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September 25th, 2006 was opening day in Wyoming area 32 and a beautiful
morning found my brother Ron and I casting about for Pronghorn. An early snow and
rain a few days earlier left most of the ranch roads unpassable and even the county roads
were difficult or impossible even with four wheel drive. But a dry day before the
opener helped dry things out a little bit and we were eager to get started. The
ranchers reported that they were in the midst of a long drought and one of the ranches we
usually hunt would not grant permission because of the hard conditions. Undetered we concentrated our efforts on another gracious ranch property and had plenty of ground to work. Scouting the day before had resulted in a solid game plan. Because of the muddy roads we parked at the ranch fence line along the county road for our first hunt and Ron went south parallel with the road and I headed east to glass some distant hills. Within minutes I spotted Antelope as well as other hunters. Other hunters are bad news when hunting game with the keen eyesight of Antelope. The bad roads had the hunters concentrated more than we would like. However this herd was out 0.85 miles, per GPS reading taken later, and I felt I could work their position by following a dry creek bed. I was able to approach without being detected and took this nice buck at about 250 yards. As usual I was shooting my Mauser .338 Win Mag. He measures 14" per side with good mass around the bases and good size cutters. It was all over by 8:00 AM on opening morning, well except for the dragging which we completed at about 1:00 PM. Ron was completing his hunt at the same time and had his buck down by about 8:30. He intercepted this buck and took him with a long shot from a Mauser in .25-06. |
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