rossislider Report post Posted October 12, 2015 Late last night my wife and I got back from our 12th anniversary vacation trip up to Wyoming to hunt antelope. It was a fantastic trip full of success for both of us. For me, it was the my first opportunity to hunt antelope. For her, it was not only her first antelope hunt, but her first time ever punching a tag. Leading up to the hunt her biggest fear was that she would not have the nerve to pull the trigger and that somehow, in some way, she was going to disappoint me. I was confident that she would come though in flying colors when the trigger moment arrived, and did my best to reassure her that regardless of how the hunt went I would be proud of her for giving it a try. If you saw my post from last Friday, you saw that my hunt was over the evening before it was scheduled to begin. http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/61038-wyoming-tag-punched/ The rest of the hunt was 100% about Kursty. Because these antelope (like most) spend there lives in the wide open coverless prairie, there was no need to get up at 3:00 AM to head out in the dark, so we got up about 7:00. After a quick breakfast we headed out to some areas where we had seen a couple of herds the night before. It wasn't long before we had glassed up and passed on a few herds because they didn't hold the type of bucks that we were looking for. After about an hour we came up and over a ridge and spotted a good wide buck with a single doe that Kursty wanted to go after. We had discovered quickly that morning, that the antelope in this area were very wary of people, and had no interest in letting us get anywhere inside of 1000 yards from them. We had predetermined that given Kursty's practiced ability and her 7mm-08's capabilities, 500 yards would be her absolute max range. Given the openness of the terrain, the closest we were able to stalk into this buck was 411 yards without giving ourselves up. While we went about getting set up for a shot and dialing in her scope, the goats decided to chase each other around. Our hearts sank as they chased each other further away. Once they stopped we ranged them at 502 yards. Despite a really strong cross wind around 30 mph, we decided to green light the shot. Her first shot was just barely wide left. They looked our way but didn't move. She shot again, and once again was just left of the mark. We decided she was compensating to much for the wind, and the buck fever wasn't helping either. We couldn't tell where the third shot hit, but the goats took off running this time. We watched them for the about twenty minutes as they ran a couple thousand yards. It was clear he wasn't hit. Disappointed in herself, but not defeated, we decided to head in the direction of where we last saw the goats disappear over a small ridge. Once we got to about a thousand yards from them we could see that they had joined up with another group of around 15 antelope, including a couple of other nice shooter bucks. The next several hours involved a frustrating series of failed stalks. We had decided that because the rough wind conditions we really wanted to get her a shot inside of 300 yards. Other than a few small dips and ridges there was no cover on the wide open terrain and we could never get the distance anywhere near what we needed it to be without being spotted, and the herd bolting. After one of these failed stalks we noted that after they stopped running and began feeding in a direction parallel to a shallow drainage. We agreed that if we moved quickly we could probably use that as cover. If we could get to a certain location and pop up out of the drainage, we might be able to get a few hundred yards in front of them. We hustled and when he we arrived at the predetermined location, we cautiously belly crawled out of the drainage to see where we were in proximity to the herd. To our surprise they were only 150 yards from us, and oblivious to our location. We agreed that there were two good bucks and that she would shoot which ever gave us the first clear shot. The slightly longer buck one bedded down (about time, we had been running them ragged all morning) only giving us visibility of the top half of his head. She switched her sights to the second buck. We had to wait about 20 minutes as he and several does kept walking in front of each other and never giving her a clear shot. I have to give my wife a lot of credit here. During that time there were at least a dozen times that I felt the shot was plenty clear and was going insane waiting for her to shoot. But she was insistent that she would not shoot if she felt there was the slightest chance she might hit the wrong antelope of wound a second animal. Finally, he stepped well clear of every other animal and BANG! The herd bolted, all but Kursty's buck. He ran about 10 yards and stopped. Not sure if and where he was hit, she chambered another round. BANG! He didn't move. A few second later he turned, stumble, and went over sideways. I jumped up and hugged my wife. She was so overcome with excitement she had trouble breathing and became dizzy. I had to pull out my phone to video her reaction, it was priceless. It took her about 20 minutes to get her breathing back under control as we walked up and checked out her buck. Going into the hunt she wasn't sure if she would be able to pull the trigger, but it is clear that she is now bitten with the hunting bug and can't wait to go again. Sorry for the long write up, I can't help myself. I'm just a super proud husband. Kursty's goat and my son's first buck last fall are without a doubt the highlights of my hunting career, much better than any of my own accomplishments. 20 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Adicted Report post Posted October 12, 2015 Awesome. Congrats 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
218buck Report post Posted October 12, 2015 Great job congratulations 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PelaPapas Report post Posted October 12, 2015 Great Goat! Congrats! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Apache7mm Report post Posted October 12, 2015 Nice, congrats, thx for sharing. DAN 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lancetkenyon Report post Posted October 12, 2015 Awesome write up!!! Congrats on a Pronghorn, on a FIRST pronghorn, and a first KILL!!! Way to stick with it. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WHT_MTNMAN Report post Posted October 12, 2015 Great job on a nice looking goat!! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
6ANut Report post Posted October 12, 2015 Congrats on your wife's first kill. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted October 12, 2015 Congratulations! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
murfys69law Report post Posted October 12, 2015 That awesome. Congrats to you and your wife 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Big Browns Report post Posted October 13, 2015 Great job Kursty!!!!!! Great job getting a great goat! Congrats!!!!!! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
elkslare Report post Posted October 13, 2015 Great job. Awesome first kill. Congrats 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Will K Report post Posted October 14, 2015 Nice team work. Congrat's. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shedhunteraz Report post Posted October 14, 2015 Nice job guys. Tell the wife we said congrats. Greats bucks 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TRKHNTR Report post Posted October 14, 2015 Congrats but you forgot the shovel. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
