Hunted Antelope for the first time this year.

Had an outstanding time.

I hunted on a Private ranch south of Yeso, NM off US Hwy 60. I booked this hunt through Ray. The Ranch owner, his wife, and the guides were a great bunch. Accomodation were provided at the ranch, the owners wife did the cooking, and the guides not only had great eyes but a great sence of humor too. I think the owners wife was on a mission to put 20 pounds on us in three days.

I drove down with my father on Thursday and Friday was spent verifying zero, scouting antelope, and looking for coyotes to shoot. We only saw two coyotes in two days with no shot oppertunities. Saw lots of Antelope big and small as well as 5 outstanding Mule Deer Bucks.

Following a great breakfast on Saturday we headed out with our guides. We had 9 hunters hunting 90,000 acres with two hunters per guide. The Antelope were spread out in small groups with lots of ground between groups. Trucks were used to get us from the ranch house out to where antelope were spotted. The trucks had to remain on the roads so once we spotted the buck we wanted we had to get out and stalk closer.

I used a rifle my wife bought for me from a pawn shop. It is a cutomized Mauser K98 chambered in 7mm-08. I was shooting Hornady Light Mag ammo using a 139 grain SST chrono'ed at 2990 fps from my rifle. I figure my shot was at around 170 yards as my last range finder reading was 198 yards and I still had a large Choia cactus between us. So I kept crawling forward seveal more dozen yards. I used the cactus screen to extend my bipod legs for a sitting shot. As he moved past the cactus he stopped and turned towards be. He was standing still quatered slightly towards me. I steadied the cross hairs on him and gently began my trigger squeeze and then the gun fired and he droped instantly to the ground. Perfect double lung hit. It was now 8 am on Saturday and my hunt was over but I could not pass this guy up. No way.

Nice one, I leave in about an hour for the drive to Wyoming for my antelope and prairie dog hunt and I hope I see one as nice as that.

Nice antelope, congrats.

Pete

Fjold,

Good luck and I wish you a great hunt and a safe trip.

I planned on holding out for a while but once he came along I was out the door and scurrying accross the desert floor.

Actually, we had passed an 3 or 4 by that point already.

Thats a fine speed goat...I'd of shot him too

Weidmannsheil! Nice one, indeed! Sounds like a great hunt, nothing like crawling on your belly to make the adrenaline flow.
-mike

Very nice goat! Antelope in NM is a hunt I'd like to do someday.

Great looking speed-goat! Ray has some nice spots lined up. I am just finishing up a 7mm-08 on VZ-24 Mauser 98 action that a buddy is helping me with. I can't wait to drop a pronghorn with it in New Mexico next year!

Congrats!!

54Jnoll: Congratulations to you on the fine trophy! I wish you many happy returns! I harvested my first Pronghorn in 1969 and have Hunted them virtually every year since. Some years I Hunted both Montana and Wyoming for Antelope when the tags were drawn!
The 7mm bullets are great projectiles (fly flat) and I have taken Antelope with Rifles designated 7mm Express, 280 Remington and 7mm Remington Magnum! I have a close friend that has a 7mm/08 and he has done several Deer Hunts with it but no Antelope for him with it as yet.
That trophy is going to look great on your wall! Again congratulations to you on the Hunt the fine stalk and shot!
And thanks for sharing with everyone the great story and photos.
Also as an aside I just got back from a five day Antelope scouting trip to Eastern Montana. The Antelope were in full rut mode! I mean the Bucks were chasing Does and the Bucks were chasing each other and the bucks were rubbing their musk glands (on their cheeks just below the eyes) on sage marking "their" territory, and making scrapes in the prairie! Some folks are not aware that Antelope Bucks make scrapes on the ground much like Whitetailed Deer do. They often defecate in them - I am guessing they don't have much urine left in them after running all day out on the dry plains! I was actually feeling sorry for the Antelope one day on our scout (9/17/2,004) as it was 90+ degrees out and yet they hardly ever stopped running!
Did you notice any of this activity in the area you Hunted? I am curious as to when the Antelope down there rut as compared to the ones much further north (here in Montana).
Again thanks for the story and pics!
Hold intot the wind
VarmintGuy

Mho,

I must appologise I forgot the "leste bissen".

Gee I hope I spelled that right. It has been a long time since I got my Jagtschein. I think it was in 1993.

anyway ... vielen dank.

VarmintGuy,

Yep they were rutting in NM also. This guy was running doe this day as well as the day before. Saw several buck running doe and chasing off satalite bucks. Did not see them making scrapes though.

That is a very nice exceptional antelope, the mass is outstanding, you won't see many pronghorn with that kind of mass to the horns...product of an exceptionally wet year at the right time of year...On another ranch near you we shot over 60% over 15.5"s a couple of 16 pluses and one big boy over 17 inches...Its been a good antelope year...

54Jnoll,
When you have a bunch of hunters it is just very hard to stop them from shooting those 14 inchers, especially on a two day hunt,they panic on you and don't want to risk going home empty which the won't, but some are hard to convience, but if they do they will almost always get a 15 or better...

I love the mass on your plus 16 inch antelope, I would prefer him to 99% of the 17 inch antelope I have seen. I doubt that you will kill a better one in this lifetime, but I sure hope you do...Some years ago I shot an 18 inch plus antelope, but he was not as nice as yours and had they been together I would have shot yours!

Ray,

I suspect you are right as far as finding a "better" one. I told Charlie he ruined me.

I think I said earlier that we had passed on a couple already by that point of them being an 15 incher. He was really not in a very reachable location and one of the guys though he did not have a lot of mass. But I did not hold out too long. By 8:30 on day he shot, pictures taken, gutted, loaded, and we were looking for more. But yeah he is real pretty and even making a nice heart shape when viewed from the front. He was an old buck.

My father shot one of the 14 inchers. Ended up using my rifle after I got mine. We ended up hunting separate which ended up working out great. Gave us more to talk about later comparing hunts. He had an oppertunity on a larger buck but his rifle malfunctioned resulting in the animal bolting. His Remington fired when he closed the bolt at the end of his stalk.

Charlie, who was guiding my dad, and my guide met up and I swapped rifles with my father. He then put a long stalk on his smaller buck and took it with the Mauser. He is quite pleased with the animal he got though the other was bigger and non-typical as one horn grew slightly sideways. I think he was worried that you only get so many oppertunities.

I do not know the story on the other but its like you say ... a two day season looks really short near the end of day one.

Anyway that Remington is on its way to David Gentry for a new trigger and a 3-pos safety on the bolt. Yeah we could send it back to Remington for evaluation. But, we bought it used many years ago so who really knows if the trigger was touched. Besides I followed all the debate on the Remington trigger etc etc etc. I know this will cure it for good. Besides it is a real sweet shooting rifle that shoot 1" or less with multiple brands of factory ammo. And we just can't bring ourselves to sell it knowing it has a problem. The next guy might not be so lucky. David and I talked at length about it.

I had a backup rifle along that we ended up not using.

That's a good one. Congratulations.

Nice buck, well done.

Great Buck!

That is an Exceptional antelope.

Congrads!

Reloader

Ray,

One of the guys rough measured this one said just over 16 inches for both sides, the bases were about 6.5 inches or better and the prongs where better than 5.5 inches. I would guess we were over 50% 15 inchers or better as well. Out of the 8 guys that got there antelope I can think of only two that went 14-14.5 inches.

Everyone was definately pleased with the hunt.

DUK,

Being in the Army at the time I managed only three hunts and one of those I could only be a driver since I had yet to qualify on the rifle and shotgun proficiency portions. I had passed the written test by this point and we were waiting for range availability. I must say the whole program beats the heck out of US Hunter safety programs. Three months of classes; written test on laws, habitat, various species, tradition, firearms safety, firearms knowledge, and shot placement; plus shoot/no-shoot scenarios; 100 meter rifle qualification; and shtgun qualification on the trap field. For the rifle qualification we shot a boar sillouette standing either from the off hand position or using a simple walking stick for support. No cross stick or bi-pods allowed. Had to place 4 of 5 shots in the vitals too if I remember correctly.

The other two were pig hunts from high seats.

Still I had a great time and learned a lot.

Weidmann's Heil