Post by brian89 on Dec 16, 2007 21:47:58 GMT -6
The odwc and oklahoma's chapter of safari club international.. has a creative youth writing essay contest every year for teenagers grades 10-12.the title is "hunting sharing the heratige" My sister decided to give it a whirl and enter itfor the heck of it.. if you win you and another student, (1 guy,1 gal)win an all expense paid guided antelope hunt in New Mexico and a free shoulder mount of your goat.. well she entered and what do you know, she won it... so here's the tale of our antelope adventure to NW New Mexico..
we arived on a Friday around noon and met the ranch manager (who was one of the coolest guys i have ever met) an got camp set up.. We then met our guide named Kenny, who was a great guy too, he has guided for united states outfitters and also guides for elk on his family ranch down around the town of Mora NM..
-the view of campers waiting in line in the driveway-
We then got a tour of the ranch which is 55,000 acres.. so that took us about 3 1/2 hours.. here is a pic of us on the tour and the country that we were hunting..
We saw around 50 antelope on the tour of the ranch, we seen around 20 in the pasture that we were hunting, there was 3 really nice bucks that we had our eyes on that night before the opener..
The way that they set the hunters up with guides out there was the two essay contest winners , (my sister, and the other kid that won) went with the guide and whoever else wanted to go could, me and my dad went.. I was going to be with Hannah, and the guide was with the other kid and his grandpa..
we get there before dawn and kenny the guide tells me where he had seen the goats the night before and drops us off.. We hadnt been in the field 30 mins on our way to where we were goin to set and, KABOOM.. kenny comes across the 2-way and says ANTELOPE DOWN!! I thought man that was quick!.. by this time, we had 3 bucks that i thought were around 400 yards out in front of us, there was a really pesky fog out that kinda hinderd my internal rangefinder..lol.. she shoulda took the shot but im glad she didnt.. all of a sudden i look to my left across the fenceand 50 yards away.. there is a monster just standing there!.. and of course she couldnt shoot across the fence cause it wasnt land we could hunt..
the bucks that were out in front of us kinda spooked and went to the corner of the place and just milled around.. our guide got ahold of us and said he was goin to try and push them to us.. we tried that twice and they didnt go where we wanted to so we repositioned.. we went up to where they had ran by last and set and let them settle so we could put on another stalk.. we then got really lucky and had the whole group come trotting by at 65-70 yards!.. the one that she really wanted had a doe on both sides of him and offered no shot.. the other buck in the group hadnt looked that nice from far away but up close.. holy cow!!, he was wide and had long horns!.. he then stops perfectly broadside.. I said hannah, that thing is nice.. shoot!!.. KABOOM!!.. he then takes off , and hannah said " did i miss!?" i said oh no.. then he started going down and only ran 30 yards with a perfectly placed double lung shot from the .22-250..
heres the pics!..
buck measured 14 3/4'' and 15 '' i never got the spread on it but it was the widest in camp
Me and hannah
Derek the other essay contest winners buck
we arived on a Friday around noon and met the ranch manager (who was one of the coolest guys i have ever met) an got camp set up.. We then met our guide named Kenny, who was a great guy too, he has guided for united states outfitters and also guides for elk on his family ranch down around the town of Mora NM..
-the view of campers waiting in line in the driveway-
We then got a tour of the ranch which is 55,000 acres.. so that took us about 3 1/2 hours.. here is a pic of us on the tour and the country that we were hunting..
We saw around 50 antelope on the tour of the ranch, we seen around 20 in the pasture that we were hunting, there was 3 really nice bucks that we had our eyes on that night before the opener..
The way that they set the hunters up with guides out there was the two essay contest winners , (my sister, and the other kid that won) went with the guide and whoever else wanted to go could, me and my dad went.. I was going to be with Hannah, and the guide was with the other kid and his grandpa..
we get there before dawn and kenny the guide tells me where he had seen the goats the night before and drops us off.. We hadnt been in the field 30 mins on our way to where we were goin to set and, KABOOM.. kenny comes across the 2-way and says ANTELOPE DOWN!! I thought man that was quick!.. by this time, we had 3 bucks that i thought were around 400 yards out in front of us, there was a really pesky fog out that kinda hinderd my internal rangefinder..lol.. she shoulda took the shot but im glad she didnt.. all of a sudden i look to my left across the fenceand 50 yards away.. there is a monster just standing there!.. and of course she couldnt shoot across the fence cause it wasnt land we could hunt..
the bucks that were out in front of us kinda spooked and went to the corner of the place and just milled around.. our guide got ahold of us and said he was goin to try and push them to us.. we tried that twice and they didnt go where we wanted to so we repositioned.. we went up to where they had ran by last and set and let them settle so we could put on another stalk.. we then got really lucky and had the whole group come trotting by at 65-70 yards!.. the one that she really wanted had a doe on both sides of him and offered no shot.. the other buck in the group hadnt looked that nice from far away but up close.. holy cow!!, he was wide and had long horns!.. he then stops perfectly broadside.. I said hannah, that thing is nice.. shoot!!.. KABOOM!!.. he then takes off , and hannah said " did i miss!?" i said oh no.. then he started going down and only ran 30 yards with a perfectly placed double lung shot from the .22-250..
heres the pics!..
buck measured 14 3/4'' and 15 '' i never got the spread on it but it was the widest in camp
Me and hannah
Derek the other essay contest winners buck
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