Elkmasterwyo
WKR
A little late getting around to posting this! This year I decided to apply for one of wyomings special muzzleloader antelope tags, myself and two other buddies drew. None of us had ever fired a muzzy so we spent the summer researching, buying and shooting muzzle loaders............way fun! I settled on a TC Omega, with fiber optic sights.
The area we drew has a ton of water(creeks, irrigated lands, stock ponds, etc.). So sitting water was pretty much out of the question. Most of the antelope are on big sage flats. My goal going into the season was to be able to spend time stalking goats with my son, if we got one that'd be the cherry on top! I bought a Montana beef cow decoy(the antelope see cows most of the year) we had a really nice buck picked out was a solid 75" buck but had one cutter that turned down and was neat looking, he would position himself in the middle of a full section of flat ground with 6-8" sagebrush, not ideal! We tried the moo cow to no avail, I swear every antelope that saw that thing within 400 yds of them would be up to mach 1 in 2 seconds! So the next thing we tried was the ol white flag trick, while it didn't spook them, it didn't attract em either, they would just look at it a few seconds then go back to feeding. After 5 days of trying for that buck, I decided we needed to move areas and find somewhere that may have better stalking terrain.
The next afternoon after I picked my son up from school we headed out and found 5 bucks laying in the sun. They were 100yds across a dry wash that was about 600yds from us, while I was looking at them through the spotter I noticed another buck 100yds on our side of the wash. We made a plan to drive the truck another half mile up country where we could park out of sight and intercept the wash. We started working our way towards them, I'd pop over the bank every hundred yards or so to keep tabs on them, the 5 bucks were staying put but I never could find the lone buck. After 45 minutes of working our way towards them, I figured we'd be getting close to the 5 when we came around a small corner in the wash, the bank opened up on the left to where we could see 100yds or so, and there was the lone buck standing there. I motioned for my son to stop, by the look on his face I knew that he saw it all the same time I did and he knew the buck was in trouble! I swung the gun to my shoulder(was amazed at how fast I Had him in the sights, as its been years since I've hunted anything with open sights!) just as he was taking a step to take off I sent a 245gr shockwave his way and knew by the sound of a solid hit that he wouldn't go far! He ran about 50-60 yds and piled up. We were excited as it was the first animal I had ever got with a muzzy and my son was there for it! We ranged the distance to where he was standing and it was 77 yds. Then made our way over to where he lay, a quick photo session then we hot footed it to the truck to get the coolers of ice. I got him broke down and on ice in record time with the help of a little helper:-D and he thought it was so cool that he got to go home to show his mom the blood on his hands and pants!
The area we drew has a ton of water(creeks, irrigated lands, stock ponds, etc.). So sitting water was pretty much out of the question. Most of the antelope are on big sage flats. My goal going into the season was to be able to spend time stalking goats with my son, if we got one that'd be the cherry on top! I bought a Montana beef cow decoy(the antelope see cows most of the year) we had a really nice buck picked out was a solid 75" buck but had one cutter that turned down and was neat looking, he would position himself in the middle of a full section of flat ground with 6-8" sagebrush, not ideal! We tried the moo cow to no avail, I swear every antelope that saw that thing within 400 yds of them would be up to mach 1 in 2 seconds! So the next thing we tried was the ol white flag trick, while it didn't spook them, it didn't attract em either, they would just look at it a few seconds then go back to feeding. After 5 days of trying for that buck, I decided we needed to move areas and find somewhere that may have better stalking terrain.
The next afternoon after I picked my son up from school we headed out and found 5 bucks laying in the sun. They were 100yds across a dry wash that was about 600yds from us, while I was looking at them through the spotter I noticed another buck 100yds on our side of the wash. We made a plan to drive the truck another half mile up country where we could park out of sight and intercept the wash. We started working our way towards them, I'd pop over the bank every hundred yards or so to keep tabs on them, the 5 bucks were staying put but I never could find the lone buck. After 45 minutes of working our way towards them, I figured we'd be getting close to the 5 when we came around a small corner in the wash, the bank opened up on the left to where we could see 100yds or so, and there was the lone buck standing there. I motioned for my son to stop, by the look on his face I knew that he saw it all the same time I did and he knew the buck was in trouble! I swung the gun to my shoulder(was amazed at how fast I Had him in the sights, as its been years since I've hunted anything with open sights!) just as he was taking a step to take off I sent a 245gr shockwave his way and knew by the sound of a solid hit that he wouldn't go far! He ran about 50-60 yds and piled up. We were excited as it was the first animal I had ever got with a muzzy and my son was there for it! We ranged the distance to where he was standing and it was 77 yds. Then made our way over to where he lay, a quick photo session then we hot footed it to the truck to get the coolers of ice. I got him broke down and on ice in record time with the help of a little helper:-D and he thought it was so cool that he got to go home to show his mom the blood on his hands and pants!
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