Antelope Down!

cohunter14

cohunter14

Administrator
Jul 10, 2017
5,345
Took down a nice buck today and Colt the knife was along for the ride. No official measurements, but the CPW stopped by and got a quick measurement of 13\" on the antlers. Next up is trying to fill my buddy\'s doe tag tomorrow.
 

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That\'s a great looking antelope! Congrats!
Is there a good story to tell?? :)
 
Thanks guys!

Not a whole lot of story to tell, but here it is: We cruised around in the morning and tried to put a stalk on a group of doe\'s for my buddy. Of course a buck popped out with them and presented a perfectly broad side shot at 350 yards, but he wasn\'t too big so I decided not to shoot. We followed that group for a bit, but they ended up on private land before my buddy could get a shot off.

We decided to check out another area and quickly glasses three separate groups. They all took off, seeing us from over 1,000 yards away...man their eye sight is good! We circled around and tried to come back in from another direction on the group. After covering quite a bit of ground, we came to the realization that they must have gone another direction. We decided to head back to the truck and grab some lunch. Right as we went to start heading for the truck, my buddy yells \"buck, buck!\"
 
I\'m trying Brad\'s way of telling stories...and I gotta say, this is way more fun on this side of the fence instead of being the one waiting! :lol:

We both drop to the ground hoping the buck didn\'t notice us. I quickly glass him and realize he is a solid buck! I pull my rangefinder and get him at just inside 350 yards. Only one problem: the grass is too high for me to get any sort of a shot while laying prone on the ground. We were stacking our backpacks and trying to find a way to get a solid rest when the buck finally decided he had had enough and put some distance between us. I was kind of kicking myself for not taking the shot, but 350 yards is a tough shot off-hand. We moved up a little higher while the buck continued to trot off and he finally stopped at 650 yards. I got a good rest and a good look at him. Dialed my scope, got all set, and touched one off...and I see the impact right over his back in the dirt! He takes off and again puts some distance between us, disappearing not over a hill.

In the meantime, I was trying to figure out how I missed...lack of details! I forgot to adjust the parallax on my scope. Combine this with a bit of mirage and it was a miss.

Just as I realized my mistake, the buck appeared again, coming back around the hill!
 
You and that sniper rifle are deadly.


Those elk better watch out on the 10th.



I hope my buddy that I am helping shoots like you :)
We will be done super early if that\'s the case. :upthumb:
 
\"cnelk\" said:
Are we gonna...?
I can be impatient too :lol:
Click to expand...

Hahahaha, I\'m glad I can get you back just a little bit Brad!

So, the buck reappears and this time, I am sure to go through everything precisely...range, dial, PARALLEX, etc. I squeeze off a solid shot and we see the dust hit behind the buck. Hit????? The buck trots off over the hill. My buddy and I discuss things and we both think it\'s a hit, but not positive. We decide to cover some ground and find out for sure. The only issue is that in this desert terrain, trying to find a blood trail is going to be difficult...
 
We get down to where the buck was, but again, no real chance to find a blood trail in this stuff. We decide to sneak over the hill to where the buck disappeared and come upon a herd of seven antelope. Six total doe\'s and the buck. A doe eventually spots us and they all take off, with the buck trailing way behind...but he\'s moving.
 
They all disappear over a small hill and my buddy and I decide to put another sneak on, hoping he can get a shot at one of the doe\'s while I try to finish off the buck. We pop over the hill and spot the herd out about 350-400 yards. We dip back below the ridge line and try to close the distance when all of a sudden, the buck appears! He is halfway between us and the herd. My buddy whispers \"get him!\" So I slowly stand up, shoulder my rifle, and put the crosshairs on him. I assume he is between 200 and 250, so with my gun being zeroed at 200 yards, I put the crosshairs directly on the vitals and touch one off.
 
When I \"touch one off\" the feathers fly.... ;) ;) Be they still be attached to the duck or floating around in the air they fly... :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

SO did the hair fly the good way or the not so go way???? :D :D
 
The buck drops in his tracks. The herd takes off and he tries to get up and join them, but goes down fairly quick and is done! I typically try to give animals some time to expire, but he dropped a ways out and in some taller stuff, so I decided to walk right towards him so I wouldn\'t lose him. As I got closer, I could tell he was done.

Upon further investigation, it appears that I only hit him once (the last shot). We did the gutless method on him, so no way to fully confirm, but I only saw the one hole. It was just weird how this buck acted, but who knows. Assuming I missed, it couldn\'t have been by much at all and must have hit just below him. Maybe 7\"-8\" off target.

I will say that I was very impressed with the Berger bullet I used. I have heard a lot of positive and negative with these bullets and this was my first hunt with them. But my bullet did not exit from that 200-250 yard shot and clearly expended all of its energy on that buck...he was dead in a matter of seconds. With that in mind, I am now hoping to give them a shot at an elk this next week :D

One final thought: shooting off-hand is SO much more difficult than prone! I felt way better over my first couple of shots from the prone position, even though the distance was much farther, than I did with that final kill shot.

In the end, I am extremely happy with my buck. After dropping a bunch of preference points on him, I guess I\'ll have to start saving up again and trying to drop a few doe\'s in the meantime :upthumb:
 
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