I wish i had some exciting story (which i do for the ones that she chose not to shoot) but in this case, it turned out to be a gift of sorts.
Range was 65ish yards. The terrain was hilly and as we drove around a hill, there they were maybe at a100yards. The does were nervous when they saw us so the buck had to divide his attention with keeping them corralled and the other bucks at bay; lots of running and dodging. By the time she decided she would try for this one, got out of the truck, grabbed the shooting sticks, put a cap on, and started walking, the does trotted over the hill out of sight. I thought we would drive around the other side so i called her back and then a doe came running back to our side of the hill with the buck right behind her. Seeing us she stopped and so did he...BOOOM!
She is a lefty and her 54 kind of kicks with the load it likes (curved steel and set up for elk). I wanted her shooting a lot this summer so I borrowed the inline .50 from my brother. Load was 80g Pyrodex RS Select and 245g PowerBelt. The PowerBelt hit a rib and split into numerous pieces; nothing exited. Im a TC/Lyman Maxi user so this performance kind of surprised me. Antelope aren't thick and i was hoping for a pass through. Live and learn.
I rough scored it and it came out to 70. I say that as a gauge because this was a fairly typical buck in CO unit 201 should anyone decide they want to hunt there. It's a very, very fun hunt with a muzzleloader. In two days she had a dozen bucks within 120 yards; one i thought was a little nicer. Best part is only 5 lrs are issued each year and that covers 3 units (1, 2, 201).
Pic gives some idea of the terrain.
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/galleries/16467570/201
