Antelope Season - 2011

[klallen]

evening, all. hunting story coming. as the title suggests, if you don't dig antelope hunting then ya probably better pass on this one as it is the season.
 
the rifle end of things started last saturday up here in mt. they turn the bow hunters loose two weeks or so before the rifle hunters. by the time rifle season comes around, they've been chased hard for weeks so they're pretty jacked up. we tend towards some of the larger, flatter shooting cartridges to level that playing field a bit but things can still be crazy. the two days i was able to get out kinda came and went without a whole heck of alot to report. don't get me wrong. lots of fun. but no tags punched. dad wasn't going to be able to hunt with us over the weekend so the typical threesome would have to be a twosome. my brother and i talked friday night, finalizing our plan of attack. it had rained something horrible for the last two days and was still drizzling as we talked on the phone, so dirt road access could certainly be a problem. we hunt a region called 444, whose primary resident is a huge ranch called the broken o. i love this place. it's a prime location where antelope, whitetail and mule deer all roam together. it's a vast working ranch primarily focused on cattle and farming. the head of the farming division's who we get access from. it's kind of a prized tag to draw, so each year, opening day tends to be a bit of a zoo with out of staters and non-localized state residents flooding in.
 
saturday morning, the rains had stopped but it was cool and still very wet, which seemed to keep the fair weather hunters at bay for most of the day. over the years, we've kinda settled on the best way that we like hunting this place is to drive to various high points and simply glass.  then you walk. on a typical year, it's been so dry water's usually a nice place to start at but this year, the animals weren't suffering for liquid. we were able to glass several herds over the course of the morning, but nothing impressed. we stalked within range of some closer herds for better looks, but always snuck back out. as opening morning inched towards afternoon, the clouds broke, allowing the sun to sneak through and that seemed to jumpstart the activity a bit. at 1:30 of so in the afternoon we glassed the most promising herd we'd seen of the day. they were pushing 2 miles or so away from our current position but if we took another road around, we hoped a 1/2 mile hike would have us on top of them. you fellers familiar with wide open spaces will know, distances can be real deceiving sometimes. lol. as it were, when we came on top of the herd, we were still a solid 750 - 830 yds from them. plenty close to glass. the day had actually turned out nice for some longer range opportunities. my brother took several readings from the wind meter over the time we sat there and glassed and the wind was a very workable 3 - 5 miles an hour, staight at our backs. we had identified the two bucks in the heard of 30 or so animals that had the most potential. but both were right on that cusp. sometimes when you looked at them, to small. other angles, something worthy of a tag. we wrestled with this for the next hour and a half. the animals had no clue we were there and they were content with the seclusion of their location so we certainly weren't rushed into needing to make a decision. as one would move closer and cut the distance between us to 520 yds one of us would get down on our rifle intending to take a shot. we'd find the animal in the scope will the other would report distances. my brother with his swarovski when i'd get on rifle. me and my leica when he'd get down into shooting position. this continued for far to long. finally i said, if we stay here to much longer, we're both going to put a bullet into what we perceived to be inferior 1st day animals. he agreed so we packed up and backed out.  we got back to the truck and called it a day.
 
day two (sunday) was a very different day. projected to be sunny and 60*, we assumed crowds would be out. as it played out, there was noone. we saw one other truck the entire time we were out and that's unheard of. and it was windy. very windy. the great equalizer. all the long range preparation and confidence is effectively equalized by a swirling, continually shifting central montana wind. we knew we'd have to adjust our mind set on this day. other thing the wind did was lock down the animals. we saw vary little, and nothing worth shooting at the typical hot spots (pivot fields, water holes). we have some family land that butts right up next to the eastern most part of the ranch. it's got a real nice high point for glassing miles and miles of country. this is the vantage point we went to. if the animals weren't going to come to us, we'd have to find them where they holed up. we glassed for ever. and finally we found what we were looking for. a herd at least 25 strong. we looked at each other with pretty much the same thought ... they're a loooong ways out there. but the kicker was one set of horns that we could make out. and at this distance, if we could see horn, we thought it worth investigating. we followed the contour of the land for most of the walk. and then had to drop into a creek drainage for several hundred yards. all in all, it worked fairly well. we got ourselves into position where we could see the entire herd of does perched up above us. distance was 535 yds. we saw lots of girls but not the buck. it was to far for me to want to shoot in the wind we had, anyway. and then the buck showed himself farther up on the hillside. just a quick note about buck antelope and how they manage their harem. it is truely an impressive thing. were this buck was located, we had him dead to rights. we would have been able to follow the creek drainage and continue to skirt his location and easily cut the gap to whatever distance we wanted to shoot. save for the location of his girls. 23 animals. 46 pairs of eye's watching intently. his safety net to do whatever he wanted to do completely oblivious to danger.  the wind also worked in his favor a great deal.  so we were in a pickle. the creek bottom was out as the girls had full view of it. there was one high point that might cut the distance to the herd by another 100 or 150 yds but we'd have to walk in full view of the ladies for at least 60 of those before we'd be obstructed from their view. we talked about a couple other ideas but really had no other choice. after what had to be 2 1/2 miles of walking in, it came down to 60 yds that would make or break us. we walked slow'n single file. trying to look as small as two guys 6'3" and 6'5" possibly could. lol. we hit the point we needed to and went out of side with what looked like only one doe standing up. we busted butt down the embankment and crested the other side, high grass covering, as we belly crawled to where we needed to be to assess the situation.  another note for those who haven't hunted antelope ... it never ceases to amaze me how these animals can completely and totally disappear like a fart in the wind. the hillside where the entire group had been just minutes earlier was as bare as if they were never even there. there wasn't even a glimpse of white butt headed over the top. presumably, the one doe that stood up was the lead doe. and she did her job well.  we looked at each other. looked back at the pristinely empty prairie. back at each other and just smiled. so goes antelope hunting.
 
there's rarely a moment of silence when me and my bro are together. we're always talking projects or the next hunting trip or how we'd just screwed up the last stalk. but lumbering back to the truck sunday afternoon there was a little stretch of silence as two 40 something fellers were concentrating more on breathing rather then talking. and then my bro said what we'd both been thinking. it's a good thing we never got a real good view of that buck. if he'd been a monster, he'd have been shot. and we'd be making this trip two more times with the cart. :o we both shuddered at the thought, then laughed. ya gotta hold onto the positive when things don't pan out as you'd like.
 
had to work today, but bro and father were out there. no tags filled. the three of us will hit it hard again tomorrow morning. success or not, being out with my favorite two hunting partners is always a kick in the pants.
 
will report how day #3 (for me) unfolds.
 
 
 
 
k

[recoil junky]

Is that the Broken O near Augusta? If it is I know the country a little bit. Absolutely no cover for the most part unless you can hide behind a foot tall sagebrush.

Even if you didn't get anything it sounds like you had a good time, but we need PICTURES!!

RJ

[klallen]

Is that the Broken O near Augusta?

yes.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
done.
 
 
 
 
 
k

[recoil junky]

Nice!!

Rj

[bowhunter 51]

Congratulations, K...I didn't think antelope got quite that big....excellent write-up and images.............................................................................................BH51..

[klallen]

thanks, guys.  the older i get, the harder antelope hunting gets.
 
 
 
k

[Brithunter]

Hard?   sheesh I think it would kill me..

Congratulations ................................ we await the rest of the story

[klallen]

thanks, b h .  1st off, i'm thinking of you with the situation you find yourself in over there.  i'm still hoping you get some satisfaction, even though at this point, it's looking very bleak.  i don't want to keep stirring it up so last i'll mention of it but i am thinking of ya, my friend.
 
back to the hunting, antleope's kinda crazy.  more man made probably then anything else.  i mean, they're skitterish animals anyway, but after several weeks of the bowhunters getting a head start chasing them all over the countryside with decoys, white tee-shirts, home brewed calls and whatever other voodoo they can think of to bring antelope in to close range, they're pretty amped up by the time we get our crack at them.  one of the reasons we choose the equipment we do.  even's the playing field, a bit.
 
anyway, here's the back story.  a disclaimer of sorts, for others     ...     if you don't like factual, detail oriented hunting stories, back up to the pics and call're good.  i sincerely hope you enjoy them.  as for the play-by-play, i only know one way to write and that's with details, as i try my hardest to allow you to "see" what i saw and feel like you are there after you're read.  i strayed from my regular posting habits on this string and regret it a bit, so here it is.  i'm not trying to one-up anybody.  just bringing you along for the ride with hopes that if you choose to read     ...     you enjoy :
 
 
my father, brother and i hit the broken o for my third day of antelope hunting yesterday.  figured it would be kind of a slow day when we heard the weather report calling for 50 - 70 mph wind gusts on the front range of the rockies, or basically right where we would be hunting.  we didn't see another hunter all day.  a good thing.  but we didn't see animals either.  they were holed up tight.  several hours of glassing showed us nothing.

around  11, we caught sight of what would probably be our only serious opportunity for the day.  but it wasn't a good set-up at all.  flat out horrible, actually.  from the ole dirt road we were glassing from, a herd of 25 - 30 antelope were bedded down in a bowl a couple thousand yds from us.  from our vantage point, their position appeared to overlooking the entire valley.  not good.  we could see horn in the group, but nothing clear enough to identify shooters.  another cluster, maybe 15 - 20 strong, had situated themselves 1000 yds or so behind the first; higher up on the hillside.

we spent the next hour formulating a game-plan that would involve a lot of walking.  none of us were all that confident in our chances of success but with what we'd seen earlier in the day, we figured we'd throw ourselves out there and see what happened.

my brother dropped me and my dad off well north of the heard and out of site.  our plan was really quite simply.  my brother would drive all the way around the herds to the south, get out and see if they could be pushed our way.  me and my dad's job was to situate ourselves at a point where we best thought these animals would come.  now, i'm not the best reader of antelope minds, so this was going to be our challenge.

we walked for probably 900 yds and reached a point that was our last location of cover from all eyes.  we crested the top of a hill slowly to see exactly where we were.  the smaller group of antelope higher up on the hill was going to be a problem if were were going to move any closer.  there was no way we could avoid their eyes.  however, if we carefully moved over the hill and some 75 yds to our right, we'd be behind a high spot that would shield us from the view of the lower herd and allow us to close the gap to them substantially.  we sat where we were for a moment watching my brother still driving around to the far southern end of this huge valley and looking at all the places these antelope could go if we stayed where we were.  so we moved.

the upper group saw us almost immediately, and got up.  we were so far away from them, they weren't really spooked, though.  if they did decide to make a break south, we hoped that they were far enough away from the lower herd not to alert them or even better, be completely out of sight from the bowl they were in.

1/2 hour had us at the bottom of the hill between us and herd.  we climbed just to the top and sat down to catch our breath, before continuing over the top on belly to assess the situation.  dad said he'd hang back until we knew what we were dealing with.  the grass was high so it was good for cover but offered very few shooting lanes.  i grabbed the gear i needed and started forward looking for that shooting lane.  i saw my brother working his way up and behind our herd.  he wasn't that far from them, but in talking with him after the fact, he really had no clue where they were.  he was walking it clear view of the upper herd and they were doing absolutely nothing but feeding.

i saw him start walking towards that herd and go out of site.  i figured our plan had effectively changed.  lol.  so i continued towards our animals below.  i got to a point where i had a lane (sort of) and view of all animals.  there were 3 decent bucks and a whole lot of does.  all still bedded.  got ranges of 435 to the farthest.  405 to the closest.  the wind was blowing at a steady pace right into my face so the affect on my bullet would be minimal and (even better) it was far less then the advertised 50mph.  it would have been lucky to be going 10, and that's very manageable.  i got the rifle situated and centered on the largest of the bucks, indicating back to dad to get ready for the possbility of these things coming around the base of the hill at the shot and into his range for an opportunity.

i got steady on the rifle.  431 to the buck i wanted and would need the top of a .5 mil hold for that range.  i locked in and     ...     BANG !!!  but i hadn't squeezed the trigger.  my brother had shot.  and the ruckus had startled our entire herd up outa bed and on the move to our right.  not fast but fast enough to make a shot impossible in the tall grass.  i snagged my bino's and looked up to where the above herd was last seen and i'll be darn of there wasn't a white belly on the ground.  good.  one tag filled.

i grabbed all my stuff and slipped back to where dad was and got set up just before they started coming through.  they finally showed themselves, but farther up the hill then i'd have hoped.  doe, doe, doe and on and on.  small buck, doe, doe.  the group my brother had shot at had worked its way down to our group so we now had a heap load of animals to look over quickly.  we saw nothing we perceived as being interesing in the very short time that we had to evaluate things.

then dad said, there's one bringing up the rear.  he was the one i'd had crosshair on earlier.  dad said he didn't have a lane.  so i got a quick range     ...     497, 498, 498.  i love the scan mode on the leica 1200.  quick glance at the drop chart and got him in the scope.  3/4 mil hold for the range.  our wind direction had changed to near 90* so i'd give a .5 mil hold for what i percieved to be a wind slightly more then 10mph.  he stopped for just a moment quartering towards me. i found what i wanted for the hold and squeezed.  i heard the the 160 gr accubond from the 7mm rum hit solid but the slight recoil had pushed me off target.  dad, sitting just below me, gave the report     ...     "dropped like a rock".

we did everything we could for dad to lock in on the remaining bucks of the group but between high grass, problem cows in the way, wind and distance, he really didn't have much of an opportunity.

the buck's not large.  he's young.  doesn't have the black face of a mature goat and because of his youth, lacks mass and prong length, but all in all, i'm very happy.  was a challenging, unpredictable hunt.  the kind where you just count blessings if you're punching a tag at the end of it.  lol.  he has both prongs, which can be a problem this time of year, good main length and has some pretty neat ivory tips.

by the time animals were cleaned, pics taken and everything back to the truck, we were three tired fellers.

hitting it today to try and find dads buck.  they claim our eastern antelope herd's been hit hard by winter and a parasite but we seem to be seeing diminished numbers on this side of the state, too.
 
talk to ya later.
 
 
 
k

[recoil junky]

Ah yes, the beloved front range Augusta wind. I remember sitting in Mom and Dad's house in Augusta watching the wind gauge hit the 70+ mph mark wondering if and when we went outside we might get blown away. Watching to wind gauge was very entertaining for my boys. We got second by second updates.

Dad would say "Screw yer hats on boys, lets go get some more firewood" and my boys would put their caps on sideways, give 'em a quarter turn and head outside with Grampa.

Great story klallen. Hunting with Dad will always be one of my most cherished memories, especially after he hit 70. Make the most of it while you can.

Hope you get a nice one for Dad.

What flavor is the rifle? Looks like a Sendero, but I can't be 100% sure

RJ

[branxhunter]

Yeah, good story kallen.
 
That last post (broken into lots of small paragraphs) is much easier to read that the first long one. Can I be so bold to ask that in future you do this with all your posts? I tend to get lost in your long posts when it is all one block of text.
 
Good photos too. A satisfying end due to the ability to change your plans as needed and knowing how your rifle shoots.
 
Marcus

[klallen]

thank you, bx h . and thanks for the suggestion. the opening post was kind of done in haste, only breaking things by the day they happened. i can see where that might be difficult. i try to make it a point to do so, but will break things up a little better for an easier read in the future. thanks again for the feedback.
 
ya know, r j . you're not that far off with your sendero guess. same class of rifle, anyway. she's a winchester m70 that started life as a classic laredo in 7mm stw. over the years i've toyed with the idea of switching out the stock but this factory hs precision with the aluminum block is so darn stable'n accurate and sits in the bags (or on bipod) so well, i just can't do it. no sense fixing what isn't broke. plus, keeping it allows me to continue calling it a laredo (of which they've discontinued). if i dumped the stock, it'd just be an m70 and that wouldn't work. laredo sounds cooler. lol. she's topped with a ss 20x42mm with the mil dot reticle on a 20moa base. has one of those goofy muzzle brake things on the end of the 30" lilja, too, that everyone hates and i looooooove so much.
 
take care, gentlemen.
 
 
 
 
k

[davidlt89]

Nice antelope! how are they "eating" wise? God bless.

[klallen]

thanks, d.
 
they're really good. we just ate the tenderloins from this one last night. rolled in flour then fried with pepper and garlic salt to taste (i like mine salty). emmmm. tenderloins from a fresh kill are awesome.
 
anyway, you often hear of folks who won't touch antelope meat because they've had a bad eating experience in the past. my wife wasn't raised on venison but took to it nicely after we got married. coming in late to the game, she's pretty particular about what i bring home, what she'll cook and eat. if there was something "wrong" with antelope meat, she wouldn't touch it.
 
one of the things you've got to do asap is get that hide off. sometimes they're not that bad but most of the time, it can be rancid. also, as with any animal (and kinda common sense), they're best not ran 20 miles and then killed.
 
talk to ya later.
 
 
 
 
k

[recoil junky]

thanks, d.
 
 they're best not ran 20 miles and then killed.
 

 
 
 
 
k

Yup! 'Specially speedgoats.

RJ