# Nilgai Hunt



## Shooter (Jun 10, 2004)

Boss called today and said I can hunt Nilgai or cull whitetail on the Kennedy Ranch next week. I'm going for Nilgai. What say you?? Shooting a 270.


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## willydavenport (Jun 4, 2004)

Good luck! That's on my bucket bucket list. If I were you I'd beg, borrow, or steel a larger caliber rifle.


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## Brushpoppin (Jul 24, 2012)

270 at least 
Lots of shells
Turn your scope down 
If they're standing you got til the count of 3 best shot is high in the shoulder 
If they're running shoot em in the nilgai 
Put em in the scope get ahead and squeeze 
Don't wait for the perfect shot 
Have room in the freezer for the goods


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## railbird (Jan 2, 2009)

Big caliber and take the first shot they give you. They go to water regularly. Hunt the areas with good fresh water supply. If you spot them first and it's getting late in the day, sit tight and wait until 10 minutes after sun down and you can walk right at them in the wide open and they will think you are another animal. You can close the distance to a good shooting range and take them. I've done it with bows inside bow range like that many times. They have lots of meat so be ready to work after the shot.

On a side note, we were scouting around near the Kennedy ranch last weekend and caught 9 nilgia crossing between islands. It looks like all the Bulls are together still. We also saw 6 cows behind rocky slough as well. Good luck, they are fun to hunt.


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## Brushpoppin (Jul 24, 2012)

I shot more nilgai with a 270 than any other caliber
Find some 140 grains and go get um
No need to take a rifle your not comfortable with 


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## lhchief84 (Nov 3, 2011)

Slugs, slugs, slugs......do your research to ensure the projectile you will be launching has the ability to penetrate thick tough hide game. Once you have the correct bullet, the most important thing is SHOT PLACEMENT! Do some research to convince your self where the vitals are......you are not shooting a whitetail. Good luck to you.


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## Big Guns 1971 (Nov 7, 2013)

Sounds fun, Good luck.


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## peckerwood (Jun 9, 2012)

Shooter said:


> Boss called today and said I can hunt Nilgai or cull whitetail on the Kennedy Ranch next week. I'm going for Nilgai. What say you?? Shooting a 270.


Ya'll hiring?I'd clean toilets for a hunt on the Kennedy Ranch. Good luck,but mostly hope you have a great time!


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## Cynoscion (Jun 4, 2009)

I will second everything Brushpoppin said above. Larger calibers with larger bullets do turn less than optimal shots into recoverable animals but your .270 with the right bullet is more than capable with proper shot placement. Good luck on your hunt. You'll have a blast! If you do happen to shoot em in the nilgai, call me and we can fix it for you.


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## tss3200 (Oct 25, 2012)

Use Barnes bullets in the .270 and you will be fine.


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## Gordogato (Jun 17, 2016)

What pasture you hunting?


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## wish2fish (Mar 1, 2005)

I shot one at the Kennedy ranch a few years ago. Used a 300 win mag and aimed for the hump. Shot at ~300 yrds and dropped right where it stood. I have never shot off sticks so that is a little different and not something you can really practice at the gun range. It was the most amazing hunt I had been on.

Missed one the first day that was only 30yrds and sleeping hwell: Talk about buck fever! Had another chance and was able to get one. 

It was a lot of spotting and stalking which was the best part. Make sure to bring multiple large coolers b/c it is a lot of meat and I mean a few 120quart. I would rather have too many coolers than not enough unless they handle all that for you.


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## barcadoce (Jul 26, 2006)

awesome hunt!! get ready for some fun! place I went down there had a .300 caliber minimum rule for nilgai. I had brought a 7mm wby mag which I thought was enough.....so you may ask if they have any rules like that. They loaned me a camp gun which was a .375 H&H mag. wasn't much excited about that. shot it once at the range and once at the bull. then happy to give it back to them!! good luck and send pics.


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## bigl (Mar 3, 2008)

I shot one on the King ranch many years ago with a 7MM Mag. With a 160 gr noslier partition. They wanted me to shoot something bigger but I was already down there and that was all I had. Lucky it when down with one shot. It had a lot of scars on his neck and he has been on my wall since.


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## Sgrem (Oct 5, 2005)

Nilgai are big a tough for sure. But any well placed shot from a properly constructed tough game bullet will put them down. Consider a 6.5 Swedish has probably taken more moose than all others combined.

The ranches wanting larger calibers either expect you to take a running shot (you don't have to agree to that since you are operating he trigger). Or more likely the majority of their customers just can't shoot well.

Study Nilgai anatomy and where their vitals are carried......they are NOT deer.


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## mrsh978 (Apr 24, 2006)

Get larger caliber - if you got in my truck to hunt bulls we'd be using mine. 270 on the very light side. Keep cycsosin number handy


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## kweber (Sep 20, 2005)

Shooter said:


> Boss called today and said I can hunt Nilgai or cull whitetail on the Kennedy Ranch next week. I'm going for Nilgai. What say you?? Shooting a 270.


jealous...


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## ClayShooter (Aug 29, 2009)

We kill plenty of bulls each year and have seen the eat a 270. I personally think that's a little on the small side on another note I had one shot with a 375 H&H and it went through shoulder through guts and out back leg. It ran forever had to get Robert Johnson to catch him. His dogs are great on Nilgai he's batting 100% with us. He still owes me lunch by the way . Good luck on your hunt

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## Lat22 (Apr 7, 2005)

Kenedy


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## Cynoscion (Jun 4, 2009)

ClayShooter said:


> We kill plenty of bulls each year and have seen the eat a 270. I personally think that's a little on the small side on another note I had one shot with a 375 H&H and it went through shoulder through guts and out back leg. It ran forever had to get Robert Johnson to catch him. His dogs are great on Nilgai he's batting 100% with us. He still owes me lunch by the way . Good luck on your hunt
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Thanks for the plug but you probably just jinxed me! Lunch is one me if we ever meet up in the daylight near a town, haha.

And Lat is right. One n


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## Cynoscion (Jun 4, 2009)

I trailed a big bull this morning. The guide said the bull was shot in the hips and they pushed him into a motte. The hunter was shooting a .280. We got there 3-4 hours after the shot. The dogs trailed him out 200-300 yards and jumped him up. 2.64 miles later they ran him right by a group of border patrol agents working a group of pilgrims. Quite funny scenario but my point is, nilgai are tough. I didn't find out until after the fact that the hunter was shooting ballistic tips out of his .280. Like I said in an earlier post in this thread, large calibers with good bullets make less than optimal shot placements recoverable. If I would've know the hunter was shooting ballistic tips, I wouldn't have agreed to trail him. We recover a lot of nilgai shot where this one was but the difference is larger caliber and better constructed bullet. Please keep all this in mind when selecting your rifle/ammo combination for your hunt. Good luck!


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## ClayShooter (Aug 29, 2009)

Cynoscion said:


> I trailed a big bull this morning. The guide said the bull was shot in the hips and they pushed him into a motte. The hunter was shooting a .280. We got there 3-4 hours after the shot. The dogs trailed him out 200-300 yards and jumped him up. 2.64 miles later they ran him right by a group of border patrol agents working a group of pilgrims. Quite funny scenario but my point is, nilgai are tough. I didn't find out until after the fact that the hunter was shooting ballistic tips out of his .280. Like I said in an earlier post in this thread, large calibers with good bullets make less than optimal shot placements recoverable. If I would've know the hunter was shooting ballistic tips, I wouldn't have agreed to trail him. We recover a lot of nilgai shot where this one was but the difference is larger caliber and better constructed bullet. Please keep all this in mind when selecting your rifle/ammo combination for your hunt. Good luck!


That's one of the reasons we don't allow ballistic tips on the ranch. I've seen to many blow up on the shoulder with no to little penetration. On another note we've also had some bad experiences with hornady sst'. I'm a Nosler fan. Congrats on the catch but makes for a hell of a workout.

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## Cynoscion (Jun 4, 2009)

For the record, we didn't get that one caught. He just out ran us. 

Any good soft point and/or heavily constructed bullet will work. Some of my favorites are Barnes TSX or TTSX, Nosler partition and/or Swift A-Frame. Stay away from bullets with less than 90% weight retention (ballistic tip style, sst and/or vld). These bullets are designed for light skinned and light boned animals which nilgai are not.


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## mrsh978 (Apr 24, 2006)

Hate to hear any animal wounded - I'm fond if Nilgai especially. I love BT s but NOT for nilgai. In fact my wife shoots a 280 with BT s - but not at nilgai . Guide / host should have made call on that rifle being used - Egos get bruised but the animal (s) deserve better


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## Cynoscion (Jun 4, 2009)

Very true mrsh. You deserve some green for that statement but it says I gotta spread it around.


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## Rack Ranch (May 25, 2004)

X2 they are the worst bullet EVER!!!!



ClayShooter said:


> That's one of the reasons we don't allow ballistic tips on the ranch. I've seen to many blow up on the shoulder with no to little penetration. On another note we've also had some bad experiences with hornady sst'. I'm a Nosler fan. Congrats on the catch but makes for a hell of a workout.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Trouthunter (Dec 18, 1998)

> I trailed a big bull this morning. _*The guide said*_ the bull was shot in the hips and they pushed him into a motte. The hunter was shooting a .280. We got there 3-4 hours after the shot. The dogs trailed him out 200-300 yards and jumped him up. 2.64 miles later they ran him right by a group of border patrol agents working a group of pilgrims. Quite funny scenario but my point is, nilgai are tough. I didn't find out until after the fact that the hunter was shooting ballistic tips out of his .280. Like I said in an earlier post in this thread, large calibers with good bullets make less than optimal shot placements recoverable. If I would've know the hunter was shooting ballistic tips, I wouldn't have agreed to trail him. We recover a lot of nilgai shot where this one was but the difference is larger caliber and better constructed bullet. Please keep all this in mind when selecting your rifle/ammo combination for your hunt. Good luck!


So uhm...the guide didn't check to see what the client was shooting? Seriously?

I shoot 250 grain Trophy Bonded Bear Claw in a .375 H&H when hunting those monsters lol.

I hope you got paid for your trouble looking for the dang thing.

TH


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## Cynoscion (Jun 4, 2009)

Hahaha. Yessir. It's a flat fee. The guide did not ask. This is why I have a caliber size requirement and bullet type requirement where I work. I keep 180 grain TSX's for .308, 30-06 and .300 Win Mag on hand so that if any of my guests show up with a lesser bullet, we can give them a box and head to the range. If they don't bring at least a .30 caliber, they'll be shooting one of our .300 Win Mag camp rifles. It's pretty amazing. You can hit them just about anywhere with that combo and we can generally get them recovered. They hate it!


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## Mikeyhunts (Jun 4, 2007)

Take all the gun you can get your hands on. I hit one twice with a 7stw with Barnes x bullets and it still ran 50 yards.


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## Cynoscion (Jun 4, 2009)

I feel like I'm hijacking this thread now but last night I saw the perfect place for a ballistic tip style bullet. I trailed a deer shot in the middle of the neck with a .243 sst. The deer flopped down, kicked around for a long time, then left. The dogs trailed him perfect and caught him 636 yards from the truck. The shot was middle of the neck and blew up on contact. The only thing that I can think is that one or more of the bullet fragments got into the deer's neck and that's what made him sick enough to catch.
By no means am I saying that frangible bullets are ideal but this bullet in this situation probably saved the day. And a big thanks to Mike for his continued business and how he handles his trails. He leaves them alone when he knows they're bad.


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## ClayShooter (Aug 29, 2009)

mrsh978 said:


> Hate to hear any animal wounded - I'm fond if Nilgai especially. I love BT s but NOT for nilgai. In fact my wife shoots a 280 with BT s - but not at nilgai . Guide / host should have made call on that rifle being used - Egos get bruised but the animal (s) deserve better


Yes Sir. You are totally correct. I'm laughing to myself cause I had Robert at the ranch tracking a wounded animal a while back and the hunter was standing with us as we discussed our game plan. As I'm telling Robert how the animal is hit and what ammo yardage etc etc. Robert says you just tell it like it is. I looked at Robert and say what would anyone benefit if they lied. I'm as straight forward as you get and if someone gets their feelings hurt so be it but my main concern as the Manager is not the money but recovering the animal. I've seen people stack them hole in hole **** near at our range and then pull the shot **** near a foot when shooting at the animal . That's why it's hunting. Hope everyone has safe year & aim straight. Happy Holidays. I think we all need to get together around the fire and have a few drinks. 

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## mrsh978 (Apr 24, 2006)

With the hunts I've performed over the years , especially nilgai- I have numerous times declined the hunters caliber- a few upset hunters (ego) , but historical events have made me try and eliminate anything that Murphy provides. 

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and keep it in the fur !


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