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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).  ______________________________ "Truth is the daughter of time." Francis Bacon | ||
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Very nice group (the antelope  ) 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. | |||
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Sounds like a nice hunt, nice critters and wow boy tell me about that #1!? Thx Mark D | |||
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Nice photos, congratulations! But please, some more informations about rifles, calibers, shot placements etc. | |||
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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. | |||
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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!  Especially in Wyoming. | |||
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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. _____________________ A successful man is one who earns more money than his wife can spend. | |||
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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! | |||
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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. MARK H. YOUNG MARK'S EXCLUSIVE ADVENTURES 7094 Oakleigh Dr. Las Vegas, NV 89110 Office 702-848-1693 Cell, Whats App, Signal 307-250-1156 PREFERRED E-mail markttc@msn.com Website: myexclusiveadventures.com Skype: markhyhunter Check us out on https://www.facebook.com/pages...ures/627027353990716 | |||
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Those are some fine goats... congrat's! | |||
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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 | |||
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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 | |||
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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. ______________________________ "Truth is the daughter of time." Francis Bacon | |||
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Looks like some nice turbo goats with some nice company!  Best, JohnTheGreek | |||
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those antelope look pretty tame  just kidding...good going guys  577 BME 3"500 KILL ALL 358 GREMLIN 404-375 *we band of 45-70ers* (Founder) Single Shot Shooters Society S.S.S.S. (Founder) | |||
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Forrest, Thanks for an interesting (and funny!) report. It's clear that a good time was had by all. | |||
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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. | |||
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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 | |||
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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 ACGG Life Member, since 1985 | |||
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Forrest, Great story love the photos...your tracking skills are better than mine...I would have lost the buck. Mike Never under estimate the internet community's ability to reply to your post with their personal rant about their tangentially related, single occurrence issue.  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. | |||
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Nice goats! ~Ann   | |||
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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. | |||
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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 | |||
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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.  Here's a link that will tell you more than I know and allow you to order a bottle or a dozen. Wine.com ______________________________ "Truth is the daughter of time." Francis Bacon | |||
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 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 | |||
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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 | |||
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