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While she was looking at him through the scope I signaled for my son to stand up. He silently laughed and did as instructed. He started waving his arms and the buck promptly stood up and within seconds my wife touched off the rifle and sent the 95 LRX through him broadside. At the shot, a pile of hair was scattered in the wind on his far side and he immediately hit the ground.

Antelope are real susceptible to ground shrinkage but this one actually got better as we got closer. Our initial evaluation was correct, no super tall but HEAVY with great cutters. He carried his mass well and was a beautiful animal.





We met our friends on the road and quickly processed the goat. They had spotted a couple other bucks on the way into the ranch on neighboring land and had got permission to go after them. This group was feeding in some rolling country with the herd spread out a couple hundred yards. We were confident we could get on them but it would be luck of the draw weather the bigger of the two bucks would be visible before the others saw us.

We parked and my daughter and our eight month pregnant friend Dawn were up to shoot. We got fairly close and I peaked my head over the rise and saw an antelope doe working into a small saddle. Rather then risk blowing the whole herd, my daughter and I left the others and belly crawled as far as we could. We made it to where we could see antelope and had enough contour to shoot. The smaller of the two bucks had worked to the front of the herd and he was broadside at 130 yards. My daughter was hesitant to shoot as she wanted the bigger one. No pressure from me as I figured it was her tag and her deal. She ultimately decided to take him and with the rifle already on the bipod sat up and sent a 120 ballistic tip right behind his shoulder from her little Ruger 7mm-08. He hit the ground and never twitched.

The other goats ran around confused and the bigger buck trotted out from a small fold in the terrain. We signaled for the others to come up and the buck milled just long enough for Dawn to get in position to shoot. As you can imagine, at 8 months pregnant prone wasn’t a great option so she stayed sitting and leaned against me for support. At 225 yards and slightly quartering face on the buck too the 95 LRX through the chest and it exited the flank. He dropped immediately and the does took off.

Seconds later he was up again and made it a few steps before he was out of site. He looked hurt so I didn’t expect him to run far. The does appeared a few hundred yards further out in the field and he was not with them. We walked to where he was first hit and found him piled about about 15 yards away. The last shot of adrenaline gave him a few steps but that was it.

A second double for the day and it was a real family affair with four adults and five kids getting to take part in the action.






Bacon wrapped backstraps, nachos, and leftover pizza made for a pretty good feast that night.

The next morning the wind was howling and our enthusiasm was pretty low. My crew was all tagged out and my rancher buddy Tate is extremely picky and never super motivated to fill his tag. Dawn knew that her hunting days were numbered this year so planned on filling her doe tag if something accessible showed up. We found a couple bucks early on but nothing that really turned his crank. There were plenty of does but nothing within easy waddling…I mean walking…distance of a pregnant lady.

We had just about decided to call it a day so that we could get packed up for the drive home. On the way out of the ranch we drove back to the spot my son and I had doubled the previous morning and found a small herd tucked into a small fold in the ground a few hundred yards from the same bin site. There was a buck in the group but from what I could see looked pretty small other than having some nice cutters. I didn’t think he would break 13” and didn’t have much mass.

Both took off after the group and my wife and I watched from behind a barn. The plan when they left was for Dawn to simply peak over the stubble and shoot the first doe that gave a good shot. When we watched them approach, we saw Tate line up and I figured there must have been a better buck then what we thought. A fair amount of shooting ensued and when the smoke cleared Tate had his buck and Dawn had her doe. Turns out he had seen the buck laying right beside another antelope and the way their heads were situated made the buck look way taller than he actually was. Definite ground shrinkage on that one and he will likely have to endure several years of ribbing over his field judging skills.



At that we were tagged out and we headed home with another season of memories and coolers full of meat. Can’t wait to do it again next year assuming the MT FWP lottery gods are accommodating.



Thanks for coming along...