20 October 2010, 21:23
Wildlife GalleryWyoming antelope hunt...
Guy’s, as I sit here surrounded with the first takings of the USHunting season it’s nice to see some elk, whitetails and antelope starting to fill the mix between cape buffalo leopards and plains game!!!
This year three of us took the time to go out and visit a dear friend in Wyoming - having planned the hunt for the last year seeing the first few antelope start to come into the shop here sure got the hunting bugs jumpin'!!
My wife Charlotte and I accompanied by a good friend of mine, “Big Ron” as we call him (he is 6.8 !!)
set off on our road trip, the gear was loaded up, the rifles were zeroed and re-zeroed, okay okay I admit the gear was packed and unpacked a few times!!! Okay so I get a little bit excited about this stuff - that happens when you love to hunt and spend your days talking to people about their hard earned trophies and all the experiences they have had collecting them!!!
Well, right out of the gate we started seeing antelope, they all looked huge to me, after all this was my first antelope hunt ever, and I was just thrilled to have the wind in my face and to truly be out in the midst of those wide open plains. Man that's what you work hard for!!!
We had agreed Big Ron would shoot first, to be honest it’s hard to explain what you feel when you watch a loved one, be it your wife, son or partner hunting - my heart swells at the thought of it - I am just blessed to have a wife and buddy that loves it like I do - Ron made a spectacular shot in high winds, I guess all that practicing paid off and our first great
Wyoming antelope was in the salt - sitting there as we took photos it was all quiet for a moment we were adjusting for the light, the winds in our faces and a sense of great peace came over us all - you guys know what I am talking about not sure what the non-hunting equivalent is but it sure is strong -
That afternoon my excitement got the best of me and I shot way over a buck that I thought was farther than it was - another great moment, wow how did I miss, it didn't take long for me to realize that missing meant two things - one was that you don't take that animal home, but the positive is that your hunt is not over and you get to hunt another day!!!
Charlotte’s tag put next with another great buck, awesome hooks on his horns and again a long shot successful based on lots of practice. We made those memories for our “life’s backpack” again by crawling hands and knee’s through all the cactus, pickers and stickers that we removed from each other after celebrating the shot and recovery!!!
My antelope was next; truth was with so many running around here there was never any worry that I wouldn't get one. Being my first goat ever I really didn’t know what I was looking at and after a 1 ½ mile stalk to within 250 yards, using a range finder to know the EXACT distance, I got a nice prone rest on my pack, and made the shot count this time. As usual when all was said and done my wife got a bigger one than me and that's all the more reason to celebrate - we are going to do a double pedestal mount with our two and its sure going to encompass an awesome western plains experience -
Take a friend hunting this season - it will make it all richer
Oh and by the way send us all your taxidermy
