Posted By: Ernie
Song Dog and a Buck=A Good Morning - 10/20/2017 1:25 PM
A little after first light this morning, we saw a really wide antelope buck, but I wasn't ready to shoot one yet as we hadn't looked at anything else. Then, we began to do the typical thing, glass the area, move, and glass the next area. After doing this for sometime, Dan saw a coyote to his left moving almost parallel to us. I had not even got the XP out of the back yet, but had everything else on me ready to go. She was just around 200 yards when I quickly ranged her. By the time I was set up, she was around 325 yards. Both of us were surprised that I had enough time to make the shot.
I knew that I?d ranged a little ridge (325 yards/5 MOA ) in front of her, so I aimed a little high (Still on the body), made a good trigger press, and we were convinced we put a good hit on her. She went just over the other side of that ridge and disappeared. We assumed she was down and then we continued heading south, glassing looking for more antelope.
The two track has a dead-end so we turned around and headed back that same way, and then got out and walked over to where we thought she would be. We did not measure how far she ran before she went down, but Dan guessed it to be 40-50 yards. We were able to find the actual impact point by the stringing out of hair and the blood trail, which Dan thought that was pretty cool. Shot placement was right where I wanted it to be.
We took some pictures and then started hunting antelope again.
We kept glassing and checked out a lot of the property, then went back to where a large herd was.
The largest buck of the group had been identified, now it was up for me to decide whether I was going to take him, or go to where we thought another group was that had a fairly nice buck about the same size as this one.
Length was around 13 inches, maybe a smidgen longer. Once I decided that I was going to take him, I grabbed my tripod and my gear for either a prone shot or a double kneeling shot.
I went prone on top of the prairie dog mound, and I had grass in the way and I could not make the shot. I extended the legs on my bog gear, came up on my knees, having already dialed the correction into the optic and then waited for him to get clear of some does. Once he was clear, made the shot and he immediately dropped on the spot at 237 yards when the 162 grain A-Max connected. To date, I had never shot this XP for big game, just for steel, paper, and an occasional prairie dog. We took care of everything, drove back to Gillette, and I took Dan out for lunch at Los Compadres.
Great morning!
I knew that I?d ranged a little ridge (325 yards/5 MOA ) in front of her, so I aimed a little high (Still on the body), made a good trigger press, and we were convinced we put a good hit on her. She went just over the other side of that ridge and disappeared. We assumed she was down and then we continued heading south, glassing looking for more antelope.
The two track has a dead-end so we turned around and headed back that same way, and then got out and walked over to where we thought she would be. We did not measure how far she ran before she went down, but Dan guessed it to be 40-50 yards. We were able to find the actual impact point by the stringing out of hair and the blood trail, which Dan thought that was pretty cool. Shot placement was right where I wanted it to be.
We took some pictures and then started hunting antelope again.
We kept glassing and checked out a lot of the property, then went back to where a large herd was.
The largest buck of the group had been identified, now it was up for me to decide whether I was going to take him, or go to where we thought another group was that had a fairly nice buck about the same size as this one.
Length was around 13 inches, maybe a smidgen longer. Once I decided that I was going to take him, I grabbed my tripod and my gear for either a prone shot or a double kneeling shot.
I went prone on top of the prairie dog mound, and I had grass in the way and I could not make the shot. I extended the legs on my bog gear, came up on my knees, having already dialed the correction into the optic and then waited for him to get clear of some does. Once he was clear, made the shot and he immediately dropped on the spot at 237 yards when the 162 grain A-Max connected. To date, I had never shot this XP for big game, just for steel, paper, and an occasional prairie dog. We took care of everything, drove back to Gillette, and I took Dan out for lunch at Los Compadres.
Great morning!
