The Gear

[VikingsGuy]

I promised a gear review in my hunt post. It's a little delayed, but here is my hindsight view of the gear I used on this year's 'lope hunt. As a seasoned hunter but first time western antelope hunter I had to learn a lot (and a fair amount to buy) this year. So here it is, the good and the bad.

GOOD:

• Mystery Ranch Pintler -- bullet proof, great size for full day hunts away from truck, ended up being my preferred shot rest as a bonus, very happy with this purchase (thank you Scheels for the sale).
• Kifaru Universal Gun Bearer -- We walked a lot and this was a great way to carry the rifle. Got the idea from BigFin and I LOVED it. My buddies mocked it day one and by day five both had ordered their own. I had ready (but stable) access to my rifle at all times, even when crawling, while half the time I had to help my buddies get their's off their backs.
• Sig Kilo 2000 rangefinder -- also a new purchase, fast, consistent and reliable out to 800 yards on pronghorns - very happy with this one
• Maven C1 10x42 -- great value, as good or better side by side with my buddy's vortex that cost almost twice as much, another win
• Weatherby series 2 (howa 1500 action/barrel) in H&S precision stock 25-06Rem - not new but a real tack driver and made the tough shot when it had to. Definitely my designated 'lope gun for future trips.
• Barnes TTSX 100gr .257" bullets -- 3200fps -- one shot -- one kill -- only moved 10 feet -- .7 MOA at the range, very happy with the performance (and nice to be lead-free) It was cool to harvest an animal with ammo I developed/loaded. Maybe another time I will do a good/bad on the hand load gear I have been using.
• First lite layers/outerwear -- from underwear, to rain gear, to puffy, to snow overalls and a mix of things in between my new clothing was wonderful. I am sure other premium brands would have performed similarly, but First Lite seems to fit us larger-boned hunters while the others don't seem to bother and run unnecessarily tight.
• Danner Pronghorn Boots -- My upland boots had extreme miles on them and the terrain was going to be a little different so I got new boots. I don't like plank-stiff boots and I wasn't mountain climbing so I went with something a less stiff. Time will tell about longevity, but for the first 50 miles they have been rock solid, bone dry and fit my feet well.
• The Range -- I spent a lot of range time this summer trying different distances, different shooting positions, different winds (as much as one can in wooded MN) and I really felt it paid off. 100yds was probably the furthest I had ever shot an animal before (other than prairie dogs off benches) and felt completely confident when presented with a tricky (due to terrain and spooky animal) 285yd shot.
• Hydrapak Shapeshifter 2L -- not new but I love the easy filling and easy cleaning of the open top bladders - and no leaking
• Havalon disposable knives -- not new but still great -- lightweight, sharp, no sharpening, no breaks, only one cut
• Caribou game bags - worked as expected -- hard to get too excited, they are bags
• GoHunt -- Super nice to work through application options -- in the end, not that happy with our final choice, but GoHunt did it's job and without it we would have been shooting in the dark (or not shooting at all if we didn't draw). Will definitely be renewing for next year.
• ONX -- hunt planning on the computer, maps on the iphone - worked perfectly - definitely renewing. It was a real necessity in a low-public land unit. Biggest gap -- a really cumbersome approach to downloading map segments to the phone for off-line use -- best new opportunity for them - please add CarPlay support
• inReach Explorer -- thankfully didn't need to use it - not new and have had to use it in past - a must carry from my perspective

BAD:

• I wasted a bunch of time and money buying and trying out various bipods, shooting sticks, etc. I tried just about everything from every position at a range of distances and in the end found that sitting down shooting off the MR Pintler was my most comfortable arrangement and I was almost as accurate as prone with bipod at range. In fact, my buddies struggled when prone shots didn't present themselves and they didn't have great alternatives because their practice was almost entirely off prone bipods or bench, in contrast I felt like I had a viable and stable shot in every instance (in NE WY terrain).
• WY G&F way over sold tags in Unit 9 - not a gear issue, but the biggest failing of our planning stage was picking that unit.

 

[OhHeyThereBen]

Great writeup!

 

[Irrelevant]

What time during the season did you go hunting? I hunted and unit with over 3x as many tags, less public land, and supposedly fewer 'lope. But we went the last week of season and saw very few other hunters. Just throwing that idea out there for future consideration.

 

[VikingsGuy]

What time during the season did you go hunting? I hunted and unit with over 3x as many tags, less public land, and supposedly fewer 'lope. But we went the last week of season and saw very few other hunters. Just throwing that idea out there for future consideration.

We went opening week due to scheduling limitations. And while there were a lot of hunters, it was the lack of animals that was frustrating. One of our group lives close enough he went back for second try on 4th week and saw zero hunters but even fewer pronghorn, even on private. Per my hunt post, if my S-I-L would have hit his shots and if I was a little less conservative on my max range we probably would have filled our 9 tags, but still disappointing numbers - an observation shared by many we talked to locally and non-res hunters. A game warden from a different region told me, "I don't know what they were thinking in 9, way to many tags for the population - gonna be some disappointed hunters in Lusk".

But I don't mean to complain too much - we put antelope in the freezer, had a great time together, learned a ton, drank a little (getting old), laughed a lot, we drew as second chance so still building points, definitely going back to WY for pronghorn again (and again).

 

[Irrelevant]

ah, gotcha.