Jacob got his antelope

Idahoron

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Well today was the first day of Jacobs first antelope hunt. It was also his first time to hunt them with a muzzleloader. We have scouted a lot this summer and saw a lot of bucks. As his hunt grew near the water and the bucks in the area were in short supply. To top off a little bad luck it rained the last couple of days so the antelope were not on water, and I forgot Jacobs?s shooting sticks. Well I found a couple of alder sticks on the road to his area, and made a set of shooting sticks with a string.

For this hunt we decided to try a new tactic. We were going to hunt scrapes. We found a spot that had a lot of sign and the bucks had scraped and peed there a bunch. We sat up a blind and we set out a decoy. We saw a few does at first light. At about 9:30 I look over and told Jacob that a buck was here.
He asked about shooting it and I told him it was his hunt he would need to decide for him self. Soon he said I am going to try it. I was watching out of a hole in the blind. I had used the range finder and he had the yardage, he set the sight for 86 yards, and all that was left was to get into shooting position without being seen. This is what the antelope saw.

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He eased the rifle up and the antelope had him pegged. The buck stared at us and I thought at any second he would bolt. The buck turned his head and Jacob got the big 50 on the shooting sticks. I heard the hammer #####. I heard the set trigger snap. I eased my finger into my left ear and watched. At the shot I saw the bucks whole left side sink in. I saw the buck thrown sideways a step. A huge hunk of hair was hanging in the air. I also saw the bullet skip at least four times across the dirt and grass kicking up dust. The buck was on the run now. Jacob said I could not have missed! I said, ?you didn't?. The buck wobbled and I saw the blood coming out of a hole in his ribs. A couple more steps and the buck was down. The big 460 grain Paper Patched slug had done the job.

He was so happy he had a smile all over his face. He had just killed his first Muzzleloader antelope buck. I was way more than excited for him. Ron

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Congrats on a nice buck and what sounds like an exciting hunt. That blind is awesome. Great pics and story.
 
That is a nice buck, never occured to me to hit the scrape areas, good Idea! I also like the decoy, I am using one of the first prototypes and it is a bit too big and larger in horn size, and we have about half of bucks run off.... so we speculate that is the case anyways.
RIP Lil Bro' "Huntnfever"
 
LAST EDITED ON Sep-26-12 AT 11:42AM (MST)[p]I admire the inegnuity for the shooting sticks. It would be difficult (nearly impossible) to hold a heavy barreled muzzleloader still enough for a 50+ yard shot with buck fever for sure!!

Is that a Lyman Deerstalker Muzz? I have the same one with a slightly different finish to the wood and different trigger guard etc. but love it.

Great work and congratulations.
 
Way to stick with a traditional muzzle loader. I always thought it felt better packing around one of them then the inlines
 
Thanks guys. This was a super hunt for me for so many reasons. Jacob is such a great kid he deserved it. He has been a life guard for a couple years at the city pool. This summer he taught swimming lessons for free for his Senior Project, and he started a fund raiser to install a new diving board, slide, pool filter, and new life guard equipment. He spent all summer working three jobs and fund raising which he raised $15,000 for the city pool upgrade project. He was so busy that he only got to go fishing a couple times. This hunt gave us several scouting trips and the hunt. Like I said he is a good kid. Ron
 
Congrats. My middle son killed his 3rd idaho antelope in 6 years just yesterday and they have all been fun and make for good memories.
 
Congrats back at you. Deer is next and I don't think I will get to hunt for a deer my self but that's okay. I would rather see him get them. Ron
 

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