MONTANA ANTELOPE
October 2003
This year Sally and Adam and I drove to north central Montana and hunted
on our friend’s huge ranch. I first hunted this ranch about 1980
and we’ve gone back there a number of times since. But in the mid
to late 1990’s the antelope numbers plummeted in this area and we
either didn’t hunt antelope or went farther east to find the ‘goats’.
But the numbers are back up now and we pulled our camper east to the prairie
with a strong tailwind pushing us across Montana.
A little after daylight the first morning we headed out in the pickup
looking for antelope and it wasn’t long before we found a band with
what appeared to be a nice buck in the bunch. Parking the truck out of
sight, we made a sneak behind a low hill between the antelope and us.
Crawling the last 10 yards or so on our bellies I looked the bucks over
with binoculars and told Sally which one looked the best to me. She got
her rifle into shooting position while I ranged the buck with the Leica
LRF 1200 laser rangefinder. It read 353 yards. Shortly thereafter her
7mm – 08 barked and the 150 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip found its
mark. The buck was dead and we had our first antelope of the season at
8:30 in the morning of the first day.
Sally’s nice Montana buck shot with her 7mm – 08
at over 350 yards. She’s deadly with this little lightweight rifle
having killed a number of antelope, deer and even a 6-point bull elk with
it.
It was Adam’s turn next. We glassed over a few more small herds
looking for a decent buck. We made a couple of stalks that morning but
either the bucks were too small for so early in the hunt or the antelope
took off before we could get a shot. That afternoon though, after making
an unsuccessful sneak on a band we spotted from some high ground, we found
a buck for Adam. We were walking back to the truck when two bucks came
into view about 500 yards away. They were moving at a fast walk and hadn’t
seen us yet so we plopped down on the prairie and watched them as they
angled closer to us. They soon went out of site behind a small knob and
we quickly cut the distance between us by about 100 yards. Knowing about
where we’d see them again, Adam got into a shooting position and
we waited. The wait was short and when the bucks showed themselves, still
unaware of our position, I told Adam which buck I thought was the better
of the two and ranged him at 298 yards. The bucks slowed their gait and
our choice of the two turned broadside. Adam’s .243 launched a 100
grain bullet and we had our second buck down. This fellow had an unusual
horn configuration and was the reason for my choice. The right horn bent
out to the side at an odd angle and once we got up to him we could see
he had some extra little points beneath the right prong. A very nice second
antelope buck for a 13 year old.
Adam's buck for 2003. This buck’s right horn bends outward
and had a few extra knobs on it near the prong.
It was my turn next and I was going to be picky and get a really nice
buck. After all, Cory and Richard from the shop were hunting antelope
this year too in different areas and we had a six-pack of pop each bet
on the biggest buck. High stakes. As it turned out I was almost too picky
and nearly went home empty handed. So far we’d shot the first two
bucks with conventional carry-rifles and spot and stalk techniques. But
I’d brought my long-range rifle and shooting bench. But all the
time we hunted antelope this year it was too windy to shoot that way.
The conditions have to be good for me to shoot at a big game animal at
long range and on this trip it was just too windy. In fact, after we got
back home and I read the newspapers from the days we were hunting, there
was a story about 25 train cars blowing off the tracks near East Glacier
Montana. It wasn’t that windy where we were but the wind knows how
to blow in eastern Montana.
I made some good sneaks on a few lone bucks the next day that looked
pretty good through our optics at a mile or so away. But when decision
time came they were either too small or the bucks made the decision for
me by not cooperating. However, after one long sneak following a buck
to a water hole and thinking I had him while he got a drink, I found a
real treasure on the walk back to the pickup; a buffalo horn! The owners
of the ranch have found some horns on the prairie over the years and even
a few skulls. So, when I spotted this horn lying on the sod my first thought
was that it was a buffalo. And when I showed it to them the next day they
immediately confirmed that it was a buffalo horn that had no doubt laid
out there for 125 years or more! This part of Montana is arid and though
about 1/3rd of the horn was rotted away it maintains the original color
and conformation.
The buffalo horn found out on the prairie after 125 years or
more.
I did find a decent buck though late on our last day of hunting. We’d
spotted a lone doe about 300 yards away. With the late afternoon sun at
my back I set up my Lilja barreled .257 Weatherby Magnum while I lay prone
in the saddle of a low ridge. The Leica laser read just over 300 yards,
about the same distance as Adam’s buck. Soon a second antelope appeared
from behind another low ridge. Its head was down, feeding away from me.
It flashed black as its head swung up and down and I knew then it was
a buck. I’d decided if it were a good buck I’d shoot him.
He answered that question quickly by turning broadside and looking at
the doe. The duplex reticle was behind the shoulder and the 120 Sierra
Game King did its job. Sally and Adam had been watching me lay in the
sage brush from the truck and I yelled to them that I’d got a buck.
It was another fun antelope hunt and good family time together on the
prairies of Montana.
Dan’s buck of 13+ inches shot about an hour before dark
on the last day of the hunt. This buck was within 400 yards of Adam’s
bent-horn buck shot the day before.
Richard’s buck on the left and Cory’s on the right.
Richard is also holding his dad’s nice ivory tipped buck. Yes, we
kidded Cory about the size of his. Sally won the big buck contest this
year and she doesn’t even like soda pop.
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