Ghostmoney
Well-Known Member
After 12 years of waiting I was finally successful in drawing an antelope tag in Oregon. I drew the Malheur River unit first hunt. I was only able to get away from work for a quick weekend scouting trip before the hunt, and I was a bit disappointed when after two days of scouting I only saw a single antelope.
Opening day was another day spent without spotting a single antelope. I was hunting with a family friend who had hunted the unit before and took me to all of the locations he had seen antelope in previous years without seeing a single one.
The next morning I hunted some new area and around 9am spotted four antelope down in a small field about 300 yards away. They instantly took off running away from us. They would stop about 800 yards away and watch me but as soon as I would get out of the truck they would start running again. Knowing there was a road on the border of the field they were in I drove as fast as I could to try and stay with them and close the distance as they were angling closer and closer towards the road. They stopped a few times but every time I would stop within 30 seconds they would take off running again. I was getting near the end of the field where I figured was my only chance to get a chance at a shot. I raced to get a little ahead of them as the buck was trailing the does by about 150 yards. When I got slightly ahead of them I stopped the rig and jumped out and had my father jump in the drivers seat and had him keep driving so the buck would thing the danger was gone and hopefully not notice me. It worked enough to get the buck within 250 yards when it finally noticed me and quartered away from me and began picking up speed. I decided I had a single window to get a shot before it would disappear behind a small hill... So I led the front shoulder by 2-3 feet and let the 300 gr berger fly.
I thought I had seen it drop but was not sure with the recoil if it had just disappeared over the crest of the hill... Then I saw some dust kick up as it did a couple quick death spasms.... I made my way over to where I last saw him and found him flipped over on his back facing the opposite direction he was heading. The berger entered few inches behing the front shoulder and exited the opposite shoulder.
It is not the biggest antelope but antelope steaks are on the menu
Opening day was another day spent without spotting a single antelope. I was hunting with a family friend who had hunted the unit before and took me to all of the locations he had seen antelope in previous years without seeing a single one.
The next morning I hunted some new area and around 9am spotted four antelope down in a small field about 300 yards away. They instantly took off running away from us. They would stop about 800 yards away and watch me but as soon as I would get out of the truck they would start running again. Knowing there was a road on the border of the field they were in I drove as fast as I could to try and stay with them and close the distance as they were angling closer and closer towards the road. They stopped a few times but every time I would stop within 30 seconds they would take off running again. I was getting near the end of the field where I figured was my only chance to get a chance at a shot. I raced to get a little ahead of them as the buck was trailing the does by about 150 yards. When I got slightly ahead of them I stopped the rig and jumped out and had my father jump in the drivers seat and had him keep driving so the buck would thing the danger was gone and hopefully not notice me. It worked enough to get the buck within 250 yards when it finally noticed me and quartered away from me and began picking up speed. I decided I had a single window to get a shot before it would disappear behind a small hill... So I led the front shoulder by 2-3 feet and let the 300 gr berger fly.
I thought I had seen it drop but was not sure with the recoil if it had just disappeared over the crest of the hill... Then I saw some dust kick up as it did a couple quick death spasms.... I made my way over to where I last saw him and found him flipped over on his back facing the opposite direction he was heading. The berger entered few inches behing the front shoulder and exited the opposite shoulder.
It is not the biggest antelope but antelope steaks are on the menu
