Just got my antelope mount back from last year's hunt, and figured I would share a quick recap of the hunt - as it was a lot of fun and my biggest buck to date.
We have a group of college buddies that have been going out to New Mexico the last few years in August to chase pronghorn and if anything we get to catch up and ride around in a buggy and tell stories for a few days. The last few years we have taken some really nice, massive bucks but we hadn't been seeing as many bucks as years past. Generally if you see a good one, you better make your stalk/shot count.
Last year was another drought year and there was little to no browse, so buck sightings were few and far between. We finally spotted a group of 3 bucks bedded on a fence corner, in the shade of some small trees. We set up on them and waited them out to see if there were any shooters - at this point it was 10am so it was getting pretty hot. We waited for 30 minutes and finally decided to send one of us towards to group to scare them out of their beds - which worked great. Problem was, none of them were old enough or big enough to even consider.
As I was getting up out of my scope, I saw another buck side hilling from right to left, roughly 1,000 yards away and directly behind the 3 bucks we were looking at. All I could see is he was tall and had lots of mass - that's all I needed to see and my buddy and I took off down the hill to a drainage to try and cut him off for a shot. By the time I made it down our hill that we were initially set up on and up the next hill, he was up and over the next one. We did this drill 2x, with me running as fast as I could to get to the top to try and close the distance to a manageable range to get a shot off - you don't realize how fast these antelope walk until you try to keep up!
On the 3rd hill, he finally stopped to feed in a small grassy area and gave me enough time to range him - 500 yards. I had a quartering 5-7mph wind from left to right, so I held 2 minutes of wind left, which basically was aiming at his hind quarter and waited for him to turn completely broadside. He kept feeding away from me and finally turned for a perfect angle and I took the shot - problem was I forgot to range him again and he had made it another 50 yards from the initial spot and I ended up hitting him about 2" low in the shoulder. It was close enough to the heart and in the body cavity that he didn't run off, and I could see the blood on his offside leg. I waited 30 seconds and he gave me another broadside shot, this time facing left and I made sure to get a good range this time - 600 yards on the dot. I adjusted my dope, took a deep breath and sent another 140gr elite hunter from my 6.5 SAUM on it's way, hitting him perfectly in the shoulder. He was down for good and my buddy and I jumped in the air, high fiving and celebrating the biggest antelope either of us had ever laid eyes on - much less had a shot at!
We hiked the mile and a half back to the polaris and picked up our 3rd hunting buddy who was left behind in the excitement (he was also the guy who spooked the original group of bedded bucks). When we finally made it over to the buck, I was blown away by his mass and character - he was a gnarly old buck with all kinds of small points coming off and a cool, almost double prong on one side. It was definitely one of the greatest stalks, shots and animals I've ever been a part of personally.
I'm not 100% sure on his score, as I'm no B&C scorer, but he had a 14 6/8" longest horn, 4 6/8" prongs and 6 7/8" largest mass measurement. Either way, he's my biggest by far and the mount turned out awesome as well.
Thanks for reading along and hope this gets a few guys excited about their own hunts here in just a few weeks now!
We have a group of college buddies that have been going out to New Mexico the last few years in August to chase pronghorn and if anything we get to catch up and ride around in a buggy and tell stories for a few days. The last few years we have taken some really nice, massive bucks but we hadn't been seeing as many bucks as years past. Generally if you see a good one, you better make your stalk/shot count.
Last year was another drought year and there was little to no browse, so buck sightings were few and far between. We finally spotted a group of 3 bucks bedded on a fence corner, in the shade of some small trees. We set up on them and waited them out to see if there were any shooters - at this point it was 10am so it was getting pretty hot. We waited for 30 minutes and finally decided to send one of us towards to group to scare them out of their beds - which worked great. Problem was, none of them were old enough or big enough to even consider.
As I was getting up out of my scope, I saw another buck side hilling from right to left, roughly 1,000 yards away and directly behind the 3 bucks we were looking at. All I could see is he was tall and had lots of mass - that's all I needed to see and my buddy and I took off down the hill to a drainage to try and cut him off for a shot. By the time I made it down our hill that we were initially set up on and up the next hill, he was up and over the next one. We did this drill 2x, with me running as fast as I could to get to the top to try and close the distance to a manageable range to get a shot off - you don't realize how fast these antelope walk until you try to keep up!
On the 3rd hill, he finally stopped to feed in a small grassy area and gave me enough time to range him - 500 yards. I had a quartering 5-7mph wind from left to right, so I held 2 minutes of wind left, which basically was aiming at his hind quarter and waited for him to turn completely broadside. He kept feeding away from me and finally turned for a perfect angle and I took the shot - problem was I forgot to range him again and he had made it another 50 yards from the initial spot and I ended up hitting him about 2" low in the shoulder. It was close enough to the heart and in the body cavity that he didn't run off, and I could see the blood on his offside leg. I waited 30 seconds and he gave me another broadside shot, this time facing left and I made sure to get a good range this time - 600 yards on the dot. I adjusted my dope, took a deep breath and sent another 140gr elite hunter from my 6.5 SAUM on it's way, hitting him perfectly in the shoulder. He was down for good and my buddy and I jumped in the air, high fiving and celebrating the biggest antelope either of us had ever laid eyes on - much less had a shot at!
We hiked the mile and a half back to the polaris and picked up our 3rd hunting buddy who was left behind in the excitement (he was also the guy who spooked the original group of bedded bucks). When we finally made it over to the buck, I was blown away by his mass and character - he was a gnarly old buck with all kinds of small points coming off and a cool, almost double prong on one side. It was definitely one of the greatest stalks, shots and animals I've ever been a part of personally.
I'm not 100% sure on his score, as I'm no B&C scorer, but he had a 14 6/8" longest horn, 4 6/8" prongs and 6 7/8" largest mass measurement. Either way, he's my biggest by far and the mount turned out awesome as well.
Thanks for reading along and hope this gets a few guys excited about their own hunts here in just a few weeks now!
