Just got back from hunting my first pronghorn antelope at the Grinde Land & Cattle ranch North of Gladestone in NE New Mexico. This is a beautiful 25,000 acre ranch. There was so much rain in the area that the roads were impassable at times and the prairie was green with tall grass. It was absolutely beautiful. You could watch the thunder storms roll across the prairie as a complete unit.

Being my first time I learned allot and made some mistakes. When I saw my buck I thought he was much further away as there were no reference points. No trees, no rocks, nothing to judge against. I placed several shots on the hillside above him. My partner told me I was shooting over him so I adjusted and unfortunately nailed him in the leg. Then I knew I had to put this animal down as he was wounded. He had turned and was quickly increasing the distance at a slight angle. My final shot nailed him through one lung and the heart at a distance of 410 yards and he collapsed in his tracks.

I was shooting a Winchester M70, 30-06 with 165gr, Remington Accutips zeroed for 300 yards. I was somewhat dissappointed as the remenants of the bullet was mere fragments in the off side at the base of the neck. If I'm not mistaken I thought that bullet was/is the Nosler Accubond which I expected to be in one piece. The entry wound was probably 2" in diameter so it must have massively expanded on impact and came apart in the chest cavity. Doesn't make sense as the hole through the heart appeared to be a uniform caliber size hole. Must have been a fragment of the bullet or bone.

He isn't record book, but he is my trophy.

Good lookin' goat Joe! Congrats

Great shooting and great antelope!

Doug

Mighty Joe,
That's a mighty nice antelope. Congratulations.

Quote:

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I was shooting ... 165gr Remington Accutips ... If I'm not mistaken I thought that bullet was/is the Nosler Accubond which I expected to be in one piece.

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The Accutips are Hornady SST's. They're not bonded, but I'm suprised the bullet fragmented at that range. It would have been a grenade at a shorter range.

Gentlemen; Much to my surprise, I received a personal email at home from John Nosler advising me that the Remington Accutip is in fact not a Nosler Accubond, but rather a Hornady SST. I am relieved as I recently purchased 400, .338 Nosler Accubonds to load for my new (to me) Sako Finnbear 338WM. I have used allot of Hornady bullets over the years and have been very satisfied, but I won't be using the SST, thats for sure.

My thanks to John Nosler for taking the time to send me a personal note of congratulations on my first goat hunt. Class bullets from a class company and class management.

Mighty Joe: Congratulations on your goat. My brother and I just completed an excellent hunt up near Craig, CO and we each took very good specimens...and yours looks great. I used 150 NPs, which is a very fast bullet in my 300 Wby..it was more than I needed but it worked very well...and I have never been one that believes in overkill. My brother used a 130 gr Nolser Ballistic Silvertip bullet which smacked his antelope in the dirt. Again, congatulations on your antelope.. How is the meat on yours?

Robert Jobson

MJ, great antelope!! Good for you.

I'll be going after a Wyoming goat in Mid October. I'd love to get one as good as yours!!

Doc.

Great goat, Joe! Thanks for posting.

I too just returned from an antelope hunt in New Mexico. We were right near the town of Raton.

Like you said, it has rained all summer and the place was pretty wet and the grass very high. The darned prairie is so open you can see for a heck of a long ways.

Three of us went and we collected three very nice antelope bucks. We all were shooting Nosler Partitions. We used a 25-06, a 270 Winchester, and a 270 WSM. We all had very good bullet performance with complete penetration. It is great that you had a correspondence from John Nosler concerning the bullets. I understand Bob Nosler was hunting the ranch right next to us when we were there.

Again, congratulations on your antelope.

R F

Great pronghorn, congratulations, I like the picture with the miles and miles of grass. Was this a guided hunt?Outfitter name? Thanks Ben(rug)