mmeehan97
New member
My experience with antelope hunting consists of a doe I killed with my bow, out of a blind, on a private land honey hole in WY a couple years ago.
I bought a new rifle this year -- some of you may have seen that thread.
After a summer full of shooting a ton of different ammo, in a lot of different scenarios...I settled on my bullet and I practiced.
I drew an antelope tag in a unit in my home state of SD. I imagined rifle hunting antelope on public land would involve avoiding other hunters...I knew there would be pressure.
What I experienced was worse than anything I ever could have imagined, on opening weekend specifically.
In the morning, 1.5 hours before daylight, on opening day, I was truck #8 in a 12-truck convoy of strangers all driving down the same gravel road in the dark. At that moment I knew I was in trouble.
The number of hunters I saw actually blew my mind. Couple of small bucks just on private land, group of 8 that I thought I was alone in going after, only to realize that there were a pile of other guys going after them. It was ugly. I was pretty disillusioned with the tag.
Fast forward to this weekend. I spotted a group of 20 goats on private, but they had a LOT of public that sort of surrounded where they were hanging out last weekend while driving the unit just to try and figure something out. So pre-dawn this Saturday morning, I got lucky and got the parking spot I wanted - and I took off walking onto a big chunk of school land. I made it about 2.3 miles in...was starting to lose hope, despite the good country I was looking at. I saw a roll in the topography and thought "what's on the other side of that?"
I peeked over the roll and there were 7 antelope at (i'd guess) 100-125 yards. They were in TIGHT. I dropped down, started crawling on all fours with my pack (shooting rest) in one hand and my new rifle in the other. When I got to where I could see them again they had moved...and the does were starting to blow at me. The buck was facing directly at me. I ranged him (which was crazy hard through the grass). I got a couple readings between 180-190 yards. I set up my rest, got my scope on a magnification that seemed the easiest to see through all the grass...and waited. As soon as he turned broadside, I knew the does were going to flare their rumps and run, he was quartering towards me...I squeezed the trigger and heard the hollow THWAK. I knew he was hit. He was running all weird, too. Leaning to one side, sort of zig-zagging back and forth...then he fell.
The bullet destroyed his left front quarter...the shank was barely hanging on to the rest of the quarter. The exit wound on his right side was far back. But there was a ton of blood. I'm not Jack O'Connor, but the old .270 Federal Fusion 130 grain did a super job on a less than perfect shot.
What a hunt. I don't know how to field judge antelope. I'm not an expert on Boone & Crockett standards for goats. And honestly, right now, I don't care. He was one of the bigger ones I saw...and I'm absolutely thrilled that I had such a great opportunity on public lands.
Quartered him...got him in game bags...and suffered the sweet pain of a pack-out.
A species i'll be hunting every chance I get from now on. They are truly beautiful creatures, and so much fun to hunt.
My rifles got a bit of blood on it, now. A worthy public land baptism.
I bought a new rifle this year -- some of you may have seen that thread.
After a summer full of shooting a ton of different ammo, in a lot of different scenarios...I settled on my bullet and I practiced.
I drew an antelope tag in a unit in my home state of SD. I imagined rifle hunting antelope on public land would involve avoiding other hunters...I knew there would be pressure.
What I experienced was worse than anything I ever could have imagined, on opening weekend specifically.
In the morning, 1.5 hours before daylight, on opening day, I was truck #8 in a 12-truck convoy of strangers all driving down the same gravel road in the dark. At that moment I knew I was in trouble.
The number of hunters I saw actually blew my mind. Couple of small bucks just on private land, group of 8 that I thought I was alone in going after, only to realize that there were a pile of other guys going after them. It was ugly. I was pretty disillusioned with the tag.
Fast forward to this weekend. I spotted a group of 20 goats on private, but they had a LOT of public that sort of surrounded where they were hanging out last weekend while driving the unit just to try and figure something out. So pre-dawn this Saturday morning, I got lucky and got the parking spot I wanted - and I took off walking onto a big chunk of school land. I made it about 2.3 miles in...was starting to lose hope, despite the good country I was looking at. I saw a roll in the topography and thought "what's on the other side of that?"
I peeked over the roll and there were 7 antelope at (i'd guess) 100-125 yards. They were in TIGHT. I dropped down, started crawling on all fours with my pack (shooting rest) in one hand and my new rifle in the other. When I got to where I could see them again they had moved...and the does were starting to blow at me. The buck was facing directly at me. I ranged him (which was crazy hard through the grass). I got a couple readings between 180-190 yards. I set up my rest, got my scope on a magnification that seemed the easiest to see through all the grass...and waited. As soon as he turned broadside, I knew the does were going to flare their rumps and run, he was quartering towards me...I squeezed the trigger and heard the hollow THWAK. I knew he was hit. He was running all weird, too. Leaning to one side, sort of zig-zagging back and forth...then he fell.
The bullet destroyed his left front quarter...the shank was barely hanging on to the rest of the quarter. The exit wound on his right side was far back. But there was a ton of blood. I'm not Jack O'Connor, but the old .270 Federal Fusion 130 grain did a super job on a less than perfect shot.
What a hunt. I don't know how to field judge antelope. I'm not an expert on Boone & Crockett standards for goats. And honestly, right now, I don't care. He was one of the bigger ones I saw...and I'm absolutely thrilled that I had such a great opportunity on public lands.
Quartered him...got him in game bags...and suffered the sweet pain of a pack-out.
A species i'll be hunting every chance I get from now on. They are truly beautiful creatures, and so much fun to hunt.
My rifles got a bit of blood on it, now. A worthy public land baptism.
