AUSTRALIAN HUNT… (Aug. 2-6) We had another great hunt with Simon Kyle-Little (www.australianbiggamesafaris.com) in Australia’s Northern Territory. Dr. Dean Taylor and Gregg Gibbons joined Il Ling and I for another go at Asian buffalo and the Australian Wild Ox.
From Left: Il Ling, Dr. Taylor and I with Dr. Taylor's wild ox.
I took a trophy-sized Asian buffalo bull on at 35 yards. I was shooting Hornady’s Dangerous Game Series ammunition in my Ruger #1, in .375 H&H. Unfortunately, the Hornady softpoint bullets failed horribly. They went to pieces in the animal. For the rest of the hunt I used ammo loaded with the Swift A-Frame bullets, as loaded by Superior Ammunition.
Dr. Taylor took another very nice Wild Ox. I think this one was a bit bigger than the one that he killed last year. Altogether, it was another great hunting experience in Australia.
Just as I was leaving for Australia, I was contacted by the NRA and asked to be the co-host of American Guardian Television for the 2011 season. Adam Heggenstaller and I will share the honors of hosting the show. Beginning in September, Adam and I hit the road to get the 2011 series in the can. We filmed at the Sig Academy, in New Hampshire, Crossbreed Holsters, in Missouri, NRA Headquarters, in Virginia, among other places.
I think you’ll enjoy this coming season. Our focus will be a bit more towards personal defense for the average citizen. We even filmed one show with the Fairfax County S.O. Showing you how to deal with a routine traffic stop.
As usual, please let us know what you’d like to see on coming episodes of AMERICAN GUARDIAN TV.
BENELLI ON ASSIGNMENT… In the midst of getting AGTV in the can, I was invited to hunt with my friend Joe Coogan on a whitetail hunt to be filmed for his Benelli On Assignment TV show. Our hunt was at the Stasney/Cook Ranch–above Albany, TX–where my pardner Johnny Hudman is in charge. As luck would have it, our hunt was scheduled for right in the middle of the rut.
Joe Coogan (second from left) and I with our camera crew.
We were both hunting with the Benelli R1 autoloading rifle, in .30/06, using the Federal 180 grain ammo, with Burris optics.
I lost count of the number of bucks that were rattled in each day by our guide Jim Kern, but it was a lot–something like 10 per day. For the most part, these were no older than 2-3 years. The big bucks that we saw were already running doe and were not interested in checking out the rattling. Joe and I ended up getting two nice 10-point bucks, mine by spot & stalk and his by rattling. Wait until you see the way his buck came in to the horns. And we got it all on camera.
That was a great Texas deer hunt. And it was especially great to get to spend time with Joe Coogan. Joe has hunted all over the world. He was a PH in Africa for a number of years and really knows his game. Besides all that, he’s just a nice guy.
ALBUM UPDATE… My new CD, WEST OF SOMEWHERE, will be ready to ship in late January, or early February. We got a little behind schedule with all of the last-minute TV work that had to be done, but we’re in the home stretch now. Jim Jones has done an excellent job of producing this work. And we’ve had great help from musicians like Allan Chapman, Kate Howell, and Susan Clark.
Watch for our announcement, early next year, and get your order in.
So that about wraps it up for 2010. I’ll see you folks down the road…
Jim Wilson
