My son drew a tag in an area of Sublet County near La Barge, Wyoming. It is a grand place to look for pronghorns. There are lots of animals and few tags issued. Overall we hunted for sometime and never saw another hunter in all our time and miles traveling around the area. The oil field guys had made numerous roads through the area for their work and access for us is rather easy. I drive a white Chevy pickup just like a multitude of oil field workers so the antelope were unaware we were hunting them by our vehicle.
The first day we arrived around 3 p.m. We set up camp and proceeded to drive around the area to remember the roads from last time we were there and look for possible targets. Crap-O-Rama we saw so many buck antelope I started making a tally sheet. I marked for 23 buck antelope on the first afternoon driving around. We had binoculars and a spotting scope to look for that special one. We saw about 3 of the 23 bucks that I thought were potential shooters. Dax said "it is only the first afternoon, I am going to be picky and find just the right one." I agreed. There were no other hunters chasing the bucks around. I assumed the boys would stay somewhere near where we saw them for the next while.
We saw a large harem of does in a ravine to the south of our look-out point. The entire sisterhood was controlled by a single big old pronghorn buck. He had an interesting horn on the right side. He was reasonably long, maybe 14" over all but the diggers were exceptional. I think he would have scored high because of the mass on the prongs. The right horn digger protruded out to the right at about a 75º angle and not straight forward. {Maybe he was a Republican?} Where he had the right turned digger and was herding around a mass of 20 plus does we named him Donald. We watched and the animals and they were not really heading anywhere in haste. Finally, Dax decided to look at Donald through the 3-9X 50mm scope on his rifle. He laid down, set up the bi-pod legs and took a steady hold. He watched for a long time. I watched through my spotting scope placed in a window mount. Donald was trying to keep his harem in line and didn't worry about the white truck 400 yards away at all.
I offered Dax my back up rifle with a 6.5-20X 50mm scope. He said he wanted to see how Donald looked through the larger magnification scope. I handed him the rifle. The scope is a Burris ballistic plex reticle and I told him to hold on the 3rd stadia line on the vertical crosshair if he were to shoot at the distance we had lazered. Dax watched for several minutes through the big scope. He even did a dry fire to practice the trigger control on a borrowed rifle. Donald was a dead antelope walking. Finally, Dax said "Not today on this one" and we loaded up our gear and drove off. Donald doesn't know how lucky he is.
We continued to see buck antelope on the way back to camp. It was growing dark and we were tired from the drive up from Utah. We had a fine dinner, courtesy of Dax, of pasta and sausages. I hit the sack early as I am not so tough as I once was.
Up the next morning early. Breakfast was hot chocolate and a sweet roll (a hunters breakfast) and we were out looking for more buck antelope. Our plan was -- we would hunt until noon and then eat good and have a nap before the evening hunt. We started seeing bucks again right away. Maybe 400 yards from camp was the first buck sent to greet us. I started a new tally sheet and marked all the buck antelope we saw with the accuracy of a tax accountant. I had marked 54 bucks by noon when we saw a buck that caught Dax's attention. He told me to stop and he looked closer with his binoculars then bailed out of the truck with his rifle and its 3-9X scope and walked to a fence line 30 yards from the road. He took his rifle and kneeled down to steady the .338 Win. Mag. on a fence post. He aimed at a buck antelope who was quickly walking about 90 yards from us north to south. Dax fired and the antelope ran. I think he shot high. The antelope ran to a ridge about 350 yards away slowed and looked back to scoff at us and Dax took another shot. This one hit low and the antelope ran over the hill out of sight.
Dax told me to stay there and he would follow the buck on foot. When he shot again he said I could drive up to meet him in the truck. I waited. I watched Dax leg march the distance to the top of the hill where we had last seen the buck. NO BUCK to be seen. Dax used his binoculars to look around and I decided to drive up there. When I arrived I saw a buck all alone on the next hill over. I put my spotting scope on him and thought it was the one we were after. Dax laid down in the road and asked me how far? I lazered the buck at 465 yards. Dax took careful aim and fired a single round. The impact took a moment to echo back to us. The antelope fell with out taking a step. I can certify the .338 Win Mag firing 225 gr. bullets is plenty powerful to kill and buck antelope even at distance. Dax always says "you can't kill 'em too dead".
I looked at my watch and it was 1:20 p.m. We had a buck down and the hunt was a total success with less than 24 hours afield. I accused Dax of missing the closer shots to "SHOW OFF" about his long distance shooting skills. I was indeed impressed.
Lat. North 42º29.581'
Long. West 110º23.446'
elevation 8,042
There were other adventures on this trip. We had a bit of a snag with the pickup loosing all its oil, getting towed in to Kemmerer and a great meal at a chinese cafe in Kemmerer. Maybe another day?
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