Ankeny
Well-Known Member
I finally drew an antelope license, and as luck would have it I am guiding hunters for one of the local outfitters in the same area. I have shot a lot of nice antelope so it doesn't bother me one bit to let the nicer bucks go to the clients. After all, why would I shoot a trophy if I don't intend to have it mounted?
I had a client from the east coast who arrived a a couple of days early. I told the client I was going scouting for places to hunt coyotes this winter and I would be in his antelope area most if not all of the day. I asked him if he would like to tag along? He took me up on my offer. We found three antelope that would easily go SCI Gold and two of them were easily Booners. Later in the day the client saw a very nice antelope and he decided that was the one for his wall. I told him the three we saw earlier in the day would score better so he needed to be sure what he wanted in a mount. He told me he was sure he wanted the smaller buck. I told him the goat he had chosen had one of the best looking capes I had seen in a long time and I thought he had made a good choice.
We located the antelope the next morning, bang, flop, then off to the taxidermist. The first thing the taxidermist said upon seeing the goat was something to the effect of, "Holy cow that is a beautiful cape." I don't have the client's permission to post his photo so his face has been cropped.
The following day the client wanted to call coyotes so we called a couple of dogs early in the morning. We spotted an extremely wide antelope that really doesn't contribute much to the gene pool as far as trophy quality. I harvested the freakish antelope a couple of days later to try out a new rifle/scope combination that I got to replace my boat anchor of a pig long range rifle. The new set up is a Savage Predator Max-1 in 6.5-284 with a Zeiss Conquest 6.5-20 scope with target turrets and Kenton Industries knobs. The bullet is a 140 Berger VLD over 51.5 grains of H4831SC in Lapua brass. The Savage shoots exceptionally well for the money, routinely churning out sub .5 MOA groups with a variety of loads. The photo isn't composed very well (blood, etc.) because I was alone with a cheap point and shoot camera with a very short timer. The distance was 684 yards with a near zero wind value.
I had a client from the east coast who arrived a a couple of days early. I told the client I was going scouting for places to hunt coyotes this winter and I would be in his antelope area most if not all of the day. I asked him if he would like to tag along? He took me up on my offer. We found three antelope that would easily go SCI Gold and two of them were easily Booners. Later in the day the client saw a very nice antelope and he decided that was the one for his wall. I told him the three we saw earlier in the day would score better so he needed to be sure what he wanted in a mount. He told me he was sure he wanted the smaller buck. I told him the goat he had chosen had one of the best looking capes I had seen in a long time and I thought he had made a good choice.
We located the antelope the next morning, bang, flop, then off to the taxidermist. The first thing the taxidermist said upon seeing the goat was something to the effect of, "Holy cow that is a beautiful cape." I don't have the client's permission to post his photo so his face has been cropped.
The following day the client wanted to call coyotes so we called a couple of dogs early in the morning. We spotted an extremely wide antelope that really doesn't contribute much to the gene pool as far as trophy quality. I harvested the freakish antelope a couple of days later to try out a new rifle/scope combination that I got to replace my boat anchor of a pig long range rifle. The new set up is a Savage Predator Max-1 in 6.5-284 with a Zeiss Conquest 6.5-20 scope with target turrets and Kenton Industries knobs. The bullet is a 140 Berger VLD over 51.5 grains of H4831SC in Lapua brass. The Savage shoots exceptionally well for the money, routinely churning out sub .5 MOA groups with a variety of loads. The photo isn't composed very well (blood, etc.) because I was alone with a cheap point and shoot camera with a very short timer. The distance was 684 yards with a near zero wind value.
