Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 222 Remington 55gr GMX antelope report

Last Sunday my son and I made it out to the ranch to plant some trees, and an antelope hunt broke out. This would be my 5th day of hunting antelope this season.

Went into the season with high expectations, but could not find even a decent buck to go after. We have antelope that are on our property most of the time, but we also share with the neighbors and even Wyoming. Our west fence is the Wyoming / South Dakota state line. I have not shot a buck out there since 07, a few does though. Family loves antelope meat. We only allow one buck per year and I had been deferring to my sons. But this year was my turn.

After spotting a group of 40 antelope spread out on the neighbor's alfalfa field and across the fence onto our property we planned a stalk. With the wind blowing out of WSW we did a huge loop to get the wind somewhat in our favor.

As we tried to sneak over to edge and look down on the field and our property, we could not get to edge to peak over. The antelope in the alfalfa field would have easily busted us. A quick plan B and another loop positioned us at the top of a cut. Sliding down the side of the cut, we could see the antelope bedded on our property. Fortunately there were some pretty good size rocks we could use to get into a great glassing position to survey the situation.

As we were crawling over to the rocks, we bumped a mule deer doe with two fawns. Fortunately they walked out and over instead of going down the cut and bumping the antelope. They did draw the attention of one old antelope doe though. She kept her focus on the deer and never detected us.

After glassing the bunch of nine antelope that we could see, and were on our side of the fence. Son and discussed shooting the buck or one of the old does. It was decided to shoot one of the bucks. Ranged the distance twice, 198 yards, literally a rock solid rest. The buck was bedded broadside facing away. Waited for my heart to calm, and squeezed the trigger. CLICK! Forgot to chamber a round in the heat of the moment. On a positive note, I did not jerk the trigger.

Chambered a round, settled the crosshairs and squeezed the trigger again. At the shot, herd the thwack of the bullet and the buck tried to lurch up, but could not. Chambered another round and put the reticle back on him. Son said "you hit him good". After waiting for about 15 seconds and his head not going down, I squeezed another on off. Same sound of the bullet hitting home, then the buck's head went down. Chambered another round, settled the reticle again and waited. He was down for good.

Rifle is Remington 700 that was a 223, but I re-barreled to a 222 Remington with a 1:9 twist barrel from an unknown maker. Has a suppressor on it with a Nightforce SHV 2-10. The load is a 55gr GMX being pushed to 2995fps. I have shot some deer with this rifle using the 65gr Sierra. All of those have been shot up along with the BL-C2 used in that load.

After the shot, with the suppressor, the rest of the antelope just milled around, and did not take off until we got up to go back and get the Ranger to haul the buck back to the barn.

This is not the biggest antelope, but this report is more about the bullet. Here is the buck, rifle, and nut squeezing the trigger. If you look where the arrow is pointing on the skyline you can see the rocks where the shot was taken.


I only recovered one bullet, but it broke the offside humerous.




Here is the entrance holes exterior and inside the chest cavity.



Same for exits.



Here is the broken bone.