LAST EDITED ON Aug-16-12 AT 00:10AM (MST)[p]This year on our annual 50/52 muzzy lope hunt my mom was going to be the one behind the muzzy. She is a teacher and has not been able to hunt this hunt for a while due to school starting the Monday after. This year school started a week later. She decided to hunt this year.
My mom has killed 2 other antelope bucks before both scoring in the low 70s. This year she wanted to hold out for something a bit bigger. Opening morning found us walking and glassing to find a nice place to set up. Right away we had a group of 8 antelope within 100 yards of us. The buck in the group was just a bit too small to shoot on the first day so we passed him up.
A few more hrs went by as we watched some really nice bucks way out in the distance. There were some really good bucks out there this year. A few I would guess scoring in the mid 80s. If only we could get a shot at one of these monster antelope. Before we could even make a stalk on any of these antelope we heard a boom. We looked over to where the shot came from and here comes a group of 10 antelope running our way. We glassed them while we waited for them to get into shooting distance. There were 2 bucks in the group. One of which was just a monster of an antelope. The other was also a nice shooter goat.
The group goes down into this dip giving us no visibility of them for about 5 min. Having no idea where they are going to pop out, we are looking everywhere. The does are first to show up so our attention is on them, waiting for the 2 bucks to appear. The bucks never show. All of a sudden my dad spots them to our right. The 2 bucks are looking right at us so we knew we didn't have much time to shoot. We ranged them at 236 yds and told my mom to shoot high. She shot and the bullet just sailed over the big buck?s back. They immediately ran off and we went after them. We got into 240 yards when my mom took her second shot. This time we had a crosswind and she shot just in front of the monster antelope. He never gave us another chance.
As it got later in the day the winds kicked up to 20 mph. The antelope action got real slow and we decide to go back to the truck for a break to get out of the sun. We went back out for an evening hunt as the winds died down. We did not attempt any stalks that evening. The only thing we did was glass these other hunters miss this one monster buck way out in the distance. That buck had to of also been 80+. The sun set and we left the area with nothing more than bad sun burns.
The next morning we had a hard time getting out of bed. As we pulled up to the same area we spotted a nice buck. My mom and I went after him. He had no idea we were even stalking him. He was feeding and looking directly away from us. We got to within 500 yards of him when my mom tripped over some rocks and fell. He spooked and ran. After asking her if she was alright we shared some laughs.
As the second morning went on we noticed a lot more shooting than the day before. We spotted a group of 20 antelope feeding and making their way towards us. There were 3 good bucks in there. One of them was really big. They got to within 500-600 yards of us when this one decent buck and 2 does came running right beside us. We tried to get a shot that buck never stopped. The big group got spooked and ran off as well. This hunt was really getting the best of us.
Later on we decided to go back to the truck to go eat lunch. We got to the truck and began to eat our lunch while talking to one of our friends whose son also had a tag. We were talking about some of the bucks we had seen when all of a sudden my dad spots this big buck walking right at us. My mom gets the muzzleloader and tries to shoot him from the sitting position. She could not see him through the scope and the buck ran about 50 yards and gave her a broadside shot at 144 yards. She went in the prone position and takes a shot. She makes a perfect shot on him and the buck runs off about 200 yards before he falls over. The next words that come out of my mouth were ?I can't believe what just happened?. We all were speechless.
This hunt was getting the best of us and we are all just so thankful for this antelope. After we took our pics and field dressed the buck we got back to the truck. The potatoes chips were all over the ground along with some spilled drinks. Ha ha. We never did finish our lunch.
Decent buck through spotting scope
We spent countless hrs behind our binos and spotting scope each day
Mom and her buck
Mom?s buck with our .45 cal T/C Omega. Shooting a 200gr sst pushed by 100gr/wt = 70gr/vol of BH209
Mom and Dad
Mom and me
The whole crew
My mom has killed 2 other antelope bucks before both scoring in the low 70s. This year she wanted to hold out for something a bit bigger. Opening morning found us walking and glassing to find a nice place to set up. Right away we had a group of 8 antelope within 100 yards of us. The buck in the group was just a bit too small to shoot on the first day so we passed him up.
A few more hrs went by as we watched some really nice bucks way out in the distance. There were some really good bucks out there this year. A few I would guess scoring in the mid 80s. If only we could get a shot at one of these monster antelope. Before we could even make a stalk on any of these antelope we heard a boom. We looked over to where the shot came from and here comes a group of 10 antelope running our way. We glassed them while we waited for them to get into shooting distance. There were 2 bucks in the group. One of which was just a monster of an antelope. The other was also a nice shooter goat.
The group goes down into this dip giving us no visibility of them for about 5 min. Having no idea where they are going to pop out, we are looking everywhere. The does are first to show up so our attention is on them, waiting for the 2 bucks to appear. The bucks never show. All of a sudden my dad spots them to our right. The 2 bucks are looking right at us so we knew we didn't have much time to shoot. We ranged them at 236 yds and told my mom to shoot high. She shot and the bullet just sailed over the big buck?s back. They immediately ran off and we went after them. We got into 240 yards when my mom took her second shot. This time we had a crosswind and she shot just in front of the monster antelope. He never gave us another chance.
As it got later in the day the winds kicked up to 20 mph. The antelope action got real slow and we decide to go back to the truck for a break to get out of the sun. We went back out for an evening hunt as the winds died down. We did not attempt any stalks that evening. The only thing we did was glass these other hunters miss this one monster buck way out in the distance. That buck had to of also been 80+. The sun set and we left the area with nothing more than bad sun burns.
The next morning we had a hard time getting out of bed. As we pulled up to the same area we spotted a nice buck. My mom and I went after him. He had no idea we were even stalking him. He was feeding and looking directly away from us. We got to within 500 yards of him when my mom tripped over some rocks and fell. He spooked and ran. After asking her if she was alright we shared some laughs.
As the second morning went on we noticed a lot more shooting than the day before. We spotted a group of 20 antelope feeding and making their way towards us. There were 3 good bucks in there. One of them was really big. They got to within 500-600 yards of us when this one decent buck and 2 does came running right beside us. We tried to get a shot that buck never stopped. The big group got spooked and ran off as well. This hunt was really getting the best of us.
Later on we decided to go back to the truck to go eat lunch. We got to the truck and began to eat our lunch while talking to one of our friends whose son also had a tag. We were talking about some of the bucks we had seen when all of a sudden my dad spots this big buck walking right at us. My mom gets the muzzleloader and tries to shoot him from the sitting position. She could not see him through the scope and the buck ran about 50 yards and gave her a broadside shot at 144 yards. She went in the prone position and takes a shot. She makes a perfect shot on him and the buck runs off about 200 yards before he falls over. The next words that come out of my mouth were ?I can't believe what just happened?. We all were speechless.
This hunt was getting the best of us and we are all just so thankful for this antelope. After we took our pics and field dressed the buck we got back to the truck. The potatoes chips were all over the ground along with some spilled drinks. Ha ha. We never did finish our lunch.
Decent buck through spotting scope
We spent countless hrs behind our binos and spotting scope each day
Mom and her buck
Mom?s buck with our .45 cal T/C Omega. Shooting a 200gr sst pushed by 100gr/wt = 70gr/vol of BH209
Mom and Dad
Mom and me
The whole crew
