Hunting_Wyoming_Antelope

Wyoming Antelope, October 5th & 6th, 2007
Busy week this week. Elk Hunting the first three days and antelope hunting the last two. Barely got any work done. The kids should both be writing stories - perhaps I will ground them from further hunting trips until they are done. We left Friday morning and drove the Pinedale and were hunting by 1pm. Brandi went along and here official task was to record the number of animals we would see. We would call out 12 antelope 3 bucks and she would make hash marks accordingly. We ended up seeing 300+ antelope (60 bucks) on Friday and 408 antelope (100 bucks) on Saturday. We were in different areas so only about 75 of these antelope are counted twice. We looked at a lot of bucks. No real bruisers but several nice ones. Not sure we shot the biggest of the bunch but probably in the top twenty or so. Field judging antelope is incredibly difficult. Kalie's measures 14" and it fooled me as I thought it was longer then Blake's. Blakes measures 14 7/8". Now after remeasuring them I know why I messed up. If you measure from the base of the horn to the highest point on the horn Karlie's buck is an inch longer then Blake's but because of the inward and downward curve Blake's horns are actually longer. Something to look at when I go back for my buck. Both are bigger antelope then I have ever killed. I will be going back down in two weeks to see what I can find.

My first antelope buck
Blake Christensen
We started our antelope hunt Friday morning at about 9 o'clock. When dad got home from work but it didn't really start we still had to drive for three hours to get to Pinedale, Wyoming. For the first several hours dad wouldn't let us shoot any thing. But we ended up looking at bucks the whole day. When we finally got back to Pinedale We went to this little pizza joint with the worst pizza ever. It was sick and wrong. The next morning we headed out early and drove down the highway looking for antelope. I saw two nice sized bucks that we stalked but I missed them. We then drove around looking for other bucks. At about two thirty dad saw a glimpse of a buck. So dad asked if any one wanted to go look at it. Nobody answered so we just drove along then we saw it and I told dad I wanted to shoot it. So dad got out the range finder and said we would have to stalk it because it was too far away. So we go get our guns and started to stalk it. After a minute we were crawling on our hands and knees and being poked by cactuses. We got behind a big sage brush and sat up. It was hard to keep the gun still because I was so exited and the wind was blowing. The buck didn't think of us as that big of a threat but he was proven wrong a couple minutes later. When I shot the buck just stood their and dad just told me to keep on shooting. Finally it fell down after about 15 minuets. I wasn't that good of a shot, lets just say it took me 9 bullets to get him down. In the process of shooting the 9 bullets, dad became deaf. I had lots of fun. I hope we draw a tag next year.

     My First Buck Antelope
                                          Karlie Christensen

       The 5th of October Blake, Brandi, my dad, and I went to Pinedale, Wyoming. We were on a hunt for our buck Antelope. The only thing we did that day was we went to look at and try to determine how to estimate the length of there horns. Then after it was to dark to hunt we went to dinner. It was not very good. Then we went to our motel to sleep. The next day we were serious about it so we went around and finallly found an antelope Blake wanted. (I’ll let Blake tell his part of the story.) Then after we got Blake’s buck we went searching for mine. After looking a while I saw some. So we drove a bit closer to get a better view. I saw one that I liked so we went after it. Dad and I were walking towards the group when we were spotted by not 1 but 2 antelope so we were screwed. Then we got back in the truck and I wanted to see if we could find it again. So we took off trying to find them again and we did. But this time they were closer and I got my gun and shooting sticks out and got ready. I saw the one I wanted to shoot and I shot it but it was still walking so I shot it again and this time it fell over dead. When we looked at it we found that on the first shot I had broken both front legs. But the 2nd shot had blown up his heart. The sad thing is Blake’s antelope was bigger. Mine was only 14 inches long. But I still had a lot of fun.

Below is my buck. Not as long as I would have liked (14 1/8") but nice mass and great hooks on the tips. The prongs are not bad either. My buck actually scores 2" better then Blake's because of the mass and prongs. I went over with Karie and Brock while the kids stayed home. We didn't keep track of the numbers of antelope that we say but I'm pretty sure we saw more then we did the first trip. I didn't see any monster bucks on either of the trips. This one was shot off the hood of the truck at 250 yards. That was after 4 stalks that either got messed up or the buck was too small. That includes one in a blinding blizzard with visibility of <100 yards. Hmm perhaps I should go antelope hunting earlier in the season.