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Hunting Antelope in Wyoming's Red Desert, Part 2

September 15, 2010.

Continued from Part 1.

When my alarm went off on the morning of Day 3, I woke up without a plan.

Over the course of a couple bowls of Raisin Bran, I decided to just keep shopping. There was a ton of BLM I hadn't covered, and I wanted to try to closely look over some of the bucks closer to the town of Bairoil, thinking these may have been overlooked by hunters on opening weekend.

This area is blessed with some really beautiful country, and though I was still a little stressed by the pressure I was putting on myself to find a good buck, I was definitely having fun.

Within the first 30 minutes of the day I had looked over at least 10 mature bucks. They were all still in that 12-14 inch class, and I kept on moving.

Just outside the city limits of Bairoil, I finally saw a buck of interest.

He clearly had some decent length, and his mass and cutters seemed OK.

But I couldn't make up my mind on him.

From certain angles, he looked good.

From other angles, he looked less remarkable.

He was more interested in the other bucks cruising through the area than he was in me, and allowed me to take a number of photos of him, right from my truck.

My plan was to review the photos that night in my camp, and possibly try to find him again the next morning if he looked like my best candidate.

Here are some of the photos of this buck. In the side view, he's looking pretty good. In the head-on view, much less interesting.

Just as I was about to move on, this buck looked at me in just the right way for the rising sun to perfectly light up his antlers.

"Dude, that's a pretty good buck," I thought.

Then, "Dude, if you have to talk yourself in to it, he's not the right one."

But then again, "Dude, that's a pretty good buck."

The buck moved off behind a hill, while my inner debate continued.

I decided to keep after this buck, and caught up with him again after another half-mile or so.

The more optimistic voice inside my head finally won over, and I decided to try to shoot him.

I jacked a round into my .257 Weatherby, and after a very easy stalk, was in a prone position on my bipod. The buck had joined up with another smaller buck, and I looked them over closely to make sure I had the right buck in the crosshairs.

When I pulled the trigger, there was an explosion of dust behind the buck. A miss????

"I never miss antelope!" I said out loud, then jacked in another round. (As you may notice, I talk to myself alot when I'm on solo hunts.)

The buck had trotted off about 40 yards and stopped.

The second shot dropped him in his tracks.

I figured out, a little later, that the very strong crosswind that had picked up was pushing my little 100-grain bullets very far to the left. Given the buck's position on my first shot, this resulted in a miss. On the second shot, the crosswind, which I had not corrected for in a moment of haste, resulted in a spine shot. Not what I had intended, but awfully effective.

I had guessed this buck was in the 15-inch-plus range.

When I got up to him, he exceeded my expectations. 16+ inch horns and a beautiful shape. Really a very, very nice buck.

The self-imposed stress (i.e., whining) of the last few days (months, really) faded away, and I enjoyed the moment. He was a great buck.

I later green-scored him at 79 B&C. He misses the Book by a couple inches, but is still a great trophy and one that I'm very pleased with.

This buck is the 13th buck antelope I've taken (not to mention 5 does) over the past 20 years or so. I always enjoy antelope hunting, but there was something very special about getting a really nice one after so many years.

He was a solid 16-incher, and just the kind of buck I wanted for my Red Desert tag.

He's at the taxidermist now, and will soon hang next to my other antelope mount — a very modest 12-incher, my first buck, taken with a bow, the first year after I moved out West.

Notes:

• Judging antelope is way harder than I realized it was, even though I consider myself a pretty experienced antelope hunter.
• I liked Unit 61 and would apply there again.
• Don't forget to compensate for stiff crosswinds when antelope hunting. (Duh)
• Unfortunately, this was a pretty easy hunt. I have put myself through lots of overly-complicated death-march antelope hunts, and I like it that way. But there are so many bucks in this unit and they're so lightly pressured and the terrain is so accommodating that it's pretty easy hunting.
• When looking for a trophy, I think you need to spend a lot of time in your truck, covering ground and looking over a lot of bucks. I like to walk when I antelope hunt, but there's no way I could have looked over so many bucks on foot.

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