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| Son and father hunting |
My hunting adventures all started many years ago. I took my son hunting for mule deer in Logan Canyon (Utah) in October 1978. He was less than one year old. We have been at it ever since. My other son was born a few years later and he likes to go on hunts also. The three of us boys would always go out for the opener of whatever I had a tag for. They were both good little sports. I loved having them along and learning my passion while camping and enjoying the outdoors. When the older son went to serve in Spain for two years after high school the younger son took over as guide and hunting buddy. I really, really enjoy hunting with my boys. They are great men and kind to their old dad.
This year I practiced shooting with my .300 RUM rifle for a couple months before the recent hunt. I was shooting a 150 grain Nosler ballistic tip bullet loaded over 106 grains of Retumbo powder at 3,619 f.p.s. muzzle velocity. The rifle was grouping three shots just under 1/2 inch at 100 yards consistently. I practiced shooting targets out to 500 yards knowing the hunt involved some wide open spaces in northeastern Utah. I felt the equipment was solid and I would have no problem making the shot if I could find a mature target. Lots of practice and it only took one shot to complete the hunt.
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| 1 shot required |
A very nice fellow, Mike, was the ranch manager for the CWMU area. He and I talked via phone on Sunday evening. He told me to meet him at a parking area near the ranch and he would show me the boundaries for the hunt. He told me to bring my rifle when we went to see the boundary areas as we might see a shooter buck on Monday morning. My son and I got together with Mike at 6:30 a.m. I did indeed bring along my rifle. We went around the ranch and saw various antelope eating prairie grass etc. They were nice and healthy animals, mostly does, fawns, and young bucks. They were used to seeing the ranch pickup. No worries in the antelope world. There were also some feral llamas on the property. Crap, I have never seen even one single llama let alone a dozen or so multicolored llamas wondering around Utah. kind of - - - weird.
Mike showed us the various areas we could hunt and was careful to show us areas that were not included in the CWMU. He was a pleasant fellow and like to examine the antelope as much as we did. He told us he liked to be on the hunts. He didn't care if he pulled the trigger he also enjoyed the hunt when someone else was the hunter. He pointed out two "dandy" bucks, to use his vernacular. I was impressed with the animals but no so much as to try for a stalk. As we were leaving for the parking area to get my pickup we saw a "dandy" buck. He was eating with a smaller buck in a sagebrush flat. Mike said he was a mature one. I looked at him through my binos and though he merited a better look. Mike stopped the truck and I got out and crossed the road and sat on a little berm of soil. I didn't think the antelope would wait for me to set up my tripod and the 30X spotting scope so I used my rifle scope to check them out. Extending my bipod legs to their full length I turned my scope up to 20X. I could clearly see the older antelope was mature -- the mass of his horns was very reasonable and his diggers were going gray. I took a quick laser range reading on him at 196 yards.
The years of practice started the shoot mode like an avalanche when it was harvest time. Automatic and almost unstoppable -- I cranked a round into my rifle from the magazine, took aim at the vitals on the big old buck quartering toward me, held my breath, and gently pressed the trigger until the shot broke. The recoil of the rifle pushed my head up some but I caught a glimpse of the antelope collapsing on the spot in the bottom of the scope. Mike and Dax were still in the truck over on the road. They were amazed how the antelope just fell. Kind of like a popped balloon. Not even one step by the old buck. {I have dropped hartebeest and springbok like that in Namibia. Also a bear in Utah similarly. Just lucky I guess.} We walked over to the harvested animal and he was a "dandy". Good mass and long horns. I think it is the best scoring antelope I have taken so far. All the antelope I have taken have been a lot of fun. I really like hunting these speed goats.
The younger buck antelope snorted at the expired oldster. The young boy wanted the old dude to get up and get out of there. As we walked toward the downed game the younger buck just hung around until we were only 75 yards away or so. Then he hit the afterburners and was gone in a flash.
We took photos and I thanked Mike for leading me to this crusty old goat. We went back to the parking area and retrieved my pickup for hauling the downed animal out of the area. Upon returning in my truck we took more photos. Dax and I started to harvest the meat. Dax has a great method of "gutless" extraction of meat. He has some fine knives and we skinned the animal then took off the four quarters of meat and the back-straps. It worked well. We had some ice in a large cooler and we put the meat on ice within 30 minutes of downing it. We were on our way back town and it was only 10:30 a.m. WHAT A HUNT!
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| One quarter removed three more to go plus back-straps |
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| North 40º08.141' West 110º20.028' |
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