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Texas Black Bucks   Date: 01/13/2005 by: Boris Rubio     It was a nice cool morning on November 19, 2004 when our guide and Taxidermist Mike O’ Neill from Creative Taxidermy out of Sabinal, Texas met Mike Nodarse and myself at a Hill Country Ranch to hunt for Black Buck antelope. I must admit, we thought that it would be an easy hunt. I remember us joking with Mike about bringing a .416 Rigby to hunt for Black bucks. We would soon learned how tough these animals were to hunt and take down. In hindsight, we probably should have brought our .416 Rigby’s……….. As we headed out the ranch house in Mike truck into the open fields, you could see the Black buck does and bucks litter the fields. We soon discovered that this weary animal would quickly bolt in the opposite direction (never stopping to look back) when they saw the truck get closer. They always maintained 300 yards plus distance from the truck. I was first to test my shooting skills against this small adversary. At 294 yds, I took my first couple of shots and missed. Boy! things got even more difficult after that. The Black bucks started herding up towards the back of the ranch. After many unsuccessful attempts to stalk on them throughout the day, we decided to change things up a bit. I went on foot and sat under some trees that made for good cover. O’ Neill said that he would try and soft push the herd in my direction. After what seemed an eternity, I heard my buddy Mike Nodarse take a shot a Black buck. It took two good shots out of his .300 WSM to get him down, but not totally out (that’s a different story). After a few minutes, I saw the one I wanted and followed him with my scope as he got closer. The only problem was that he was going at a galloping pace around 160 yds away, which would make for a difficult shot. Just then, Mike’s second shot rang out which made my buck stop and look. I seized the opportunity and made a shot through the front shoulder exiting the lower ribs. Even then, he ran 50 yds and collapsed. I got up on my feet and could not believe that it was finally over. I walked slowly to the Black buck and to my amazement he tried to get up and run when he saw me, but he soon expired right after his last attempt to flee. I now have a great admiration for this hearty and resilient animal. It is definitely the hardest animal I have ever tried to hunt. I won’t soon forget this adventure shared with my buddy Mike Nodarse as well as all the hard work that Mike O Neill put into the harvesting of these two (2) fine animals.

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