Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Is hunting exotic’s in the US worth a run ?

This one is my first, hopefully of many. Was free range and delicious. Very close in flavor to my Scimitar Oryx also taken inTx.

Any recommendations for a ranch/outfitter/guide for a Nilgai hunt? A buddy and I have been wanting to put a trip together, but everything we find seems to be a lot closer to 5 grand than $2500. Feel free to PM.

Adam

Everything's bigger in Texas and 5G is way too much to pay for an exotic unless it's elephant or hippo.

I'd look into hunting on the island of Lanai Hawaii.

Exotics can be fun for hunting in the off season or for testing new loads/bullets on as long as you can get them for a reasonable price

Eventually going to have to do a spring trip to Texas for a few exotics. They really do brighten up a trophy room. Not to mention everyone’s raving on the table fare.

GreggH

There are some other exotics, like elk! They are not considered native game in Texas and can be hunted year round. Plus cow elk is quite tasty, as is red deer cow.

Another super tasty one is Sika, as is Scimitar horned Oryx....

There's a lot of exotic animals I would like to hunt but, I ain't paying what they want.

I hear ya. It's incredible to me the coin wanted by some outfits to take some wild hogs which are invasive pests. I'm not going to fill someone's pockets with cash to hunt pests and exotic non native species. I'd love to try one of those concession hunts like those on the Aimpoint wild boar series in Europe but hunting their moose, deer and boars are probably costly as well so I'll just have to do without that experiance.

Trophy hunting with a twist of adventure, culture and new cuisine. Yes, Texas is worth the effort and $$$$. This is NOT a dress rehearsal. Enjoy yourself. Memories, excitement and new adventures. Go for it! MTG

Ingwe,
You get a discount on that disabled oryx? 😁
Still super cool. Would make a nice rug.

GreggH

Thanks for the kind words on the Axis guys!

Tom I agree that the Oryx hunts are a great time and will fill a freezer with some mighty tasty venison!

Never tasted Sika, but it’s sure hard to beat Oryx for table fare.
Probably my favorite wild game meat.

Too many years ago to think about, I won a TPW hunt on one the prettiest Tx Hill Country SP's in the state. Showed up for check in and draw for a blind ....and was given a blind nobody else wanted for the next day. !st day had been a total bust, 2nd day I came in for lunch and another "hunter" took my blind after I'd been watching a 10pt WT all morning who was on the Not Available list. So the Hunt Master gave me another spot nobody wanted, way up high up a jeep trail....late that afternoon, right at dark on top of the hill where the jeep trail ended I scored a tan colored critter all covered in white spots...and drove my 2wheel drive Suburban with slick city tires down the Jeep trail off the "mountain": standing on the running board so's I could jump off when the truck went over the edge....BUT I was King for the day with the only Axis taken in the 3 day hunt.

Got back to Dallas the next day. Picked up the critter from the Processor couple days later and gave some of the meat away to a couple of my usual Deer Lease Pards...and heard for the 1st time "you'll throw rocks at Kobe Beef to get some more of that Axis meat you might wanna save as much as you can. Yes I do believe that to be a true statement...and have never been able to score another on a TPW Hunt where Axis were on the ticket....and cannot afford the going rates on the high fence Hunts.

Where I live now about a 100 miles SE of Dallas there is a high fence game farm that apparently is an Axis Breeder around the corner from the Gun Range I use...and nobody will tell me who the owner is, but a nearby processor get's the whole herd to process occasionally...they are a really pretty herd to just sit and watch, but step out of the truck and they disappear in the Pine forest PDQ.

This season, 21 years later I scored a Permit to hunt on the same place in the Hill country, on the last Hunt date offered. 2 weeks earlier I had talked to some guys who'd been down there a couple weeks earlier and 4 of the 10 Permit Winning Hunters had scored 15 Axis in a 2 1/2 day hunt apparently cause everything in south Texas was starving from the drought.

My favorite saying in situations like this go's ... " Rose Ann ...Rose AnnaDanna Always sez " It's AWAYS Sumthin".
Mebbe I'l get my turn next year ....but I'll have a 18 wheeler reefer on call for the ride back to North Central east Texas IF I can draw another Permit 'cause ya never know....and Axis meat is really THAT good to eat.
Ron

I quit eating WT deer at least 25 years ago. Axis is that good.

Like many here I've eaten lots of different game animals here and African. Axis is absolutely fabulous, my favorite, especially the big, fat doe variety. Took this one at my buddy's place this past Saturday. It's so good I don't like wasting any meet......7-08 and 120 BT at work.......



Exit after smashing through neck bone....

You need to go, kill something, hunting them is fun, no place like Texas.

Same here Bev...buts its only been six years since I started hunting axis...

Yes..Ive killed three that were sub-par for that reason.....horns were wonky, but the meat was there!