hm1996, you sure have been blessed to have access to these ranches. I knew there were exotic animal in Texas, just not that many different ones. And the endangered one, that seem to thrive there. Again thank for sharing the picture and the write up along with them.

DAA, it is always great to see your picture. Clear crisp and beautiful. The amount of time to watch, and have a camera ready and click. Thanks for sharing your pictures with there story.

C'mon guys, gonna be a while until hunting seasons open again and I'm close to the bottom of the barrel. Help me out with some of your hunting pictures!!

I didn't have many mature nilgai bulls in previous posts. The younger bulls and cows are reddish brown, but fully mature bulls are dark grey or black. This one is in his prime.

This one's curiosity got the best of him when he heard my coyote call and approached cautiously.
He never saw me, but when he got close to the decoy, he spooked. His poor condition is the result of a severe three year drought.


This days old Gemsbock calf was left to fend for itself while mom went grocery shopping

As was this young whitetail fawn

And this Scimitar Horned Oryx calf, born in chest high grass, was only minutes old when I inadvertently intruded. Notice afterbirth. Mama coaxed the youngster into the brush while I carefully retreated after snapping this picture.


Addax bull making good use of nature's own back scratcher

Slipped up on this decent Eland Bull

Well this is a hunting thread, so maybe we should include some pictures of harvested game.
(Not the same bull pictured above, this one required a low boy trailer to haul out of the brush. live weight estimated close to 2000#)


We found we needed some mechanical assistance in handling some of the larger animals. Left to right was first attempt, which worked fine until this larger than normal nilgai cow bent the schedule 80 1 1/2" steel pipe.

As it turned out, the bend was perfect when pipe was rotated 180* making the lift straight up the pole.
And that same rig worked great on the jeep....until it didn't. Truck mount used a frame mounted receiver hitch, but the receiver hitch on the jeep was bumper mount and a failed bumper bolt on the jeep required moving boom closer to bumper to reduce mechanical advantage of original setup (again, viewed from left to right).



Almost forgot a few hogs


Now c'mon, lets see your pictures of your quarry, as they say, dead or alive.

Regards,
hm

Well, since you started with nilgai.

Above pictures are a peek into the Missouri Ozark's...

That's a nice nilgai bull, Troy! I can't imagine trying to haul that sucker into a boat.



Some really pretty scenery, Gary. Almost overlooked the snake in the rocks. Is that a timber rattler?

Thanks, guys for sharing your pictures. Keep 'em coming.

Timber rattler in the gravel road. Cottonmouth on the bluff rocks. We have Copperheads also but I don't have any decent pictures of one.

Rattlers and coral snakes are only poisonous snakes in the area, we don't have timber rattlers, copperheads or mocasins fortunately. This is a picture of a good Indigo on the wall in our camp kitchen (don't know who took it).

I'm not a fan of snakes but rather like this 6 footer than hangs around camp.

Saw this track two years in a row near a small lake. Ran between the water and a brush pile. Had to be either an Indigo or Rattler as no other snakes reach this size.

This is one of the largest I've killed on this ranch. Didn't measure it but shot one on another ranch years ago that hung at least 1 ft. off both ends of the tailgate on my Silverado; it would have to have been 6' or better.

My son does not share my philosophy regarding poisonous snakes and left this 4 footer in good health after taking this picture. I don't know where I went wrong.


Regards,
hm

I don't dislike snakes and will let all non-venomous snakes pass and sometimes even venomous types unless they are near the house or someplace where the wife or grandkids might get bitten.