, pros and cons, etc. Good Luck!

[kimwcook]

Troggy, listen to 86'er. He's the man on this one.

Edited: Sorry, forgot to welcome you to the forum. Welcome. There's a ton of knowledge here, on almost anything. I think we've probably have rocket scientists too.

[O.S.O.K.]

welcome to the fire troggy!

And yes, 86er is the man

From a customer point of view, I will say that any such hunt is not going to be "challenging" per se - it's more of a social hunt and an opportunity to bag something different and not worry about wether or not you'll see anything. Kind of a micro-african hunt if that makes sense?

I have a jacob's 4-horn mount hanging on my wall courtesy of 86er and his associates - first class folks. Had a great time and would do it again in a heart beat. I've also been hog hunting with him - ditto.

[Troggy92]

Thanks for the replys! Im a big levergun fan. My favorite gun that will never be sold is a 1956 Marlin 336rc .35rem. Shoots under an inch all day at 100 yards. Too bad lead was banned for hunting in my state. No lead free hippie ammo available for my 35.

[n2t]

I don't know anything about exotics..but this I do know. Hornady makes some solid copper defensive ammo for the .357 mag, I think you can get them as bullets only, barnes also makes a solid copper bullet for the .357mag as a component last I checked. If you handload, those are two decent options for deer sized game at least.

[O.S.O.K.]

Thanks for the replys! Im a big levergun fan. My favorite gun that will never be sold is a 1956 Marlin 336rc .35rem. Shoots under an inch all day at 100 yards. Too bad lead was banned for hunting in my state. No lead free hippie ammo available for my 35.

Getcha some of these: http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/pro ... ductId/502 , this: http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/pro ... ctId/22431 and this: http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/pro ... uctId/7952

And roll your own lead-free bullets. The die set has the dipper and loadinging information - you'll need primers and powder too... and you will have to grind the noses of the x-bullets flat but if you're just using these for hunting, that's not too bad a price to pay.

Or if you have a friend that reloads... see if he'd load some up with flattened x-bullets.

[JB]

From a customer point of view, I will say that any such hunt is not going to be "challenging" per se - it's more of a social hunt and an opportunity to bag something different and not worry about wether or not you'll see anything. Kind of a micro-african hunt if that makes sense?

A friend told me it kind of reminded him of shooting livestock.

[GoatGuy]

From a customer point of view, I will say that any such hunt is not going to be "challenging" per se - it's more of a social hunt and an opportunity to bag something different and not worry about wether or not you'll see anything. Kind of a micro-african hunt if that makes sense?

A friend told me it kind of reminded him of shooting livestock.

Had your friend ever been on a hunt of this type or was he just providing you with his opinion based on a bias against commercial hunting opportunities?

[Tycer]

From a customer point of view, I will say that any such hunt is not going to be "challenging" per se - it's more of a social hunt and an opportunity to bag something different and not worry about wether or not you'll see anything. Kind of a micro-african hunt if that makes sense?

A friend told me it kind of reminded him of shooting livestock.

Your friend is wrong. I thought that too until I tried it. It's not.

[RSY]

A friend told me it kind of reminded him of shooting livestock.

I would be lying if I said I haven't had one such experience. It can, and does, happen. I was none too proud of myself, and it won't happen, again.

[El Chivo]

I haven't been, but might try it one day. At least you know there is game in there! You sound like you're in CA, is this the Big Horn Canyon Ranch you're considering?

It looks like a pretty good-sized place, not a pen. One friend who went told me the hogs were challenging but exotics not. However, I like the idea of some different meat and rack to mount later.

Let us know how it goes. Oh and by the way, you don't have to worry about using copper ammo there and you don't even need a hunting license.

[RIHMFIRE]

No.......the exotics I would like to hunt are too darn expensive....
Never really had the desire to hunt the exotic goat for some reason...
so I cant comment on the meat.....
I would prefer to hunt the axis , fallow deer and such....I hear axis deer meat is awesome
We have wild Feral, "razorback" and Russian Boar running all around in Florida,
but most are feral...and if you put a sow and a boar in front of me....
I'd shoot the sow....in my experience, the sow meat is a lot better.

[piller]

I have hunted with 86er a couple of times, and the closest to shooting livestock was shooting wild hogs at a feeder. BUT that was a challenge as I was using a handgun at 15 yards and they kept spotting me and it took about 6 hours for me to finally get one. The elk my daughter, Sighthunter, got was not easy. We had to track it for quite a while, and then her shot was from the standing position. It was definitely not hunting livestock. 86er will do his best to make sure you get your animal, but it isn't a matter of walking up and shooting it. Ask CRS and RKrodle about a Nilgai which lived to be hunted by someone else because after CRS got his, the second one seemed to disappear. I got a different animal, and still had a lot of fun. The exotics can be a lot of fun and a lot of frustration. They are also potentially scary when you are in a ground blind looking for one species and a bigger species comes up and threatens to run over you. At the game ranch where 86er takes us, these animals are absolutely not pets.

[O.S.O.K.]

This is an old argument.

There are those that will say hunting from a stand is like shooting livestock. That hunting over a feeder, hunting from a truck, hunting in a drive, hunting in a high fence, etc., etc. are all like shooting livestock.

I guess to them, the only "real" hunting is to be out in the wild stalking the game.

Well, that's probably about 5% of the hunting done in this country.

The main reason being that most people work, and don't have the time it takes to stalk. Stalking produces the lowest rate of success. It's cool - and if I were a pension baby or otherwise had all kinds of time to spend hunting, then I'd still hunt too.

But I don't - so I hunt from a stand with food plots around me. I still get skunked more often than not.

[fisheadgib]

I'll weigh in on this one also. I agree with Mr. 86'er in that it depends on the operation. When I lived in Texas in the late 80's and early 90's, I hunted at a couple of different game ranches and have shot mouflon, corsicans, feral goats, and a white dall. I hunted a bit at a ranch up in Chico and at the time, it was a very well run operation and even though it was a high fenced ranch, it didn't feel like it and the hunt was challenging. The owners were very plesant folks also. I wanted to shoot a black Hawaiian to complete my "Texas grand slam" and I made the mistake of going to a ranch just west of Fort Worth that was advertising extremely inexpensive hunts. Even though I had plenty of opportunities to shoot an animal, I couldn't bring myself to shoot anything. On that particular ranch, it absolutly was like shooting livestock. We walked around for an hour or two and of all the different species he had, there was nothing that we couldn't get within 30 yards of with little effort. He had a lot of hogs on the property also up to eight hundred pounds or so an you could walk up to them and swat them with a stick.(which I did) Needless to say neither my friend or I shot any animals that day.

[RSY]

Needless to say neither my friend or I shot any animals that day.

You and your friend, sir, are an honorable men.

[Blaine]

Well, IMO it's a matter of personal choice, not honor. That's just a backhand at your friends that might have a different opinion than you

[RSY]

Well, IMO it's a matter of personal choice, not honor. That's just a backhand at your friends that might have a different opinion than you

Nahhhhh, no backhand intended. What he described was slaughterhouse fare. My statement had nothing to do with exotic vs. native, canned vs. fair chase, high-fence vs. low-fence, etc. I imagine everyone on here would have done the same and passed, actually.

[JB]

From a customer point of view, I will say that any such hunt is not going to be "challenging" per se - it's more of a social hunt and an opportunity to bag something different and not worry about wether or not you'll see anything. Kind of a micro-african hunt if that makes sense?

A friend told me it kind of reminded him of shooting livestock.

Had your friend ever been on a hunt of this type or was he just providing you with his opinion based on a bias against commercial hunting opportunities?

I should have made my post more clear. Yes, he did go to one of the "exotic game ranches".

I've never been on one, but can't see shooting animals in a fenced in area as actually hunting. If others enjoy it, more power to them.

[El Chivo]

I've never been on one, but can't see shooting animals in a fenced in area as actually hunting.

It depends on the size of the fenced in area.

[SFRanger7GP]

I agree with everyone on certain points. You define what constitutes a hunt and a good experience. I have seen places that had "livestock" pens of a couple hundred acres where you could pick what you want and shoot it. This could be a bagged shoot or a great hunt. Depends on the individual (is it a child's first hunt) and your own personal standards and beliefs. This could be a great first experience for someone in the current age of "no one is responsible and meat comes in packages at the supermarket". What do you want to accomplish? Several thousand acres of high fenced land in south Texas is not necessarily a canned hunt.

A friend of mine here in Argentina strongly promotes free range exotic hunts. The ranch I killed my last Axis on we drove for about an hour onto the property before we started walking. The portion of the ranch where we hunted was over 150,000 acres and it was surrounded by similar fenced off portions. The fence is 3 strand slick wire. I crossed waist deep streams twice and it was physically demanding. Very few people want to pay for this hunt because it is hard work and there are no guarantees. His free range hunts are his least expensive hunts. He always offers the customers other options when the animals and weather don't cooperate and works very hard to see that this situation doesn't come up. However, this happens when you are hunting. Most customers want the guaranteed animal of a certain size in a defined amount of time. He takes them to high fenced "game quota" ranches.

My point, define your goals and standards and go enjoy yourself.

[Blaine]

Well, IMO it's a matter of personal choice, not honor. That's just a backhand at your friends that might have a different opinion than you

Nahhhhh, no backhand intended. What he described was slaughterhouse fare. My statement had nothing to do with exotic vs. native, canned vs. fair chase, high-fence vs. low-fence, etc. I imagine everyone on here would have done the same and passed, actually.

Sorry, clearly I jumped too quick again.

[damienph]

[quote="JBA friend told me it kind of reminded him of shooting livestock.[/quote]

I've been hog hunting on the Chain Ranch in Oklahoma and I've had to put down livestock... They have NOTHING in common.

[Troggy92]

Thanks for all the replys! I posted this same thing on some other boards to gather a wide range of opinions and it appears it's something I need to see for myself. Every thread has the same pros n cons and and the debate of hunting ethics etc. and as usual lever gunners have great manners! Thanks again, you guys are great here.

[Simplyrugged]

Have I hunted exotics... every Friday & Saturday night when I was single...

[Ray Newman]

Simplyrugged: Ah!,the memories of youth and the hunt. But I was lucky -- never got one that was "gamey" or was "bad meat" ....

[Blaine]

Have I hunted exotics... every Friday & Saturday night when I was single...

Did it cost a lot to mount the trophy?

[Ray Newman]

Blaine: I know a couple of guys who are still paying for their trophy mounts even though they don't have it anymore....

[Blaine]

Blaine: I know a couple of guys who are still paying for their trophy mounts even though they don't have it anymore....