An antelope buck expressed his dominance by charging a smaller buck that made the mistake of wandering too close. Obviously annoyed by the presence of several other respectable bucks, the old boy stayed on his feet and guarded his collection of two dozen does from the would-be suitors. A series of foot stampings, side-to-side head shakes, and the occasional short charge kept the other bucks at bay.
Lying in the prone position some 200 yards away, I had my pick of any buck in the group and making the decision wasn't as easy as you might imagine. Closely evaluating each buck's horns through binoculars was difficult because the animals kept mingling among two dozen doe and fawn antelope.
After studying the band of antelope for 10 minutes the old boy I figured to be the herd buck strayed a few steps away from the others. I nodded a decision to my hunting partner and using a fanny pack as a make-shift rest, put the crosshairs behind his shoulder and tightened up on the trigger.
The sound of my 7mm-08 Remington echoing through the coulee caused the bedding antelope to spring into flight. My bullet spun the herd buck around and dropped him.
Confused as to where the gun shot had come from, the rest of the herd started running straight toward us with the after burners flaming. I chuckled to myself as the herd complete with several surviving bucks raced past at bow range!
"Next time I'll fire a warning shot into the air and simply let them jog past you," commented Keith Kavajecz my brother-in-law and western big-game hunting partner. After hunting hard for a week this was an exciting and memorable way to end our hunt.
With only one tag left to fill between us and time running out, Keith and I had made a gentleman's agreement. If I missed, we would both fire until the buck went down or our clips ran empty. Fortunately for me and my antelope, one shot was all it took to complete a very successful Montana mule deer and antelope combination hunt.
Our hunt was conducted primarily on public lands and without the benefit of a guide. Including tags, travel, meals, and lodging our week-long hunt cost approximately $1,000 per man. During our time afield, we were treated to hundreds of pronghorn sightings, numerous mule deer, and the odd band of elk. Even though we weren't lucky enough to get drawn for an elk tag, just seeing these animals is worth the price of admission.
The West has a lot to offer hunters interested in planning a do-it-your-self style big-game combo hunt. The first step is selecting an area that offers good numbers of both antelope and mule deer. Non-resident hunting permits or tags are available over the counter in some areas and must be applied for in advance in others.
Kill tags range from $150 to $250 for deer and from $100 to $250 for antelope depending on the state. Additional deer and antelope doe tags may also be purchased over the counter in some areas. These bonus tags usually run about $50 each and must be filled in the region designated.
Pronghorns are spread throughout the West, but the largest concentrations are primarily concentrated on the grassy flats and sage brush country of eastern Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. There are also fair to good numbers of antelope in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Idaho, but non-resident permits in these areas are limited. Wyoming has by far has the largest herd of antelope and available non-resident tags, with Montana coming in a strong second place.
Mule deer numbers are holding their own despite a couple of tough winters throughout most of the western states. These magnificent animals are found from the grasslands of South Dakota west to the rugged Rocky Mountains and beyond. The largest combined populations of mule deer and antelope are found in the eastern half of Montana and Wyoming.
These two western states also offer a considerable slice of federal and state land that's open to public hunting. Hunters will find miles of suitable deer and antelope habitat on Bureau of Land Management property, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service land, and various National Forests.
In Wyoming the Thunder Basin National Grassland between Gillette and Casper and the Medicine Bow National Forest southeast of Casper are popular public hunting lands. Neighboring Montana allows public hunting on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge south of Glasgow, Lewis and Clark National Forest in central Montana, Custer National Forest in southern Montana, and many other lands.
Hunting opportunities also exist on Indian Reservations dotting this country. Special licenses and regulations governing hunting on Indian land apply.
Gaining access to private lands may require a modest daily gun or trophy fee depending on the land owner. Local game and fish offices are a good way to find public hunting lands and get leads on land owners who allow hunting. For more information on public hunting opportunities write the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks, 1420 East 6th Ave., Helena, MT 59620 or the Wyoming Game & Fish Department, Cheyenne, WY 82002.
To the hunter who hasn't traveled west, the grasslands and sage brush country of eastern Montana and Wyoming hardly looks like a place deer would call home. Most hunters associate mule deer with mountainous terrain, aspen forests, and stands of ponderosa pine. Ironically it's the grasslands that support the largest number of mule deer and some very impressive bucks.
Grass flats that look like they would have a hard time supporting a cottontail, produces some amazing mule deer bucks. In this wide-open country, mule deer limit their daily movements to an hour or two at first light and again at sunset. The rest of their day is spent bedded down in drainages or what locals refer to as breaks. Breaks are changes in the otherwise flat landscape. Gullies, washouts, river drainages, bottom lands, and other topography break up the flat plains and provide ideal mule deer haunts.
Antelope are active all day and provide hunters with a challenge that falls nicely between morning and evening mule deer hunts. Unlike deer, antelope tend to move very little at night. A band of antelope located near sunset is almost certain to be in the same spot come sunrise.
This simple fact helped me ambush the group of antelope described at the beginning of this story. Keith and I spotted a band of 30 "goats" as the locals call them milling near the back wall of a grassy coulee. The animals were too far away to judge horn quality, but rarely do you find a group of antelope this big that doesn't have at least one dandy buck keeping watch.
We took note of an unusual looking rock formation on the coulee rim and made plans to hike into the area from the back side of the coulee at first light.
The closest we could drive to where the pronghorns bedded down was about two miles. Rifles slung over our shoulders, we set out hiking towards the rock formation. Typical of the western landscape, what looked like a flat walk with an easy climb to the coulee rim, turned out differently. Two hidden breaks slowed our forward progress down considerably and turned our easy hike into a lung burning trek.
By the time we reached the coulee rim, Keith and I were both sucking wind. We tucked our orange caps into jacket pockets and crawled the last few feet. When I poked my nose over the edge, there were no antelope in sight.
"They must have wandered along the base of the coulee," whispered Keith. "I'll move west along the rim and you go east, if you find them come back and get me."
It didn't take long to locate the animals. The band wandered a few hundred yards to the west and were bedded down in some grass on the north slope of the coulee wall.
Less than 200 yards away, 30 odd antelope lay waiting for us to make our move. The shot described earlier was the easy part. Getting my antelope back to the truck proved to be a half-day job.
Hunting antelope and mule deer requires four vital pieces of equipment. A flat shooting rifle, good binoculars for glassing, a spotting scope for evaluating bucks, and a dependable 4x4 pick-up truck to carry you and all your gear across the prairie.
Most western guides and knowledgeable hunters tote bolt-action rifles topped with a 2X-7X, 3X-9X, or 4X-12X variable-power scope. The rifle should be fairly light, equipped with a strap for carrying, and be capable of delivering three shots that can be covered with a 50 cent piece at 100 yards. A shooting aid like the Harris Bipod is a welcome addition to any western big-game rifle.
I sight my pet western big-game rifles in for two to three inches high at 100 yards. This puts the bullet dead on at 200 yards and only six to eight inches low at 300 yards. For shooting opportunities ranging from 100-300 yards, I simply put the crosshairs in the center of the chest and squeeze the trigger.
I can't emphasize enough how important it is to practice shooting at 200- and 300-yard paper targets before the hunt begins. You must become familiar with your gun and ammunition to shoot accurately at these ranges.
The Remington Mountain Rifle, Winchester Stainless Synthetic Model 70, and Ruger M77R are among my favorite domestic hunting rifles. Dependable, accurate, and priced within reach of the average hunter, these weapons are the standards all others are compared to.
Antelope aren't particularly difficult to put down. A rifle chambered for the .243, 6mm, or .25-06 calibers shooting quality 100- to 120-grain bullets offers plenty of medicine for these animals. The same calibers are capable of handling mule deer, but I would feel more adequately armed with the .25-06 as a minimum and better yet the 7mm-08, .270., .280, or .30-06 shooting 120- to 165-grain boattail bullets.
For those who can shoot magnums accurately, the .257 Weatherby, .264 Winchester Magnum, 7mm Remington Magnum, and 7mm STW are among the most flat shooting western mule deer and antelope calibers.
I prefer to hunt with my own handloads armed with quality bullets and pushed by near maximum charges of powder. Short of handloading your own fodder, the best ammunition available includes Remington's Extended Range, Winchester's Supreme, Federal's Premium, PMC Eldorado, and Hornady's Custom loads. This ammunition features quality bullets from Nosler, Sierra, Hornady, Barnes X, Swift, and others with matched powder charges that produce near handload accuracy in most firearms.
As with ammunition, I don't recommend scrimping on optics. Cheap optics can be a headache both figuratively and literally. Shop for the best binoculars you can afford, descent glasses start at about $150, and zero in on models that feature a eight, nine, or 10 power magnification.
A spotting scope will save a lot of wasted walking and should be a part of every western big-game hunt. Fixed- or variable-power scopes featuring 20-, 30-, or 40-power magnification are best. A tripod and or window mount bracket are mandatory items when using a spotting scope.
All of the above equipment is useless if you can't get from camp to the field and back again. A four-wheel-drive vehicle is the foundation most western big game hunts are built upon. The vehicle is used to bring the sprawling countryside down to size.
Every 4x4 should be equipped with a shovel, heavy-duty jack, and a tow strap to help tame this rugged country. Vehicles, including quad runners and three wheelers, are not allowed to operate off the established trails and roads throughout the western states. This common sense law is strictly enforced in most areas.
Most hunters drive along established roads and trails from one vantage point to the next, where they stop and glass for game using their binoculars and spotting scope. When animals are spotted, plans for a foot stalk are laid out.
Antelope can and often do turn up at the most unexpected places. In areas where hunting pressure is heavy, these prairie speedsters are always on the move. Hunting pressure forces these animals to stray wide from roads and trails. Long stalks through cactus and sage brush flats are normal in pronghorn country.
In arid years, antelope form large herds near creeks, rivers, impoundments, or stock ponds that provide fresh water. During the last couple of years the West has enjoyed ample rainfall, causing antelope bands to be widely dispersed and more difficult to locate.
Mule deer are more predicable than pronghorns. These animals spend the early morning, evening, and nighttime hours feeding on the grass and sage brush flats. Sunlight causes these creatures to seemingly evaporate.
Most deer hunters concentrate their efforts during dawn and dusk when bucks are most likely to show themselves. Mule deer can also be successfully hunted by setting up small drives that employ three or four hunters.
River bottoms, gullies, dry gulches and other mule deer country breaks are sure to hold deer. Ideally, one hunter should act as a blocker to keep deer from escaping out the end; a second hunter should hike down into the break and slowly walk towards the blocker; and one or to hunters should flank the rim(s) of the break.
Mule deer generally hop from their beds well ahead of the driver and make their way to higher ground using trails that weave up the sides of the break. When deer are jumped don't be in a hurry to crack off a shot. Get into shooting position quickly and wait a few seconds for the animal to stop and offer the best possible shot opportunity. Also, the closer to the rim the animal is killed, the less work it requires to drag the beast back to the truck.
The mule deer bucks taken on public hunting lands can't compare to the 25- to 30-inch trophy-class heads harvested on the better private ranches. Modest 4x4 and 5x5 bucks with racks ranging from 18-24 inches inside spreads are typical. Despite the lack of trophy animals, the hunting is exciting and there are plenty of bucks for those hunters willing to work at finding them.
The same holds true for antelope. A 15-inch antelope taken on public land is an excellent animal. The chances of harvesting an antelope of this caliber or better largely comes down to the question; how many smaller bucks are you willing to pass up? Isn't that the case where ever you hunt?
Copyright (c) 1996 Mark Romanack. All rights reserved.
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