xphunter
Handloader
- Sep 15, 2005
- 1,616
- 3,321
When I made application earlier in the year for antelope, I did not draw what I wanted, so I put in for some leftover tags that were private land only.
I have a relatively small piece of land I can hunt on, and that was better than nothing.
I knew that with my buck tag, I would take whatever buck I saw, as I knew that being picky wouldn’t change things in the big picture of things, as the owners had said, all they had seen were small ones. Glenn and I went out Thursday morning with no joy for the first hour and a half or so. After trying to cover everything a second time, and doing more glassing, we found a group of four bedded down in fairly high grass near a fence line. The challenge would be of how to get to them as it was relatively open.
We were originally southeast of their position when I found them about 3/4 of a mile away. We then made a big loop around and then we were north west of them around 600-700 yards. We had some terrain features that benefited us, and we were able to crawl up to a point to where we could see them. About the time we were getting set up, they decided that they were going to start heading in a generally west direction, which actually began to shorten the distance.
They tended to move and then would stop for a very short period of time, maybe sometimes a more like a pause, and then begin walking again.
We continued to re-range them multiple times. It was getting to the point, where they were going to be as close to us as possible, and if, they continue to move in the westerly direction they would begin to even be further away.
Several times I moved from one doe to the next, trying to find the one that was more likely to pause longer. There was a very small buck in this group of four, but I decided my odds of getting an animal stop would be better with one of the does. I was using my 308 Winchester XP-100, with the Speer 172 grain Impact bullet. It is a poly tip bonded bullet.
From the description on Speer’s website is kind of like in between a AccuBond and a Long Range AccuBond.
I was shooting from the prone position (423 yards) and she went down within 5 yards, maybe less.
The impact velocity was 1891 ft./s. I was very pleased with a bullets performance.
From their website, I have concluded that it was designed to open up good down to 1600 ft./s
Several weeks ago I shot this at somewhere close to 300 yards, 400 yards and a little bit past 500 yards, and I was very pleased with the accuracy.
I’m showing in the body cavity both the entrance and the exit wounds, and then after the vitals were pulled out, a picture of where the bullet went through both lungs.
I took some pictures of my 308 Winchester XP-100, then we begin making our way back to the vehicle. Once we got back to the vehicle, drank some water, Started putting up gear, and we’re visiting a little bit. I looked to our south/south west and I saw a doe antelope hurriedly making her way due north along the fence line. It seems that something had spooked her. she got just under 600 yards toward us and then crossed under the fence and took off out of sight. I was not sure if she was one of the does from our first group of four or not at first.
I had pulled out my HS Precision HSP (that had just been rebarreled from Omega Precision earlier in the week) in 25 Creedmoor out, thinking that first doe might become a shooting opportunity.
We kept looking along that fence line wondering if something else else might be coming up the fence line.
Maybe it was around five minutes, maybe less, here comes another antelope following that fence line.
It turned out, it was that same little buck, that we had seen in the group of four originally.
Now, I am literally about 10 yards away from the vehicle in the prone position. He came up to about 498 yards and was looking almost directly at us, maybe with a slight quartering. I was waiting for him to go broadside. When he did turn around, he started walking back away from us in the direction that he had come. I did not want that to happen and yelled, “Hey Antelope” and I didn’t know it till later that at the same time I did that Glenn whistled. We don’t know who got his attention, but he turned around and gave us a classic broadside look.
I was guessing he was right around 505 yards and I took the shot. He did a short little counterclockwise little loop of maybe 15 yards or so, and went down.
This is the second buck antelope I have taken with the Hornady134 grain ELD-M, and I am very pleased with its performance.
Muzzle velocity is 2617 ft./s (15.9” barrel) and the impact velocity was 2068 ft./s.
We thought our morning was finished, because I needed to get back into a town for an appointment at 1:00, but when hunting antelope, you never know what is going to happen. I still have one more doe tag, but I will probably not have another opportunity until next week sometime.
I have a relatively small piece of land I can hunt on, and that was better than nothing.
I knew that with my buck tag, I would take whatever buck I saw, as I knew that being picky wouldn’t change things in the big picture of things, as the owners had said, all they had seen were small ones. Glenn and I went out Thursday morning with no joy for the first hour and a half or so. After trying to cover everything a second time, and doing more glassing, we found a group of four bedded down in fairly high grass near a fence line. The challenge would be of how to get to them as it was relatively open.
We were originally southeast of their position when I found them about 3/4 of a mile away. We then made a big loop around and then we were north west of them around 600-700 yards. We had some terrain features that benefited us, and we were able to crawl up to a point to where we could see them. About the time we were getting set up, they decided that they were going to start heading in a generally west direction, which actually began to shorten the distance.
They tended to move and then would stop for a very short period of time, maybe sometimes a more like a pause, and then begin walking again.
We continued to re-range them multiple times. It was getting to the point, where they were going to be as close to us as possible, and if, they continue to move in the westerly direction they would begin to even be further away.
Several times I moved from one doe to the next, trying to find the one that was more likely to pause longer. There was a very small buck in this group of four, but I decided my odds of getting an animal stop would be better with one of the does. I was using my 308 Winchester XP-100, with the Speer 172 grain Impact bullet. It is a poly tip bonded bullet.
From the description on Speer’s website is kind of like in between a AccuBond and a Long Range AccuBond.
I was shooting from the prone position (423 yards) and she went down within 5 yards, maybe less.
From their website, I have concluded that it was designed to open up good down to 1600 ft./s
Several weeks ago I shot this at somewhere close to 300 yards, 400 yards and a little bit past 500 yards, and I was very pleased with the accuracy.
I’m showing in the body cavity both the entrance and the exit wounds, and then after the vitals were pulled out, a picture of where the bullet went through both lungs.
I took some pictures of my 308 Winchester XP-100, then we begin making our way back to the vehicle. Once we got back to the vehicle, drank some water, Started putting up gear, and we’re visiting a little bit. I looked to our south/south west and I saw a doe antelope hurriedly making her way due north along the fence line. It seems that something had spooked her. she got just under 600 yards toward us and then crossed under the fence and took off out of sight. I was not sure if she was one of the does from our first group of four or not at first.
I had pulled out my HS Precision HSP (that had just been rebarreled from Omega Precision earlier in the week) in 25 Creedmoor out, thinking that first doe might become a shooting opportunity.
We kept looking along that fence line wondering if something else else might be coming up the fence line.
Maybe it was around five minutes, maybe less, here comes another antelope following that fence line.
It turned out, it was that same little buck, that we had seen in the group of four originally.
Now, I am literally about 10 yards away from the vehicle in the prone position. He came up to about 498 yards and was looking almost directly at us, maybe with a slight quartering. I was waiting for him to go broadside. When he did turn around, he started walking back away from us in the direction that he had come. I did not want that to happen and yelled, “Hey Antelope” and I didn’t know it till later that at the same time I did that Glenn whistled. We don’t know who got his attention, but he turned around and gave us a classic broadside look.
I was guessing he was right around 505 yards and I took the shot. He did a short little counterclockwise little loop of maybe 15 yards or so, and went down.
Muzzle velocity is 2617 ft./s (15.9” barrel) and the impact velocity was 2068 ft./s.
We thought our morning was finished, because I needed to get back into a town for an appointment at 1:00, but when hunting antelope, you never know what is going to happen. I still have one more doe tag, but I will probably not have another opportunity until next week sometime.
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