Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 2014 Wyoming - my first antelope hunt report

My hunting partner and I arrived in the Buffalo, Wy area after a 26 hour drive from the Toronto, Ontario area. Drove straight through the night. Quite the drive but worth it at the end when we arrived to western landscape.



We spent some time glassing antelope from, literally the back porch on the cookhouse on outfitter's ranch we are staying at. Was great to try out the new Swaro spotter and some other goodies on real game.

Nice that we got out here early as we got to see the landscape before the winter blew in today! Temps dropped overnight from 65 degrees to 12! Winds howled at 40 mph overnight



Made for a more difficult than usual hunt as the day before we had seen antelope EVERYWHERE. Today they were all holed up. We drove with our guide up and down the ranches they have leased. Alas for the most part we only saw antelope but on neighbouring ranches.

After lunch our guide spotted some antelope out far in a distance by a creek bed. Spotting scope came in handy here. Hard to understand when you hunt in Ontario but I consider the spotting scope essential doing this type of hunt.

We put a stalk on them. There was a dried up canal that we used for cover; worked perfectly as it kept us out of view.

We first had a shot at around 350 yards and I'm confident to about there but with a 30mph wind we decided less distance was prudent so we kept on our approach and found a shooting spot 220 yards away from them.

Spotted three bucks but the largest just bedded down so we were going to let my buddy take his doe as he is out for a doe hunt only. At the last minute, the buck that was interesting stood up. Waited a bit for a doe behind him to get out of the way.

I calculated a rough 3 MOA hold ; about 6 inches. Elevation was set at 200m on my ballistic turret which = about 220 yards.

Took one shot. He fell to the ground immediately and kicked around for a bit but then got up and ran about 70 yards before he collapsed.

I thought he was completely broad side but turned out he was standing at a bit of an angle. The bullet caught him on his left front shoulder about 1/3 of the way up to the top of the spine and exited at about the end of the lung on the right side.

We found the bullet had destroyed about 1/2 of the heart and the lungs were jello. Really surprised me that a shot through the heart and lungs would still allow him to run 70 yards!



I was shooting a Cooper 52 Jackson Game 280AI with handloaded 140gr Nosler Accubonds behind 61gr of IMR7828SSC with a muzzle velocity just over 3100 fps. Scope is a Swaro Z5 3.5-18x with Ballistic Turret and 4W reticle with holdover marks for wind.



This is only my second big game animal. The shot wasn't exactly where I wanted it to be but I think the angle helped me ensure the vitals were all taken out. Given it was a one shot kill and a very windy day I figure things went relatively well.

Tomorrow we start the doe hunt. My buddy has two doe tags and I have three. We have two more days to go of the hunt and the weather is getting less windy so we hope the goats will be out and about more.

Thanks for all the encouragement over the years folks.

nice buck, trpr.

A fine job! Congrats!!!

You guys will have a hoot filling all those doe tags!

Congrats on your first pronghorn! They are a wonderful game animal that I was lucky enough to grow up around. I never take them for granted. Their tan and white coloration is great mixed snow and grass landscape camouflage. The black horns and check patches often give the bucks away. Good shooting and wise discretion to stalk as close as possible in the wind. The buck should make a very good looking mount that will take you back to the wind swept prairie every time you see it.

Nice!

What a weather shocker too.

Mike

Awesome news. Congrats on your first pronghorn!! I expect it may be the first of many. They're addicting!

Eric

Congrats! They are one of my favorite critters to hunt and eat. Well done.

Nice tundra goat Canoe!

Nice write up and nice pronghorn. They are one of my favourite animals to eat.

Congratulations. Antelope are my all time favorite big game. The wide open spaces are made for riflemen.

You made the right decision to have your kill mounted in Wyoming. The taxidermists there do more antelope in 1/2 a season than your local guys do in a lifetime. I found that out the hard way on my first mount.

canoetrpr,

OK, you're hooked! Antelope do that to you as probably all the posters here will attest to.

Good luck on the rest of your hunt and hope you can make it to the Winchester restaurant in Buffalo. You'll enjoy it, especially if you ask for and get one of Joni's tables.

Please keep the updates coming.

Steve

Ain't the weather here Grand this time of the year........

Congratulations

Congrats! Nice pronghorn, nice rifle, and a great story with great photos.

canoetrpr - congrats!
Seems you've caught quite the hunting bug.

Wow man great first buck congrats good story!

Good going on your first antelope! Glad you got it done and thanks for the great post. Bundle up!!

Congrats canoetrpr! We ordered the weather so you would feel at home this time of year

Actually this isn't bad...last year we had a bad storm on Oct 5 and we didn't get the worst of it.

Day #2 was less eventful. We saw a few herds just not on the property our outfitter has leased. Tomorrow we are going to a new property our outfitter arranged. They only do archery hunting on that early in the season so the theory is that it will not have had any pressure in the rifle season. Hoping we fill our doe tags.

Late season antelope can be a challenge as we've learned. With a 60+ F degree change in temp suddenly, they all have seemed to have bundled down.

Best of luck to you!