1st Antelope, 1st time big game hunting!!

erikc838

Active member
This was the first year I drew for any hunts after years after putting in. I drew for a ranch only hunt in NM, near Lake Valley, and settled on shooting my suppressed Weatherby Vanguard BackCountry. It is chambered in 240 Wby Mag shooting a 90 grain Accubond over H4831 in Norma brass with a Federal 210M primer. The suppressor is a SilencerCo Harvester 30. On top sits a Zeiss Terra 4-12x42 (RZ8 reticle) riflescope.

Me and a buddy head up there the first morning of the hunt (without scouting previously) and end up on a road where I spot something out of the ordinary about 300 yards out. It was a mature buck with about 9 females grazing in the field. We also spot a truck to our north and immediately think they are on the ground already and after them. We see brake lights on the truck and my buddy tells me to grab my gun and let's going. With my bogpod and gun in hand, we head out and the truck takes off. The antelope spook and take off running well beyond the range of my Zeiss Victory rangefinder.

With the wind in our face, we head west to try and circle around for a shot. The buck seems to lose track of his women and starts backtracking to where we originally saw him. He hangs up about 600 yards out, just looking around for approximately 15 minutes. There is a small rise in front of us and we decide to try and crawl up to him. Before we do, he disappears below our sight and we again decide to start moving. He reappears a few seconds later, ranging between 323 and 340 yards. The wind is in our face, sun at our back and he is broadside grazing on some sunflowers. When he stops, I squeeze the trigger with the first hash mark down from the main crosshair centered on his shoulder. The bullet enters behind his front left shoulder and stops before exiting his left. He disappears and never gets up again.

After nearly 40 minutes of searching for him (it is so flat and everything looks the same), we found him. He measured 15.5" long on both sides and 6.5" at the base (nearly 78 inches total). Total hunting time was approximately 1 hour. He is now at the taxidermist for a shoulder mount. I was originally planning on doing a European mount, but that was when I was thinking I would be lucky to find one with one horn longer than the ears.

 
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