Montana Antelope October 2003
January 25, 2015 12:23 amThis 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.
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.
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.
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.
