Here are some 3 year old bucks that will be in the pasture this fall. A few of them are looking good. If you haven’t booked your whitetail hunt for this year give me a call lets get it on the calendar. I will be posting some more pictures of 4-5 year old bucks later this month! Stay tuned…..
First I would like to thank Dave and Dan from New Mexico for coming down and hunting with Forister Exotics. They got to the ranch Thursday night and the plan was to hunt Friday and Saturday. We discussed a game plan to go to the ranch in Real county to start with to look at an Addax, the big Elk, maybe a red sheep and an axis buck would not be passed if the opportunity presented itself. We woke Friday to extremely nice weather calm winds and overcast skies mid 60’s temps. Wow is this mid July in Texas? As the day went on it never got over 85 degrees and was pleasant most of the day. We left the lodge about 5:45 and made the short ride over to the other ranch. I was hoping to find the Addax Bull quickly and see if Dave was going to be happy with him and once we found him it didn’t take long for Dave to make his mind up and make a quick stalk on him. Dave made a good shot and we were standing over a nice Addax Bull prepping for pictures.
After a quick stop at the skinning pole we were back out driving looking for the Red Sheep originally but we came down a hill and jumped this nice Axis buck. Dan was quick to get the rifle on him and get a shot. So there was a major bullet problem here with this deer and after Dan finished him off we took some pictures and got him gutted.
Dan was shooting a STW armed with a berger bullet be aware this bullet did not do the job as advertised. The bullet blew up on entry and did not penetrate at all. Man we all felt bad watching this Axis buck expire and wondered what went wrong. Once we got his guts out we found out the bullet did not perform so Dan thought best to head back to the main ranch and get his other rifle loaded with a different bullet and try to round-up some lunch. After a quick bite we decided to go look at the Mouflon in the main pasture. We came across a big group of Mouflon rams after a few laps and Dan decided the leader of the pack was the one he wanted. As we tried to get a range on the herd Dan knew the big one he wanted was about to hit the brush and made a great 200 yard shot. We marked the spot visually and made our way over to find him.
What a beautiful Mouflon. Again we made our way over to take some pictures and to the skinning pole. Once we were done we decided to run in and find something for dinner. After dinner we had time for another ride through the main ranch and Dave would like to shoot a good Axis buck if we could find one. After seeing a few good ones this nice buck stood still long enough for Dave to decide he wanted him and get a shot. After the shot it quickly got dark and we were having trouble finding blood. We kept looking and after a few minutes I rounded a corner of brush and shined the light and low and behold there was Dave’s Axis buck tucked away in a clump of trees. Since it was dark we figured we would get him gutted and posed in the walk in cooler so we could take some pics in the morning. What a fun Friday of hunting! Dave and Dan are 2 great guys from Clovis NM and if you are ever in Clovis stop in DC Tactical (Dan’s gun shop.) Thanks again guys we hunted hard but got it done and had a good time to boot. Looking forward to having Dave back in November for an Elk hunt and Dan wants to come back and shoot a good Fallow. Can’t wait!!
Driving through the ranch this morning I don’t recall this country being this green in July in a long time. Starting to heat up and get into the normal summer weather pattern for this time of the year. This morning on the pass through checking fence and water stations I saw our big Red Stag males and they are still in velvet growing but they looked impressive. I also ran across some giant mouflon sheep and some good Axis Bucks. Yesterday I was over at the ranch in Real County and had a chance to look at our Red Sheep and one of the Elk we have in the pasture over there. That Elk has really started to come along looks to be bigger than the 330 class bull he was last year. So anyone interested in a great Elk, absolutely fantastic Red Sheep, super nice Red Stag or some big Axis or mouflon give me a call and get your hunt booked today.
We have had over 4 inches of rain in the month of June and have not seen temps over 100 degrees yet. I know those days are coming but June sure has been a great Month here at Forister Exotics. With all the grass it makes the hunting a little tougher but you just have to be in the right place at the right time! Lot of big Axis Bucks left in the pasture. WIth all the rains our sika, and fallow that are growing right now sure do look impressive. IF anyone is looking for one of those we will have some good ones in a couple months. Call me lets get you booked for your fall hunt.
Marcus Pope
830-998-1540
Houston Controls made it to the ranch midday Friday and the guys were ready to get on some Axis deer. After a trip to the range and unloading all the gear it was time to head for blinds. Ricky, Michael, T-boy and his son Chase where all looking for Trophy Axis Bucks and Jamie and Gene were there to cook and try to tag a doe if possible. Well Jamie was nice enough to bring his caddy wagon ( Polaris Ranger ) for us to put around the ranch in and we put the machine to the the test. This ended up being a fun filled weekend with some nice deer shot and some new friends made. The first evening Ricky scored on a nice Axis Buck and a little later Michael connected with one as well.
Friday night we had some heavy rain through the night and early morning hours so everyone stayed in camp and slept in after a late night. After breakfast the guys went back into the pasture in search of more Axis Deer. Through the day we ended up getting a couple Axis Doe and shot at a couple bucks with no hits. As the evening winded down we spotted a good Axis buck and Chace put the wood to him. Great shot on a moving target. As we were headed in T-boy Chases dad redeemed himself and made a nice Texas heart shot on a good Axis Buck. Over all a pretty good weekend and some nice Axis Bucks taken. Forister Exotics can’t wait to have the Houston Controls guys back in November! Congrats guys on some great animals!
FORISTER EXOTICS 