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| When I went outside I was surprised to see the surrounding just as beautiful as the inside of the lodge. The lodge was situated on top of a ridge and you could look out into the Ohio countryside and see the numerous pastures and blocks of forest which were painted with the fall spectrum of colors in their leaves. I went around the outside of the lodge and discovered a garden that Sherri used to grow vegetables for her delicious meals. There was also an observation deck. I sat on top of this deck overlooking pasture and hoping to see what kinds of exotics might pop out. I noticed something in the woodline and moments later an American bison walked out followed by about a dozen others. They were a lot of fun to watch. Though I can't imagine shooting one of them in such a setting as this, it would be sort of like shooting someone's cow. Not much challenge in it but if you wanted to avoid the high price of beef, I suppose it would be o.k.. As darkness settled in, I returned to the lodge and looked over the many photo albums of previous clients when the hunting party returned. There was about a half dozen of them and they were unloading the truck as I went to investigate. They had taken a monster wild boar. It was an easy 425 pounds plus on the hoof. Taken with a rifle, this boar hopefully held promise for what the hunting would be like for me in the morning. I talked with a few of the shooters and we returned back to the lodge to watch the video of their chase and socialize. It was at this time that I finally met Mr. Eddie Potts, owner and operator of White Oak. We broke into a small introductory discussion of how I found out about them, what I was hunting, and general hunting small talk. I also got to meet up with the rest of the hunting party. All were very nice gentlemen but I knew their hunt was what I'd term, "corporate money." They were all from the Chicago and Indianapolis area and didn't strike me as true sportsman, but rather a bunch of "shooters." Preserves attract those sort of folks who think that they're hunting when they're actually just shooting. Seemed like every animal they had taken was gonna be mounted life size and the sheer number of the animals they took along with the taxidermy services let me know without a doubt that these guys were dropping some serious cash and that's why Mr. Potts had given most of his attention to them rather than me and the other single animal shooter. It's business I suppose. After having a chat about the animals, the presidential election (which all in attendance supported President G.W. Bush, and ironically the second of three presidential debates appeared that night while we watched hunting videos) and general small talk we headed off to bed. I climbed in bed, set the alarm clock and was anxious for the next morning when I myself would finally be going after barbaross ram. I woke up, not to the incessant buzzing of an alarm clock, but of my own accord at about 5:30 AM. I just sort of lied there waiting and knowing that it would be a another two hours before breakfast would be served. Boy, that's really roughing it! Anyhow, I did start to hear some moving around about an hour later so I got up and found Sherri already busy with breakfast and coffee ready to go. I helped myself to the coffee and started prepping myself and gear for the hunt. We made small talk and breakfast was served at 7:00 AM (earlier than expected). What a breakfast! Pancakes, homemade sausage, scrambled eggs, homemade cinnamon rolls with icing all found their way onto my plate. Very good indeed! I then went outside to my vehicle to get the final polishing on my broadheads. I always try to touch them up a few hours before heading afield. A gentleman from New York state followed me out and we discussed White Oak and he said something that really stuck in my philosophy of preserve hunting. He said, "this sort of hunting is a unique experience and can be as good or bad as you want it. It's up to you." That's pretty fair to say of all the preserves I've been too. It isn't hunting but rather shooting but the challenge of the chase or the difficulty of the shot will vary from place to place, hunter to hunter, and time to time. Well, I would learn that lesson first-hand this morning! Bob, one of the guides, came out and introduced himself. He would be my guide for the day and said that once I was ready, just to come get him. After shaking hands with the New Yorker I had been speaking with, I packed up the rest of my gear and headed into the lodge to find Bob. I met up with him and we discussed the plan of action for the morning, I'd try it with a bow first and then a rifle, if need be, in the afternoon. Sherri told me to swing by to sign a liability release form and as soon as I did, Bob and I headed out. As we were leaving, Sherri told Bob to make sure I had my safety briefing. As soon as we crossed the fence, Bob said, "Well, I've gotta give you a safety briefing so here it is. Do you see that bottom strand of fence?" "Yes," I replied. "Well, it's a live electric fence so don't touch it. If a boar comes after you, jump over it or stay clear of it but don't get on it. Do you know what a backstop is?" "Yes," I replied again. "Well, that's what we want behind any animal we're going to be taking a shot at." "No problem," I said. "Good! Now let's go hunting!" I knew that we had struck it off right. He knew I wasn't some yuppie desk jockey who didn't know their ass from an oak stump. I knew he wasn't some dang salesman who would have to hold my hand - a great pairing! We talked a bit as we walked around the trails that were cut through the property. Rams relied more on their sense of sight than any other sense and by staying high we hoped we'd come down on top of them. We started down a ridgeline trail leading into the bottom when I noticed a brown flash on the opposite hillside. I caught it before Bob and he expected that it was probably a fallow deer. He went on to tell me that there are often several species within some of the enclosures and then on others it would be a single species enclosure. Our enclosure was a multi-species enclosure with rams, goats, boar and fallow deer. Apparently, boar were kept in everything but the pasture areas as their extensive rooting would destroy a lot of good bison, deer, ram and goat habitat. In fact, the only ram spotted by the group in camp was a Texas dall seen while buffalo hunting (or should I say, shooting) and the guys said that he was flat moving out from a distance of 200 yards away! I thought of that just now and wondered just how close I'd honestly be able to get to rams. We continued down into the bottoms and saw some fallow deer in an open valley some distance away but we didn't head in that direction. Instead, we headed back up another ridgeline. Still, not having seen a single ram. About an hour into the hunt, we were cruising back around to where we started and Bob noticed a band of rams. I didn't catch them at first as they weren't on the top of the ridge but rather down the left side of it. They spooked and hauled ass into the bottom. I caught a glimpse of them as they headed down into the valley and saw three barbarossa rams in the pack along with a few spanish goats and some corsicans. The spanish goats were the band leaders and the others followed them. Bob said, "Let's give them some time and maybe they'll settle down and bed on the ridge where we can work on them." Sounded good to me. |
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