This season I have been putting off hunting my buck antelope until a bit later in the season. The meat will be used by the home ec. teacher in a school project, and she wanted it toward the middle of the mth. So today was the day.
As far as weather, I could not have picked a more difficult day to hunt antelope. When I loaded my truck to head out, it started spitting rain. While I was walking for exercise this morn. a few drops hit me, but now it was pretty steady. Nothing, not even wind, ruins antelope hunting like rain. Plus the roads that are hard as concrete in dry weather turn to slippery, sticky messes in a few minutes of heavy rain. But today was going to be the day if I could manage it. Tomorrow elk season opens, and I wanted my way clear to hunt for them. So the dogs and I took off. My area is east of town. Lots of antelope, but little public ground. The public sections have been hammered pretty hard since season has been open about a mth. The first five sections I checked either had no antelope, or they were in areas very difficult to approach. Meanwhile, it began to rain harder. Only the fact that I wanted to do this today kept me moving on. Otherwise, the 10 ga. and the duck marshes seemed to fit better. My Golden Retriever, Peach agreed completely with that idea, but agreed to ride along in the shotgun positon in the front seat.
Finally, I got to a section that was not hammered to death by hunters. The road looked unused. I drove to the back and spotted three bucks. Two very small. Not considered, but the other seemed to be a bit of a freak head. Love those. I managed to get with in easy range of the little bucks, but as I put the scope on the bigger freak lying 125 yards farther beyond the little ones, he jumped and ran directly way.
It looked like this could be even more difficult than I thought.
I circled around checking another section or two, then decided to re enter this one from the west end. My freak head was no where to be seen, but the rain was pounding the little truck even harder.
I decided to check this section a bit then if nothing, head home. About a third of the way though, I spotted a nice herd of antelope lying in the sage. Quietly waiting out the rain. I passed them, and planned a stalk. There were several bucks in the herd, and in this weather, any decent buck would do. Plus over the years I have taken several record heads, and many above average bucks, so that has become very unimportant to me.
Parking the truck out of sight, I eased down in an old railroad bed and slipped back to the resting herd. Just as I got with in decent shooting range, the does started standing and feeding, but they were feeding away from me. The range was getting longer by the second.
I finally got to a spot that looked about 250 yards away from the antelope, but I couldn't locate the bucks.
Finally, I spotted one. He was lying looking away from me.. He was the only buck I could spot, maybe the rest moved off before I got back. As I readied the bipod, the buck stood and began moving off after the does. Not running, but at a slow walk. The range was getting longer,the wind picked up, but the rain almost stopped.
This is the kind of shot, that a good flat shooting rifle makes easier. .. I wasn't sure if it was 250 or 350, but if things didn't happen he would be gone. I got a good hold, and squeezed one off from the model 700.
When the .300 H & H cracked, the buck sagged, but kept his feet for maybe 25 yards. There he stopped and flipped over on his side.
I watched him for a few minutes and decided he was down for the count. I got my pickup and drove over to the fallen buck .. The 150 grain WW Silvertip I handloaded over a charge of IMR 4350 hit behind the left shoulder and exited out the right shoulder. In a few minutes we had the buck tagged, dressed, loaded on the truck, and headed for our shed for skinning and the school project of making jerky.....
As we were bringing the truck up the the fallen buck, half a dozen antelope lying in a small draw stood and watched as we drove by..... It held two bucks, both better than the one I had taken....
Those were the breaks. Maybe next year. Peach was happy, now we could hunt ducks, and get ready for elk season...
