SFC B
Well-known member
Well, I pulled a RFW tag for a doe here in CO at a ranch outside of Craig. The ranch is administered by Elkhorn Outfitters and Dick Dodds. They were nice and accomodating about giving a heads up on where to look on the ranch for antelope at check in. At check in I was there at the same time as a couple of guys from Vail and we talked as the staff checked us in we were asked which section of the ranch each of us wanted to try and when these guys (who had hunted the ranch before) told Dick they also invited me to share camp with them. They were in a pop-up and I was sleeping solo in my 2 man Jack Wolfskin Chinook. We left the outfitters and headed to a piece of public land just outside the ranch where these guys knew of a great little campsite. Once there we setup our respective quarters and then proceded to share dinner, discussed our strategy for the opener (Saturday), had a few adult beverages courtesy of the extensive bar they travel with and listened to the Blues channel on Sirius radi until time for bed. We woked just left just before sunrise as we were right at the ranch boundary. We were seeing prongys right from the get go but wanted to travel to the interior of the ranch to get away from road hunting per se. We got off of the dirt county road and onto the ranch "roads". We spent all morning trying stalks in this wide open country and getting fairly close a couple of times. Dick, the shooter of the other two guys, took a long shot at a doe but missed high and that, along with the temps getting close to 85 signaled it was time for lunch. We pulled into camp around 1-1:30 and after eating planned to take cat naps before heading back out later in the afternoon. 4 rolls around and we mount up in our rigs and head back out looking for trouble. About that time the front that had been moving in all morning started cutting lose several miles to the north of us. We were getting the noise but no rain. A few miles in I spotted a small herd (about 8) on a hill side +- a mile off the road. I tried to signal the guys to pull over but it took a couple of miles before they saw me. Once they pulled over and I told them what I had seen we headed back. Not only were these prongys mostly does but their position was good for a stalk. Between where we parked and the prongys were two small ridges that we could use for cover as we dropped below their sight line right off the road. At the first ridge we snuck up and ranged them at 560....to strong for either of us. So we back out, down into a creek bed, around to the south a couple of hundred meters and then back up the next ridge. This one ranged 379 and it was time for Dick to give it a shot. He settled in on his bipod and squeezed off one and then another...missed way low and the antelope had no idea what was going on. I then pulled my rifle onto the shooting sticks, settled on about my 400 yard mark on the BDC of my new Vortex and squeezed. She went down and never moved. I was a little forward and hit her in the neck just forward of her shoulder but it was an instant kill. We quartered her out and beat feet for the truck as the storm got closer. All was good. Spent the evening in the camper eating bison chili, telling stories and drinking some more. This morning I packed up and came home a much richer man with two new friends and an antelope :hump:
