After 13 years of applying for an Antelope tag in Oregon ... I finally draw. The 2007 season is 9 days in mid-August and I immediately start watching antelope judging-videos and talking to people who have recently hunted speed-goats in nearby units. I have never hunted (or even been in) this particular unit before .. but my cousin Chris said it was good for a decent Lope and it�s almost 90 percent public (BLM) lands.
Scouting was said to be the key, so I contacted a friend who has recently retired from hi-tech and now lives on a ranch outside of Burns. He offers to take me on a scouting trip and show me some of the country. The Thursday before the Saturday season-opener, we cruise 30 miles of the sage-brush flats in his King Ranch Diesel pick-em-up truck and before the days out, we manage to: ... spot 23 Lopes (one possible shooter, who we nickname �Tall-boy� ... that I actually get on video-tape, in his dry lake-bed home), put more scratches on his rig in one day than it probably acquired over the last year ... and nearly get stuck (and lost). Luckily he had a Garmin 60CSX (with downloaded detail terrain maps) and once we figured out where we actually were ... we wisely elected to back-out and turnaround before we really got down into a rabbit-hole.
The next day (Friday) ... a buddy (Bob) drives down from La Grande and the two of us head off toward the Hart Mtn Antelope refuge (closed to my hunt) ... just to see what that side of the unit looks like and see if there are any monster bucks that may have jumped the boundary fence and are lounging about by a pool .... out in the open, on the BLM lands.
We cover almost 55 miles, at what seems like 2 miles an hour ... seeing no cattle, no water and only two Lopes (both were bucks, bedded in tall sage on the refuge). In 8 hours, we see only two other rigs and it�s getting so late that I vote we set-up a temporary camp and just �pass� on opening morning. I was mentally prepared to hunt the entire season and this was going to be a light-camping adventure anyway ... with frequent moves, if we were not seeing any Goats. So, up go the summer dome tents, dinner is made (cold samiches and cookies) ... and Bob breaks out a 48� telescope to view the stars. The twilight lasts forever in the desert, but when it gets dark, there is no stray light (probably not another human within a 30 mile radius) and the stargazing is great.
I think this is the place they trained astronauts to simulate walking on a moon scape ... (no wait .. that�s in Idaho) ... this is where they must drop off Air Force pilots in training, to see if they can survive for a week on �Nuttin�. It�s so flat out here, that you can measure the curvature of the earth by observing the sage-brush horizon.
I figured that there was little use in getting-up early, because this place wasn�t even on the BLM map .. let alone being on any Antelopes �map�. So I slept in until the sun was up ... we made coffee, sat in lawn chairs and had Costco croissants - then leisurely packed-up the camping gear and began �hunting� (for a new place to hunt) about 9am.
Little-voice-in-my-head ... (If you know a place where you saw that many antelope (23) when scouting ... you should be hunting �There� ...)
So I stuff 3 cartridges into the magazine and we head off down the road ... not so much to try and drive-up on a Lope, but just to get back toward something that resembles desolation. Bob is leading ( so I don�t speed away from him) and after an hour (covering 4 miles) we finally come over a rise and spot a Speed Goat on the right side of the road. He�s visible, because he�s throwing up a wake of dust as he barrels across the sage brush at Warp-5 ....never stopping until he is about 1000 yards out. Then he pauses and turns sideways, tongue hanging out ... and gives us the razz-berries. The heat shimmer at 10am is already so bad, that I can�t judge his horns ... I just knew they had good mass, wide prongs, were very black and reasonably tall, and were also doing Warp-5 (as viewed at about 300 yards).
The next two hours heading roughly back toward the area previously scouted on Thursday, brought us into more individual and small bands of Antelope (no shooters) ... and also into parties of hunters. Many seemed to be simply running the roads at 20 miles an hour, throwing up dust clouds and hoping to hit a Lope, with their front bumper - - (DOH ! ) .
About 11:30, we came on 3 sets of stopped (empty) rigs, strung out along the road ahead for a mile. We slowly pass by them all of them. I stopped to talk with a kid, who is returning to the last vehicle. He excitedly recounts the tale of a missed Goat and I thank him and drive on. I�m trying not to laugh too hard at the circle-jerk that had apparently just transpired with 3 different hunters (from 3 different parties) taking 6+ shots ... at one poor buck ... with a net result of wounding him twice (but not recovering him).
Silver Bullet (to be continued)
Alex, I'd like Halle Berry sleep-overs for 400 please.
A half-mile later, I was barely able to recognize that the road coming in from the right was the same road that led down to the dry lake-bed, where we filmed that nice Tall-Lope back on Thursday. I turned on my headlights as a signal to Bob (up ahead) to stop and let me catch-up. I told him it appeared that no new tire tracks had been made on that road in the last 48 hours ... and I wanted to go down it and see if the photogenic Tall-guy was still hanging around.
little voice-in-my-head ... (Bucks will defend a small territory and even bed in it ..)
So I turned around and quickly traveled the first bumpy-azz mile toward the lake-bed, sawing the steering-wheel left and right to avoid the tire-eating rocks and sage stumps, like a NASCAR rookie trying to avoid a 16-car pile up. The pool table flat sage-horizon gave no clue as to the upcoming lake-bed and I was totally surprised when I reached the rim and could suddenly see 600 yards across, to the far edges of the dry bed up ahead. I figured this was a good place to stop and glass �everywhere�, since a Lope will only be showing horns, if he�s bedded nearby in sagebrush this tall.
I pulled the 10x40 Zeiss Classics off the dash and what�s the first thing I see when I point them out into the middle of the lake-bed .. YUP ! .. it�s the same Tall-buck .. standing up right out in the open on a gravel bar that�s about 6 feet higher than the lake bed floor and facing directly at me like someone with a perverse sense of humor had planted an Antelope statue out there ... his horns were black, tall and curved in at the top in a nice heart shape. It was so atypical to see one completely in the open, that I initially thought he might be a fish/wildlife decoy-Lope ... until he flicked an ear and moved his rear-end slightly, to line up his body to face directly at me.
How far away is he ... certainly over 200 yards .... maybe over 250 yards ... but not out of Weatherby-range. I reach across to the passenger seat for the Leica 1200 range finders I borrowed from �Spike� for this hunt, but they�re not there !! I frantically dig around in the jumble of gear in back of the truck behind me ... feeling for the rough black corduroy case I know they are stored in ... all the while, watching the Lope for signs that he might be planning on taking a morning exercise-run. Finally ... fingers find the rangefinder pouch ... rip them out of their case ... place the red-box on the Lopes chest ... bright red numbers pop up ... reading 317 yards. This is very shootable ... should I just pull my ATT (reach-out and touch someone) rifle across from the passenger side, chamber a round and �Whack-him� (a technical-term) right here ... out the window .. shooting left-handed (as a righty) and using the side-view mirror for a rest ?
Naaaaaaaw ... It�s technically illegal to shoot from a road ... and it wouldn�t be very sporting ... and he�s still just standing-there looking at me ... so I slip the trucks automatic into drive (shifting down to the lowest gear) and very slowly creep along the road that I know will take me down to just touch the edge of the lake bed ... at which point he�ll only be about 180 yards from me ... straight out the drivers window. Halfway there, �The-Plan� is going well and when I reach the edge of the lake bed, the Lope is still just standing there ?? He has slowly continued to turn his body as I drove, so he�s still facing directly at me. This is Too-Easy !!
We�re about to see if a 168gr Barnes TSX can do a Speed Goat end-to-end and still play the Energizer bunny ...
I pick a spot where I can coast the rig off the left side of the road (as it�s illegal to shoot from or �across� a road in Oregon) and stop .... he�s still standing there playing Antelope statue. I reach for my rifle with my right hand ... and quietly crack the door open with my left. Well I�m here to tell you ... that door only managed to get about 1 millimeter open, before the Lope had seen enough. He turned to his left ... walked down off the gravel bar ... took three walking steps ... went into the Speed-goat forward/backward rocking horse gait ... then turned on the first set of thrusters ... covered another 90 yards in 3.2 seconds .. then turned on both the Warp-Drives.
I swung the door open, pulled my rifle across the console ... chambered the top round from the magazine ... and proceeded to use the natural �V� of the door and the door jam, to rest my left hand and cradled the .300 Weatherby�s fore-end in my palm. This was all a little strange to me ... because in 45 years of hunting, I have never before used a vehicle as a �rest�, to shoot at a big-game animal ... But, a solid rest is a Good-Rest !!
My first view of the Lope through LP 4.5-14x scope, had him headed South across the flat lake bed at Warp-7 ... moving sharply from my left to my right, while throwing up a dust cloud. I had no idea how much to lead him and guessed that he was now about 300 yards out. Do I really want to shoot at him when he�s going this fast ??
little-voice-in-my-head ... (Remember when Spike stopped a running coyote with a loudly-voiced imitation of a dog bark ??) Yeah, that�s it ... I�ll just Antelope �Bark� ... No wait ... I�ll just Whistle .
So I let out the loudest whistle I could and waited for the Lope to throw out an anchor and wane-up. ........ Not-gonna happen ...
What he did instead, was take a new bearing and turned directly away from me ... now presenting me with yet a different opportunity to test a TSX�s ability to penetrate a Lope end-to-end.
I can do this ... I steady the Mil-dot crosshairs on the center of the smoking white patch and take-up 2 pounds of trigger-pull on the 3 pound trigger ... He�s on the flats and heading so straight away, that I don�t have to change my sight picture at all. Just as I�m about to launch the missile ... the Lope turns ever so slightly to the left .. barely quartering away (otherwise he would have had to travel straight up the bank of the lake bed). I readjust the crosshairs to the flank, just left of the flared white hairs on left ham and give the trigger 4 more quarter-pounders of squeeze ....
POW !!
Silver Bullet (to be continued)
168gr TSX ... just an "Einstein" below the speed-of-light !! 168TSX < C-E
The trigger-break felt good .. the recoil was straight back and solid into my shoulder ...
Down the barrel, through the BOSS, across the lake bed ... nutthin-but-Lope.
In the scope, even though he was running at full-tilt �boogie� speed ... it appears that he just crumples and falls to the ground in a tangled heap and a cloud of dust. Not like shooting at a deer that�s running down a steep hillside, where he piles-up and then slides downhill from his momentum ... more like a tethered animal that�s running hard and reaches the end of its rope and gets pulled off its feet and WWF body-slammed to the ground.
Little voice in my head ... (the last-guy who shot one ... had it get up and run off !!)
I instinctively chambered another round ... and put the cross hairs on the prone bucks chest. He laid on his left side and kicked twice ... then rolled over on his back and kicked twice more on the other side ... before heading off to that big place in the sky ... (where the Buffalo roam, and the Deer and the Antelope �play�).
Glance at the watch .... not bad ... 11:58 opening morning ... been hunting all of 3 hours. I look behind my rig and see the top of Bob�s truck now coming along through the sagebrush. Unchamber the loaded round ... pop the magazine open and remove the third round ... then open the hatch to store my rifle back in its case. When Bob can finally see me, I have to wave him up, because he saw me with my rifle out and thinks I was about to shoot. I tell him the hunts over and point out the reclining Lope. Bob drives down to and around the edge of the lake bed ... and we are able to get within 40 yards of the prize.
If I can attach a photo, I shall ... otherwise I may have to forward a jpeg to someone, to post in this thread.
Because of the steep raking angle ... the bullet went in along the left side, smashed the last three ribs ... entered into the chest cavity (missing the guts) .. smashed 3 more ribs going forward (because the chest curves back in) ... cut a nice crease across the top of the heart (but missed all the critical plumbing there) ... �smooshed� a lung ... then exited via a 3/4 inch hole in the front of the chest ahead of the right foreleg .... (below the nose in photo) ... and is probably still going.
It was 92 degrees out and we didn�t take the time for �clean� harvest photos .. nor was I able to save a cape. We focused on saving the meat. As I cut off and skinned each quarter, Bob put it in a game bag and carried it (packed it out) all of 40 yards, to the huge cooler (w/ice) sitting on the back of the truck. The meat was not gamy tasting at all ... but backstraps that were marinated (for 3 days) were much more tender than those eaten �fresh�.
I was very-happy with the final result of this quest for a Speed-Goat (after 13 years of applying here in Oregon) ... just didn�t think it would be this fast ... and relatively �Easy�. That�s my story ... an I�m sticking to it.
Nice Nice how sbout inviting me over for a feed !! haven't had lope since I left Canada many years ago. Love the taste of roast speed goat. Enjoy: thanks for the story and pic. Cheers NC
don't judge until you have walked a mile in other persons' moccasins' SUM QUOD SUM........HOMINEM TE ESSE MEMENTO
After storing my rifle, I re-lasered the distance to Mr. Lopes final resting spot ... and it was 324 yards.
For those who would like to estimate horn dimensions ... my LP 4.5-14x-40 A/O on my AT&T Weatherby is 13 1/4" long, plus it has a 2" sunshade added on .. so you're looking at 15 1/4" overall for the scopes length.
Here's a shot of the temporary camp we set-up on Friday night ... taken at 8:30 am opening morning. It truly was in the middle of NO-WHERE !! ... and if you look closely, you "can" see the curvature of the earth. The two tucks are actually shinny black ... until you drive for 20 minutes in the desert dust bowl. - - - -
So NC ... How far "West" of PDX are you ...?? Antelope Summer-sausage should be available soon.
... Silver Bullet
No-one wants to Sand ... Everyone wants to "Paint"
I finished last year's backstrap this past weekend. Grilled med/med rare wrapped in bacon. Salt, pepper & garlic powder rubbed on. Fork tender..........
Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else. -Ambassador Delenn, Babylon 5
"The Church can and should help modern society by tirelessly insisting that the work of women in the home be recognized and respected by all in its irreplaceable value." Apostolic Exhortation On The Family, Pope John Paul II
Naaaahhhh Spike-man ... I don't suck (you have me confused with someone-else). I just forgot how funny it was, for Bob to show up 2 minutes after I'd shot ... not even having heard the shot ... and seeing me with my rifle out behind the rig ... thinking I was about to Whack something, (right in front of him).
And I also don't get the middle part of the Pow-Whop-Flop thing either. Maybe its because my AT&T Weatherby has the BOSS added to the end and my ears are still recovering from the muzzle-blast after I shoot .... but I just don't seem to hear the "Boolit" smack the animal the way you and others seem to. (Except for that gnarly 6X6 Toad of a bull you whacked two Elkie-seasons ago ... that one I heard, cause I was 400 yards away from you, when you shot.
Guess I better go reload my cartridge-case ... (I think this one case alone has 2 deer, 1 bear, a cougar, a spikey elk and this Lope). Hmmm .... maybe I should just retire it ??
