HuntingJudge
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2019
- Messages
- 95
This hunt starts out, like many do early in the year talking with my hunting group on what tags to put in for. Deciding to put in for an area close by but tough to draw, it was a surprise when tags came out after striking out on almost everything else, we drew the antelope tags. A couple weekends of scouting, and making some new contacts, has us looking in a new area we usually don’t get to.
Opening day came around and we went to an old reliable area we spend a bunch of time hunting in for deer. Well apparently, every single person who drew a tag for this area was there as well. Spending the morning in there and meeting people and trucks on every hill and road, we decided to get away from it all and head south an hour or so. This new area is pure private, hardly any huntable land and if there is maybe a mile by mile state section here and there.
We start seeing more and more antelope the further we got away from a certain populated area of hunters. Using on x and google trying to find any phone numbers we could we were striking out. One person after calling told us to text him, we did and he said no, but that put the texting on my mind. Watching a heard a guy in an old beat-up ranch truck pulled up asking if we needed any help and if we were antelope hunting. I told him we were trying to but not having much luck with permission. The older gentleman with a big white beard, stained yellow from the cigarettes said, you’re just not asking the right people. I asked if he was the right people? Yep, I am, was the response. He said anything with his last name on it we can hunt. Well, that opened about 10,000 acres. Spending the next couple hours glassing we found some average bucks on his place but nothing awesome.
Scouting a month back we pulled into a farm yard and asked about hunting, a person with a strong accent gave us a phone number to call. Not knowing if I got the number right, I tried to call it, a couple times but never got an answer. I decided to text. I have never tried to text a landowner before. Telling him who I was and what we were doing, I was amazed to get a reply. “Yep, you guys can hunt this ranch and this ranch. Let me know if you need to drive in to get anything recovered, and I will tell you how I want you to get there.” Well, this property is huge, more than we could hunt in a week.
After I had missed two already (not going to talk about that). My very good friend is up, he has never shot an antelope buck. He actually didn't want to shoot because I was the one who got permission on the property. We actually had a bit of an argument about that in the truck, I suspect like most long time hunting partners do. He is looking for the typical antelope, good prongs, 13-14 inches, and a curl. We looked over a bunch of bucks (15-25), but nothing had great prongs. Stalking in on some bucks we split up and he got within 70 yards of some antelope, a super tall buck and a wide thick buck, but he could see his truck and me in the back ground of the scope. This will be important later. The wind swirled and they ran away.
It was getting towards dark when we found a buck that was tall. Really tall for the area not much of a prong, and not heavy. He decided, that’s one he wants to take. Buck was bedded down at 250 yards he stood up and Potts made a great shot. The buck didn’t make it 10 yards. This buck was bigger than we both though and realized we have been judging small all day on some of the others.
That was it for the first day, awesome buck 15.5” and two tags left, added a coyote to the mix as well.
The Following morning another good friend joined up. This friend we will call E has been in Law Enforcement his whole life and recently retired. He is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to firearms and long-distance shooting. Having a range in your yard out to 800 yards doesn’t hurt. He brought his 6.5 Creedmore with a Nightforce scope. E's scope is worth double my little gun. We found a couple lopes and were able to pass some that Sunday morning. About 9 A.M. We found a great goat all by himself, and a plan was made. We got with in 750 yards, there was a rough cross wind I laid down and took aim. E had his wind checker out and dialed his gun in. First shot felt good but I missed. Second was the same. The Antelope trotted off and over the hill. With the rifle being suppressed E picked out a rock to shoot at making sure it was me and not the gun. When I was shooting the wind was blowing West to East, but when E shot at a rock up on the hill the Wind was blowing East to West according to the dust that flew up. E took the blame of a bad wind reading, but he was just trying to make me feel better. We looked around a bit more and found this same antelope up a draw about 1.5 miles away. After some bickering in the truck they talked me into going after it. Very thankful they did. A 15-minute walk later we were out of cover. In my hunting group we make fun of my brother a lot because he just walks slow at animals when he runs out of cover and honestly it works for him. Well, we decided to do the same. We closed the distance, and the Antelope finally noticed us. I laid down and got ready, this time there was little to no wind and E dialed me in. The First shot hit him, and he was sick, the second one buckled him. I couldn’t believe it, I knew it was far. E asked if I wanted to know how far that was, I said all I know is it farther than I have ever shot an animal, “941” I have never shot that kind of distance in my life. Shows what a good gun, optics, and knowledge can do for a person shooting. I know the buck was a good Antelope, But E kept saying that it was really good. It seemed like forever getting up to the goat, and when I finally got to see him, I realized that he was exceptional. We took some pictures and decided that I needed to put him on the wall. He is 14.5 tall, little over 7-inch bases and 6 inch prongs from the back of the horn, and a cool split prong on the right side. I scored him at just about 81. I am not into scoring animals too much, but I made a deal with myself if he scored over 75 I would need to mount him. Cape is off and in the freezer.
We had just butchered 4 pigs a week or so prior, and I had some Ground pork I needed to do something with, so the antelope was turned into so amazing maple breakfast sausage.
Back at it again Friday and we have permission on the same property. My brother was not able to hunt with us the week Prior So the 4 of us loaded up and I were off again. Sandwiches made with farm fresh eggs, antelope sausage, and pepper jack cheese for breakfast. My brother is busy right now rebuilding a turn of the century barn at his house to make a wedding venue, so he said he would be done hunting by 10 and back home by 12. That was his plan anyways. My brother has also not killed an antelope, he is a late onset hunter, starting in his later 20’s. We looked over some bucks and he decided to pass on one that was about 13” we snuck to 100 yards on.
Glassing about 9 A.M I found a group of Antelope about a mile or so away, looking through the spotting scope I could see that there was a buck in there that he needed to go look at. This was great because I was able to see the whole hunt unfold through the spotting scope and a phone camara. My brother and my friend who shot the first lope snuck with in 500 yards of the antelope, The antelope finally got up after about 45 minutes. This time using a Different gun of E's, a 7 PRC my brother was able to make an awesome shot on this antelope. I contacted the Landowner, and he told us where we could go to drive to get to the buck. When E and I arrived at the antelope i was surprised to see my brother had shot a non-typical antelope. The Wide buck that passed because of me being in the way the first afternoon. He has an back wards prong coming out the back side of the left horn and a point on the left outside about a inch long as well as his right prong splitting into three and a point coming out the back side of his right.
my brothers buck scored right about 75” with 4” extra inches of points, even though there is not a score sheet for Non-typical antelope, we are going to count them, putting this buck at around 78ish”. the first antelope roughly scored in the low 73ish” awesome weekend of antelope hunting for this hunting group. I am going to get this landowner that all three of us shot antelope on his property, a gift card to take his wife out to dinner or something.
Opening day came around and we went to an old reliable area we spend a bunch of time hunting in for deer. Well apparently, every single person who drew a tag for this area was there as well. Spending the morning in there and meeting people and trucks on every hill and road, we decided to get away from it all and head south an hour or so. This new area is pure private, hardly any huntable land and if there is maybe a mile by mile state section here and there.
We start seeing more and more antelope the further we got away from a certain populated area of hunters. Using on x and google trying to find any phone numbers we could we were striking out. One person after calling told us to text him, we did and he said no, but that put the texting on my mind. Watching a heard a guy in an old beat-up ranch truck pulled up asking if we needed any help and if we were antelope hunting. I told him we were trying to but not having much luck with permission. The older gentleman with a big white beard, stained yellow from the cigarettes said, you’re just not asking the right people. I asked if he was the right people? Yep, I am, was the response. He said anything with his last name on it we can hunt. Well, that opened about 10,000 acres. Spending the next couple hours glassing we found some average bucks on his place but nothing awesome.
Scouting a month back we pulled into a farm yard and asked about hunting, a person with a strong accent gave us a phone number to call. Not knowing if I got the number right, I tried to call it, a couple times but never got an answer. I decided to text. I have never tried to text a landowner before. Telling him who I was and what we were doing, I was amazed to get a reply. “Yep, you guys can hunt this ranch and this ranch. Let me know if you need to drive in to get anything recovered, and I will tell you how I want you to get there.” Well, this property is huge, more than we could hunt in a week.
After I had missed two already (not going to talk about that). My very good friend is up, he has never shot an antelope buck. He actually didn't want to shoot because I was the one who got permission on the property. We actually had a bit of an argument about that in the truck, I suspect like most long time hunting partners do. He is looking for the typical antelope, good prongs, 13-14 inches, and a curl. We looked over a bunch of bucks (15-25), but nothing had great prongs. Stalking in on some bucks we split up and he got within 70 yards of some antelope, a super tall buck and a wide thick buck, but he could see his truck and me in the back ground of the scope. This will be important later. The wind swirled and they ran away.
It was getting towards dark when we found a buck that was tall. Really tall for the area not much of a prong, and not heavy. He decided, that’s one he wants to take. Buck was bedded down at 250 yards he stood up and Potts made a great shot. The buck didn’t make it 10 yards. This buck was bigger than we both though and realized we have been judging small all day on some of the others.
That was it for the first day, awesome buck 15.5” and two tags left, added a coyote to the mix as well.
The Following morning another good friend joined up. This friend we will call E has been in Law Enforcement his whole life and recently retired. He is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to firearms and long-distance shooting. Having a range in your yard out to 800 yards doesn’t hurt. He brought his 6.5 Creedmore with a Nightforce scope. E's scope is worth double my little gun. We found a couple lopes and were able to pass some that Sunday morning. About 9 A.M. We found a great goat all by himself, and a plan was made. We got with in 750 yards, there was a rough cross wind I laid down and took aim. E had his wind checker out and dialed his gun in. First shot felt good but I missed. Second was the same. The Antelope trotted off and over the hill. With the rifle being suppressed E picked out a rock to shoot at making sure it was me and not the gun. When I was shooting the wind was blowing West to East, but when E shot at a rock up on the hill the Wind was blowing East to West according to the dust that flew up. E took the blame of a bad wind reading, but he was just trying to make me feel better. We looked around a bit more and found this same antelope up a draw about 1.5 miles away. After some bickering in the truck they talked me into going after it. Very thankful they did. A 15-minute walk later we were out of cover. In my hunting group we make fun of my brother a lot because he just walks slow at animals when he runs out of cover and honestly it works for him. Well, we decided to do the same. We closed the distance, and the Antelope finally noticed us. I laid down and got ready, this time there was little to no wind and E dialed me in. The First shot hit him, and he was sick, the second one buckled him. I couldn’t believe it, I knew it was far. E asked if I wanted to know how far that was, I said all I know is it farther than I have ever shot an animal, “941” I have never shot that kind of distance in my life. Shows what a good gun, optics, and knowledge can do for a person shooting. I know the buck was a good Antelope, But E kept saying that it was really good. It seemed like forever getting up to the goat, and when I finally got to see him, I realized that he was exceptional. We took some pictures and decided that I needed to put him on the wall. He is 14.5 tall, little over 7-inch bases and 6 inch prongs from the back of the horn, and a cool split prong on the right side. I scored him at just about 81. I am not into scoring animals too much, but I made a deal with myself if he scored over 75 I would need to mount him. Cape is off and in the freezer.
We had just butchered 4 pigs a week or so prior, and I had some Ground pork I needed to do something with, so the antelope was turned into so amazing maple breakfast sausage.
Back at it again Friday and we have permission on the same property. My brother was not able to hunt with us the week Prior So the 4 of us loaded up and I were off again. Sandwiches made with farm fresh eggs, antelope sausage, and pepper jack cheese for breakfast. My brother is busy right now rebuilding a turn of the century barn at his house to make a wedding venue, so he said he would be done hunting by 10 and back home by 12. That was his plan anyways. My brother has also not killed an antelope, he is a late onset hunter, starting in his later 20’s. We looked over some bucks and he decided to pass on one that was about 13” we snuck to 100 yards on.
Glassing about 9 A.M I found a group of Antelope about a mile or so away, looking through the spotting scope I could see that there was a buck in there that he needed to go look at. This was great because I was able to see the whole hunt unfold through the spotting scope and a phone camara. My brother and my friend who shot the first lope snuck with in 500 yards of the antelope, The antelope finally got up after about 45 minutes. This time using a Different gun of E's, a 7 PRC my brother was able to make an awesome shot on this antelope. I contacted the Landowner, and he told us where we could go to drive to get to the buck. When E and I arrived at the antelope i was surprised to see my brother had shot a non-typical antelope. The Wide buck that passed because of me being in the way the first afternoon. He has an back wards prong coming out the back side of the left horn and a point on the left outside about a inch long as well as his right prong splitting into three and a point coming out the back side of his right.
my brothers buck scored right about 75” with 4” extra inches of points, even though there is not a score sheet for Non-typical antelope, we are going to count them, putting this buck at around 78ish”. the first antelope roughly scored in the low 73ish” awesome weekend of antelope hunting for this hunting group. I am going to get this landowner that all three of us shot antelope on his property, a gift card to take his wife out to dinner or something.
