Save $100 on the Leupold VX-3HD

16 3/4" spread antelope in Wyoming, OYOA style

Canoe Country

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2012
Messages
104
Location
Appleton, Wisconsin
Well, I would like to start by thanking my brother (Outdoor Junkie) and 4 of my friends for one of the best guys trips I have ever been on. My brother and I spent over a hundred hours combined making phone calls, reviewing Bing Maps, and putting a ton of info together. This was my second year to Wyoming and I will definitely be back. We pulled into camp early afternoon on September 30th, worked hard and glassed a lot of land over the next 5 days.

On the evening of Thursday, October 4th, my entire group had filled their antelope tag except me when my friend spotted a huge antelope with about 15 does about 1000 yards out on the far side of an open river valley. My brother and I put on the stalk knowing there was very little cover but we had to try. We got busted a few hundred yards into the stalk and he started to push his herd about half way up the large hill beyond the riverbed. I set up at 500 yards but couldn't get a good view at his head but I knew he was big. My brother convinced me to try to put on a fast stalk to get to the far side of the river bed and try to set up at 350 yards before he crested the ridge with his does. Shortly into this he pushed his does with his horns and guided them over the ridge. Once he started pushing his does we started into a very fast trot to get to our set up point. I layed down in the prone and impatiently waited for my brother to give me the range. He stood broad side just below the ridge crest as my brother called out "350 yards", I squeezed the trigger on the trusty 300 WSM and as soon as I shot he quickly disappeared over the hill.

My brother and I debated whether or not I hit him until we crested the ridge and saw him laying 50 yards later with a solid double lung shot.
2012 antelope.jpg
Nothing better than sharing and enjoying a moment like this with one of my bestfriends and twin brother. This just goes to show the good lord rewards those who work hard. I also attached a pic of my brother's muley and a pic of all of the bucks our group got (short of 2 antelopes that were at the taxedermist.

IMG-20121003-00117.jpg
IMG-20121005-00121.jpg

I love Wyoming!
 
We had a blast. What Bob (canoe country) forgot to include is taht this was all DIY, public land hunts in Wyoming in an area that has left over antelope and mule deer tags. The good folks of Wyoming are truly blessed with some phenomenal hunting opportunities and tons of public land (even on the eastern side of the state) ;) .

The muley was taken at 250 yards with a 30 mph cross wind on Wednesday. Thank god for the ballistics print out I had on my stock. I nailed him right behind the shoulder and he dropped on a dime.

The pile of meat is at my brother house when he got home on Saturday. A large amount of the meat was froze solid between the dry ice and the cold temps on Wednesday and Thursday night.

All in all, it was an awesome hunt!
 

Attachments

  • IMG-20121001-00115.jpg
    IMG-20121001-00115.jpg
    159.3 KB · Views: 1,257
  • IMG-20121003-00116.jpg
    IMG-20121003-00116.jpg
    172.1 KB · Views: 1,246
  • IMG-20121007-00122.jpg
    IMG-20121007-00122.jpg
    99.3 KB · Views: 1,245
Great buck! Looks like you guys will have lots of good antelope meat to chow on this fall
 
That's a pile of meat. Interesting to see the different sizes of the heads.
 
We actually cut the animal up when we get it back to the vehicle. My brother has a hitch hanger he welded before last year, which slides out and lays in the back of the pickup. We bring 2 collapsable plastic saw horses, a piece of plywood that is cut down to fit in the truck bed and a roll of paintes plastic to make sure we have a clean surface. Usually the animals are completely cut up within 1 hour and on dry ice.

We got one heck of a wierd look when a few guys drove by us on a 2 track while we were cutting up an antelope in the middle of nowhere.

With that said, we were probably giving them a wierd look as they drove around wih their dirt coated antelope in 76 F temperatures on their hitch rack. ;)

Here is a couple pics of an antelope on "the rack" from last year.
 

Attachments

  • IMG00053-20111002-1917.jpg
    IMG00053-20111002-1917.jpg
    49.3 KB · Views: 968
  • IMG00055-20111002-1920.jpg
    IMG00055-20111002-1920.jpg
    39.9 KB · Views: 972
My taxidermist gives me $$$ for Wyoming antelope capes because WY antelope bucks have great looking and colorful necks with a distinct heart shape on the front of the neck. Older bucks have nice dark black muzzles too. I usually have my bucks mounted but my friends that do euros give me theirs and that helps offset my costs. Food for thought.
 
Back
Top