megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
As mentioned in a previous post, my mule deer hunt in Colorado fell through due to my partners change in work schedule. I turned the tag back in for a refund and started scrambling for something else I could do solo out west. A month or so ago, I stumbled on some landowner tags for antelope in NM that became available after the outfitter who had leased this ranch backed out for this year (due to the economy and the drought in NM). Tags ended being half of what they had sold to outfitters over the past 4 years. (actually the Grimmit's leased the property a few years back- they are the top antelope guides in the US- they took the new pending world record recently). This part of NM is known for some of the biggest goats in the country, and the owner told me they've taken 3 book animals in the past decade, with numerous mid 70 class bucks each year (book is 82" for antelope). I really wanted a beautiful mid 70's" goat or better for the wall, and I figured this might be my best chance for one.
I asked several friends if they might be interested, but only got one taker. We loaded up last Friday at 12:30 and made it to the ranch in 16 hours. After an hour and a half nap, we geared up and headed to a spot the owner said 50 does and 5 bucks were located the evening prior. At daylight, we immediately got on a decent buck with 8 or 9 does. He wasn't tall- probably 13.5 or 14", but had good mass and great cutters. I knew I didn't want to shoot the first buck the first morning without seeing what else was out there, but my buddy has never killed an antelope and decided he was good enough. We stalked to within 500 yards, and the antelope started headed our way. Suddenly, WWIII erupted 6 or 700 yards away and the herd ran by us at 50 mph. Turns out, one of the state hunters was on that buck and came in from the other side and started flinging lead when he got busted.
Oh, well, a good chance to get in the truck and do some scouting... We ended up glassing around 20 bucks on the ranch, and honestly covered nearly every inch of the 12 sq miles. We ended up seeing around 4 or 5 bucks that were 13" or slightly better, but not a single 15" goat!
After passing up everything thus far, we finally spotted a decent (I thought 14") goat bedded at the base of a mesa. My buddy wanted to take him, so we put the plan in motion to hike up the mesa from the other side, pop over the top, and smoke him in his bed. Everything worked out great, except for the 50 does that were in the field with him. A couple of them spooked, and eventually the herd started moving diagonally away from us. I was in front spotting, saw the buck at 200 yards or so, and told my friend to get ready. He didn't get ready- the buck crossed right in front of him at a steady walk and he didn't pull the trigger. He was beating himself up over it; I said, 'don't worry, there's plenty out here'.
We heard the other ranch tag holder shoot (a BUNCH), so we headed out to give him a hand. He was 76, and I'm glad we found him. He looked to be one inch from cardiac arrest trying to get his buck into the back of the truck. We loaded it for him and visited for a while. Heck of a nice guy- but he can't shoot for crap. The buck had one leg shot off, another in the hip, another in the gut, and finally one in the neck to finish him off. Swiss cheese
I didn't envy his cleaning job ahead of him, and my buddy and I broke for lunch.
We glassed multiple antelope that afternoon, and saw the state hunter (the ranch hand called the two "Cheech and Chong", because both looked to be in their upper 50's with long grey hair in braids, long grey beards, and their tent apparantley smelled very strongly of 'the marijuana' Anyway, I digress... the state hunter by this time had managed to spook the living crap out of most of the antelope on our 12 square miles. The ranch hand was keeping an eye on all of us, and said he had so many bucks run past him with their tongues hanging out running from Cheech he was getting a little pissed. We could tell in another day, it was going to get tough to even glass the antelope, as they had figured out the game.
That evening, we spotted the biggest buck on the ranch (the rancher put us on him)...
The rancher was a hell of a nice guy... lived and worked the cattle ranch for the past 14 years, very salty, and a true cowboy. He'd give you the shirt off his back, and always addressed me 'sir', despite the fact that I was 20 years his younger. I wish there were more like him in the world today- we'd be much better off. (although he did like to drink Lord Calvert in the evenings- his wife would usually drag him back into the house when he started to slur his speech a little )
So, we got on the biggest buck on the ranch- around 14", probably mid 70's" goat. The rancher said that they usually kill 4 or 5 15" er's per year, but this year, due to the drought, sheath quality had really suffered. In fact, they had to move 30% of their herd off the ranch due to lack of rain and grass 3 weeks prior!.
I got on the 'big' goat at 450 yards, set up my bipod and rear bag, then ranged him one final time to confirm. That was enough for his does and they headed out with him in tow. We caught up to him a ways down the road, and I had him at 300 yards, but he was in the middle of a herd of cows and I couldn't shoot. He loped off, and we went back in the truck to see if we could get in front of him....
We found him a half hour later without the does, and in a spot where he was very killable. We looped back to get in front of him, left the truck and walked up on a mesa with me on one side and my buddy on the other. I finally spotted his head over the rise at 250 yards, but he also spotted me. I ducked down, chambered a round, crept up far enough so that when I stood up I would have a clear view of his body and got ready to shoot. When I stood up, he was still there, but I had to stand on my tiptoes to clear the rise. I shot, but missed over him by a foot or so (I can't shoot offhand at all- never have been able to). He hauled butt past my friend, who also missed him at 50 mph at 150 yards. He finally stopped on the property line at 600 yards, and as I was just getting ready to shoot, my buddy flung one just over his back. He crossed the fence right at the same time the neighbor hunters came into that section and they flung a couple more rounds at him off the hood of their truck at 700 yards or so. I don't think that buck stopped running till he hit Old Mexico
We hunted the last hour until dark, passed up more bucks that we had already passed up previously during the day, and made plans to go back after the first buck we were on at the start of the day.
The next morning, the ranch hand took out the other remaining ranch tag holders on the opposite side of the unit. Seems they missed even more antelope than we did The antelope weren't scared of his feed truck, and he'd drive right up to feed the cows, the antelope would stare at him, and the hunter would step out and shoot. Each time the rancher headed out with a hunter, he would come back in an hour with another goat on the back of the truck (except for one hunter- it took him 2 hours and 4 missed goats before he finally got one
Anyway, my friend and I headed back for the first goat of the hunt. But Cheech was already there and stalking. We left him to terrorize the poor critter, and we headed off, deciding to go for the 3 or 4 other 13" goats on the ranch, since we knew there were no real toads to hold out for. I spotted one of the top end goats about a mile away, we looped around, and came up over the mesa on top of him. He was 300 yards away, and although I initally had him broadside, I had to shift to the side a bit to clear some yucca with the bipod. Unfortunately, he turned and started walking dead away from me, although completely unaware that we were above him. At 450 yards, he stopped to make a scrape. I kept dialing elevation on my turret with him steadily walking away. Finally, he changed a bit to a 45 degree angle. I ranged him at 490, dialed in the dope (no wind ), and sent the bullet right for the pocket in the near shoulder. I lost the sight picture due to the recoil, but heard the bullet thump hard. My buddy started screaming, and I found the buck in the dust cloud created by the exiting bullet striking the ground. Bang-flop, DRT
We loaded up, went down to him, took pics, then processed him on the spot and got the meat into the ice chest. The bullet hit 2" below the back just before the last rib on the nearside, and exited out the base of the neck on the offside. 7mm WSM, 140 AB going 3300 fps. He's 13" and scores 73.25". He'll make a nice skull mount.
By now my buddy was starting to get desperate. Everyone else had tagged out except for Cheech who was basically pushing all the antelope off the ranch onto neighboring properties. Heck, even Chong managed to gut shoot a running antelope at 500 yards while taking a dump the day before (Chong's exact words, I kid you not). But at least it was a clean gut shot kill, according to Chong.
My buddy and I got back on the antelope he almost took the day before doing the same manuver- coming up over him. This time, he was still in his bed. He decided to carry my rifle since I've got real world dope out to 700 yards, and it didn't look like we would get a shot closer than 350 or so due to Cheech's antics. Luckily the antelope was only 260 yards away, I dialed the dope and my buddy set up waiting on him to stand from his bed. We had to wait around 20 minutes, then he finally stood. My buddy shot with me watching through the binoculars and it was spectacular. I looked like the shockwave that erupted from the chest was going to explode the animal. He collapsed instantly and just like that we were tagged out. His antelope is basically a twin to mine. 13", good mass, and scores in the low 70's as well.
We got him in the cooler, headed back to the ranch for lunch. Unbelievably, Chong was there. Apparantely, he had dropped off Cheech to set up in a pop up blind 1000 yards straight up the valley from the ranch (and about 150 yards from my carcass ). His polaris was dead, and he hiked down to the ranch to see if he could get a jump. The rancher's wife was scared of him, so my buddy and I ate lunch, then loaded him up with cables and drove out to thier polaris. Cheech was lying down under the polaris to get some shade from the heat. We jumped them off, then they started in about someone had poached an antelope in this valley! With dumbfounded looks on thier faces, I told them it was my antelope that I shot a few hours before. They then began to tell me that I violated NM wanton waste laws by only taking the head and backstraps. Now I was really pi$$ed. I asked them about the hindquarters- did they see them. They admitted the hindquarters were taken. I then asked them about the neck meat and even the tenderloins. They said they weren't too sure about that. I told them if they want to accuse me of illegal activity, they darn sure better well hike thier a$$es over their and inspect the carcass. I use the gutless method when cleaning an animal, and told them that if they had peeled back the hide, the only meat they would find left on the carcass was the ribs and a little sphagetti neck meat on the offside from the bullet exit.
I then asked Chong what did he do with his antelope... oh, well, he took it to a processor. I asked him how long after the kill did it take to get to the processor... He said around 4 hours (in baking mid 90 degree heat). I assured him that my meat was going to be a heck of a lot better than his gut shot animal not processed for 4hours in that heat.
We left them to thier blind, went back to the ranch and drank tequila, and watched his hunt unfold. The field with his blind, home to 50 or 60 antelope for the past two days, was completly devoid of life. I could actually see that herd on the neighbors property about a mile away.
Yesterday morning, we rode around with the rancher and helped him feed cows. We saw Cheech belly crawling towards a 10" goat... dunno if he finally killed one or not.
Packed camp, loaded up the truck, and drove the 16h back here to Mississippi. All 6 of us with ranch tags killed, as well as the 3 state hunters on the opposite side of the ranch. The best goat was a 14"er (mid 70") killed by a state hunter in the other unit.
Overall, it was an extremely fun hunt with a LOT of antelope (around 20 bucks and 100 does on our sections). I think that in the future, the sheath quality will be much improved if they recieve adequate rainfall, but I'd do the hunt again at that price in a heartbeat.
I asked several friends if they might be interested, but only got one taker. We loaded up last Friday at 12:30 and made it to the ranch in 16 hours. After an hour and a half nap, we geared up and headed to a spot the owner said 50 does and 5 bucks were located the evening prior. At daylight, we immediately got on a decent buck with 8 or 9 does. He wasn't tall- probably 13.5 or 14", but had good mass and great cutters. I knew I didn't want to shoot the first buck the first morning without seeing what else was out there, but my buddy has never killed an antelope and decided he was good enough. We stalked to within 500 yards, and the antelope started headed our way. Suddenly, WWIII erupted 6 or 700 yards away and the herd ran by us at 50 mph. Turns out, one of the state hunters was on that buck and came in from the other side and started flinging lead when he got busted.
Oh, well, a good chance to get in the truck and do some scouting... We ended up glassing around 20 bucks on the ranch, and honestly covered nearly every inch of the 12 sq miles. We ended up seeing around 4 or 5 bucks that were 13" or slightly better, but not a single 15" goat!
After passing up everything thus far, we finally spotted a decent (I thought 14") goat bedded at the base of a mesa. My buddy wanted to take him, so we put the plan in motion to hike up the mesa from the other side, pop over the top, and smoke him in his bed. Everything worked out great, except for the 50 does that were in the field with him. A couple of them spooked, and eventually the herd started moving diagonally away from us. I was in front spotting, saw the buck at 200 yards or so, and told my friend to get ready. He didn't get ready- the buck crossed right in front of him at a steady walk and he didn't pull the trigger. He was beating himself up over it; I said, 'don't worry, there's plenty out here'.
We heard the other ranch tag holder shoot (a BUNCH), so we headed out to give him a hand. He was 76, and I'm glad we found him. He looked to be one inch from cardiac arrest trying to get his buck into the back of the truck. We loaded it for him and visited for a while. Heck of a nice guy- but he can't shoot for crap. The buck had one leg shot off, another in the hip, another in the gut, and finally one in the neck to finish him off. Swiss cheese
I didn't envy his cleaning job ahead of him, and my buddy and I broke for lunch.We glassed multiple antelope that afternoon, and saw the state hunter (the ranch hand called the two "Cheech and Chong", because both looked to be in their upper 50's with long grey hair in braids, long grey beards, and their tent apparantley smelled very strongly of 'the marijuana'
Anyway, I digress... the state hunter by this time had managed to spook the living crap out of most of the antelope on our 12 square miles. The ranch hand was keeping an eye on all of us, and said he had so many bucks run past him with their tongues hanging out running from Cheech he was getting a little pissed. We could tell in another day, it was going to get tough to even glass the antelope, as they had figured out the game.That evening, we spotted the biggest buck on the ranch (the rancher put us on him)...
The rancher was a hell of a nice guy... lived and worked the cattle ranch for the past 14 years, very salty, and a true cowboy. He'd give you the shirt off his back, and always addressed me 'sir', despite the fact that I was 20 years his younger. I wish there were more like him in the world today- we'd be much better off. (although he did like to drink Lord Calvert in the evenings- his wife would usually drag him back into the house when he started to slur his speech a little
)So, we got on the biggest buck on the ranch- around 14", probably mid 70's" goat. The rancher said that they usually kill 4 or 5 15" er's per year, but this year, due to the drought, sheath quality had really suffered. In fact, they had to move 30% of their herd off the ranch due to lack of rain and grass 3 weeks prior!.
I got on the 'big' goat at 450 yards, set up my bipod and rear bag, then ranged him one final time to confirm. That was enough for his does and they headed out with him in tow. We caught up to him a ways down the road, and I had him at 300 yards, but he was in the middle of a herd of cows and I couldn't shoot. He loped off, and we went back in the truck to see if we could get in front of him....
We found him a half hour later without the does, and in a spot where he was very killable. We looped back to get in front of him, left the truck and walked up on a mesa with me on one side and my buddy on the other. I finally spotted his head over the rise at 250 yards, but he also spotted me. I ducked down, chambered a round, crept up far enough so that when I stood up I would have a clear view of his body and got ready to shoot. When I stood up, he was still there, but I had to stand on my tiptoes to clear the rise. I shot, but missed over him by a foot or so (I can't shoot offhand at all- never have been able to). He hauled butt past my friend, who also missed him at 50 mph at 150 yards. He finally stopped on the property line at 600 yards, and as I was just getting ready to shoot, my buddy flung one just over his back. He crossed the fence right at the same time the neighbor hunters came into that section and they flung a couple more rounds at him off the hood of their truck at 700 yards or so. I don't think that buck stopped running till he hit Old Mexico
We hunted the last hour until dark, passed up more bucks that we had already passed up previously during the day, and made plans to go back after the first buck we were on at the start of the day.
The next morning, the ranch hand took out the other remaining ranch tag holders on the opposite side of the unit. Seems they missed even more antelope than we did
The antelope weren't scared of his feed truck, and he'd drive right up to feed the cows, the antelope would stare at him, and the hunter would step out and shoot. Each time the rancher headed out with a hunter, he would come back in an hour with another goat on the back of the truck (except for one hunter- it took him 2 hours and 4 missed goats before he finally got one Anyway, my friend and I headed back for the first goat of the hunt. But Cheech was already there and stalking. We left him to terrorize the poor critter, and we headed off, deciding to go for the 3 or 4 other 13" goats on the ranch, since we knew there were no real toads to hold out for. I spotted one of the top end goats about a mile away, we looped around, and came up over the mesa on top of him. He was 300 yards away, and although I initally had him broadside, I had to shift to the side a bit to clear some yucca with the bipod. Unfortunately, he turned and started walking dead away from me, although completely unaware that we were above him. At 450 yards, he stopped to make a scrape. I kept dialing elevation on my turret with him steadily walking away. Finally, he changed a bit to a 45 degree angle. I ranged him at 490, dialed in the dope (no wind
), and sent the bullet right for the pocket in the near shoulder. I lost the sight picture due to the recoil, but heard the bullet thump hard. My buddy started screaming, and I found the buck in the dust cloud created by the exiting bullet striking the ground. Bang-flop, DRT We loaded up, went down to him, took pics, then processed him on the spot and got the meat into the ice chest. The bullet hit 2" below the back just before the last rib on the nearside, and exited out the base of the neck on the offside. 7mm WSM, 140 AB going 3300 fps. He's 13" and scores 73.25". He'll make a nice skull mount.
By now my buddy was starting to get desperate. Everyone else had tagged out except for Cheech who was basically pushing all the antelope off the ranch onto neighboring properties. Heck, even Chong managed to gut shoot a running antelope at 500 yards while taking a dump the day before (Chong's exact words, I kid you not). But at least it was a clean gut shot kill, according to Chong.
My buddy and I got back on the antelope he almost took the day before doing the same manuver- coming up over him. This time, he was still in his bed. He decided to carry my rifle since I've got real world dope out to 700 yards, and it didn't look like we would get a shot closer than 350 or so due to Cheech's antics. Luckily the antelope was only 260 yards away, I dialed the dope and my buddy set up waiting on him to stand from his bed. We had to wait around 20 minutes, then he finally stood. My buddy shot with me watching through the binoculars and it was spectacular. I looked like the shockwave that erupted from the chest was going to explode the animal. He collapsed instantly and just like that we were tagged out. His antelope is basically a twin to mine. 13", good mass, and scores in the low 70's as well.
We got him in the cooler, headed back to the ranch for lunch. Unbelievably, Chong was there. Apparantely, he had dropped off Cheech to set up in a pop up blind 1000 yards straight up the valley from the ranch (and about 150 yards from my carcass
). His polaris was dead, and he hiked down to the ranch to see if he could get a jump. The rancher's wife was scared of him, so my buddy and I ate lunch, then loaded him up with cables and drove out to thier polaris. Cheech was lying down under the polaris to get some shade from the heat. We jumped them off, then they started in about someone had poached an antelope in this valley! With dumbfounded looks on thier faces, I told them it was my antelope that I shot a few hours before. They then began to tell me that I violated NM wanton waste laws by only taking the head and backstraps. Now I was really pi$$ed. I asked them about the hindquarters- did they see them. They admitted the hindquarters were taken. I then asked them about the neck meat and even the tenderloins. They said they weren't too sure about that. I told them if they want to accuse me of illegal activity, they darn sure better well hike thier a$$es over their and inspect the carcass. I use the gutless method when cleaning an animal, and told them that if they had peeled back the hide, the only meat they would find left on the carcass was the ribs and a little sphagetti neck meat on the offside from the bullet exit.I then asked Chong what did he do with his antelope... oh, well, he took it to a processor. I asked him how long after the kill did it take to get to the processor... He said around 4 hours (in baking mid 90 degree heat). I assured him that my meat was going to be a heck of a lot better than his gut shot animal not processed for 4hours in that heat.
We left them to thier blind, went back to the ranch and drank tequila, and watched his hunt unfold. The field with his blind, home to 50 or 60 antelope for the past two days, was completly devoid of life. I could actually see that herd on the neighbors property about a mile away.
Yesterday morning, we rode around with the rancher and helped him feed cows. We saw Cheech belly crawling towards a 10" goat... dunno if he finally killed one or not.
Packed camp, loaded up the truck, and drove the 16h back here to Mississippi. All 6 of us with ranch tags killed, as well as the 3 state hunters on the opposite side of the ranch. The best goat was a 14"er (mid 70") killed by a state hunter in the other unit.
Overall, it was an extremely fun hunt with a LOT of antelope (around 20 bucks and 100 does on our sections). I think that in the future, the sheath quality will be much improved if they recieve adequate rainfall, but I'd do the hunt again at that price in a heartbeat.
). It's definetly a 1/2 MOA gun out to 700 yards, although it is much tougher to shoot accurately at long distance than my dedicated long range rigs (that weigh 2 or 3 times as much) due to the recoil... you've got to hold it and let it recoil exactly the same way each time- kinda like followup after shooting a bow. And it will kick the snot out of you when you touch the trigger due to it's light weight...but luckily I've never been recoil sensitive.
