Author Topic: Wyoming antelope hunt  (Read 633 times)

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Offline gomerdog

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Wyoming antelope hunt
« on: September 20, 2009, 10:59:46 AM »
I posted this on the BTB sight, but I thought I would do the same here as the offending weapon is a Handi.

oaded up the Tacoma with camping gear and set up a dry camp Friday evening after dismissing my 6th grade students for the weekend. Camped about 200 yards from the Lander Cutoff of the Oregon Trail. The weather was nearly perfect, if not a little hot. Short hunt Friday evening, not very serious, but got in a good hike. Breezy, but at dusk the wind died down to nothing. Slept well until about 3:00am, when I had to get up to relieve myself. Outside, the sky was clear and there was not a breathe of air and no moon. So dark the Milky Way was spectacular. Wow!

At 6:00am, fixed myself a breakfast of oatmeal and a banana and hiked from camp about a mile to a ridge where I could glass several square miles, put a belly-crawl sneak on a herd of about 12 goats, but was busted before I could get into range of the Handi 30/30. About 9:00, walked back to camp, had a snack and then drove to an area known as Anderson Ridge, broken country, ideal for sneaking. Put a stalk on another bunch of about 20 goats, but again, because of my impatience, was busted before I could get into range. Their eyesight is unbelievable.

After a morning of several miles of sneak attacks, much of it on hands and knees and belly crawling, I hiked the mile and a half back to the truck. Had just crossed a fence and was about 200 yards from the truck when this buck and two does ran by me and stopped about 100 yards away. Quickly sat down, and after a few seconds the antelope stopped, the does broadside and the buck facing me. Put a 170 grain Hornady FP into his chest, whereupon he hunched up and pranced to a broadside angle. Quickly reloaded and put another just behind the left shoulder. He dropped immediately.

After a morning of scuffed elbows and knees and torn jeans, I got lucky. This certainly isn't the biggest buck I've taken, but is one of the most gratifying. Perfect weather and a perfect setting. In the background of this pic you can see the 13,000 foot peaks of the southern Wind River Range and behind me, which you can't see are the Oregon Buttes, guarding South Pass and the main route of the Oregon Trail, over which traveled more than 500,000 pioneers on their way to Oregon, California, and Utah from about 1840 until the transcontinental railroad came through about 60 miles south in 1868.

<a href="http://s328.photobucket.com/albums/l352/j_hammer1/?action=view&current=P8310147.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l352/j_hammer1/P8310147.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">[/url]

What a priviledge it is to live in Wyoming.


"Endeavor to persevere..." Chief Dan George from The Outlaw Josie Wales

Offline Graybeard

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Re: Wyoming antelope hunt
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2009, 11:05:46 AM »
Where's the pic?


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Offline LaOtto222

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Re: Wyoming antelope hunt
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2009, 11:55:16 AM »
Beautiful country, nice buck and nice rifle. It don't get much better than that ;) Congratulations on a nice hunt, lucky or not.
Great men have vision and resolve to make dreams come true.

Offline TribReady

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Re: Wyoming antelope hunt
« Reply #3 on: September 20, 2009, 12:00:22 PM »
Great day of hunting in a beautiful setting. What more could a person ask for?
A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have. -Thomas Jefferson


...if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.  -2 Chronicles 7:14

Offline jim36

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Re: Wyoming antelope hunt
« Reply #4 on: September 20, 2009, 12:48:43 PM »
Kinda like reading a page from Outdoor Life or Field and Stream. I tried to put my self in your place as I read. Great post and congrats are in order.
                                                   
                                                   Jim

Offline GrampaMike

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Re: Wyoming antelope hunt
« Reply #5 on: September 20, 2009, 12:51:40 PM »
Fantastic... good read.

I take it that you used a BTB bullet in the 30-30, Which one?

Grampa Mike
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Offline gomerdog

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Re: Wyoming antelope hunt
« Reply #6 on: September 20, 2009, 01:08:37 PM »
I used a Hornady 170 gr. flat point on top of a healthy dose of W748 and Winchester LR primers. Remington cases.
"Endeavor to persevere..." Chief Dan George from The Outlaw Josie Wales

Offline Fred M

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Re: Wyoming antelope hunt
« Reply #7 on: September 20, 2009, 01:30:28 PM »
30-30 for hunting antelope, whow! That is realy something. Congrats to the fine shooting. Where I hunt Antelope one rarely gets within 100yrds.

Last year I had a doe antelope permit. The wind was blowing unmercyfully on the wide open prairie. Could not get close to get a shot almost all day. Until late in the afternoon just before it gets dark I had a shot at 385 yards and made a good shot just below the heart.

Used a good foot Kentuck and about that much holding into the wind. A very lucky shot but that was all that was available. By the time we had the animal field dressed it was almost dark. I used a 25-06 Ruger#1 with 100gr TSX bullets.

We had almost given up that day.
Fred M.
From Alberta Canada.

Offline Winter Hawk

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Re: Wyoming antelope hunt
« Reply #8 on: September 20, 2009, 04:01:44 PM »
Great story!  I worked for the Bridger-Teton National Forest in '82 & '83 out of Pinedale.  I loved the country then, but the chance came to go back to Alaska and I took it.  I carried a H&R 158 in .30-30 (w/ 20 ga barrel) then, having just gotten out of my second attack on college, for financing of which I had sold all of my guns.  There was a small hardware store, Coast to Coast IIRC where I bought the Topper combo.  I sold it 10 years later, like a fool....

Anyway, thanks for sharing and rekindling some great memories!

-Winter Hawk-
"All you need for happiness is a good gun, a good horse and a good wife." - D. Boone

Offline PHATINJUN

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Re: Wyoming antelope hunt
« Reply #9 on: September 21, 2009, 06:52:37 AM »
Congrats nice buck!! Kurt
Deceased 2/16/24
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/machesney-park-il/kurt-heckman-11671764

Sportster17M2,20"Nickle410Tamer,26"410,
WTUTI12ga,WTU25-06,M158 22RemJet, 24"Ultra.204Ruger24"UltraFluted.204Ruger
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Offline ihookem

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Re: Wyoming antelope hunt
« Reply #10 on: September 21, 2009, 03:15:09 PM »
Teddy Roosevelt  used a 30-30 and said it was the ultimate rifle for antelope. He did figure out real fast that they can't be looking at you when you shoot cause they see the powder coming out of the barrel and jump just enough for the bullet to miss.