It started a year ago when JeremyKs (Sagebrush Hunts) put an ad in the outfitter section here on AR. I had never been antelope hunting and it was on my bucket list. To make things better, I turned 60 last year and my wife suggested I contact Jeremy and go on the hunt for my birthday. A couple days later the deposit was on the way to Jeremy.

It was a long year wait. I was not in as good a shape as I would like, but I did lose considerable weight based partly on the inspiration I got from Todd’s (just-a-hunter) postings here on his progress. I also had the help of my faithful German Shepherd, Tank, who was always ready for a jaunt up and down the hills around home.



I also had time to get my rifles in order. Jeremy let me know that I would most probably be shooting at 300+ yards with shooting sticks. I have several rifles that are up to the task, but I wanted to get the most out of them, so I looked at my loads and began making sure they would all work. Since I always take a backup rifle, I did this for two rifles. My primary rifle was to be a 264 WM that was re-barreled by Hill Country Rifles with a 26” Lilja barrel. My backup rifle was my trusty Browning Highwall in 30-06. As it turns out, it was not needed. The 264 shot a little over 1.5” groups at 300 yards and that is certainly good enough.

I will say that throughout the entire hunt, I was very lucky. I started the trip from my home in suburban KC to Dalhart, Texas a day early so I would have plenty of time and a good vacation. I began on Sunday October 2. My hunt was not supposed to begin until Tuesday and Jeremy said I should be there Monday afternoon/evening. I did not make any sort of reservations along the way but got lucky. I found a room for the evening in Dalhart, which is about a 9 hour drive from my home. There was a single room left in the La Quinta Inn in Dalhart. I did not realize how busy Dalhart is on opening weekend. It seems Game Wardens from all over the state are sent to Dalhart just for the weekend. The one I talked to the next morning said that there were over 50 in Dalhart from all over the state.

The next morning, I had plenty of time, so I visited Gebo’s store to get my hunting license. Gebo’s is a great place. It is sort of a cross between Farm and Home and Cabelas. They had everything from horse tack to a full complement of AR rifles.

Hunting permit in hand, I decided to do a little sightseeing in Dalhart. The only issue I had was the Department of Transportation in Dalhart decided that EVERY highway in and out of Dalhart needed to be fixed at the same time. It did make it hard to get around. While looking around, I found out that Dalhart had a great Veterans Memorial. It had stones from all of the wars that Texas fought in with the names of the fallen soldiers from Dalhart and the surrounding county. It was not huge, but very interesting and inspirational at the same time.

From there, it was on to Jeremy’s place. I knew I was going to be a little early, but thought I would just kick back and be on vacation for the afternoon. It was not to be. I arrived at the ranch at a little past two. Jeremy’s wife Sara greeted me and pointed me in the direction of the “bunk house”. She let me know that Jeremy had gone to town to get some fuel and would be back shortly and to make myself at home. Now, I was expecting the bunk house to be a little rough. That was certainly NOT the case. What I found was a full three bedroom two bath house with all of the amenities including satellite TV. Now this was going to be a vacation!

The relaxation did not last long. Jeremy came in and introduced himself and his brother Jarrod who would be the guides for the hunt. There were to be four of us in camp. Jeremy asked if I had a chance to check the zero on my rifle. I had not. He has an area beside the bunk house with targets and gongs set out to 500 yards. The problem we had was the wind. It was calm the day before, but was now blowing a constant 30 miles per hour with gusts to 50. The targets were all set so the wind would be a cross wind. Jeremy decided to set the 300 yard gong downwind instead. It was a quick sight-in. One shot in the middle of the gong assured me the rifle was still on.

Jeremy’s next comment was, “Well, you’re here and I have nothing else to do so why don’t we go hunting?” It sounded good to me. About that time two of the other hunters showed up. They sighted in their rifles and we were ready to go. I was going with Jeremy and the others were going with Jarrod. Off we went.

We drove down the highway for a couple minutes and then turned south on the dirt road. After going about half a mile on the dirt road, we saw the herd of antelope about 600 yards off the road. There appeared to be two good bucks in the group with about ten does. We stopped the truck and retrieved the shooting tripod from the back of the truck along with the cow decoy. Having never hunted antelope before, I asked Jeremy about the cow. His response was, “Thank goodness antelope have no idea how many legs a cow has. I have used this cow to get much closer to antelope than I could have otherwise.” Who was I to argue? It sounded like fun.

Off we went bent low behind the cow decoy up the road to a small hill we came over while driving in. As we walked, occasionally we would stop and look over the small hill we were behind to see if the antelope had moved. The second time we stopped and peeked over the hill, we were nailed by one single doe. She just stared at the tops of our heads. She watched us for what seemed an eternity. We backed down and mover a little further up the way. Peeking over the top we found out she was still watching us. About that time two smaller bucks started coming toward the herd from our right. I was hoping something was about to happen. It did. As the smaller bucks got closer the rest of the herd began to move. Fortunately, they began to move toward us. They were not moving quickly, but they were definitely coming at us. Jeremy looked around and said he thought the herd would cross the fence line we were on about 100 yards up the hill. What we were afraid of was they would cross just on the other side of the hill where we could not see them. So we moves a little further toward the top of the hill.

About that time, Jeremy started to poke his head up to see what progress the antelope had made. He immediately popped back down. I heard him say, “Get your gun ready! They are right here. I see horns just over the rise.” It took a minute to get the tripod steady in the soft sand/dirt, but I managed to get it ready. He told me to take the safety off. Then it happened in a hurry. Just as soon as I got the safety off, the biggest buck popped on top of the hill we were watching. He was less than 100 yards from us. It was more like 75, AND he popped up broadside. That was all it took for this boy. I let the 129 grain Hornady InterLock go. I could see I had hit the goat. Jeremy got a big smile on his face and stood up watching. He told me he saw good blood as the buck went down. The antelope was down in seconds after a short 50 yard sprint. Needless to say I was happy.



Jeremy got him field dressed and we put him in the truck. The only bad news came when he was being skinned and caped. It appeared that this goat had an infection completely under his skin and none of the meat was able to be saved. None of us was willing to take the chance. The meat was more brown than red as well. The consolation is that we were able to take the goat out of the herd.

The next day, it was a good feeling to just be able to ride along with Jeremy and the other hunter in our group who was “Bill Collector” who occasionally posts here. He is a great guy and a lot of fun to hunt with.

The only thing left was the drive to Jerry Huffaker in Abilene for the taxidermy. Jerry is also a pleasure to talk to and do business with. Now I just need to wait until next year for the mount to come in.

That's a nice one Larry, way to go!

Congrats on a great trophy, and thanks for sharing the details!

I that's a very good looking speed goat! Congratulations on a successful hunt!

Nice Panhandle goat! You are are rightly proud of him!

Jeremy has a great outfit and I have hunted with him numerous times. You were in good hands from the get-go! He is an up and comer for southwest big game hunting,,, from Kansas to Texas and New Mexico.

Hunted with Jeremy several times. He and his brother do a great job. Lots of fun and you see a lot of antelope!

Fantastic buck! Congratulations.

Outstanding antelope! Jeremy is a fine young man with a sweet wife. He has,some serious antelope!

.

It was a pleasure having you in camp! Great recap of the hunt.
Thanks!


Jeremy Gugelmeyer
www.sagebrushhunts.com

Beautiful antelope. I was through Dalhart about a month before you...you're right every road was torn up. LOL....

Regarding Farm and Home. Family Center in Harrisonville has gotten a decent amount of money from me over the years.

Heeler, me too. My mother lives in Peculiar and I buy her things for the house there a lot.