11-12-2018, 08:19 PM
Finished up a great hunting year this past Saturday. It always seems to be feast or famine for me on tags. Prior to this year it had been 5 years since I'd had a antlered tag. This year I was fortunate enough to draw 3 antlered tags. Utah Buck antelope, Utah, muzzle loader buck deer, and a Wyoming bull elk as well as 2 Wyoming doe antelope tags that I've been lucky enough to draw the last several years.
Headed out Saturday morning to fill a couple of Wyoming doe speed goat tags for some freezer vitals. It was an absolutely gorgeous day with no wind at all at sunrise. Shortly after sunup I found a single doe all by herself bedded on a hillside. Figuring she must be injured I decided we needed to put her down. By the time I got setup she was on her feet feeding and walking away with a noticeable limp. I finally got a quartering away shot at 724, dialed up 11.5 MOA and sent it. Perfect hit right behind the shoulder. She walked about 15 feet and flopped. Got that one taken care of and into the cooler and 20 minutes later found another single with a broken hind leg. Decided to put that one down too. It had been shot through the lower hind quarter on one side. That quarter was no good but the rest of it was fine.
Later that day I was skinning out the heads at home to do some euro work and I found that the one that had been shot in the hind quarter had also been shot right through the nasal cavity just in front of the eye sockets. I can only think that this poor gal was suffering due to idiots shooting at a herd of them running. Can't imagine any other reason to get hit in the nose and hind quarter. Unfortunately that happens far too often in antelope country of Wyoming.
Anyhow, I felt good about putting that one down before the coyotes found her.
Didn't take any pictures of the antelope buck. It wasn't anything special anyhow as my wife had just called me letting me know she was really sick and needed me to come home so I found a little buck on the way out.
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Headed out Saturday morning to fill a couple of Wyoming doe speed goat tags for some freezer vitals. It was an absolutely gorgeous day with no wind at all at sunrise. Shortly after sunup I found a single doe all by herself bedded on a hillside. Figuring she must be injured I decided we needed to put her down. By the time I got setup she was on her feet feeding and walking away with a noticeable limp. I finally got a quartering away shot at 724, dialed up 11.5 MOA and sent it. Perfect hit right behind the shoulder. She walked about 15 feet and flopped. Got that one taken care of and into the cooler and 20 minutes later found another single with a broken hind leg. Decided to put that one down too. It had been shot through the lower hind quarter on one side. That quarter was no good but the rest of it was fine.
Later that day I was skinning out the heads at home to do some euro work and I found that the one that had been shot in the hind quarter had also been shot right through the nasal cavity just in front of the eye sockets. I can only think that this poor gal was suffering due to idiots shooting at a herd of them running. Can't imagine any other reason to get hit in the nose and hind quarter. Unfortunately that happens far too often in antelope country of Wyoming.
Anyhow, I felt good about putting that one down before the coyotes found her.
Didn't take any pictures of the antelope buck. It wasn't anything special anyhow as my wife had just called me letting me know she was really sick and needed me to come home so I found a little buck on the way out.
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Sunrise on the water
