This past week was spent on the eastern plains of Colorado, an AR connection turned friendship with the Snellstrom family the Grays and the Taylors. All top shelf people that have made me feel like I’m part of their close nit clan from the first days that we met.

Dave helps this Missouri boy each year apply for my Colorado deer, elk, and antelope licenses online…..I’m spoiled to Missouri’s over the counter system and ask for Dave’s help with the draw system. As the months past and I find out I didn’t draw any tags for the year in steps Chad to my rescue and scores me a landowner buck voucher and the table is set for October.

For this year’s trip my wife of 24 years “Tricia” will be making the trip with me to ride shotgun and help spot antelope as she has a great eye for finding distant critters. She is also a new hunter as of this year and has brought along her AR-15 to shoot prairie dogs after the antelope hunting is over. This will also be her first Missouri deer season in one month.

We leave the Poplar Bluff area at 1:30am Friday October 5th and drive straight through Missouri, Kansas, and then half of Colorado 14 hours to Dave’s house and unloaded and shot our rifles……I even shot Cody graybird’s .416 Rigby one time……WOW, once was enough! With all rifles checked out we had some great Snellsrom chili and cornbread before retiring to bed knowing Saturday’s weather was going to be very wet and cold, but ready to go kill some goats!

Our day one hunting party consisted of two brothers, Dave and Rick Snellstrom , cousin Alex Brown along with Dave’s youngest son Cody…..a fantastic young man that kept me laughing all weekend and taught me a lesson on eating ( still don’t know where he put it all), Tricia and myself as well as our friend Cody Gray. (Chad had to work all weekend and would join us Monday night). We then loaded up 2 trucks and headed east to look for antelope.

It’s cold! The wind is wiping it up hard from the south east with a steady light rain and light snow. As daylight is breaking the fog has drifted in and visibility is less than a quarter mile and you feel like you’re on a different planet. Hours slip by with no antelope until Dave spots a lone buck on the farthest edge of the fog at over 400 yards feeding away from us. We both drop into a low drainage and hot-foot it toward the buck to only find out it’s a short bust as we see a pair of hunters have pushed the buck out of any reasonable stalk range……the fog was so thick we didn’t see these guys from the beginning of the walk.

Graybird and Rick then put me on a good buck that leads us through 3 giant fields only to slip way out of my shooting range at over 550 yards. We then take a break to eat a tailgate lunch and some good laughs. As we eat the sky starts to lighten up with rays of sunshine and the prairie smokes as the fog starts to burn off and lift into the clouds……it’s still quite chilly with a brisk wind.
The last action of the day was with a small group of antelope in a giant pasture as Cody Gray and Alex set up to be shooters on the North-West end along the property fence line while Rick walked slowly to push the small group of goats toward our guys. Dave, Lil Cody, Tricia and I watched from nearly a mile away as Cody Gray scored on the lead doe with his .243. We all then met back at the road for a laugh and talk about the last little push and as light slipped away our day was over. Back towards Pikes Peak and a great spaghetti and meat ball supper. Sunday’s weather forecast was to be sunny and bit warmer. Rick has to work and won’t be joining on Sunday. Cody Gray will be along later Sunday to help spot after he takes care of his doe meat.

Sunday morning starts off with a long stalk on a good buck that has a large heard of does in a milo field and he’s working hard to keep them all in check. I drop out of the truck and start a 1 mile fast trot along the back side of the property to gain a high vantage point behind these goats and wait for them to work to within 350 of me. As I belly crawl up to a great spot with 3 Yuka plants as my cover I notice the heard has moved a very long way toward the west….I’m briefly confused but then notice 4 hunters walking straight at this heard (4 wide NASCAR style) and now the heard is very nervous, but move toward me, but I will need to crawl over about 75 yards to my right. I range the buck at 350 and get ready to set a bullet in flight but the heard being very nervous and the buck constantly keeping his does in check I couldn’t get a shot and the group of hunter kept walking until the heard roared off over the horizon. I return from the stalk to be introduced to my new friend Case Gray……quite possibly the most intelligent 4 year old I have ever had the pleasure to talk with and a handsome young man to boot. He’s eager to see some antelope. A couple blown stalks later and a strange thing happens that gets a small buck killed later that day.

Our group watches a small buck run nearly a mile after I spook him off a ridge line only to return to the middle of the field and bed down. I then drop into a low drainage and quickly walk low nearly a half mile to then drop down and crawl on my hands and knees for a couple hundred yards with only Yuka and a couple feet of rise to hide me. Our group of hunters perch themselves nearly a mile away and watch my hunt unfold through spotting scopes and binoculars “live action” as I reach my goal stoppage point in my crawl I realize my angle is bad and need to go to my left a good ways on my belly for a better vantage and then he stands!

The two of us are strangers that will soon close acquaintance. I already had him in my scope and as he tries to figure out what was there now that wasn’t there when he laid down I took a frontal shot with my .270 Win and set him on his butt dead right there! 9 ¼” of short horn but a proud long stalk that I shared with everyone as the trucks arrive with handshakes, laughter, smiles and pictures. The day turned out to be great in my book!

Monday roles around and its Alex’s turn. This is Alex’s first big game hunt and he’s excited to be out here with us hunting. Cody Snellstrom is in school today and the Gray boys have prior engagement’s as well. Rick is still at work and Chad is in route from Texas so it’s just Dave, Tricia, Alex and me today. Tricia spots 5 doe being worked hard by a small buck and he’s moving them along a high fence that’s over 3 miles long so we all drive down and around to set up our hunters for a possible run-in with this small heard. Dave and Alex leave the truck as Tricia and I watch from ½ mile + below with spotting scopes. A good amount of time goes by and we lose sight of our hunters as the slip into a drainage to cut off these goats….a shot echoes across the landscape and 4 doe and the buck run past us at break-neck speed. Time to go pick up our guys! We find our two hunters with a prize……..Alex has killed his first big game animal ever! His 270 WSM found its mark and it was now picture time!

After the field dressing we loaded up the goat and drove to Chads brothers house “Travis” to skin her out and put my wife on a dog town with her AR……she didn’t disappoint! For the next two days she fired over 200 rounds of .223 and we were joined by Chad and Hannah on day two for some long range dog shooting. Hannah made a great shot on a dog with her new .223 at a pretty long distance as Tricia killed one all the way out to 470 yards! With dead sod poodles lying around the hawks soon came into the all-they-could-eat p-dog buffet.

A group dinner at 3 Margarita’s with the families was a belly stretcher on Monday night and my wife and I dined with chuck375 at Colorado Springs’s Phantom Canyon Brewing Co Tuesday night. We had a great meal with a fine host…..thank you Chuck.

Dave scored later in the week with his doe tag at 242 yards with his 257 Roberts.

14 hour drive home back to the Ozark hills of southern Missouri and I already miss my friends….I want to thank each and every one of them as without them none of it would have been possible. I truly have a special place in my heart for them all.
Looking forward to more great times while fondly remembering the past with a smile.

Hope you enjoy.....Ted



He's a bit short but every tip of horn is broken off....a real bad boy






It's very faint but this is a view of Pikes Peak on the horizon to our right



This pic is from way-way off! Taken from a spotter by graybird....I can't see the goat as well as the others can because of the slight hump between him and I



WOW what a photo crew!!





The guys and the guest of honor "buck antelope"



Alex and his doe...his first big game kill!! Congrats Alex and many more



Dave's doe and his .257



Cody Gray's doe and his .243



My wife of 24 years.....Tricia



Tricia and her 470 yard dog





Man what a big tire!



Tricia realy enjoyed this type of hunting.....tree stand deer will bore her I'm afraid





Tricia wasn't the only problem the sod poodles had this day



I had a great time with Lil Cody and Case



The Colorado Springs area and Pikes Peak from 80 miles away



We were probably the only family in our neck of the woods grilling antelope tenderloin today

Ted,

Nice! Looks like a great time had by all. Antelope tenderloins. Yum!

Mark

Glad you two made it home OK.
Sorry work had to get in the way of the hunt and the fun that was had by all.
So glad Snellstrom has made such good friends with people off AR because they are now my friends too (except Graybird)just kiddin.
Hope Tricia can make it back with you on a future hunt, I heard she spoke more than one word sentences after Saturday.
RWS

Nice guys DO NOT finish last, do they Ted?

Stories like this make me sometimes wish I was more outgoing and into meeting new people.

Good on all of you.

Very nice, thanks for sharing!

Congratulations, really good story and a good looking goat.

Awesome!

Ted,

Glad you and the better half was able to make it west to spend a few days with us!

Case pulled another funny today! We were at the pumpkin patch waiting in line for the slide. We were talking about what the sun was good for. He said it was good for sunlight, to make the plants grow ... Then, the little girl in front of us said it was good to warm the earth. Her brother, who was probably twice Case's age said, "the sun makes me hot and sweaty." Case replied, "You should drink more water to stay hydrated.". I have no idea where he comes up with this stuff at barely 4 years old!!!

Too bad you're gonna miss elk/deer camp, but I expect to see ya there next year!

Hey! Notice anything different about Dave's doe?

Great story Ted! I didn't realize you had that much excitement out there on the prairie. I really like the picture of the badger. I'm happy as well that most everyone filled there tags, especially you and Alex.

My daughter is excited about shooting deer now that she realizes she can hit a much smaller target as well. Hopefully I'll be posting pictures of her first hunt with Graybird in a month. I can't wait until the next time we can all hunt as a group again. If you get Tricia that 6x45 upper we talked about, she can do the hunting next time.

I'm working hard trying to get her into a bolt gun for deer in her future.....I have an 84M in 7-08 I want her to use

Snell took the pic of the Badger.....good shot Dave!

Congratulations on a fine hunt!! Thanks for sharing!

Best regards, D. Nelson

quote:

Originally posted by graybird:
Hey! Notice anything different about Dave's doe?

right rear leg has a notch in it