Blackbuck Luck

submitted by AAE member, Reed Gardner

When most of my friends are headed to the beaches of Mexico or Florida for their school graduation celebrations, I was fortunate enough to get to spend my time hunting the West Texas Hill Country for blackbuck antelope with a good friend of mine, Shane Hill.

Lee Puckitt, a close family friend of mine and a Texas Tech Alum, was gracious enough to allow my friend Shane and I the opportunity to spend a weekend hunting the crafty critters on his Puckitt Ranch about twenty miles north of San Angelo, Texas.  This would be a hunt like none other that I had ever been on.  No guide, no feeders, and no vehicles.  Shane and I didn’t get to sleep in a comfortable cabin and certainly didn’t have a cook fixing up our meals.  We were to camp along the Concho River in a tent and cook our own meals over an open campfire.

We spent that first night talking about all the things that young men talk about, anticipating the sunrise the next morning and getting our first hunt underway.  We awoke the next morning before the sun rose.  It was as if our excitement wouldn’t allow us to… recognize how bad our heads were hurting or how aching our bodies were from sleeping on the hard ground.  We rushed to get all of our materials together for the day.  Full camouflage, head to toe.  Shane had brought camo paint with him so we splattered our faces with it as to really get the full effect that we were hoping for.  We drove to the high fence gate and parked our truck.  This would be as far as we go with the help of a vehicle.  We opened that gate, making sure to close it behind us, and our hunt was off and running.

Neither Shane nor I knew anything at all about these creatures that we were hunting.  It would have been nice to have a resource such as AAE back then to do a little research.  Much like Rambo or any Chuck Norris character, Shane and I spent the first hour of our hunt stepping as quietly as possible through the brush and only talking to each other using hand signals.  Not that either of us ever understood what the other was trying to say, but nonetheless, it was a fun adventure.  It really didn’t take long before we were on top of the animals.  I guess luck would have it that the wind was always in our faces, and sure enough we had a group of blackbuck crossing in front of us at about 200 yards.  I motioned to Shane to stop and get down, in hopes of not being seen.  After seeing my hand motions, he stood straight up and came pacing towards me.  Figured… that was exactly how our conversations all morning had been.  Fortunately, he got to my post and the antelope hadn’t detected him moving.  At that time, I had no idea what qualified as a “large” blackbuck antelope, so I simply picked one out.  I got a rest in the fork of a tree and as my target antelope stepped into a predetermined shooting lane, I fired.  He dropped on the spot.

After field dressing the animal, we hauled him out of the pasture back to the truck.  It was summer time so we had to get him in the cold as soon as possible.  We decided our best bet was to drive the 15-20 minutes to a taxidermist and get him in a cooler.  We did so and my trophy is hanging on my wall in my office right now.

After dropping my trophy off, we rushed back to the ranch to work on getting a shot for Shane.  We made a poor assumption that getting Shane an animal would be as painless as getting mine.  Our assumptions were very wrong.  Looking back, I was a bit spoiled tagging out on a good blackbuck so early on the hunt. We spent the next six to seven hours spot and stalking throughout this ranch.  We were always in position to see the blackbuck, but could not get into a position for a shot.  As the evening of our first full day of hunting began to wind down, we headed back towards our makeshift camp. Once there, we were able to relax a bit and relive the actions of the day.  We felt confident that Day 2 would bring good fortune to Shane and he too would be able to harvest one of these animals.

We awoke the next morning amidst the realization that we had committed a critical mistake.  We had accidentally left our footwear outside our tent all night.  As a result, the high humidity had blessed us with a thick layer of dew on two sets of hunting boots.  There was no time for remorse, however, as we quickly gathered the rest of our gear got to our pasture to begin the day’s hunt. Stealth on this day was a bit harder to come by with the constant ‘squish, squish’ at every carefully placed step.  But, just as the previous day, we were able to get on animals almost immediately.

We caught up to a group of ten blackbuck and four or five axis deer browsing together.  At this point, we were every bit of 300 yards away and Shane needed another 75 to 100 yards to make a shot he felt comfortable with.  That shot wasn’t to be, as the animals spooked and the chase ensued once again.  That scenario played out several times throughout the course of the day.

It was a little after lunch on our last day of hunting when Shane said he would have to give up the chase and head out soon.  One of his kids, Hannah, had a soccer game that evening that he had promised to attend.  We talked about it for a bit, standing in the hot summer sun.  I apologized that we hadn’t been able to get him an animals as he offered back the line uttered by so many hunters in their hunting careers, “we’ll get ‘em next time!”  I believed him and knew that we, indeed, would.  Calling it a day, we started the trek back to the truck.

Walking casually and without any sense of stealth at all, our rifles held low by our hips, we neared the truck.  We weren’t 50 yards away when brush, only 20 yards to our right, erupted with action. Out jumped three blackbuck antelope!  For those who don’t know, these animals are blazing fast and can leap what appears to be a football field at a time.  Shane and I sprung into action seemingly as fast as the antelope did.  We sprinted to get around a large oak tree that blocked our view of the retreating animals.  As we cleared the tree, the blackbuck were whizzing by in front of us.  Shane quickly shouldered his rifle and fired.  This whole sequence occurred in what seemed like a blink of an eye.  Shane immediately announced confidently that he had hit him.  To be honest, I started laughing.  There was no way he could have possibly made that shot.  We proceeded to walk around 100 yards to where Shane last saw his animal and, sure enough, there he laid, head up and seemingly without a worry in the world.  We got within 25 yards and the buck sprang to his feet, ran about 75 yards and gave Shane a broadside shot that he connected on.  The animal expired immediately.

Upon inspection, we found that Shane’s initial shot had, in fact, hit the buck.  That first shot had slowed him down just enough to give us a second opportunity.  Thank goodness.  Horn wise, Shane’s blackbuck didn’t measure up to mine, but what it lacked was made up for in the hard work and adventure that came along with hunting him.  His antelope proved to be a trophy in its own right, and the hunt for him…one not to soon be forgotten.

This hunt was my very first exotic hunt.  I have been on several since, but much like the first whitetail I ever shot, this blackbuck hunt will always remain a personal favorite.  Countless “thank you’s” to the Puckitt Family and to my hunting partner for a wonderful celebration.

In exchange for this hunt, we had to promise Lee that we would return the favor by doing ranch work for Lee as he needed it.  That is a promise that has yet to come to fruition, but rest assured, Shane and I will be working the first time Lee asks for our help.  It would be a very small cost for a weekend filled with a good friend, good hunting, and wonderful memories.

Take your wife and children out hunting with you.  Harvest or not, there’s no better experience in the world than being in the outdoors with friends and loved ones!

- Reed Gardner