Thanks for the kind words fellas.
So back to the hunting story.
We toured around with Bob all Sunday. Checked his cows and he showed us some interesting historical things. We come across a couple of gophers that Bob loaned us his 22 mag to send them to prairie dog heaven. A little farther up the road we come across one of those critters that like to dig holes in the shoulders of the roads. Out promptly came the 22 mag again. Bob put some lead in the air and gave the badger a belly ache. He handed the rifle to my brother who gave chase. Never ever did catch up to it. After a little more scouting and touring around we called it a day and made a plan for opening day.
Monday opening day seemed to come quick. I can't stand being late so we were at Bob's house a 1/2 hr early. Bob had already fed his horses and had the coffee on. After a cup or to we headed out to where we seen a antelope that my brother liked. My brother won the coin flip so he was first up shooter. We developed a plan on how to sneak up on the antelope with some of Bob's guidance. Off we went. My brother had wanted to use my dad's Parker hale 243 and I took my Browning 26 nosler. After what seemed like a 1/4 mile of crouching and belly crawling we got within what I figured was shooting distance. My brother got all setup but for whatever reason he couldn't get the scope focused. So i passed him my rifle but like a novice i had forgotten to take my mag from the truck. The antelope had spotted us and were a little antsy so they didn't provide much time to get organized. Off they went over the ridge and gone out of sight before we got organized.
Back in the truck and down the road we go to the next spot where we'd seen goats. Sure enough there they are. This time my brother decided he'd use my 257 wby vanguard. We changed the bipods from the 243 to the 257 and developed a plan. Off we go keeping ourselves to the bottom of the ridge. Bob had said that the antelope will be coming down the valley on the the other side. We got to where we figured we needed to be then crouched, crawled and belly crawled high enough the we would be in good shooting position. I was higher up on the ridge and seen the antelope first. I told my brother to get ready because here they come. It seemed to take for ever and I'm sure if the antelope could talk they would've said seeing that guys head poke up and down out of the stubble looked like the wack a mole game. Lol. Sure enough they kept coming. A couple of does leading and then the buck. I said "take'im ". Then the rifle roared. Full frontal at about 75 yards with a Barnes 100 gr tsx. Boy do those thing penetrate. Lol. Right from stem to stern. Woo hoo my brothers 2nd ever big game animal is a antelope. Happy bunch of fellas we are, handshakes, back slapping, high fives and congratulations. During all the celebratory camaraderie we had failed to heed Bob's warning not to touch the horns. Some like ourselves may ask why? Well let me tell you it is because antelope **** on their horns. Lol. Bob come along with the truck and we proceeded to take care of my brothers trophy. For those that don't know me I'll be completely honest and say I've got a very weak stomach. Gut shot and me don't agree and some weird heaving sounds come out of me when I get a whiff of something unpleasant and a antelope shot stem to stern is a very unpleasant stink. Lol Now not only do I have antelope **** on my hands I'm hacking and heaving trying to get the little guy gutted and skinned. This provided much amusement to Bob and Jessie who come out to bring us a tarp. Anyways we got'er done, loaded and headed back to Bob's house to wash it up, 1/4 it and stick it in the cooler. My brothers friends had the for sight to bring a freezer which we put the antelope in.
With my brothers antelope taken care of we headed out again. It didn't take long before we located two more bucks. We sat there and watched them for a while then decided yep I'll take one. I was let out of the truck on the border road which is technically in the US of A to start my stalk. Off I go sneaking thru the standing wheat on my hands and knees to get in position that I could a good shot off. I got to 344 yards before I was high enough that I could setup my bipods to be able to see over the wheat. The antelope were watching me the whole way probably wondering what the heck is this guy doing lol. Well he didn't wonder long. I sent one, then I sent two. Before sending number 3 I waited til the wind was gusting. This time it was sent signed and delivered doa. Hell Ya. My 1st ever antelope. Once again I forgot about Bob's advice and touched the horns. Lol. Soon after my brother came and touched his horns. Lol. We drug it out of the field to my truck and took it up to a piece of property that Bob owns that has a horse shelter on it. I found that they are just the right size to gut on the tailgate so you don't have to be bent over like a dog humpin a football. Guts out we took it over to the horse shelter where we could hang it up and do a better skinning job. Once it was skinned we quartered it and stuck it in a cooler. We dropped Bob off at home and went to town to get ice for my meat and cape.
Day two we decided we'd give Bob a day off and we'd give Ron and Rick a hand scouting. Found a couple different goats for them but due to lack of permission they had to pass. Mid morning we get a text saying one down so off we go to have a look. A look, a few pictures and some heaving because it was shot in much the same manner as my brothers we were off again to scout some more. Scouting we did. We scouted ourselves right into a gopher patch. How lucky could we be? Well pretty lucky I suppose because it doesn't sound like many gophers are shot mid October. Don't know how many gophers we shot but I just happened to have a couple hundred .22 shells in my truck leftover from my gopher safari to claresholm earlier in the summer. After a hour or so taking turns shooting gophers we figured we'd better get back to scouting. No sooner did we get back to goat mode and we got another text saying all done and we didn't to look anymore. A quick call to update Bob and a invite for him to come to town for supper and our 2018 trophy antelope season was complete except for the drive home and a stop by Darren's at solitude taxidermy.
For the most part it was a great hunting experience. The people we met and the scenery down south are second to none. Our dad might not of been with us in body but he was no doubt with us in spirit.
Thanks for reading my ramblings.
I've got pics but have no idea on how to get them off my phone and onto to the interweb. Lol.
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