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This had come to a great day a dream of a life time. The
hunt of all hunts ever since I was a kid I dreamt about
hunting an American legend, the Hotoa’e. Sitting in front of
the television set I watched movies of Old Buffalo Bill on
his horse hunting the great beast of the plains. I had
changed my hunting methods due to a hand injury to strictly
hunting with a pistol, taking several good trophies of
exotic and native animals in Texas. I had finished several
of the local slams- Texas Ram Slam, and the Texas Big Horn
Slam with a .357 mag Ruger Vaquero.
Finally the day came when we headed off to the Hill Country
of Texas, Kerrville to be precise. It was December 12th,
1998 and the day was a biting cold with no wind. We headed
to the Ranch and they told us there were several big bulls
in the area. That one of them had extremely good horns and
there was also a trouble bull that would bang up Jeeps and
such.
We rode around for well over two hours and finally we saw
two bulls in the distance, well over five hundred yards.
While driving up to the bulls we heard a grunt in the brush
to the side of us and we paused to find out what it was. It
was the trouble bull around 150 yards into the brush. Having
the nature that I have, I suggested going for the trouble
bull.
I started to stalk the bull which was well over 6 feet at
the shoulder. It took me over twenty minutes to get close
enough for him to realize I was there. I was roughly 80
yards from him and I knew my 357 Mag. Ruger Vaquero would do
the job but I needed to be closer.
The Bull started to face me and started grunting. He tilted
his head as if smelling the air but the wind was at my
favor. I crouched under some prickly pear and waited for
about five minutes. Again I start to stalk, but the bull now
I realized was slowly walking towards me. I understood that
we had closed the gap. I usually calculate a shot in paces
and it took me 64 paces to get to the bull.
I realized that it was now or never since
at full charge he would be on me in a matter of seconds. I
had committed a mistake as I stalked the bull I cornered
myself into a mess of cactus. I stood up from the cover and
placed two shots into the bulls head. The bull bison charged
me as I placed the third and final blow into his head.
This was a hunt in a life time of waiting; I sent the
buffalo to get processed and had a fundraiser for my boxing
club in Irving Texas. We did a wild game dinner and raised
enough money to take a boxer to the golden gloves in 1999.
With a team of 10 boxers, 7 won the golden gloves.
This was not only was a dream hunt, but helping the
youth really made it even more special. |
