Father/Son Wyoming Antelope Hunt

[IdahoBugler]

It had been 3 years since the old man and I had been hunting together (both of us with tags). So when I asked him if he wanted to do an out-of-state hunt for antelope in Wyoming he jumped at the chance. Now the search began to find an area that we had a decent chance to draw with zero points since I had drawn last year and dad doesn't accumulate points. We made our choice and hoped for some luck. Luck was on our sides and we had two tags to go hunting.

Now when we drew the tags I had told dad not to expect anything that great and to just be happy with seeing lots of goats. He was fine with that and we both agreed that the time spent afield would be successful enough. With that said we both had a mind to find goats in the mid 70's to take back home with us.

I should have warned my dad earlier but when I go hunting in Wyoming it always seems to be snowing. Not your typical antelope weather but we were hunting and that's all that matters. We arrived late Wednesday night (3:30am) to a heavy snow fall. We setup camp and got a few hours of sleep. When we awoke we had 2" of fresh snow on the ground and FOG!!! Even though there is a lot of tags given for this unit we seemed to be the first ones out that morning. We started seeing goats early and within a few hours we had a great buck spotted that we thought would go in the high 70's. Two unsuccessful stalks and we were in search of more goats.

We saw a ton of these guys. I'd say 100-150 the first morning. How many do you see?

It was also apparent the muledeer herds were doing pretty good also.

A nice buck we saw on a crappy antelope weather day. He has two kickers on his left G2 and on matching one on the other.

 

[Moosie]

Welcome home.....

 

[IdahoBugler]

We were hard at it again to try and find a good buck. We finally had some clearing late in the afternoon and spotted a great buck in a very stalk able location. He was in a herd of 2 bucks and 7 does. We made our approach and got within 200 yards of him. I setup the video camera and started rolling. Just as dad was settling in I noticed he was on the wrong buck. I told him he was on the wrong one and he said, "There's two bucks there?" Wow that was a close one. When we first spotted them he had only seen the one buck so he thought the herd contained only him. Now that he was on the right one he settled in and made the shot. The buck was moving slowly and he hit him a touch back in the liver. The buck went 20 yards and bedded. One more shot later and he had a great buck down. At only 13" long but with exceptional diggers and great mass the buck gross scored 78 1/8".

 

[BuzzH]

That antelope of your Dads has some character, great buck.

Congrats to your Dad.

 

[JoseCuervo]

Congrats to dad.....

A stud buck in any weather condition...

 

[DRAFTSTUD]

WTG! Great job on the nice Buck. I really wish I could have done a hunt out west with my dad. Good Times for the both of ya'll. Congrats. John

 

[IdahoBugler]

The rest of the evening was spent packing his goat out and looking the last few hours for another one. Lots of goats were found but just not the one.

The next morning was even worse then the first day. Lots of snow and low visibility. We hunted hard all day, looking over hundreds of goats but again still not finding the right one. The right one being one that would score better then dads. Two bucks in the mid 70's would have been in trouble if dad hadn't set the bar so high.

That night was bitter cold, somewhere in the single digits. It made it tough getting up especially since it was foggy again. But you can't shoot anything from camp so we got out of our tent and headed for the hills again. The weather started out crappy but cleared up within the first few hours of the day. We spotted a bunch of antelope and found a great buck about 1 mile away. The only problem is he was in a huge flat area with no approach to him and to make matters worse he was with a herd of 75+. We left him alone and looked for others. Within the next couple hours we spotted another great buck but we has on private ground. We waited him out for 2 hours but he just wouldn't cross the fence even though 50+ others kept coming across. The closest he got was 200 yards. It was now getting late and starting to get cold, time to head back to see if the first buck had moved. As luck would have it he was in a decent area for a stalk but was still with the 75+. I dropped off the top and got within 550 yards fairly easy. From there I was in plain view of all those eyes. I started the belly crawl and got within 400 yards of the goat I wanted. I setup for the shot when he got up and started walking towards a doe. When he stopped I settled in for the shot and hit him a little low just under the heart. (When we pulled the heart out it looked as if it was bruised/blood shot) In waiting for him to stop he had walked another 25+ yards and I didn't compensate for that. He was hurting bad and didn't go 5 yards. I settled in again and dropped him with the next shot. When I walked up to him I knew he was good but just not sure if he was as good as dads. What do you guys think?

We packed him out and decided to get a good nights sleep before he headed home. The next morning was again cold and snowing. The traveling was slow and took an extra 1.5 hours to get home. All in all a great trip spent with my dad.

So do you think the buck I shot was bigger then my dad's and if so how big?

 

[Oak]

Great bucks, both of you! Where's the Shaka with your buck???

I think your buck is bigger than you told me in the text, and probably 1-2" bigger than your dad's. Maybe 79".

 

[rosco]

Great job! I hate judging off photo's, but yours looks like he will push 80, his mass below is tough, not the oval look, but still looks heavy.

Those are some awesome prongs on your dad's buck. been seeing some great bucks, with huge prongs coming from Wyoming this year.

 

[Big Fin]

Hard to tell from the pics Bryce. Both of them are shooters, for sure.

I am thinking you have the length sewn up by about an inch and a half. Dad makes it up in the prong and upper two mass measurements. From these pics, I am thinking they are near the same, but given how you asked the question, I suspect you have him by about a quarter inch.

But, since we only get to see one side, we all get a mulligan on the guessing. I know they fall into the "Shoot on sight" category, especially on a tag drawn with no points.

Congrats to both of you.

 

[shoots-straight]

What do you guys think?

I think he has really big nuts. He should score better than dads. You think!

 

[BuzzH]

Looks to be every bit as good as your Dads, just cant tell mass from pictures very well, but he looks to have good mass.

I dont like scoring antelope in the field and I'm not that much better at judging them from pictures. I'd have to agree with Oaks score of 79.

The shape of the horns at the bases would make an estimate easier for me on the score.

Doesnt really matter what it scores, thats a great buck and I know first hand a real good buck for the area you hunted.

Theres some good bucks running around in that area for sure.

 

[AZ402]

You guys did great! Congrats to you and your dad.......

 

[IdahoBugler]

Man you guys are good. When I saw this buck I new he had decent mass but it wasn't until I shot him that I noticed he really has that oval shape to horns. I guess I really need to pay attention to front/back view more. From the side view it looked as if the base and first measurements would be the same. But from the back you can see the base measurement was 1/2" bigger. If it helps any his base measurement is 7".

His prongs also curve in. Making it almost impossible to get an accurate prong length when judging in the field.

All I'm trying to show here is that these things are a pain in the arse to field judge. The guys like Eli, Greeny and a few others out there that can judge these things to the inch is just plain amazing. Like you guys said I only showed the one side as that is all I took the pictures off. I'm sure you guys would have pegged the score if you had all the angles but in the field we usually don't have that option.

 

[Oak]

The guys like Eli, Greeny and a few others out there that can judge these things to the inch is just plain amazing.

I think the only way to do that consistently is to scout and video or photograph the bucks, then analyze the stills on your computer back at home. Bet they would tell you that's the way they do it.

14 1/8" long
5 3/8" prongs
Mass:
7"
7"
3 6/8"
2 6/8"
Total: 80"

 

[1_pointer]

Congrats on two great bucks!!! I guess the next time I hunt pronghorns I need to quit shooting the first one that gets close enough...

 

[Buschy]

Wow! Sweet bucks. The weather was a pain for sure, but it made for some beautiful pictures and great memories with your father. A big congratulations!

 

[nmtaxi]

Very nice!!! Congrats on two great bucks.

 

[wyomuledeer]

Congrats to you and your dad on two very nice goats.

 

[IdahoBugler]

Here are the numbers I came up with.

R L
Len 15 14 7/8
prong 5 3/8 5 2/8
H1 7 6 7/8
H2 6 4/8 6 2/8
H3 4 2/8 4 1/8
H4 2 6/8 2 5/8
80 7/8 gross