My version of the ol' mans hunt unit 10 2nd part

[maloney2121]

FINALLY FRIDAY MORNING comes and guess what no "wow" Buck!!! All whole day spent looking for him but did see couple other nices ones but I knew he wouldn't be happy unless he got him. At the close of day one I had to ask him again if it was worth passing on other shooters cause the crowd was rolling in and traffic was starting to get heavy. Before bed he told me if one comes close enough he is taking the shot. I didn't know how I felt cause I now wanted "wow" Buck just as bad. Morning of day 2 our good buddy who unfortunately is a Minnesota Gopher fan came out to help along with my grandpa and my uncle and the pressure was on to make it happen so they can get a good show. First thing heading out on quads is a rain storm that seemed like enough rain I thought we'd have a new fishing hole to fish if we didn't find a Buck. Me and gopher boy waited out the storm for an hour or so after the storm passed went back to hunting and before I could get the binos out I found a group with my naked eye and guess who had 12 doe with him....it was our Buck and we were 400 yards from him unfortunately we didn't have the tags and the ol' man was a mile or two away looking at another area. We radioed him and he finally got him set up on the other side of us and we watch and waited...and waited !! It look like they were in shooting range and being the good buddy's we are asked WTF are you waiting for.... shoot !!!! So he set up unsure of the exact yards cause the range finder isn't picking up an accurate reading and fires away and as we watch we never once seen dust fly or never really spooked the antelope. Later found out it wasn't 400 yards it was more like 700-800 yards. Its easier than you think to make that mistake out there. After the hail mary shots we regrouped and quickly found him again this time he left the whole herd and stuck with one doe even better we were able to bed him down. We made game plan #2 and off gopher boy and pops went and I stay back and watch and soon began to realize they weren't doing what we discussed and hoped they made the right choice using the fence line as cover and as a marker to find the Buck who later I realized had a loner Buck cruising the out skirts of his hot doe. From my angle it became obvious they made a good move and the 1000 yards they needed to cover happened in a blink of an eye. Now watching them it look like they were gonna walk right on top of him and not seeing I have a dead radio I called and called and nothing. Good thing my radio was dead cause the things I was saying to them thinking they are gonna blow this PERFECT stock would have resulted in a nice black eye to match the shiny black horns in our Victory pictures. I watched in amaze that they seemed so close to the Buck and doe but yet they still never knew they were there. Finally I looked to see I had a dead radio and swapped out the batteries just in time as they had put the Buck perfectly between them and me and could give very simple directions to walk directly towards me and was thinking I can't believe they don't see him yet. Dealing with a handful of dead batteries and trying to keep an eye on things they kept walking and the more they walk the more I thought why are they not setting up to shoot and maybe he forgot archery season ended 2 days ago. No special rewards for the guy who can shoot an animal at 25 yards with a rifle. Out of my view I didn't know there was the smallest hill that was between them and the Buck that was giving them cover. It wasn't long before I seen them freeze and being a seasoned hunter the ol' man had made a great game changing decision to get the shooting sticks of his backpack as they just got to a point where the TREE STUMP they been staring at MOVED. Not a tree for miles around and this tree turned out to really be set of horns and just that quick he was in a standing position off his shooting sticks when gopher boy said he stood up. "Boom".....shot #1 broadside shot right over him. Luckily he is more is more worried about his hot doe he only runs as far as she did and she stops...BOOM..Shot #2 miss!!! For you guys who shoot a lot you can appreciate watching someone be able to shoot and rack in another round and shoot all while keeping this Buck in his scope and never taking his eye off the Buck looking thru the scope and be in a standing shooting position. never letting the Buck out of my binos I see him stop a 3rd time which I quickly realize is only stopping long enough to flip him the bird and the 3rd shot goes off and I see this Buck start to turn and run thinking he missed him again that same fast motion that looked like he was turning and burning just as quick was on his side and down!!!!!!! I looked back just in time to see pops knees turn to noodles and I was out of my chair and in the air high fiving myself. Only thing going through my head is "are you effing kidding me!!!! You missed 2 broadside shots and decide you would hit him with the last round in your gun??? Yeah no high fives for you for almost giving me a heart attack. Really I just wanted to lay my hands on this beautiful Buck we called the "wow" Buck. I am now HOOKED on antelope hunting. Congrats to my dad and that's Mr.M 2 all of you. He made an amazing shot which was a little over 400 yards of the shooting sticks in a standing position. For me it was worth every minute I spent writing this out telling this story. Sorry for the long story but I couldn't leave any. details out and I don't care what dad said that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Good luck to all on the rest of this years hunts. Don't be afraid to tell a good huntin story. Some of us do enjoy them

[2 Full Curls]

Very nice looking antelope, and Congrats to you and your father! I enjoyed the excitement in the tone of your story. I'd be curious to know what he scores if you guys put a tape on him. It's not what makes an antelope special by any means, but will help future hunters who read your thread on here next year. You have cool scouting photos and field photos that, combined with a score, could be a nice example to use for judging. Nice story and thank you for sharing.

[maloney2121]

Well we didn't waste time and got him straight to wellers taxidermy and if you've ever taken an animal there they have strict rules about not scoring there but we did a rough score of 84' thinking it could go maybe tad higher. The great thing was he wanted to get one that he saw and thought would make a good mount and we lucked out by getting one that happen to score pretty good considering if was a DIY first time antelope hunt

[2 Full Curls]

That's a great buck. Thanks for the reply

[StickFlicker]

Why the rule about not scoring at the taxidermists? Antelope shrink a fair amount from the time they are shot until the time they are scored. So, if you should decide to have him officially measured do it as soon as possible after the 60 day waiting period. The minimum for Boone & Crockett is 82. I would strongly suggest measuring him BEFORE he is mounted in order to get an accurate measurement. In addition to the longer wait to get an official score, and the greater shrinkage it will incur, it is very difficult (sometimes impossible) to score an antelope properly once it has been mounted and the hair covers the bases of the horns.

[maloney2121]

I agree as to wanting to get it scored right away. I'm not sure the ol'man cares a great deal if it measures enough to go in the books but who wouldn't want a little recognition for your hard work. As far as Mr. Weller not scoring them we had asked out of curiosity and he said he did at one time but found that it had become to much of a problem now since some people are so worried on the score they would cause problems if they didn't like what they scored or between the group of hunters caused a fight about who's was bigger. Mr. Wheeler from little I know about him is one heck of a guy and from what I observed hunts cause that's what he loves to do and even though him and his boy have killed very nice animals that's not his first priority. We spent a little time With him as he loved giving the story about every animal in shop and what he knew about it but again I noticed he loved to talk about the hunt not about the size of the animal. Im gonna ask pops if he gonna score it soon cause I know once he heard it may score enough to go in the books I could see it being something he'd like to do for his own personal gratification. he had a couple javalina go in the books when he was a kid why not get his antelope in there if it deserves to be. sorry for the long response wanted to be clear on Mr. Weller and why he didn't score as it was explained to us.

[maloney2121]

One thing to add is we wanted to get it to taxidermy ASAP cause we spent spent another couple days out there having a field day killing parrie dogs and when we finally got home had been informed to get it in before the horns are broken off and the taxidermist not being able to get a accurate look and measurement for his mount. Didn't realize how fragile an antelopes horns are and how easily they pull from the skull

[AZBUCKEYE]

Well I just made the call tonight come Nov 8th he will get an official score and I will then stake claim to a B.C buck.

 

P.S Great Story son made me re live the moment and it was one heck of a moment

 

Thanks