William Joseph, my now 17 y/o son, was lucky to draw an Antelope tag for Nevada. I had mounted my Night Force NXP on my 300 RUM Sendero, the hunt was getting close, it opened on Friday the 22 but we did not go until the Wednesday the 27th. On the 26th William and I went out to do some fine tuning on our long range load. I was pleased when William at exactly 700 yards placed 3 shots well within 2 inches. I did not clean the rifle; we were pretty much on at 700 yards 11.4 moa. Anything else I was confident that within 1000 yards would just fall in place. We had fired a total of 12 rounds and we were ready.
On the 27th we, after asking the Lord to help us find our game since we had not seen much and we had never hunting this area nor had we scouted the area. Things were not looking too good. I had done my home work using Google and got some info from Nevada Dept. of Wild life, back to the 27th, we seen a nice antelope. I was convinced it was within range but my 1500 Bushnell Elite would not give me any readings in the heat of the day. The buck was with a single doe and they would just stay there looking at us. I decided to use the reticle of the NXP (NP-R2) I did the best I could and I figured it to be 748 yards. William got ready; I knew if my ranging was done right it would drop on the shot. Mild wind of about 3 mph was coming from about 2 PM. William dialed it up, I said "when ever you're ready". He fired the buck ran away untouched. We drove to the shot and sure enough we saw them two happily running away. This area, you can see miles and miles of flat land 360 degrees around. Started to see more antelopes but would not let us get closer than about 13-1500 yards. I had definitely messed up on my readings. Thank goodness we did not hurt the animal. Finally we came onto a bunch that had a nice buck and again my Bushnell was not giving me any readings. I decided this time I'd be much more careful with the (NP-R2) and called a distance of 678 yards. Gave William the come ups he dialed and fired. My eyes almost jumped out of my eye sockets, that bullet picked up dust way over the back of the buck. I called it out... "Way over the back"... William was disappointed; I could see it in his face. I said Billy; the best hunting books won't teach you what experience teaches you. Don't feel bad... He never brought the turret back to zero or kept track of where he was, he just dialed on top of what he had previously dialed and that was the reason he was so much way over.
After we got the Night Force turrets back in place, I said we better leave them alone and come back tomorrow if we don't find something else; they're already too spooky.
Well, I said to William, I messed up your first shot; you messed up by your self the second shot. This is great experience and does make us better hunters. I said; if we had had the right range finder you would have not missed the first shot. At least our confidence was good!!!
We found ourselves driving our old trooper and… more antelopes… no… the same bunch. They seemed to be sky lined; went over and disappeared. Did you see that Billy? I said. What dad?... They went over… it isn't that flat after all… Let's drive just before we start going up and then we will crawl up. We did. We crawled about 60 yards. Well not quite, I was on four legs and William the same with the rifle. I lifted my head up very slowly and ranged 375 yards. William said: "Dad I can not see them from the prone position to shoot" I said move up to that cow pie and shoot from there. He did. I ranged him at 350 yards... my Bushnell had worked! He dialed the come ups and fired. Every thing ran away. I kept my binoculars on the buck. I saw the front left leg completely bathed in red blood. The buck stopped and laid down. Got up walked away and laid down again. Kicked a many times, William was going to shoot again and I said I think he's dead already. I surely was impressed when I saw the damage of the exit destruction and could not figure how that animal walked as he did.
We were happy and thankful to our God for giving William his first Antelope. It surely is a trophy to us and William is very happy.
God bless you all and good hunting!!!
THAT'S NOT THE END, during the hunt my daughter in law birthed MY 4th Grand Son. My goodness I'm getting old. It's a long legged white boy that weighed 8Lbs and 14 onzes. Praise The Lord Our God! Amen!
He doesn't seem to be getting no brown from Grandpa...
His name is Caleb Peter Moncada; please keep him in your prayers that he be a good man that'll serve God, His Country and loved ones.
On the 27th we, after asking the Lord to help us find our game since we had not seen much and we had never hunting this area nor had we scouted the area. Things were not looking too good. I had done my home work using Google and got some info from Nevada Dept. of Wild life, back to the 27th, we seen a nice antelope. I was convinced it was within range but my 1500 Bushnell Elite would not give me any readings in the heat of the day. The buck was with a single doe and they would just stay there looking at us. I decided to use the reticle of the NXP (NP-R2) I did the best I could and I figured it to be 748 yards. William got ready; I knew if my ranging was done right it would drop on the shot. Mild wind of about 3 mph was coming from about 2 PM. William dialed it up, I said "when ever you're ready". He fired the buck ran away untouched. We drove to the shot and sure enough we saw them two happily running away. This area, you can see miles and miles of flat land 360 degrees around. Started to see more antelopes but would not let us get closer than about 13-1500 yards. I had definitely messed up on my readings. Thank goodness we did not hurt the animal. Finally we came onto a bunch that had a nice buck and again my Bushnell was not giving me any readings. I decided this time I'd be much more careful with the (NP-R2) and called a distance of 678 yards. Gave William the come ups he dialed and fired. My eyes almost jumped out of my eye sockets, that bullet picked up dust way over the back of the buck. I called it out... "Way over the back"... William was disappointed; I could see it in his face. I said Billy; the best hunting books won't teach you what experience teaches you. Don't feel bad... He never brought the turret back to zero or kept track of where he was, he just dialed on top of what he had previously dialed and that was the reason he was so much way over.
After we got the Night Force turrets back in place, I said we better leave them alone and come back tomorrow if we don't find something else; they're already too spooky.
Well, I said to William, I messed up your first shot; you messed up by your self the second shot. This is great experience and does make us better hunters. I said; if we had had the right range finder you would have not missed the first shot. At least our confidence was good!!!
We found ourselves driving our old trooper and… more antelopes… no… the same bunch. They seemed to be sky lined; went over and disappeared. Did you see that Billy? I said. What dad?... They went over… it isn't that flat after all… Let's drive just before we start going up and then we will crawl up. We did. We crawled about 60 yards. Well not quite, I was on four legs and William the same with the rifle. I lifted my head up very slowly and ranged 375 yards. William said: "Dad I can not see them from the prone position to shoot" I said move up to that cow pie and shoot from there. He did. I ranged him at 350 yards... my Bushnell had worked! He dialed the come ups and fired. Every thing ran away. I kept my binoculars on the buck. I saw the front left leg completely bathed in red blood. The buck stopped and laid down. Got up walked away and laid down again. Kicked a many times, William was going to shoot again and I said I think he's dead already. I surely was impressed when I saw the damage of the exit destruction and could not figure how that animal walked as he did.
We were happy and thankful to our God for giving William his first Antelope. It surely is a trophy to us and William is very happy.
God bless you all and good hunting!!!
THAT'S NOT THE END, during the hunt my daughter in law birthed MY 4th Grand Son. My goodness I'm getting old. It's a long legged white boy that weighed 8Lbs and 14 onzes. Praise The Lord Our God! Amen!
He doesn't seem to be getting no brown from Grandpa...
His name is Caleb Peter Moncada; please keep him in your prayers that he be a good man that'll serve God, His Country and loved ones.
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