Caribou Gear

The deadly duo.

Firedude

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My Lovely wife and her daughter drew antelope tags this year in the second draw. I've put in for 16 year and never drawn. This was their first year. With a laugh I asked them what they wanted and replied, "A good one." So I scouted for a few days and spotted a few nice antelope. Ran into a few hunters doing the same. This area is mostly hay fields so generally speaking the goats are close to the road. I don't advocate hunting from a vehicle but I look for "easier" hunts for the less enthusiastic about wilderness hunting in my little family. I would rather have them love going on an easy hunt than dread going on a rough one. This was a great hunt for my wife and daughter. We all spotted a monster(to me anyway) goat on private property. I talked to the landowner about hunting on his pasture and he quickly responded, "absolutely not!" Opening day comes and goes while I'm at work. We leave a few days after for out hunt. We decided to see if the Monster was still there. Sure enough he was, although accompanied by 3 pickups and several spotting scopes watching him waiting for him to exit the fence. In the back of my mind I thought that he didn't get that big by being stupid and also because we were not the first there we left for other areas. My lovely wife and I were informed of an antelope just off the road from a landowner tired of loosing hay. Sure enough there he was about 200 yards off the road. We parked about 1/4 mile away so as not to spook him and worked our way over. He had an obvious limp in his left front leg. He was a good antelope to start with and seeing that sealed the deal for us. We waited for him to limp his way away from the road and then she shot. Miss... he jumped and stood there. She shot again. Miss... Now if the object were to shave hair off the antelope without actually injuring it she would be champ. He ran (well sort of ran) deeper into the sage. She calmed herself and took a 230 yard kneeling shot. I heard the distinct sound of a hit and the goat took about 3 steps and fell down. Wow! On our first look I could see why he was limping. He had a triangular spot of hair missing on hist shoulder and obvious scarring from a broadhead. Upon caping him I discovered a bullet under the hide that was not ours. It was covered in calcium deposits and there was scaring under the hide and in the neck. He had been shot last year and survived. I'm not judging by the way, it happens if you've hunted long enough. We hunters beat ourselves up to the point of weeping when it does.

Her daughter arrived later after a job interview. We were driving past the private ground and low and behold the buck and his does had wandered out of the private ground and was laying about 150 yards off the curve of the road with no hunters in sight. We drove up the road a ways so as not to spook him and parked. We took our time to get over the hill to see him. We sat down and waited. A truck drove past with a trailer and stopped, looked, and drove off. At that point the buck and does stood up. Jen loaded her rifle and started breathing heavy. I told her to wait until they separated a little more. When they did she shot. He dropped right there. She shouted "YAY!" and he stood back up. One more shot and he dropped. She hit it in the neck. When we got it to the suburban a truck I had seen watching him pulled up. They got out and laughed. I nice grey hair gentleman said congratulations. They had been watching him for 2 days. They left for lunch and apparently so had the others. At that point the antelope decided to get a drink from the creek off the property. They were thrilled to get to see him up close and see just how big he was.

2 antelope in one day... both of them being their FIRST big game animals they have ever shot. I'm very proud of both of them.

My wife and her antelope 14524980_10207730644572649_5172773204117899411_o.jpg My stepdaughter with hers 14494885_1255133624516941_4644743528040179420_n.jpg A better pic of both14500245_10209159562043858_8566956072490292252_o.jpg
 
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Very nice, both making the hunt enjoyable for all, and in the bucks your girls harvested.
 
Have I mentioned my wife and stepdaughter are insanely lucky? So my great taxidermy man called me and said, "The tannery has been delayed on some stuff including your bear and wolf but they got your antelope capes done first." Something about fitting smaller stuff into the Vat to make the most of the chemicals. I dunno. "So I'm waiting on capes for stuff that is supposed to be done before yours. Your antelope are some of the only things in the shop that I can do now. Can you pay for them by Christmas?" "Yes." I replied. He asked if I wanted them before Christmas. So Santa brought antelope. They turned out great! I'm very proud of both of them for shooting such great bucks. I have a question for you guys on scoring. The bigger of the two has prongs that are above the 3rd quarter mass measurement by 2/8 of an inch. Do I measure around them or move the measurement above the prong? I called the local measure man for B&C. He said he wasn't 100% sure and would check but didn't want to do it until he was absolutely sure which way to do it. If you were to guess. What do you think they score?]
 
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Here is the exact B&C requirement for scoring the mass measurements:
D‑2‑3‑4. Divide measurement C of longer horn by four. Starting at base, mark both horns at these quarters (even though the other
horn is shorter) and measure circumferences at these marks. If the prong interferes with D‑2, move the measurement down to just
below the swelling of the prong. If D‑3 falls in the swelling of the prong, move the measurement up to just above the prong.

To answer your other question, my guess would be low to mid 70s on the one and upper 70s to possibly a tad above 80" for the other. Both are great looking goats, especially for first timers!
 
Congrats to you all that really is incredible those are awesome bucks!

You're also a blessed man to have a couple lovely huntresses to hunt with. I've been trying to get my wife out for years...
 
What a great story and very nice bucks. Although you did set a very high bar.
 

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