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The Fat Bastard Antelope Hunt
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Picture of ForrestB
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My gunmaker friend Duane Wiebe invites a few clients up to Wyoming to his friends' ranch for an antelope hunt each year. I finally made the cut this year and got an invitation from Duane. Unfortunately, Duane's long-awaited knee replacement surgery was scheduled for opening morning. He checked into a hospital in Washington and three of us took our Wiebe rifles and went hunting without him.

More bad luck ensued when we got to the rental car counter and found that our reserved 4-wheel drive Jeep Grand Cherokees had turned into Minivans. No problem we thought...the weather looked nice when we arrived at the ranch.



We set-up camp and it soon started snowing...and snowing...and snowing. This did not look like antelope hunting weather to two Texans.



The road into camp was steep and we were wondering how we were going to get our vans back down to the road. James had one idea...



It was still snowing on opening morning, but James managed to put down the first antelope. He was an old brute with very heavy horns.



I located my goat that afternoon. It took almost two hours of belly-crawling to get into position for a shot. Using my superior tracking skills, I was able to locate my downed antelope...



He was a big-bodied buck with very pretty horns.



That night we grilled an extra steak and enjoyed an appropriately named wine in Duane's honor.



The weather turned nice the next day and by afternoon most of the snow was gone. The soggy ground made for a wet stalk and belly-crawl getting into position for Dean to take his antelope. Dean's goat had the longest horns of the three.



We had a lot of laughs and great hunting. Hopefully Duane will be back in the picture next year. His fine work made it all possible and he was there in spirit with every shot we took (be it whiskey or ammo).



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Posts: 5053 | Location: Muletown | Registered: 07 September 2001Reply With Quote
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Very nice group (the antelope Smiler) Now you know why I get so agitated everytime some environ wants to ban suv's. Many times that's the only way we can get around.
 
Posts: 322 | Location: Three Forks, Montana | Registered: 02 June 2005Reply With Quote
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Sounds like a nice hunt, nice critters and wow boy tell me about that #1!?

Thx

Mark D
 
Posts: 1089 | Location: Bozeman, Mt | Registered: 05 August 2005Reply With Quote
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Nice photos, congratulations! But please, some more informations about rifles, calibers, shot placements etc.
 
Posts: 1459 | Location: north-west Italy | Registered: 16 April 2002Reply With Quote
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Excellent pictorial description of what looks like a great hunt. I'm still laughing over your tracking skills.

Jeff


In the land of the blind, the man with one eye is king.
 
Posts: 784 | Location: Michigan | Registered: 18 December 2000Reply With Quote
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Great story and pictures. Thanks for sharing!
That has to be the first time I have seen anyone hunting from a minivan! Eeker Especially in Wyoming.
 
Posts: 10478 | Location: N.W. Wyoming | Registered: 22 February 2003Reply With Quote
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Great pictures! Those are some fine antelope. I too would like to hear more about the rifles since Duane and I share a last name.


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Posts: 3308 | Location: Southern NM USA | Registered: 01 October 2002Reply With Quote
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Your group reminds me of a bunch of gun writers being hosted at an exclusive ranch being treated like royalty. Looks like a great time, nice animals!
 
Posts: 68 | Location: AK, MN winter | Registered: 06 February 2004Reply With Quote
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Forrest

Looks like a fun time was had by all. nice trophies also. We missed the snow on our antelope adventure but the mud that followed was worse and we got plenty of that.

Mark

P.S. That Fat Bastard is one of my favorites. Garry Kelly turned me on to that in RSA. consistently nice and not too spendy.


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Posts: 13115 | Location: LAS VEGAS, NV USA | Registered: 04 August 2002Reply With Quote
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Those are some fine goats... congrat's!
 
Posts: 3526 | Registered: 27 June 2000Reply With Quote
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A true adventure!! Good job!


-eric

" . . . a gun is better worn and with bloom off---So is a saddle---People too by God." -EH
 
Posts: 952 | Location: Bakersfield, California | Registered: 03 June 2005Reply With Quote
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Mark:

Dean is one of my neighbors and I watched Duane build that single shot. Since Duane and Dean don't post, I can tell you a bit about Dean's gun. It is a .257 Weatherby, built on a Miller action and has a Krieger barrel with a quarter rib with Talley rings, no iron sights. The stock is hard to see in the photo, but is a great looking piece of English walnut. The stock styling is typical Wiebe. Duane rounded the normally square corners on the action and extensively reshaped the lever. Overall, its a neat gun.


One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll never know. - Groucho Marx
 
Posts: 3866 | Location: Eastern Slope, Colorado, USA | Registered: 01 March 2001Reply With Quote
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quote:
Originally posted by AlaskaJim:
Your group reminds me of a bunch of gun writers being hosted at an exclusive ranch being treated like royalty.


Close but not quite. We were more like a bunch of court jesters having a royal time. Thank Goodness Dean had a four-wheel drive truck and chains; otherwise we might still be there.

Dave (l-n-b) gave a perfect description of Dean's rifle. Dean had about a 200 yard shot at his goat. He hit a broadside double-lung shot and the buck ran about 20 yards.

James rifle is a 270 built on a pre-war model 70 action, with an octagon-to-round barrel with a full-length rib. His rifle has a wild piece of English walnut. James' first shot was a solid double-lung shot but the buck just stood there and James hit him again with almost the same shot. The antelope ran about 20 yards before piling up.

I took my pet 270 on this trip. It's built on a pre-war Model 70 action. This rifle is medium heavy and styled like an english stalking rifle. It shoots like a benchrest gun and has always been my lucky rifle. I was shooting 140 grain Accubonds at about 3075 fps. My antelope was about 250 yards away and slightly uphill from me. He was quartering a little away from me. My shot took out both lungs and his heart. The buck dropped at the shot and did a couple of barrel rolls down the hill.

We saw several good bucks and ended up with three really nice ones I think. I haven't done too much antelope hunting, but I like it alot. The spot and stalk type hunting we did really appeals to me. The snow and wind added a dimension I have not experienced before on an antelope hunt though.

I hope to get another invitation next year. I guess I'd better order a new rifle. Smiler


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Posts: 5053 | Location: Muletown | Registered: 07 September 2001Reply With Quote
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Looks like some nice turbo goats with some nice company!

beer

Best,

JohnTheGreek
 
Posts: 4697 | Location: North Africa and North America | Registered: 05 July 2001Reply With Quote
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those antelope look pretty tame roflmao

just kidding...good going guys thumb



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Posts: 27619 | Location: Where tech companies are trying to control you and brainwash you. | Registered: 29 April 2005Reply With Quote
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Forrest,

Thanks for an interesting (and funny!) report. It's clear that a good time was had by all. Smiler
 
Posts: 2662 | Location: Oslo, in the naive land of socialist nepotism and corruption... | Registered: 10 May 2002Reply With Quote
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Originally posted by ForrestB:
I hope to get another invitation next year. I guess I'd better order a new rifle. Smiler


If you need to make some room in the safe, I'll be happy to come by and help you by taking the discards. I'll even pay for my own gas from Dallas!

Congratulations on a fun, interesting, and successful hunt.
 
Posts: 8773 | Location: Republic of Texas | Registered: 24 April 2004Reply With Quote
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ForrestB, thanks for the story and sharing the photo's. I just went on my first antelope hunt earlier this year, it was really fun. i'm going again in Montana next week--hope we don't get the snow, unless it's pretty mild and non-damaging like for ya'll.

Those are nice looking antelope, and great photo's!

Regards--Don
 
Posts: 3563 | Location: GA, USA | Registered: 02 August 2004Reply With Quote
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Hey Forrest,
Does my heart good to see fellows hunting with fine rifles! Especially successfully! Nice animals and sounds like a great adventure.

Montana opened the 9th with most of the eastern state buried in snow and raining. I went on the 11th to find deep gumbo mud. Didn't score but to be sure, was hunting the sidelever .30-400.

You 'ought to post this in the GS column so some of those guys can see that walnut and blued steel doesn't melt when it gets wet.
SDH


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Posts: 1858 | Registered: 07 February 2005Reply With Quote
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Forrest,

Great story love the photos...your tracking skills are better than mine...I would have lost the buck.


Mike

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What I have learned on AR, since 2001:
1. The proper answer to: Where is the best place in town to get a steak dinner? is…You should go to Mel's Diner and get the fried chicken.
2. Big game animals can tell the difference between .015 of an inch in diameter, 15 grains of bullet weight, and 150 fps.
3. There is a difference in the performance of two identical projectiles launched at the same velocity if they came from different cartridges.
4. While a double rifle is the perfect DGR, every 375HH bolt gun needs to be modified to carry at least 5 down.
5. While a floor plate and detachable box magazine both use a mechanical latch, only the floor plate latch is reliable. Disregard the fact that every modern military rifle uses a detachable box magazine.
6. The Remington 700 is unreliable regardless of the fact it is the basis of the USMC M40 sniper rifle for 40+ years with no changes to the receiver or extractor and is the choice of more military and law enforcement sniper units than any other rifle.
7. PF actions are not suitable for a DGR and it is irrelevant that the M1, M14, M16, & AK47 which were designed for hunting men that can shoot back are all PF actions.
8. 95 deg F in Africa is different than 95 deg F in TX or CA and that is why you must worry about ammunition temperature in Africa (even though most safaris take place in winter) but not in TX or in CA.
9. The size of a ding in a gun's finish doesn't matter, what matters is whether it’s a safe ding or not.
10. 1 in a row is a trend, 2 in a row is statistically significant, and 3 in a row is an irrefutable fact.
11. Never buy a WSM or RCM cartridge for a safari rifle or your go to rifle in the USA because if they lose your ammo you can't find replacement ammo but don't worry 280 Rem, 338-06, 35 Whelen, and all Weatherby cartridges abound in Africa and back country stores.
12. A well hit animal can run 75 yds. in the open and suddenly drop with no initial blood trail, but the one I shot from 200 yds. away that ran 10 yds. and disappeared into a thicket and was not found was lost because the bullet penciled thru. I am 100% certain of this even though I have no physical evidence.
13. A 300 Win Mag is a 500 yard elk cartridge but a 308 Win is not a 300 yard elk cartridge even though the same bullet is travelling at the same velocity at those respective distances.
 
Posts: 10181 | Location: Loving retirement in Boise, ID | Registered: 16 December 2003Reply With Quote
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Nice goats! thumb


~Ann





 
Posts: 19747 | Location: The LOST Nation | Registered: 27 March 2001Reply With Quote
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Wow! Looks like a grand time. Good bucks, great rifles, and great guys. What a time. Congrats on the nice speed goat.
 
Posts: 1508 | Location: Alaska | Registered: 09 August 2002Reply With Quote
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What a top story and great photos. God, I wish someone had of released some of those beautiful antelopes here in Australia when all the other introduced critters were being bought in. Pronghorn could out run a dingo, pronghorn obviously don't live near water, so our crocodiles wouldn't get 'em and pronghorn are too big for our bloody feral cats to attack.
malcolm56
 
Posts: 46 | Registered: 09 March 2005Reply With Quote
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I've gotten a couple of inquiries about the wine. It's a good bottle of wine especially considering the price. Generally, I'm still boycotting all things French, but I'll make an exception for a good bottle of wine. Wink
Here's a link that will tell you more than I know and allow you to order a bottle or a dozen.
Wine.com


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Posts: 5053 | Location: Muletown | Registered: 07 September 2001Reply With Quote
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Using my superior tracking skills, I was able to locate my downed antelope...


jump Came close to loosing him 'eh?

I read the heading then scrolled down to the picture and laughed so loud my son came into the room to see what the problem was. Great story and great looking goats. It's nice to see guys who aren't afraid to get a little weather on their customs.


---------------------------------

It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it
 
Posts: 741 | Location: NB Canada | Registered: 20 August 2002Reply With Quote
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Forrest, congratulations. It's good to see you put those beautiful rifles to good use. The snow must have been a shock after our scorching early fall. Bob
 
Posts: 1287 | Location: Houston, TX | Registered: 20 October 2000Reply With Quote
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