An antelope story for newbies
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Snake River Marksman
- 3 point
- Posts: 382
- Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2007 11:52 am
- Location: Etna, Wyoming
An antelope story for newbies
Take what you want from this.
Antelope Hunt for Newbies
2004
Back in January 2004, as soon as I learned that I had a job, I made the decision to go on my first Antelope hunt. I decided on Wyoming because I love that state, and I decided on the Casper area because it is served by an airport, and I have at least a little knowledge of the area. I mentioned my plans to a hunting buddy of mine and he asked if he could accompany me. Roger is a great companion so I readily accepted his offer to accompany me.
Using the internet I found that there was sufficient public land in Antelope area #31 and that for the last few years it had had a 100% draw rate for tags. Roger and I put in our applications and then began the seven month wait to receive our tags. Happy was the day when I checked the Wyoming game and fish web page and found that we had indeed drawn tags. It was at that point that I began to work in earnest towards preparing for the hunt. I began using the stairs more often at work, I thought about 5000ft elevation oxygen levels when I was deciding what to get out of the junk machine, I began load development, and I ordered a replacement trigger for the rifle that I intended to take with me. I also started using that rifle to shoot groundhogs. When the boss asked if I could work overtime, I thought about antelope and answered yes. I contacted airlines, hotels and car rentals and made all of the arrangements. I read every magazine article and a couple of books from the used book store about antelope hunting and I talked to everyone I could find about their own experiences.
When departure time finally arrived, Roger and I drove to the airport and began the process that I was most apprehensive about, checking rifles in at the airport. Because of the prep work that I had done before, we sailed through security without a hiccup. Our biggest problem of the whole trip occurred at this point, our plane was delayed, causing us to arrive in Casper too late to check our rifles zero. That would come to haunt us later.
On Saturday, opening day, we got up, ate breakfast, and headed to the ranch where I had planned to hunt the first day. This is a ranch that is enrolled in the Private Land Public Wildlife program. The PLPW allows hunters to WALK onto the ranches without obtaining permission from the rancher and hunt.
That walk part would become important in just a few hours.
There was a good band of antelope in the pasture when we pulled into the parking area. There were two good bucks in that band. I got out and asked the guy in the truck parked next to us what it was about the buck that was walking past that he didn’t like. It looked pretty good to me with cutters above the ears tall horns and pretty good mass. He looked about as good as any antelope I had ever seen in that area before. The guy told me that he wasn’t sure that the antelope was on the open hunting area. Uh Oh! The maps that the Wyoming Game and Fish put out that defines the PLPW hunting areas specifically say that they are for general knowledge only and that exact boundaries will be posted. I didn’t see any signs that said specifically that this was the beginning of the walk in area, but there was a sign that said that if you killed an antelope on the property you needed to drop your filled out coupon into the box provided. Now I’m confused. While gathering gear, watching the antelope and thinking about where the property lines were, I see a puff of dust and hear the round hit the ground under and behind the antelope and then I hear the shot. I thought “dang that guy just shot in our direction” That was somewhat disconcerting. The antelope took off. As we got moving towards the next fence line where I thought perhaps the walk in area started, I heard another shot. I looked in the direction from which it came and was just in time to see the next shot drop the other good buck from the band of antelope that had been in the pasture when we pulled up. We walked over to see the antelope and congratulate the hunter. We discussed his first shot, and looking at it from his perspective, it didn’t appear so bad. This guy has been hunting the same ranch for several years coming up from Texas with a group of seven or eight other guys. They have permission from the owner to hunt the whole ranch and to DRIVE where they want. That peeved me a little but it would really get to me in just a few hours.
He told us about the property lines and we went on our way. We kept walking away from the truck and the road and kept running into other hunters who had special permission to drive on the ranch. It was about this time that we realized that we didn’t bring any food or water with us. This was just plain DUMB! We had passed several convenience stores where we could have stopped and provisioned ourselves properly for a bright, sunny, no wind day on the prairie, but we didn’t do it. I didn’t even think about it and it hurts all the more because Roger and especially I knew better. At any rate we continued walking until we got past the last group of hunters, about two miles from the truck. There, on top of a small mesa we found a good band of antelope. We observed the band through binoculars for a few minutes and watched the best buck of the bunch chase a hot doe around for awhile. We then decided to attempt to close the distance and get a shot at the buck. When we had duck walked to with 220yds, Roger took a kneeling position and attempted the shot. He fired three times with his own rifle and four times with mine and only once did he touch the antelope and that was with my rifle where he just clipped the hair from the back of the buck. That shot put the antelope to flight and made us really start to wonder if something had happened to our rifles during transit. We sat down to discuss it and Roger decided to test his rifle. We found a suitable target and Roger fired a shot. He hit the target just fine so we decided that he had just gotten excited and missed. While we were sitting there glassing and talking a decent buck came along and crossed the fence at 308yds. Roger and I looked it over but we were too far apart to converse about it as it walked on a diagonal that brought it to within 220yds. For reasons still unknown to either of us, neither of us shot that buck just then. When it had walked away over the hill, I asked Roger why he hadn’t shot. He said he was wondering the same thing about me. We each laughed about that. I spotted the buck that he had been shooting at before, about a mile away and still in the company of that doe. Roger decided to go over and give it another try, especially since we had seen the fur fly from that last shot but could find no blood. As the buck stood there guarding his doe he certainly showed no signs of being hit. I elected to stay where I was and see if the band that I could see between Rogers intended target and us would come my way when Roger went around to flank that buck.
As I glassed the band I would occasionally take a sweep all the way around myself. On one of those sweeps I noticed a doe coming up out of the draw to my right. I watched her for a few minutes and then saw a small buck and that buck that Roger and I had let pass come out of the draw. I decided that I wasn’t going to let him go by this time. The good buck chased the other buck off and that small buck headed my way, and would pass within 200yds. As I was sitting against a large gate post, he didn’t seem to see me. The doe was leading the buck in an arc that was keeping them at 420yds, in and out of sight as they dropped into and climbed out of the little draws that crossed the mesa. When the little buck was down in a draw, and the buck and doe were also in a draw, I grabbed my stuff and took off into a parallel draw to close the distance some. When I judged that I had gone far enough, I climbed up out of the draw for a peek. I spotted the doe but the buck was hidden. I ranged the doe at 305 and decided to back off and close up some more. When I next peered up over the top of the draw I immediately spotted the buck. I froze in position until he lowered his head below the crest. I then duck walked on up until I had a good view of the buck. I set up my shooting sticks and put the range finder in them. I measured the buck three times coming up with just a few yards over 200 each time. I then put the rifle on the sticks and prepared for the shot. The buck was aware of my presence but apparently wasn’t sure what I was because he stopped to look at me, at an angle that was not quite head on. Taking brief note of the gentle breeze that was blowing from the buck to me, I put the crosshair just right of the right shoulder and fired. The buck dropped at the shot and as I bolted another round into the 250Savage caliber Ruger 77. I began to feel that elation that all hunters know after making a good shot. As I walked up to the antelope, I noticed how much blood there was near its head. My first thought was that my shot had pierced the lungs as it should have and that the blood had come from there. As I circled the buck to make sure it was dead, it soon became apparent where all of that blood had come from. My shot had missed the chest completely and had entered the bucks mouth, destroying the lower jaw before exiting and then entering the neck, making a softball size hole in the throat. My antelope had died a very quick death but I hate to make a bad shot and this took some of the joy of success out of my day. A trip to the range later that day would show that my rifle was shooting 18 inches high at 100yds.
I looked around for Roger but he was not in sight at the moment, so I began the field dressing process. I had been loaned a new knife for this hunt. It is an Anza F4 with stag handles and it is as sharp looking as it is sharp. I found the knife to be very well designed and made for this type of work. With its 3.75 inch blade and hand filling handle it performed to perfection in dressing my antelope. With that chore done I once more looked for Roger. Spotting him far away and wandering a little, I went to fetch him and start the long, hot, thirsty drag, back to the truck. You will remember from the beginning that we had neglected to bring either water or food with us and now at 1030 in the morning, Roger and I were both quite thirsty. It would get worse before it got better.
After dragging the antelope for two hours, griping occasionally as we watched those people with special permission drive around out on the prairie, we came onto a two track that led to a ranch house. I decided it was time to see if we could get a little special permission of our own. I walked up to the house and with hat in hand asked the lady of the house if we could drive out and collect our antelope. She granted permission for that and a drink of water from the garden hose. Man was that good water! I got the truck, filled the empty water bottle from the plane the night before, and then went out and got Roger and the goat. I don’t know if he was more happy to see the truck or the water bottle. We stopped up the road about two miles to get a snack and a couple of 32oz Gatorades. It took all of that Gatorade and several glasses of water during the rest of the evening to get to feeling “right” again. Lesson learned.
Antelope Hunt for Newbies
2004
Back in January 2004, as soon as I learned that I had a job, I made the decision to go on my first Antelope hunt. I decided on Wyoming because I love that state, and I decided on the Casper area because it is served by an airport, and I have at least a little knowledge of the area. I mentioned my plans to a hunting buddy of mine and he asked if he could accompany me. Roger is a great companion so I readily accepted his offer to accompany me.
Using the internet I found that there was sufficient public land in Antelope area #31 and that for the last few years it had had a 100% draw rate for tags. Roger and I put in our applications and then began the seven month wait to receive our tags. Happy was the day when I checked the Wyoming game and fish web page and found that we had indeed drawn tags. It was at that point that I began to work in earnest towards preparing for the hunt. I began using the stairs more often at work, I thought about 5000ft elevation oxygen levels when I was deciding what to get out of the junk machine, I began load development, and I ordered a replacement trigger for the rifle that I intended to take with me. I also started using that rifle to shoot groundhogs. When the boss asked if I could work overtime, I thought about antelope and answered yes. I contacted airlines, hotels and car rentals and made all of the arrangements. I read every magazine article and a couple of books from the used book store about antelope hunting and I talked to everyone I could find about their own experiences.
When departure time finally arrived, Roger and I drove to the airport and began the process that I was most apprehensive about, checking rifles in at the airport. Because of the prep work that I had done before, we sailed through security without a hiccup. Our biggest problem of the whole trip occurred at this point, our plane was delayed, causing us to arrive in Casper too late to check our rifles zero. That would come to haunt us later.
On Saturday, opening day, we got up, ate breakfast, and headed to the ranch where I had planned to hunt the first day. This is a ranch that is enrolled in the Private Land Public Wildlife program. The PLPW allows hunters to WALK onto the ranches without obtaining permission from the rancher and hunt.
That walk part would become important in just a few hours.
There was a good band of antelope in the pasture when we pulled into the parking area. There were two good bucks in that band. I got out and asked the guy in the truck parked next to us what it was about the buck that was walking past that he didn’t like. It looked pretty good to me with cutters above the ears tall horns and pretty good mass. He looked about as good as any antelope I had ever seen in that area before. The guy told me that he wasn’t sure that the antelope was on the open hunting area. Uh Oh! The maps that the Wyoming Game and Fish put out that defines the PLPW hunting areas specifically say that they are for general knowledge only and that exact boundaries will be posted. I didn’t see any signs that said specifically that this was the beginning of the walk in area, but there was a sign that said that if you killed an antelope on the property you needed to drop your filled out coupon into the box provided. Now I’m confused. While gathering gear, watching the antelope and thinking about where the property lines were, I see a puff of dust and hear the round hit the ground under and behind the antelope and then I hear the shot. I thought “dang that guy just shot in our direction” That was somewhat disconcerting. The antelope took off. As we got moving towards the next fence line where I thought perhaps the walk in area started, I heard another shot. I looked in the direction from which it came and was just in time to see the next shot drop the other good buck from the band of antelope that had been in the pasture when we pulled up. We walked over to see the antelope and congratulate the hunter. We discussed his first shot, and looking at it from his perspective, it didn’t appear so bad. This guy has been hunting the same ranch for several years coming up from Texas with a group of seven or eight other guys. They have permission from the owner to hunt the whole ranch and to DRIVE where they want. That peeved me a little but it would really get to me in just a few hours.
He told us about the property lines and we went on our way. We kept walking away from the truck and the road and kept running into other hunters who had special permission to drive on the ranch. It was about this time that we realized that we didn’t bring any food or water with us. This was just plain DUMB! We had passed several convenience stores where we could have stopped and provisioned ourselves properly for a bright, sunny, no wind day on the prairie, but we didn’t do it. I didn’t even think about it and it hurts all the more because Roger and especially I knew better. At any rate we continued walking until we got past the last group of hunters, about two miles from the truck. There, on top of a small mesa we found a good band of antelope. We observed the band through binoculars for a few minutes and watched the best buck of the bunch chase a hot doe around for awhile. We then decided to attempt to close the distance and get a shot at the buck. When we had duck walked to with 220yds, Roger took a kneeling position and attempted the shot. He fired three times with his own rifle and four times with mine and only once did he touch the antelope and that was with my rifle where he just clipped the hair from the back of the buck. That shot put the antelope to flight and made us really start to wonder if something had happened to our rifles during transit. We sat down to discuss it and Roger decided to test his rifle. We found a suitable target and Roger fired a shot. He hit the target just fine so we decided that he had just gotten excited and missed. While we were sitting there glassing and talking a decent buck came along and crossed the fence at 308yds. Roger and I looked it over but we were too far apart to converse about it as it walked on a diagonal that brought it to within 220yds. For reasons still unknown to either of us, neither of us shot that buck just then. When it had walked away over the hill, I asked Roger why he hadn’t shot. He said he was wondering the same thing about me. We each laughed about that. I spotted the buck that he had been shooting at before, about a mile away and still in the company of that doe. Roger decided to go over and give it another try, especially since we had seen the fur fly from that last shot but could find no blood. As the buck stood there guarding his doe he certainly showed no signs of being hit. I elected to stay where I was and see if the band that I could see between Rogers intended target and us would come my way when Roger went around to flank that buck.
As I glassed the band I would occasionally take a sweep all the way around myself. On one of those sweeps I noticed a doe coming up out of the draw to my right. I watched her for a few minutes and then saw a small buck and that buck that Roger and I had let pass come out of the draw. I decided that I wasn’t going to let him go by this time. The good buck chased the other buck off and that small buck headed my way, and would pass within 200yds. As I was sitting against a large gate post, he didn’t seem to see me. The doe was leading the buck in an arc that was keeping them at 420yds, in and out of sight as they dropped into and climbed out of the little draws that crossed the mesa. When the little buck was down in a draw, and the buck and doe were also in a draw, I grabbed my stuff and took off into a parallel draw to close the distance some. When I judged that I had gone far enough, I climbed up out of the draw for a peek. I spotted the doe but the buck was hidden. I ranged the doe at 305 and decided to back off and close up some more. When I next peered up over the top of the draw I immediately spotted the buck. I froze in position until he lowered his head below the crest. I then duck walked on up until I had a good view of the buck. I set up my shooting sticks and put the range finder in them. I measured the buck three times coming up with just a few yards over 200 each time. I then put the rifle on the sticks and prepared for the shot. The buck was aware of my presence but apparently wasn’t sure what I was because he stopped to look at me, at an angle that was not quite head on. Taking brief note of the gentle breeze that was blowing from the buck to me, I put the crosshair just right of the right shoulder and fired. The buck dropped at the shot and as I bolted another round into the 250Savage caliber Ruger 77. I began to feel that elation that all hunters know after making a good shot. As I walked up to the antelope, I noticed how much blood there was near its head. My first thought was that my shot had pierced the lungs as it should have and that the blood had come from there. As I circled the buck to make sure it was dead, it soon became apparent where all of that blood had come from. My shot had missed the chest completely and had entered the bucks mouth, destroying the lower jaw before exiting and then entering the neck, making a softball size hole in the throat. My antelope had died a very quick death but I hate to make a bad shot and this took some of the joy of success out of my day. A trip to the range later that day would show that my rifle was shooting 18 inches high at 100yds.
I looked around for Roger but he was not in sight at the moment, so I began the field dressing process. I had been loaned a new knife for this hunt. It is an Anza F4 with stag handles and it is as sharp looking as it is sharp. I found the knife to be very well designed and made for this type of work. With its 3.75 inch blade and hand filling handle it performed to perfection in dressing my antelope. With that chore done I once more looked for Roger. Spotting him far away and wandering a little, I went to fetch him and start the long, hot, thirsty drag, back to the truck. You will remember from the beginning that we had neglected to bring either water or food with us and now at 1030 in the morning, Roger and I were both quite thirsty. It would get worse before it got better.
After dragging the antelope for two hours, griping occasionally as we watched those people with special permission drive around out on the prairie, we came onto a two track that led to a ranch house. I decided it was time to see if we could get a little special permission of our own. I walked up to the house and with hat in hand asked the lady of the house if we could drive out and collect our antelope. She granted permission for that and a drink of water from the garden hose. Man was that good water! I got the truck, filled the empty water bottle from the plane the night before, and then went out and got Roger and the goat. I don’t know if he was more happy to see the truck or the water bottle. We stopped up the road about two miles to get a snack and a couple of 32oz Gatorades. It took all of that Gatorade and several glasses of water during the rest of the evening to get to feeling “right” again. Lesson learned.
Stupidity is expensive
-
Snake River Marksman
- 3 point
- Posts: 382
- Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2007 11:52 am
- Location: Etna, Wyoming
Re: An antelope story for newbies
Lemme add that a wheel barrow makes an excellent game cart BUT slime the tires first. Cactus spines will EASILY pucture the tires.
Stupidity is expensive
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firefighterbraun
- 3 point
- Posts: 399
- Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2010 2:07 pm
- Location: Nephi, UT
Re: An antelope story for newbies
Sounds like a heck of an adventure! Wouldn't mind seeing some pics of your hunt! Thanks for the great story and the info. I have yet to hunt some speedgoats so I'm gathering all the info I can so when the time comes I'll have somewhat of an idea of what I'm doing.
Re: An antelope story for newbies
Thats a great story. Im a lil disconcerted about the fact that they allow people "special" permission to drive around on what should be an equal opportunity Walk-In area. Im glad that everything worked out for you and that the Drive-and-hunt guys didnt ruin it for you. I have been looking at going out to WY next year and 31 is where I think Im gonna go, so it does give me hope that you had a good hunt.
Dreaming of tall tines a straight shots.
-
Snake River Marksman
- 3 point
- Posts: 382
- Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2007 11:52 am
- Location: Etna, Wyoming
Re: An antelope story for newbies
That area isn't what it used to be. Check all the current info before you apply for tags. Still plenty of goats but access is harder. That walk in area doesn't exist anymore.
Stupidity is expensive
Re: An antelope story for newbies
I noticed that they have a Walk In area called Hat 6 thats only for lopes in 31 but as you said the public land in that area is kind of lacking. It looks like mostly state land not much BLM. My main reason for putting in there is that I want to do Muleys too and its in the same region as the Muley tags and its near 100% success on draw. This is gonna be my first western hunt and I am just looking for an adventure mostly (a nice lope or muley would be icing on the cake though) and a DIY hunt that is going to be fun.
Dreaming of tall tines a straight shots.
-
Snake River Marksman
- 3 point
- Posts: 382
- Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2007 11:52 am
- Location: Etna, Wyoming
Re: An antelope story for newbies
That isn't a walk in area I don't think. It's a hunter management area. You have to get a permission slip from Game and Fish to hunt that area and they limit the number of slips available. I would imagine, that close to Casper, that it would have some competition for those permission slips. That archery only area is just about where I killed the antelope in my story. It was an actual walk in area back then. Check very very carefully before you apply for that area.
That state land at the very south end of the unit wasn't tooo bad back in the day. But it may have been incorporated into the HMA for all I know. I think 25 is right across the highway and has decent access.
That state land at the very south end of the unit wasn't tooo bad back in the day. But it may have been incorporated into the HMA for all I know. I think 25 is right across the highway and has decent access.
Stupidity is expensive
Re: An antelope story for newbies
I appreciate the input. I have looked at 25 also so its good to get some info on that unit as well and good to know that the access there is decent.
Dreaming of tall tines a straight shots.