ORIGINAL: Campo
ORIGINAL: AnnaMarie
ORIGINAL: Campo
That is one nice bull...but I gotta ask. Was it fair chase or fenced?
Stick with a cut on contact head. I am going to be using Slick Tricks this year for elk.
This bull was taken in Texas on
1400 acres of free range. He had been shot at and missed by two rifle hunters previously. I had seen him while hunting for
axis does, and the man informed me there were a nice group of elk that stayed around the area. I went back four times before I got a shot on him. He is considered an exotic in Texas but he was definitely not an easy hunt by far. He was very hard to get in range.
Sadly this place is now highfenced , beacause it was bought by a business man. It was one of my favorite places to hunt, because it had a nice herd of axis and lots of whitetails. They run all kinds of exotic ram and antelope hunts out of it now. Atleast I get to say I got one of the last exotic/free rangin elk out there.
It was shot in august, since they are not originally from Texas, they are considered exotics there. I only know of a few places though in Texas with free range elk. alot are highfenced.
So, how was the animal free range when it was only on 1400 acres? As far as I know, there is NO WILD population of Elk in Texas. In the
Complete Book of Elk Hunting written by Sam Curtis, and endorsed by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, there is no mention of ANY wild population of elk in Texas. Specifically, if you reference page 13, you will see that none of the subspecies fall in the state of Texas. Now, if this is the case, then the hunt must have been fenced, because I highly doubt Texas is going to let people just ship in elk and set them loose, particularly with CWD being such an issue now. Now, kudos to you for taking down that massive bull. He really is a dandy, but please dont make claims to free range and such, because it is pretty obvious to the general public here that this animal was not free range and the hunt obviously had to be fenced. I am sorry to hijack thisthread, but I think this issue needs to be addressedso that the public here is aware. Mods, if this postis out of line, please let me know and I will repost it under a different thread.
1400 acres were LOW FENCED. NOT HIGH FENCED. Also, My family had 80 acres of FREE RANGE, NOT HIGHFENCE, and we had a beautiful herd of about 50 axis that were regular visitors. Axis are not natives of Texas just as elk are not. When I would sit on my stand on our 80 acres I saw an Aoudad, and 3 Blackbuck, and countless Axis. There are free ranging exotics all over texas, how did they get to be free range?? I don't doubt they escaped from highfenced private ranches, and reproduced along the way. Another point, I regularly hunt in Comfort, Texas on a FREE RANGE place. The man has an abundance of sika's, whom are not natives, and are considered exotic. The man never bought these, but after a flood way back he had all kinds of animals make a new home out of his land. Escaped animals from private ranches, probably so, but they are not confined to a certain area and repopulated themselves. Please don't make claims about my hunt being highfenced when you do not know and were not there. I understand where you are coming from, and if it is not your opinion of a fair chase than so be it, you are entitled to your own opinion. I was there though, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't just a waltz up to the animal and stick him thing. These elk had the opportuinty to go elsewhee if they pleased, there was NO HIGHFENCE.