- Joined
- Jan 28, 2003
- Messages
- 13,341
I drew a tag for South Eastern Colorado this year. We scouted and and hunted for a total of about 7 days and had an opportunity on a truly massive buck that after several hours ended in a failed third stalk and pushed the buck out of our area. I messed up by simply pushing to hard and pressuring the big buck so hard that he left the area.
The antelope in this area are the most finicky I’ve ever hunted. They’d spook and run from a vehicle if you stopped to look at them at ridiculous distances, like 1,000 yards or more. In combination of that and the extreme heat wave that started at about 07:00 it made trophy judgement extremely difficult if not impossible at anytime but extremely early in the morning and just at last light when the heat wave started to die down.
On this morning we spotted a large group of antelope and as usual they took off the instant we stopped to glass them. They were at about a mile when they spooked. We let them run and watched where they were going. The herd went through some trees and into an area that I knew had an open plain. My wife suggested that once they were out of sight we get ahead of them then hike up to the next plain and see if they were there there.
We proceeded up the two track for about a mile, parked the truck, grabbed our stuff and hiked the mile or so up through the trees. As soon as we started to break out of the trees we saw that our plan had worked. We crawled up to edge of the tree line and had a perfect elevated view of the herd.
Here’s the spot we set up, in fact if you look directly above the muzzle of my rifle just above the “V” in the tree and you expand you’ll see the antelope herd. They look like fuzzy little blobs, but they are there.
We sat and glassed the herd, and it contained two respectable bucks one slightly better than the other. We watched for about 15 minutes, given the behavior of the antelope in this area and the difficulty of trophy judgement and the difficulty of stalking in the area we decided to take the larger of the two bucks knowing he wasn’t a huge antelope. I ranged him at 476 yards, got down on my bipod, placed my bino case under the toe of my stock for a tail bag and settled in for the shot.
As I waited for the buck to hold still I turned my VX-5 HD 3x15 scope up to 15 power which gave me a great view of the buck but absolutely eliminated my field of view. I was waiting for the right moment to shoot and asked my wife to range him again. She said “367” to which I replied “not a chance that’s right try it again”. Well he just moved now he’s at 435 she said.
I was thinking to myself that wasn’t right either as the buck I was on hadn’t moved closer or farther away he was moving left to right and courting a single doe. I asked “are you looking at the buck to the right of the main herd with a single doe?”. Yep she said, I asked her to range him again, “435” she said. I reached up and turned my CDS dial from 470 to 430. Okay I said here it goes.
I steadied the crosshair into the pocket just behind but tight to the bucks shoulder, slowly let out my breath and put slight pressure on the trigger. As my lungs emptied the sear broke and sent a 140 Gr Accubond down range at 3200 FPS from the “Trout” my re barreled M-70 that now is chambered in .270 Weatherby and wears a pacific research carbon stock.
At the shot I lost the Antelope in recoil but distinctly heard the bullet drive home with a solid “KERPOP”. I struggled to get back on target as the scope at 15 was affording me almost zero FOV. I quickly pulled out my binos from under my gun and started looking for the buck. He wasn’t there. But the rest of the herd was looking back at where he had seconds earlier been standing. They had no idea what had just happened. And after a bit went back to grazing and milling about. My wife and spotter was watching the other buck and said “I think you missed him”. No he’s down I said. He had simply vanished into the tall weeds and grass below.
We watched the other antelope mill about for ten minutes or so, I had my wife stay on the hill and range me until I got out to 435 yards then started looking for the buck in the tall grass. I went to the right of the where the herd had been and started gridding out the area figuring I’d soon have my hands on the buck.
How wrong I was! We looked for about 2 hours gridding out the area and not realizing that my spotter and I had been looking at two different critters. It was decided to go back to the truck and continue the search. Three hours later I found the buck, he had fallen behind some tall weeds in a small depression and was all but invisible unless you basically tripped over him. He was at exactly 475 yards and about 100 yards further to the left of our main search area.
It turns out that while I was watching the buck on 15 power in my scope the main herd had slipped off to his right. So my wife was watching the buck on the right. The one I was looking at through the scope was actually quite a bit to the left of the main herd by the time I shot. That was a great lesson on limited FOV at high power and the loss of situational awareness that it can cause.
Our buck.
The antelope in this area are the most finicky I’ve ever hunted. They’d spook and run from a vehicle if you stopped to look at them at ridiculous distances, like 1,000 yards or more. In combination of that and the extreme heat wave that started at about 07:00 it made trophy judgement extremely difficult if not impossible at anytime but extremely early in the morning and just at last light when the heat wave started to die down.
On this morning we spotted a large group of antelope and as usual they took off the instant we stopped to glass them. They were at about a mile when they spooked. We let them run and watched where they were going. The herd went through some trees and into an area that I knew had an open plain. My wife suggested that once they were out of sight we get ahead of them then hike up to the next plain and see if they were there there.
We proceeded up the two track for about a mile, parked the truck, grabbed our stuff and hiked the mile or so up through the trees. As soon as we started to break out of the trees we saw that our plan had worked. We crawled up to edge of the tree line and had a perfect elevated view of the herd.
Here’s the spot we set up, in fact if you look directly above the muzzle of my rifle just above the “V” in the tree and you expand you’ll see the antelope herd. They look like fuzzy little blobs, but they are there.
We sat and glassed the herd, and it contained two respectable bucks one slightly better than the other. We watched for about 15 minutes, given the behavior of the antelope in this area and the difficulty of trophy judgement and the difficulty of stalking in the area we decided to take the larger of the two bucks knowing he wasn’t a huge antelope. I ranged him at 476 yards, got down on my bipod, placed my bino case under the toe of my stock for a tail bag and settled in for the shot.
As I waited for the buck to hold still I turned my VX-5 HD 3x15 scope up to 15 power which gave me a great view of the buck but absolutely eliminated my field of view. I was waiting for the right moment to shoot and asked my wife to range him again. She said “367” to which I replied “not a chance that’s right try it again”. Well he just moved now he’s at 435 she said.
I was thinking to myself that wasn’t right either as the buck I was on hadn’t moved closer or farther away he was moving left to right and courting a single doe. I asked “are you looking at the buck to the right of the main herd with a single doe?”. Yep she said, I asked her to range him again, “435” she said. I reached up and turned my CDS dial from 470 to 430. Okay I said here it goes.
I steadied the crosshair into the pocket just behind but tight to the bucks shoulder, slowly let out my breath and put slight pressure on the trigger. As my lungs emptied the sear broke and sent a 140 Gr Accubond down range at 3200 FPS from the “Trout” my re barreled M-70 that now is chambered in .270 Weatherby and wears a pacific research carbon stock.
At the shot I lost the Antelope in recoil but distinctly heard the bullet drive home with a solid “KERPOP”. I struggled to get back on target as the scope at 15 was affording me almost zero FOV. I quickly pulled out my binos from under my gun and started looking for the buck. He wasn’t there. But the rest of the herd was looking back at where he had seconds earlier been standing. They had no idea what had just happened. And after a bit went back to grazing and milling about. My wife and spotter was watching the other buck and said “I think you missed him”. No he’s down I said. He had simply vanished into the tall weeds and grass below.
We watched the other antelope mill about for ten minutes or so, I had my wife stay on the hill and range me until I got out to 435 yards then started looking for the buck in the tall grass. I went to the right of the where the herd had been and started gridding out the area figuring I’d soon have my hands on the buck.
How wrong I was! We looked for about 2 hours gridding out the area and not realizing that my spotter and I had been looking at two different critters. It was decided to go back to the truck and continue the search. Three hours later I found the buck, he had fallen behind some tall weeds in a small depression and was all but invisible unless you basically tripped over him. He was at exactly 475 yards and about 100 yards further to the left of our main search area.
It turns out that while I was watching the buck on 15 power in my scope the main herd had slipped off to his right. So my wife was watching the buck on the right. The one I was looking at through the scope was actually quite a bit to the left of the main herd by the time I shot. That was a great lesson on limited FOV at high power and the loss of situational awareness that it can cause.
Our buck.
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