NV antelope and 117 hammer hunters

[Schnyd112]

Lottery draw, public land, DIY, and my first solo big game animal. Day 4 of a planned 5, 200ish yards, looking almost straight at me, 117 hammer hunter from a .270 WSM killed him before I recovered from recoil. Picture of the heart says it all.

 

[ub270]

Great looking goat. Congrats !

 

[Barrelnut]

Congrats! DYI makes it even more special doesn't it?
Beautiful buck. Love the wide chocolate nose.

 

[Sykes]

Gotta love them hammers! Congrats

 

[Schnyd112]

Congrats! DYI makes it even more special doesn't it?
Beautiful buck. Love the wide chocolate nose.

Thank you.

Lots of emotions and talking to myself. It's one thing to second guess yourself when you've got a partner, someone to bounce ideas off of. Totally different when you've got one brain, two eyes and limited carrying capacity. I spent a day and a half without seeing a legal buck. Started sweating it. You start to question if you're doing something wrong. Kept at it, tried to stay positive and it worked out in the end. Not a monster but a good mature buck and will probably go down as one of my favorite hunts.

 

[BadDogPSD]

Congrats on a nice speed goat!

 

[6.5x300 WBY]

Awesome just flat out awesome. Congrats

 

[SnowDingo]

Congrats! nice goat, I also like the 117 in wsm

 

[crkckr]

The accomplishment you get from a hunt like this is tremendous! Well done! Most of my own hunts have been solo like this and I much prefer hunting this way. I've run the list of hunting partners from the one who shoots at shadows to the one who's barrel I ended up looking down much too often. There's probably no such thing as the perfect hunting partner but if you have one you can tolerate, you're doing pretty good in my book! There are certainly some downsides to going it alone but I generally feel better alone and accept the downsides.
Cheers,
crkckr

 

[JMB 1911]

congratulations I love hunting antelope and if I didn't live in CT I would do it every year

We apply for doe tags in Wyoming every year but have been unlucky for the past 3

 

[Schnyd112]

I've got one hunting partner that has been all I can ask for, but since Dad is working out of the country I did this one on my own. I am pretty lucky, I've got my dad and a couple buddies that have always been great to hunt with.

As to the tag, I am now in a 5 year cool off period. Horns longer than ears is not a hard tag to draw, but my last one was 2010. If you have the tag on opening day, regardless of if you kill one, it's 5 years before you can apply again. The lottery system can be frustrating, there are years we get skunked on tags, but when you get a tag you know there is a chance for something special.