Game: Antelope
Method: Weatherby Mark V Ultra Lightweight
Ammo: .300 Win Mag with 180 grain Sirocco II bullets
Conditions: HOT! HOT! HOT! 105 degrees
Date: 8/27/2011
Location: Logan, New Mexico

Outfitter: http://www.hunt-nm.sports.officelive.com

New Mexico has two antelope seasons, one in August and the other in September. About a decade ago I did my first New Mexico antelope hunt during the August hunt. It was 103 degrees, far too hot for a guy that grew up in Wisconsin thinking 80 degrees was unbearable. All my following New Mexico antelope hunts were in September, until this year. What was I thinking booking another August hunt? Well maybe it will be different this time. It was! It was hotter, 105 degrees!

Fortunately the outfitter, James Provencio, had a good air conditioner in his truck. Prior to the hunt I called James to find out where we were would be staying. He informed me that he had picked out a nice camp site on the ranch. I informed him that I would be staying in a hotel. I like camping, but not when it’s 105 degrees.

The 38,000 acre ranch we were hunting was prime antelope country; unfortunately, the ranch had only gotten 1 inch of rain since February. The only green things on most of the ranch were yucca plants. Even the dead grass had been eaten down to the ground. My optimism sank. We were seeing some good antelope, but no exceptional bucks. I figured it was going to be hard to get good quality with the poor food source all summer. The number of antelope that we were seeing was less than I was used to in New Mexico. I’m sure this was due to the antelope relocating to areas with a better food supply.

Later that morning, we spotted a good buck that my hunting partner Glen decided to try to harvest. After a fun stalk, Glen made a good shot and the buck was his. We headed to town to get some lunch and get Glen’s buck cooled down. We also were going to pick up Steve, another member of the Heartland Hunters’ Pro Staff who was coming to start his hunt the next day.

We spent the rest of the day glassing for a trophy buck with no success. We did manage to find one spot on the ranch where there was a little green grass. The soil on this part of the ranch was better. There were no yucca plants. They had finally received a little rain and the pasture was coming back to life. There were considerably more antelope in this area but we could not find that special one.

James and his brother Jerome were fun to hunt with and did everything they could to get us good antelopes, but Mother Nature was working against us. We were having a good time, but my confidence level in shooting a good buck had diminished. I had not seen one buck the first day that I would have shot. We had covered the entire ranch a couple times the first day. That night I told Glen that I was considering just hunting the next morning if things didn’t improve. I was used to at least seeing a couple trophy antelope a day when I hunted New Mexico.

The next morning we headed to the part of the ranch that had a little new grass coming up. We were about 10 minutes into legal shooting time as we turned into the part of the ranch that we wanted to hunt. We didn’t go a quarter of a mile before we spotted a decent buck a couple hundred yards out in a field. We were so focused on him that it took us a minute to spot another buck only 100 yards in front of us. He was a shooter!

After a quick look both James and I decided I would try and take the buck. The problem was he was only100 yards away and we were out in the wide open. It would be difficult to get out of the truck and get far enough off the gravel road to take a shot without spooking the buck. I told James to back the truck up and put some distance between us and the buck. After backing up about 100 yards I got out of the truck and headed into the field. The buck was getting nervous as I sat down and put down by bi-pods. The buck started to take off and I took my shot. James said “I think you missed”. I was confident in my shot, but I quickly chambered another round. I was just about ready to squeeze another round off when the buck hit the ground.

As we approached the buck my excitement grew. There was no ground shrinkage here. The closer we got, the better he looked. I had double lunged the buck but his adrenaline had kept him going for about 50 yards. The buck’s horns were a little over 15 inches long, not the tallest buck I had ever shot, but he hadgreat mass and cutters. We green scored him at 82, the B&C minimum. He was a much better buck than I expected after our first day of hunting.

Later that day, Steve shot a great buck green scoring 87.5. It just goes to show you that no matter how bad the conditions are you need to stick it out. We had both harvested great bucks on a day that I expected to be a bust.