Trading Alaska tundra for Texas scrubland

Much on this hunt was different for 11-year-old Casey Marre. Instead of arctic tundra, there was Texas scrubland. Instead of icy autumn rain, there was a scorching sun. And instead of caribou, moose and bear, there were muflon, elk and wild boar.

But as he stalked exotic game in an unfamiliar habitat, Casey had two very familiar hunting partners at his side -- his father and his grandfather.

In October, the three generations of Valley hunters traveled to Texas to hunt on two large game ranches. They came home with all the meat, trophies and stories that come from a good hunt.

The whirlwind trip lasted just five days, and Casey shot three animals in two of those days -- an elk, wild boar and a muflon, a sheep-like animal.

"And I thought I was just going to get to shoot at boar," Casey said. He said his grandfather, Gary Oathout, aka "Pockie," had told them they would be going to a business partner's ranch to hunt wild boar. The elk and muflon were a surprise bonus on a different ranch.

While the trip was a huge success by Casey's estimation, he

admitted there were some

moments of doubt and disappointment. He described hunting a herd of muflon.

"We saw these three muflon on the ridge and so we went up there," Casey said, with all the enthusiasm and gestures of a hunting storyteller in the making. But when the time came for Casey to down one of the animals, all of his shots missed. When asked if he was disappointed, the 11-year-old sheepishly admitted, "I cried."

But the disappointment wasn't to last long. Later that same morning, Casey was able to get in close to shoot a full-curl muflon ram that was described as a "gold medal" animal by those at the ranch.

Casey's dad, Patrick Marre, said he enjoyed watching his son shoot more than shooting himself.

"It's even more exciting," he said.

"Pockie," who was described as taking a great deal of pride in his field dressing, quickly set to gutting and skinning the animal.

"And I did some skinning, too," Casey said in defense as his dad playfully teased him about leaving the work to his elders.

After getting cleaned up and eating some lunch, the men were back in the field, this time in pursuit

of elk.

"We drove up to the … uh … tree house," Casey said.

"Tree stand," his dad quietly corrected him.

"Oh, yeah. Tree stand … and we were over-looking a field," Casey said. Soon, a group of animals came within range, but the cameraman taping the hunt wasn't on hand so the hunters waited.

Eventually, a bull elk walked in close enough for Casey to get a shot, and at first it looked like a clean kill. But soon the animal was up and running, with the hunters following.

Casey admits he was a little nervous about losing the animal.

"I thought, 'This thing is gone,'" he recalled, but after two-and-

a-half hours of searching, he spotted the wounded elk and shot him again.

The hunt was not over, yet, however. After a day's rest, the Valley hunters were off to another ranch to hunt wild boar. When Casey first spotted a group of the

ferocious animals, he wasn't too

impressed.

"I thought, 'Man, these are small. These are teeny,'" Casey recalled, so he passed up a shot. Later, though, when another group came in closer range, he realized just how large the animals were. The 11-year-old imitated the wild boar's squealing grunts and described how they seemed to grow so much larger the closer they came.

Since he had lost the clip to his rifle, Casey was shooting one round at a time, but he was able to down one of the larger boars. His dad described how Casey was in a freestanding position, shooting the boar as it ran.

"I was impressed," his dad said.

But the tide quickly changed as the rest of the herd turned and ran straight at the hunters, who were standing on the ground unprotected. Casey admits he made a mistake at this point -- with a loaded gun he turned and ran.

"I was pretty scared right there," he said.

But his father calmed him and the hunters escaped injury.

With hair-raising hunting experience like this and the chance to see exotic animals such as ostriches and muflon, Marre said the trip was an education for his son, and one he won't soon forget himself.

"People pay big, big money for this," Marre said, quoting a $10,000 price tag that was waived for the son, dad and grandfather because they knew the ranch

owners.

While Marre said it was a unique hunt, he said, "I prefer the Alaskan wilderness-type hunting." He said he doesn't see himself going on another Texas game ranch hunt any time soon, but rather returning to hunt moose and caribou. His son, however, had a different opinion.

"He'd do it again in a heartbeat," Marre said and Casey confirmed this with an enthusiastic grin.

"It was fun," the 11-year-old said.

Back home, the Marre family has a freezer loaded with the exotic meat -- elk, muflon and two boars, one shot by Casey's father. And within a year or so, the family will also have several impressive head mounts for their walls.

"Except the boar. That's going in the garage," said Casey's mother, Kelly Marre.