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!

Super cool! Great write up and really nice goat.

When it gets really cold like this, they will bed down and are damn hard to spot. Once you find them though, they are a little easier to stalk because they don't have their sentries out looking for threats. Good luck on your does!

Canoetrpr: Congratulations on the fine Buck Antelope - good for you.
I have Hunted out of the Buffalo, Wyoming area for Antelope I think about 7 or 8 times over the years.
It is grand country - sorry the weather turned punky just when you started to Hunt!
That heart/lung shot you made often will allow the creature to run off a bit - it usually takes about 5 to 6 seconds for them to "black-out" from the destruction of the heart/lungs.
This is a humane death and does a very important thing to improve the quality of the meat.
It drains much of the blood from the creature onto the ground or into the chest cavity.
I always shoot my game through the heart/lungs and try to avoid the "shoulders".
This policy greatly improves the quality and some quantity of meat.
I began Hunting Antelope in 1969 and have Hunted them virtually every year since then.
Sometimes Hunting both Montana and Wyoming in the same year.
Best of luck on the rest of your Hunt and drive careful on the way home.
If you get a few minutes be sure and stop in to the "rope store" in Sheridan, Wyoming (ask anyone where its at).
Its VERY interesting and entertaining.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy
P.S.: Great pictures by the way - it was great to see my beloved Bighorn Mountains in the background of one of your photos.

Day 3 and, surprisingly 4 (outfitter tacked on an extra hunt day!) were more productive. My partner and I each took two does.

Disappointingly, my doe kills were not as clean as my buck. On the second doe, at 220 yards, my first shot was too far ahead and spined her in the neck. She dropped immediately and was completely paralyzed but still breathing when we got to her.

I was a bit shaken up with my hair placement being too far ahead on both previous antelopes and on day 4 had a 325 yard shot on a doe and purposely held a bit further back than I would otherwise. Dropped her immediately. Few seconds later saw she lifted her head and finished off with a second shot.

Upon inspection the first shot was just slightly behind where it should have been and into the liver. The second was direct heart / lung.

I feel quite bad about these having heard about the 10s of one shot kills folks have had on here and elsewhere. and this is a good lesson that things in the field are not quite as they are on the range. A lesson for me to always treat each shot as brand new. Had I done that, the second doe would have been a clean kill.

It could have been much much worse. The first shot dropped each doe in its tracks and I never had to track an animal. Each was dispatched very quickly after the first shot.

I spent a lot of time at the range from prone and learned I need to spend a lot more time over the next year from a number of field positions.

I suspect that using perhaps too much caliber for this particular animal likely helped me keeping them down even though first shots were not quite right and I'm rethinking what the best caliber would be for moose and elk in the future. Yes my 280AI is adequate for elk and moose but if I can shoot a bigger caliber well I'm tempted to go with it for a bit more margin of error. Not sure how accurate my thinking is on this. Certainly would not rely on a larger caliber on its own and I understand the importance of shot placement and that is primary. Just thinking aloud.

Overall a successful trip and large learning experience. I'll do a writeup on some of my gear and what worked and what didn't.

Excellent hunter who tells it like it is, and not how he( or we) would have liked it to be.

Thanks for the update and the share in your hunt.

Steve

I'd just keep on shooting that 280AI, maybe step up in bullet weight, and you'll be just fine on anything in NAmerica.

Congrats on a fun hunt!

Nice job, congrats. You'll be eating good this winter. I think you are fine with the 280, shot placement is everything.

Big Horn does a great job butchering deer and antelope, they even have a trade program to trade your antelope for summer sausage.

Trophys Unlimited there at Big Horn did my antelope from last year. Took about a year but it turned out awesome.

Know what you mean about hunting antelope in the snow around Buffalo. Here's mine from last year!



And a trip to Buffalo is not complete without a stop in the Occidental...

First I respect your concern for a humane kill.

I wouldn't worry about more power than what you've got; you were on the right track when you said you'd practice more from a wider variety of field positions. That's the key; a poorly placed shot from a 300 Mag (for example) won't do any better for you than one from your 280 AI. A well placed shot from your 280 AI is certain to do better than a poorly placed one from the 300 Mag.

Also don't believe the DRT hype. Everyone should strive for humane kills but expect anomalies along the way.

Practice hard and know your limits; maintain respect for your query and you're doing your part.

Nice write up keep up the good work!

Bad shot placement happens to everyone. If they say it don't either they haven't killed many animals or their lying. Bad shot placement is perfect motivation to practice more. Your .280 is plenty of rifle heck it may even over penetrate...

Congrats on some fine antelope...

Did you get a chance to go to the Winchester restaurant when you were in Buffalo WY?

And if so, how did you like it.

Steve

Details please.