.416 vs .458: Just how tough are Nilgai?

[Dwight Beagle]

I stubled upon this thread. It seams that there is a very strong population of Nilgai in Texas.
Fo my understanding, are all of the texas Nilgai, restricted to fenced ranches only, or there some nilgai numbers spreading to public lands?

For all intent and purpose there is no public hunting land in Texas. If you want to hunt you own land, lease land or have friends/family who own land.

There are many free ranging Nilgai in Texas, their genesis I believe is from Nilgai that escaped from high fence ranches. The Nilgai I’ve killed were free range, on property with a standard four strand barbed wire fence.

All of the Axis deer I’ve killed were free range too, on my sister’s property, low fence.

 

[Professor Mawla]

Based on my personal experiences , the 500 grain Nosler Partition soft nosed factory load fired from a .458 Winchester Magnum can make very short work of a Nilgai .

However , these animals can easily be taken with even a 7 mm Remington Magnum and a good expanding bullet such as the 175 grain Barnes TSX . Provided that initial shot placement is critical .

 

[Rule 303]

Oh for crying out loud, everyone whose anyone knows you can’t kill Nilgai with anything short of a 155mm tracked howitzer or unless you are really good, an A10 Warthog......

That's what they say about Sambar deer here.

Truth be told some have dropped to the 6mm's and others heart shot with a 375H&H have traveled several 1/2 a click up hill, and anything in-between. My view is it depends on how spooked/wound up the animal is and it's own tenacity for life. From what I can make out, prey animals from countries were they have swift and/or aggressive carnivores tend to have a more tenacious grasp of surviving/life.

 

[bruce moulds]

the professors shot is where the nosler partition shines, in a large calibre on small for calibre game.
i am like bob, and have not and will probably will never shoot a nilgai.
however this thread raised a thought about calibres in general.
i sometimes wonder if some guys look to really big calibre for situations like this because they have been using too much bullet.
even in big calibres on game the size of nilgai too much bullet can make you think you need a bigger gun, when a little less bullet might have done better.
these nilgai seem about the same weight as our australian donkeys.
i can remember believing the 270 was a do it all, but on donkeys it was obvious that it had met its match for all but perfect, relaxed shots.
the 7 mag with heavier bullets was a sort of minimum, but still required bullet placement.
the 375 of course dropped them like a bag of hot shit.
these donkeys are tough for size, and might or might not relate to some other animals this way.
bruce.

 

[Red Leg]

I stubled upon this thread. It seams that there is a very strong population of Nilgai in Texas.
Fo my understanding, are all of the texas Nilgai, restricted to fenced ranches only, or there some nilgai numbers spreading to public lands?

Almost all live on the vast free range (low fence) ranches of coastal South Texas. Game ranches will, of course, stock them, but the vast majority, like aoudad, are hunted free range.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

I have zero experience hunting the Blue Bull, but 50+ years of experience tracking deer in South Texas brush. You don’t want your animal to get too far into the brush from your sendero or you may not not find your animal. The brush is too thick.

One of the best and funniest descriptions of how thick South Texas brush is, a dog has to back up a step or two in order to point.

 

[wesheltonj]

I stubled upon this thread. It seams that there is a very strong population of Nilgai in Texas.
Fo my understanding, are all of the texas Nilgai, restricted to fenced ranches only, or there some nilgai numbers spreading to public lands?

There are two National Wildlife Refuge areas in Texas that offer hunts, by drawing. They want them gone. The Blue Bulls are not popular with cattle ranchers as they host the nasty Cattle Fever Tick. There is a quarantine zone in South Texas because of the Nilgai.

Managing Nilgai on Whitetail Land

TWA focuses its mission on private landowners and their ethical relationship to the land, and TWA concentrates on issues relating to private property, hunting and hunter rights, and conservation of our natural resources.

www.texas-wildlife.org

 

[southern_fowler]

My wife and I both took free range mature bulls on public land in south Texas, both animals shot with 300 grain bonded bullets out of 375 Rugers. My bull was shot in the shoulder at 50 yards and no bullet recovered, hers was shot straight on and I followed up with a broadside shoulder shot and that bullet was recovered in the offside shoulder bone. Neither bull went more than 50 yards after.

 

[southern_fowler]

There are two National Wildlife Refuge areas in Texas that offer hunts, by drawing. They want them gone. The Blue Bulls are not popular with cattle ranchers as they host the nasty Cattle Fever Tick. There is a quarantine zone in South Texas because of the Nilgai.

Managing Nilgai on Whitetail Land

TWA focuses its mission on private landowners and their ethical relationship to the land, and TWA concentrates on issues relating to private property, hunting and hunter rights, and conservation of our natural resources.

www.texas-wildlife.org

My bull was caught and tagged by the Cesar Kleberg Wildlife Institute for their tick fever study. They sent me a letter and map of the why and where of my bull to frame and hang next to the mount.

 

[Red Leg]

My bull was caught and tagged by the Cesar Kleberg Wildlife Institute for their tick fever study. They sent me a letter and map of the why and where of my bull to frame and hang next to the mount.

Those are two fine mature bulls. Your spouse's looks like a particularly old one with those worn horns.

 

[Red Leg]

For all intent and purpose there is no public hunting land in Texas. If you want to hunt you own land, lease land or have friends/family who own land.

There are many free ranging Nilgai in Texas, their genesis I believe is from Nilgai that escaped from high fence ranches. The Nilgai I’ve killed were free range, on property with a standard four strand barbed wire fence.

All of the Axis deer I’ve killed were free range too, on my sister’s property, low fence.

View attachment 400761

With respect to their origin, twelve nilgai, in collaboration with the San Diego Zoological Garden (now the San Diego Zoo) were deliberately released onto King Ranch in 1929. That initial release was supplemented several times through 1941. They have spread from that introduction. A number of stories exist as to why they were released - one heard most often is that the ranch was looking for an alternative food supply for the ranch personnel (after all cattle was their cash "crop"). Cesar Kleberg also began the broader wildlife habitat preservation effort at the ranch, and it may be he simply saw an opportunity to experiment with the big antelope.

 

[Deleted member 53080]

It’s a crying shame that so many real and sometimes historic ranches have chosen to participate in the exotic hunting racket.

 

[Red Leg]

It’s a crying shame that so many real and sometimes historic ranches have chosen to participate in the exotic hunting racket.

Racket?

 

[mark-hunter]

To me, it does not sound as racket. Exotic game hunts, give option to hunt number of species not huntable in their native range. It can easily save those species from extinction.

 

[Deleted member 53080]

To me, it does not sound as racket. Exotic game hunts, give option to hunt number of species not huntable in their native range. It can easily save those species from extinction.

You can hunt nilgai in their native range in Pakistan. Not cheap though. Racket was a poor word to use. I will address that in a response to Red Leg’s post. There are few exotic species that are in the US that are in any danger of extinction in their native land or that have been rescued from extinction by bringing them here. The majority are brought here and raised simply for sport and, no I do not believe that the much higher cost of hunting them in their native homeland or the inability to hunt them in their native range is in any way a justification for bringing them here.

 

[JMM]

30/06 user here. 180 grain A-frame. One and done on King Ranch. Plenty of gun. I have friends that use .270 and .308.

 

[Red Leg]

You can hunt nilgai in their native range in Pakistan. Not cheap though. Racket was a poor word to use. I will address that in a response to Red Leg’s post. There are few exotic species that are in the US that are in any danger of extinction in their native land or that have been rescued from extinction by bringing them here. The majority are brought here and raised simply for sport and, no I do not believe that the much higher cost of hunting them in their native homeland or the inability to hunt them in their native range is in any way a justification for bringing them here.

I assume you feel the same way about Namibian game farms that stock black wildebeest, and the host of South African operations that stock animal populations not native to their specific region? When you get to Africa you will want to be very careful where you shoot your waterbuck, sable, etc.

In Texas, whatever the original sin, huntable populations of Aoudad, Scimitar Ibex, Axis deer, and Nilgai abound In a free range environment. By your definition, I assume real sportsmen would avoid those opportunities? I guess all those South Dakota pheasants are an issue as well?

 

[Deleted member 53080]

Racket?

Racket was a poor word to use. I do maintain that most high fence hunting operations in the US are a “racket”. Classic put and take practices, mail order animals, selective breeding purely for trophy quality, overstocked property requiring supplemental feeding year round etc... constitutes a hunting “racket” in my book. This doesn’t apply to places like the King BUT if they were still focused primarily on raising livestock like a legitimate ranch should be and were so concerned with native wildlife they wouldn’t allow an exotic species like the nilgai to thrive and spread to their neighbors

 

[rookhawk]

You can hunt nilgai in their native range in Pakistan. Not cheap though. Racket was a poor word to use. I will address that in a response to Red Leg’s post. There are few exotic species that are in the US that are in any danger of extinction in their native land or that have been rescued from extinction by bringing them here. The majority are brought here and raised simply for sport and, no I do not believe that the much higher cost of hunting them in their native homeland or the inability to hunt them in their native range is in any way a justification for bringing them here.

Then I must remind you that South Africa is a place you do not want to hunt. The game in South Africa is rarely native to the ranches you hunt and they are all fenced by law in some fashion. East Cape hunting for Oryx only found in the Kalahari originally? Mountain Reedbok in the grasslands? Oribi? Dik-Dik? Limpopo hunts for Springbok?

The bio diversity of South Africa is manmade. The volume of animals in each state of South Africa is a modern, post-1960 invention of captive propagation. The landscape used to have half the types of creatures and each one was localized to a specific zone. Now they are everywhere.

Even in the USA, there are whitetails where they ought not have been and mule deer in new areas. Man has moved the animals or altered the ecosystem resulting in indigenous game's reduction in numbers and non-indigenous game taking over that ecosystem. Some is adaptation to the environment, other is propagation by man.

Every large game animal in Australia and New Zealand is an introduced species.

The only pure places I can think of would be the rural western states, Canada, Alaska, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. (not counting Asia...I know nothing about it)

Purity requirements create very short hunting destination lists unless you're willing to be a bit of a hypocrite. I am willing on some occasions.

 

[Deleted member 53080]

I assume you feel the same way about Namibian game farms that stock black wildebeest, and the host of South African operations that stock animal populations not native to their specific region? When you get to Africa you will want to be very careful where you shoot your waterbuck, sable, etc.

In Texas, whatever the original sin, huntable populations of Aoudad, Scimitar Ibex, Axis deer, and Nilgai abound In a free range environment. By your definition, I assume real sportsmen would avoid those opportunities? I guess all those South Dakota pheasants are an issue as well?

I do feel that way no matter what continent is being discussed. I plan to be very careful about where I go when and if I ever get to Africa. Free range is free range and a good hunt pertaining to the the animals already here but I would say that many species that are doing fine in their native range should be eradicated here so native species can thrive and livestock can be raised to cut down on imports. Whether certain species should be here in the first place is the question. It’s very hard to reconcile proper native wildlife management and these practices