Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game First antelope hunt imminent.... advice?

Nobody gives a f*** about a pi$$ing contest between you and myself.
Do all of the cutting & pasting, removing quotes from context, or editing attempts, that you like.
Anyone bored enough to care can read the context for themselves with just a mouse click.

Fair enough.....I apologize, Jeff. Good luck on your hunt.

Too bad Shrapnel doesn't post anymore,he would be telling you all the attributes of not skinning them right away.

My only advice is shoot them in the front half.

While I think it is less desirable with elk.......quickly skinning/boning pronghorn has worked fine in our limited experience.

Model 7 youth is chambered 260 Remington

On judging pronghorn. Think I put this up last year, but we're aware that Photobucket tossed us. Cookie would shoot me if I divulged this location, but it's beneficial if one can find a spot with a good number of animals for direct comparison purposes. An isolated buck gives us nothing to relate to. This is approximately half of the animals that were in this basin when the Oregon moose and goose boys flew over in a small plane doing their 2016 preseason census. Cookie just happened to be stationed in her popup at one end. She was a bit irate until she found out it was an official business flight. Probably 250+ animals in the frame and a ton of bucks. This is far from a publication quality image (about an 80% reduction from the original), as our systems don't pass full frame images around due to file size. Still, one may be able to expand it somewhat and then go across and see that there are 3 or 4 eye poppers in the bunch. Also an example that one often has to look at serious numbers before a big one surfaces. Note also, that the real shiners also have bodies about 20% larger than their companions.

Cookie thought she was in for a classic stampede situation, but the group banked to her right and climbed out of the basin. They were back within an hour, but she had already packed up to leave.

On my Microsoft system, if I hold the Ctrl key down and tap the + key, one zooms into the page. Hold the Ctrl key and tap the - key, and one will back out. No real gains in resolution, but the image size can be expanded or reduced. Needless to say, this is exactly where I went to exercise my tag about 3 weeks later. The frustration was one always had the feeling as each one passed that he could do a little bit better. Took me 7 days to squeeze the trigger.



Sure wish I had a tag again this year. Cookie should be due though in another 2 or 3 seasons, and we will be there.

4 or 5 years ago, we were taking the back roads between Boise and Twin Falls when we passed a field with a very large herd. It was in December or January and they were taking care of a farmer's excess alfalfa. There was no cover at all to sneak back. I kept going until we were out of sight, then I got in back with the van door slid back and a camera in hand. I had my wife drive back. As we came over the hill to the field, some idiot stopped his car, got out and walked over to the fence to look. When we got there, this was all that was left of 3 to 400 plus at least 50 deer. 30 seconds later, the field was empty.

Maybe they will be spooked and skittish.

This is during Wyoming 2nd season a few years ago.

jeff -

Last year I took my doe (we don't hunt the bucks) with a .243 a 3-9x Burris and a (gasp) .95g SST. Just use whatever rig you are comfortable with. With most of my rifles I just use my elk loads for antelope. The exception is the .257 Roberts where I use 100g TTSX or 110g AB. 3-9x has never been problem and all shots have been under 300.

One thing about buck antelope - they can be curious and sometimes dangerous. Some years back we had a big buck make a fuss about 50 yards away, stomping and snorting. Apparently we were infringing on his space. Last year I had a buck charge me from about 50 yards away. I was so focused on a doe (in a different direction), he nearly got me. I hear Daughter #1 calling my name, which irritated me and I ignored it. She was in the truck a few feet behind me and finally honked the horn. When I looked back over my left shoulder the buck was about a truck length away, head down with the nose almost touching the ground and headed straight for me full speed. As I spun around it took a sharp right and went on the other side of the truck. Had Daughter not honked things would have gotten real interesting.

Good luck on your hunt.

Quit over thinking it. You have more than enough gun and more than enough glass. A spotter can be nice if you are very picky about the size of the buck you shoot. But, 13X will be more than sufficient for what you semi-state your goals are.

You will regret waiting 15yrs to hunt those things.

So, Jeff, exactly when is this hunt? And when can we expect to see pics.

BTW, I think you should buy a new 25/06 for this once-in-15-year hunt.

Since this is a special hunt, I'll advocate for a new rifle too. But something more memorable - say a .30-30 Winchester or a .300 Savage 99 with iron sights, or maybe a Hawken muzzleloader. Anybody can shoot an antelope with a 6.5 or whatever.

Now that was just mean. Well done!

Good pic 1minute. Or Cookie.

If one has a lap top Apple, just touch fingers to the photo and spread them to expand the picture.

I built this rifle from a completely bare action (not even a bolt)... it's plenty special.

Then don't dither. Just do it. Can't not have fun. Just can't.

I was planning to wait until the season opener.....

You can't pull the last trigger until then but there is a lot you can do before that. Get out there. Put some gongs out at various ranges and shoot them. Scout the region. Make the most of it. Hire Cookie and her hubby to scout and photo it for you. Just do something.

Oh for [bleep]'s sake.

Jeff, whatever you do, don't listen to this idiot. The "danger" from an antelope is right there with the danger of getting your wiener stuck in a ceiling fan.

Cookie had nothing to do with these. Got them with a Point N Shoot unit several years back. Which one would you shoot?





Tough comparisons when they are solitary. Both do look a little rough, as it was mid-June. They don't really clean up here until late June. Taken about 600 yds outside of Jeff 0's unit.