Outside of a few special late deer seasons, regular hunting seasons for big game are over at least for a little while here in North America. There is however some truly great hunting still to be had for exotic or non-indigenous species in Texas for aoudad, nilgai, and other various European, Asian and Africa horned species, as well as for Axis deer, which have some hard-antlered bucks in the herd throughout the year.

Along those lines I visited Greg Simons of Wildlife Systems while we both attended the 40th annual DSC Convention and Hunting Expo. A friend was hoping to hunt nilgai, or blue bull originally from India and found in abundance along and inland of the lower Texas Gulf Coast. He asked if I would ask Greg if he had any openings.

“I wish! To be frank if I had an additional thousand nilgai on my quota this year, I would still be about 500 short of hunts I could sell.” Greg continued, “The demand for larger exotic big game species far exceeds their availability on the ranches we hunt. I think part of that comes from the fact nilgai, like many of the larger-horned African big game species we have in Texas are extremely good to eat and too many hunters are looking for fun big game hunts where they do not have to travel abroad. And with hunting Texas they can drive to our hunts and take the meat home.” Greg went to explain they do on occasion have openings for some of the exotic species found in different parts of Texas, especially Axis deer, which in my opinion are best hunted in June. He also stated on occasion he had some aoudad openings.

I have hunted aoudad, and other species with Wildlife Systems, and will admit that Barbary sheep is one of my favorites of all the exotic species found in Texas. Hunting them is not unlike hunting desert bighorn sheep, with two primary exceptions: there are many more aoudad than desert bighorns, and hunting aoudad costs about 10% or less of what it currently costs to hunt a desert bighorn!

Unfortunately, this year there is no aoudad hunt on the books for me, at least not at present. It is always good to “qualify” such statements, as I am hoping to spend a couple of days on the FTW Ranch possibly hunting a Nubian ibex. The FTW specializes in exotic species that essentially cannot be hunted in their native homelands. I seriously doubt two days will be sufficient time to find and take an ibex, but it will be fun trying. My history of hunting exotic species on the FTW is interesting. On the 42nd day of hunting one of the exotic sheep found on the ranch I finally got what I was after.

In my immediate hunting future, I see wild hogs as well as coyotes and bobcats on the cards. Depending upon who you talk to, where I live in Texas, we are cursed or blessed with an abundance of wild hogs. That said, I tend to during the off-season consider them a blessing.

Wild or feral hogs provide great sport and hunting opportunities, plus younger hogs, particularly, are good to eat! That said they can be hunted in a variety of ways from baiting, to spot and stalk to with well trained dogs, at day or night. Personally, I am not much when it comes to shooting hogs at night using thermal sights. I am not against it; it simply does not interest me. My preference if the terrain allows is spot and stalk, followed by hunting water sources, followed by watching baited areas.

It’s no secret I love hunting with handguns regardless of the species hunted. And unfortunately this past whitetail season, I did not get to hunt with my Taurus Raging Hunter as I wanted or hoped to. So, I intend to make up for that with hunting hogs this winter, as well as for coyotes and bobcats.

The two Taurus Raging Hunters I will be using more than others are my 44 Mag and my 454 Casull, both topped with Trijicon SRO red-dot sights. These are perfect for either bright light or poor light conditions, because the red dot can be intensified to brighter in bright light or dimmed in relatively poor light. Both handguns are sighted in, at present, at 50-yards with Hornady 240gr 44 Mag and 300gr 454 Casull XTP ammo. With a reasonable rest I can shoot 1-inch groups at that distance, and not much bigger groups at 100-yards. The Trijicon SRO sights work extremely well against the black of most hogs and when light is starting to fade to black.

Most all my hog hunts will be filmed for the digital tv show I do with Luke Clayton and Jeff Rice, “A Sportsman’s Life” which airs weekly on www.carbontv.com. So you’ll be able to see those hunts shortly after they happen.

It has been a few years since I last hunted black bear, and I am getting “the black bear itch” once again. Over the years I have hunted black bear a fair amount in many Canadian provinces and several States. I have taken then with rifles, muzzleloaders, shotguns and handguns.

Since at the moment I am unsure, if I do go bear hunting whether I will go to Canada or one of the States, I am preparing a gun for either destination. Since Canada does not allow handguns, I am setting up a 280 Remington rifle with a Trijicon 3–18x50 AccuPoint scope. No, I do not need one with that much magnification, the 3x will work great for most bear hunting shot possibilities. But I love the 50mm front objective’s light gathering and the green point of light against a black colored body of a black bear. Too, I intend to use that same combination this coming fall on a couple of mule deer hunts I have planned, and of course will be using Hornady 150gr ELD-X Precision Hunter ammo.

Because of the black bear’s excellent sense of smell, I will be sure to spray my clothing, hat, gloves, and equipment with TRHP Outdoors’ Scent Guardian. Doing so I know the bear will not be able to smell me, even if it approaches downwind.

I plan on using that same rifle/scope/ammo combination when calling predators this winter and early spring as well. Doing so will get me thoroughly familiar with that hunting rig. I will know the combination’s limitations and mine with it.

In years past when I spent time as a gun writer, and even after when doing a variety of tv shows, I often had to use a different gun on every hunt. Thankfully some of those days are behind me and I can use only two or three, depending upon the animal and the terrain hunted.

In the next few weeks I will be finalizing my fall hunts. And this year I will be making certain those hunts are set in stone, rather than taking someone’s word they will happen. I did that last fall and then learned those hunts really were not secured.

It is going to be a great hunting year!