Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Oregon pronghorn: Cut, wrapped, and frozen. A few pics...

Congrats on a nice buck!

HAd the .257 Roberts out yesterday, getting it ready for Daughter #3's first antelope hunt (and first big game hunt, period). Just got the Leupold Vari-X III back from Leupold where they installed their Varmint Hunter reticle and added a MOA CDS elevation dial. After getting on paper with 75g V-MAX, I shot two 100g TTSX touching, then adjusted for zero. Factoring in the expected movement ofr the adjustments (-4, L3 clicks), I think all three holes would have been touching.

Took it out to the long range where I ran the ballistic calculator to obtain the drop for 300 and 600 yards. After cranking the dial for each in turn it was right on at 300 and good enough to ring the steel at 600.


Checked out my .243 as well, which is what I'll probably be using. Only 7 weeks to wait...

Man, what a great write up.

Coyote:
Yes. Half the fun is tuning up the gear. For me this past season it was just a trial shoot of everything with no adjustments needed. Hell must have frozen over.

Saw no mention of daughter #3 with you at the range. It would be a good confidence builder for her if she was along and shooting at those distances.

Years back on her very first hunt, Cookie passed on what she still insists was the largest muley buck she's ever seen, and she has seen some big ones. She was packing her 6mm Rem. Range was about 225 yds. Didn't know she could shoot that far as we'd never really discussed range. Last day of the season, she decked one with a single round out around 425. That involved building a bench from available rocks and a lot of discussion, however.

Good luck out there and do post the results.

Well executed and documented my friend! Wish I could have been there with you!

Congrats and thanks for sharing it.

Nice story and pics, 1.

Thanks.

Congrats on finally drawing that tag

Good write and pics

Troops: Thanks for the comments. Wanted to do more than "this is what I shot," but not stretch out into one of those dissertations of "as the day's first xanthic rays pierced the morning sky" deals. Have a good one,

Very nice write up and pictures. As is often the case a little patience and persistence will do better than all the rushing and herding can do.

Congratulations on a great antelope!!

Thanks for the post, good stuff!

Excellent!!

Great hunt description and write-up. And congratulations on a hunt well done and some really cool pics.

For the record please tell us about the rifle and load you used. Also love to see some pics of your camp if you have them.

JohnW:
A 257 Weatherby Mark V with 117 Sierra Game Kings ahead of 72 gr of Reloader - 22. Fed 215 primers and a 6.5-24X Bushnell Elite with AO. Had to do some bedding on the rifle after a couple years as the wood stock warped a bit drying out in our arid climate and was stressing the receiver. Still needs some trigger work, but the last 100yd target could be covered with a nickel. Will have to scrounge a bit for a camp photo. Camp was just a white crew cab Ford with cab high shell, a couple lawn chairs, and a four man (if you really like one another) Cabelas tent, hidden in a depression. I'm sure I have an image somewhere in Cookie's files. Will get to work on that.

Edited:
Found one. Did not take a photo of camp during the hunt. Here's an image from a scouting trip. Identical arrangement, but Cookie was not there during the season. Notice the wealth of shade trees. Walk to the rock in the lower left center and one is high enough to look over the lake bed. Any lower, and one is totally obscured. Those rocks and the larger of the two junipers are visible in the zoomed in version of the aerial image.

With the exception of pronghorn season, a very quiet place, and Cookie wants to head back in about 10 days for another 4 or 5 day photo shoot.


Another shot of about 30% of the lake bed. Not too sharp as heat waves were an issue. Never been there, but this reminds me of images from Africa. The issue, if one singles out 2 or 3 potential targets, is figuring out a way to get within range.




Have a good one,

Thanks for sharing, really enjoyed the writeup and pics. Congrats on a successful solo hunt.

An error above on my part. Actually a 100 grain Sierra Game King.

Nice buck and great pics. Need to burn my Oregon goat points soon

Excellente! Muy Excellente.

Nice territory there and a great depiction in words and pictures of your adventure.

"xanthic rays" ? Please no, Please Please Please no.

Geno

PS, my wife is moving from Potland to Alturas CA. I'll be traveling 395 a few times a year now, perhaps sometime I'll send you a PM and see if you're available for a coffee on my way thru? I appreciated your local input during the events of last winter.

Valsdad:
Don't do coffee, but I'm a social animal really fond of doughnuts, pie, and ice cream.

Probably going to head down with Cookie next weekend for a 4 or 5 day photo session on the pronghorn. She'll likely have pics of the big ones that got away from me. Travel safely and be conservative when descending into the Burns/Hines basin. Lots of deer come to the highway drainages to get a drink AM and PM.