We (my brother, a friend and I) got back from Wyoming this morning about 6 AM after 20 hours of driving with three buck antelope on ice.

We hunted out of a friend's ranch west of Medicine Bow, Wyoming I got mine the second day after a four hour stalk and passing on at least 50 smaller bucks. I had looked this buck over and even at 1,000+ yards I could see that he had good mass and the tips came back far so he was the one I picked. He chased a smaller buck within 100 yards of me but I couldn't get a shot on him before he ran back to his harem. I stalked down the mountain about a 1/4 mile doing the last few yards in a crawl before the whole herd started moving toward me and I was caught out in the middle of the sagebrush flat with no cover higher than about knee high. My buddy was directing me with hand signals from behind a rock 400 yards away, to tell me which way the goats were moving. I had a small ridge about 50 feet in front of me and the antelope were walking on the slope behind it about 250 yards away. A doe passed through an opening in the sage brush ahead of me and I lasered her at 286 yards I had glimpsed the buck a couple of times and knew that he was coming next so when the front of his neck came into view, I put a 100 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip bullet through it. He did a bang-flop and I didn't get a real good luck at his horns until I got to his carcass. Here he is:

The BT left a nice little hole in the neck going in but the two vertebra that exited the other side destroyed the cape.


My brother stalked a nice buck but wound up having to take a shot at about 390 yards, uphill in a strong crosswind when a group of does busted him. Here's his buck:

He actually had a bigger buck shot out from under him when he and another hunter were both stalking the same buck without knowing the other one was out there, for about 1.5 hours. The other guy shot the buck while my brother was watching through his scope.

While we were shooting prairie dogs a coyote ran out on the far edge of the field and I estimated him to be about 750-800 yards out, so I spun the elevation dial on the scope up 12" and held high on his shoulder. At the shot my friend told me that I shot over his back and the yote started running to my left. He paused one more time and I held for his lower leg and drilled him right through the lower shoulder with the 142 grain Sierra Matchking out of my 6.5x284. He took about 10 steps and started spinning around and collapsed. I drove my truck out to him and lasered back to a rock in the middle of the field and then drove to the rock and lasered back to my shooting bench for a combined yardage of 732 yards. He was a small coyote (about 20 Lbs) but I was pretty proud of the shot.

Not a bad shot there Frank

Do you eat the antelope??

Frank, great goats--super hooks! Congratulations to you and your brother. Tell us a little about your 6.5x284 if you will--I've got a couple in the works right now.

Regards--Don

James,
I had the tenderloins and loins cut out and packed as steaks and rest was ground into spicy sausage. My brother also had the sirloins cut out of his and a couple of roasts cut out and the rest into sausage.

Don,
My 6.5x284 is made on a Montana Rifle Co. left handed short action and a 26" Krieger #5 barrel. I had the action trued and the trigger set at 2 Lbs. The chamber is cut for a .296" neck so I don't have to neck turn the Lapua brass. I put it in a left handed Accurate Innovations super Varminter stock and if I do my part right in adjusting for elevation and wind it will put a bullet where it's supposed to go out every time.

Frank, thanks for the feedback. I have been trying to determine what length barrel to go with, and I was leaning towards 24 or 25....I was going to go with the Norma brass, hadn't discussed the neck in the chamber with my smith yet though. I like the idea of the Accurate Innovations stock.

I'll bet the spicy sausage will be great!
Thanks again--Don

Several years back I shot a beautifully pelted coyote while elk hunting near Lander, Wy. and was chewed out by a game warden saying shooting coyotes during a big game season wasn't legal but I was not ticketed. Nice antelope.

That is great! My brother and I leave Tuesday for Wyoming, right near Casper.

Hope we are as fortunate as you.

Those are some nice antelope, congrats! In the early 80's we hunted antelope north out of Medicine Bow. We always had doe tags and had no trouble filling them. And we always saw some very nice bucks.

Welcome aboard 300 hnh! Didn't you used to be at Field and Stream?