TackDriver284
Handloader
- Feb 13, 2016
- 2,613
- 2,295
Woke at 3 am, got all my gear ready and loaded in the truck plus 3 ice chests loaded up with ice. Filled up the truck and grabbed two burritos for the road with some coffee. Hooked up with the guide at the gate at 6 am and was warmly greeted at camp by the owner and another guest. Settled all the gear in the safari truck and we drove down to the 6 x 6 blind, 15 feet up and the guide and I were settled inside protected from the brisk 45 degree temps. He showed me a package of Hot Hands, and gave me one to warm my hands with, it was cool and its air activated and warms your hands up to 10 hours. Peered out the windows as dawn broke, several whitetail bucks in the 120 -140 class was roaming around eating off the corn / protein feeders and out of a cottonseed trough. Just deer, deer and deer for the next 4 hours, and a bull nilgai with a solid white front leg lazily roamed around at 500 yards away, and guide mentioned that its an albino, it was cool since nilgai have all black legs. There is a huge albino bull on that ranch which is almost solid white on the entire body that was caught by helicopter. It was purchased to breed the cows there. I have seen some pictures of it and it was super cool. Nothing but deer until 11 am, and the safari truck came to pick us up. We decided to go safari style and look for some nilgai. I was interested in two cow nilgai, and if there was a solid bull, then I'll reconsider if I see a bull, I can't think about it for long because the bulls are smart and spooky. As we drove around for a while, the guide saw some nilgai over 500 yards away plus a young bull down the road, and we slowly got a bit closer around the bend to park and wait for the herd to continue walking on the other side of the brush towards a pond and a cottonseed feeder ahead of us. There was a blind about 10 yards away, and the truck was too exposed in the open and I asked the guide if we can sit up in the blind and he thought the same, so we got out of the truck and up the blind, the truck left the area. We got settled in our seats and waited, it was warming up to about 55 degrees with some solid north winds of about 15-20 mph. We did not see anything for an hour and a half except some honeybees zipping in and out of the blind. Better than wasps!! 
I ranged the trough to make sure of the distance, it was a hair shy of 200. We chatted quietly and bam, a huge bull nilgai lazily walks out of the thick brush towards the cottonseed trough, it was not the same bull seen earlier, but bigger. I already had the 300 win Mag with 180 Accubonds out the window, settled my elbow on the side window sill, and tracked the crosshairs on the bull. The horns on that bull has character, its curved inwards towards each other instead of the normal straight out. My heart raced and told myself to relax and breathe deep and slow, I was waiting for a broadside shot, but he was quartered when walking up to the trough, he passed the trough and I was like oh no, you need to stop there and eat, lol. They have a tendency to keep walking and walking and disappear in the brush. He walked around the front corner of the trough looking towards the brush, and he turned around and quartered to us. The brush was about 20 feet away and he was curious while looking at us, he noticed the camo netting flapping in the wind from the inside of the blind windows. I decided that its now or never, took aim and settled the ATACR crosshairs on the center mass of its huge neck, he was a little quartered so I had to picture where the spine will be which will be a little to the right of center mass, so I gently squeezed off a shot, the 180 AccuBond flying out the muzzle at 3125 feet per second heading to the target. Heard the sound of a heavy whump, and he buckled and dropped right there, he kicked around a little. High fives in the blind, and the guide says " What a shot, I rarely see them go down that fast" We were all smiles, and I left the fired case in the chamber and put the gun back down in the corner of the blind assuming it was done. Two minutes later, the guide says, " Get the rifle back up again, and chamber it!! " and we noticed that the bull is trying to get back on its feet, and I got the gun out the window again, and he was struggling to get up, but his front body / head was facing the opposite from me, so I was not able to put a 2nd shot into its neck or vitals to end his suffering quickly. All of a sudden he jumps back up and galloped like a horse with its head at an awkward angle towards the opposite brush side which was about 30 feet away, I quickly followed up with a 2nd shot intended for the shoulder to stop him, all this was less than 5 seconds, but I think the 2nd round hit him a little far back behind the shoulder and he disappeared in the thicket. We were like "Whoa, what the heck!! ", we could hear him in the brush, and he is still alive. We got out of the blind, and quickly walked up to the site, and the guide took out his Kimber 45 and I had a round chambered in the 300 WM so we could end his suffering quick. We walked up to the brush line to look for him and we could see him about 20 feet in and he is a huge bull, and it was still laying down, and we walked up to it, and barely 10 feet of reaching the bull, it jumped up and stared at us, the guide let off with two shots with the .45 several inches under the skull. It had no effect on him, it was like swatting mosquitoes and he staggered another 5 yards, and I already had the last round in the chamber, dialed down the magnification quickly to 5 X, and aimed a little lower than the top of its neck since i have to consider bore height of 2.10 inches at that distance, and squeezed off a 3rd round, center neck hit and shook dust and sand from its neck and dropped again right there. I said to myself " What a tank!!! ", he took three rounds of 180 Accubonds and two .45 caliber slugs before he expired. All were lethal hits. I kneeled next to the bull and said a small prayer, " Thank you Lord for this gift to feed our family. " It's a wonderful blessing. The safari truck comes down the road, and we whistled to them on our location in the brush about 40 feet in, the owner was like " Wow, what are all those shots about" He could not believe it himself on how tough that stud was, and he had a scar on its backbone area either from an old gunshot wound or a battle with another bull, and he had scars and slashes all over its body. What a beast and he has character that I will have him shoulder mounted. Guide set out the hoist cable and had it hoisted up in the back of the truck and we headed to the back of camp to have it caped and skinned. Took a few pictures at camp and we had it hoisted up to have the guide work on him. We found two slugs in the neck from the 300 Win Mag, gosh sakes, 4000 lbs of muzzle energy and impact @ 200 and @10 feet, the 180 Accubonds did NOT pass through, we located one slug on the rear right side under the skin, and one of the left side under the skin where the final round was used. The last shot shattered his neck bone. I can't imagine how tough the neck shield is, skin is about an inch thick and its a brute. Full of character from all the battle scars and bullets before he expired. The two 45 caliber slugs are still inside its upper neck, and we left them there for the taxidermist to find at a later time, not worth digging around for it and ruin the cape, the guide did an excellent job on the cape. The bull is aged around 6-7 years old. Now I got to get to processing later today, gonna be busy the next couple of days. Sorry guys, I like to keep my picture private from the internet, so my face is covered. The pictures of the bullet covered in blood is the first shot @ 200, the other two side by side,,,the left is the first shot @ 200 and the right side is the 3rd shot @ 10 feet, the 2nd shot was a pass through, no recovery. Weight on the hoist is 562 pounds and horn length is 8.5 inches.
I ranged the trough to make sure of the distance, it was a hair shy of 200. We chatted quietly and bam, a huge bull nilgai lazily walks out of the thick brush towards the cottonseed trough, it was not the same bull seen earlier, but bigger. I already had the 300 win Mag with 180 Accubonds out the window, settled my elbow on the side window sill, and tracked the crosshairs on the bull. The horns on that bull has character, its curved inwards towards each other instead of the normal straight out. My heart raced and told myself to relax and breathe deep and slow, I was waiting for a broadside shot, but he was quartered when walking up to the trough, he passed the trough and I was like oh no, you need to stop there and eat, lol. They have a tendency to keep walking and walking and disappear in the brush. He walked around the front corner of the trough looking towards the brush, and he turned around and quartered to us. The brush was about 20 feet away and he was curious while looking at us, he noticed the camo netting flapping in the wind from the inside of the blind windows. I decided that its now or never, took aim and settled the ATACR crosshairs on the center mass of its huge neck, he was a little quartered so I had to picture where the spine will be which will be a little to the right of center mass, so I gently squeezed off a shot, the 180 AccuBond flying out the muzzle at 3125 feet per second heading to the target. Heard the sound of a heavy whump, and he buckled and dropped right there, he kicked around a little. High fives in the blind, and the guide says " What a shot, I rarely see them go down that fast" We were all smiles, and I left the fired case in the chamber and put the gun back down in the corner of the blind assuming it was done. Two minutes later, the guide says, " Get the rifle back up again, and chamber it!! " and we noticed that the bull is trying to get back on its feet, and I got the gun out the window again, and he was struggling to get up, but his front body / head was facing the opposite from me, so I was not able to put a 2nd shot into its neck or vitals to end his suffering quickly. All of a sudden he jumps back up and galloped like a horse with its head at an awkward angle towards the opposite brush side which was about 30 feet away, I quickly followed up with a 2nd shot intended for the shoulder to stop him, all this was less than 5 seconds, but I think the 2nd round hit him a little far back behind the shoulder and he disappeared in the thicket. We were like "Whoa, what the heck!! ", we could hear him in the brush, and he is still alive. We got out of the blind, and quickly walked up to the site, and the guide took out his Kimber 45 and I had a round chambered in the 300 WM so we could end his suffering quick. We walked up to the brush line to look for him and we could see him about 20 feet in and he is a huge bull, and it was still laying down, and we walked up to it, and barely 10 feet of reaching the bull, it jumped up and stared at us, the guide let off with two shots with the .45 several inches under the skull. It had no effect on him, it was like swatting mosquitoes and he staggered another 5 yards, and I already had the last round in the chamber, dialed down the magnification quickly to 5 X, and aimed a little lower than the top of its neck since i have to consider bore height of 2.10 inches at that distance, and squeezed off a 3rd round, center neck hit and shook dust and sand from its neck and dropped again right there. I said to myself " What a tank!!! ", he took three rounds of 180 Accubonds and two .45 caliber slugs before he expired. All were lethal hits. I kneeled next to the bull and said a small prayer, " Thank you Lord for this gift to feed our family. " It's a wonderful blessing. The safari truck comes down the road, and we whistled to them on our location in the brush about 40 feet in, the owner was like " Wow, what are all those shots about" He could not believe it himself on how tough that stud was, and he had a scar on its backbone area either from an old gunshot wound or a battle with another bull, and he had scars and slashes all over its body. What a beast and he has character that I will have him shoulder mounted. Guide set out the hoist cable and had it hoisted up in the back of the truck and we headed to the back of camp to have it caped and skinned. Took a few pictures at camp and we had it hoisted up to have the guide work on him. We found two slugs in the neck from the 300 Win Mag, gosh sakes, 4000 lbs of muzzle energy and impact @ 200 and @10 feet, the 180 Accubonds did NOT pass through, we located one slug on the rear right side under the skin, and one of the left side under the skin where the final round was used. The last shot shattered his neck bone. I can't imagine how tough the neck shield is, skin is about an inch thick and its a brute. Full of character from all the battle scars and bullets before he expired. The two 45 caliber slugs are still inside its upper neck, and we left them there for the taxidermist to find at a later time, not worth digging around for it and ruin the cape, the guide did an excellent job on the cape. The bull is aged around 6-7 years old. Now I got to get to processing later today, gonna be busy the next couple of days. Sorry guys, I like to keep my picture private from the internet, so my face is covered. The pictures of the bullet covered in blood is the first shot @ 200, the other two side by side,,,the left is the first shot @ 200 and the right side is the 3rd shot @ 10 feet, the 2nd shot was a pass through, no recovery. Weight on the hoist is 562 pounds and horn length is 8.5 inches.Attachments
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