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Early Season Muzzleloader Antelope Hunt in Wyoming (Part 2)

September 1, 2011.

Continued from Part 1

I had a 12-incher at 89 yards, then another 12-incher at 150 yards. I passed on both of those. Spek had two small bucks at similar ranges, and passed on those. The proliferation of small bucks kept things interesting, but we were eager to see something a little larger.

In our planning for this trip, we had all been so committed to spot-and-stalk tactics that we had all left our portable blinds at home. Spek and I were coyoted out on the ground, lying in the dust and tucked between some low sage bushes. The heat was pushing 90 degrees, and the sun was relentless.

A little after noon, I had a group of 10 does come in to my right. I threw my binoculars on them, and quickly spotted a shooter buck with them. But they were moving fast, possibly having caught my scent -- a very significant consideration when you're trying to hunt within 200 yards of antelope.

They stopped at the water for just a split second, then charged across my front at 150 yards. The buck stopped for a second, but I hesitated to take the quartering-towards shot because I didn't want to lose the meat from the front shoulder. He took off again, and I thought "Oh no, I'm not going to be able to get a shot on this buck."

When he stopped again, 144 yards out and facing directly towards me, I hammered him. He went down in his tracks, and I jumped up to reload.

At which point I discovered that my speed loaders had popped open in my pocket, dumping Blackhorn 209 in to the ziploc bag that held them. I dumped a very approximately measured amount of powder out of the ziploc and into my barrel, and loaded a bullet -- not a great situation, but if I needed a followup shot, this was as good as it was going to get.

Fortunately, the shot had been perfect and the buck was very dead. He was about 13.5", a little smaller than I would have guessed when I saw him on the hoof, with a nice shape and some cool junk points on his horns.

Spek and I broke down my buck and got him on ice, then when back to hunting.

Spek really wanted to try some stalks, but the terrain made it tough. We did have one close call that evening, when we used the Moo Cow to get within 100 yards of a herd at last light. Unfortunately, we actually ended up a little too close, and the herd winded us and spooked.

I headed home the next morning, while Spek continued his efforts to find a stalkable buck. He wasn't successful on sunday, the last day of his hunt, but the season is still open....

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