I drew a summer tag for pronghorn antelope this year; northeast corner of NM. My first time hunting these goats. In preparation for this hunt, I had bought a Tikka T3X Superlite in 6.5 Creedmoor and a bunch of Barnes 120gr VOR-TX. Out of the box, the rifle and ammo (along with Hornady and Prime) showed excellent results on paper. Spent a day at the range truing my ballistics card and getting it taped up to the rifle stock. Mounted a Vortex Viper HS-T 4-16x44 in Leupold Backcountry rings. Also upgraded the polymer bottom metal kit to an aluminum setup from High Desert Rifle Works.
Fast forward to the hunt - my recently retired dad tagged along with me. He was incredible company and it was nice to have an extra set of eyes out there. I learned a lot from my own mistakes during the first half of day 1; stalking them, their sensitivity to movement, speed, range, vision, habits, etc. We chased them around the unit for about 7 miles on foot all of Tuesday morning. Went back to camp to have lunch, take a nap, then hit it again in the afternoon.
After cruising some trails for a few hours, I spotted a lone buck about a half mile off the road around 5:30pm. I backed the truck back up the road about a 1/4 mile out of his sight, loaded up my pack, and we started walking. Circled my way around the back of an adjacent hill that concealed me from his vision. Ranged him from the crest of the hill at about 548 yds. From there, I bear crawled a little closer through the brush and grass and ranged him again at 504 yds. From a prone position, I got set up for the shot using my bino harness as a forend rest; as the angle wasn't optimum to employ my tripod. I hit him broadside with the 120 TTSX and dropped him.
Man, I am beyond happy with the experience and outcome of this hunt, and especially happy with the performance of the rifle and terminal ballistics of the ammo. Entrance wound the size of my finger; exit wound the size of a golf ball. Obliterated the guts, all fortunately with minimal meat damage. Got him tagged, quarted and bagged right as the sun was setting. I'm looking forward to antelope burgers, jerky, and a nice european mount to remind me of this beautiful creature. Fingers crossed I'm lucky enough to draw again next year. Cheers, all.
-Matt
Fast forward to the hunt - my recently retired dad tagged along with me. He was incredible company and it was nice to have an extra set of eyes out there. I learned a lot from my own mistakes during the first half of day 1; stalking them, their sensitivity to movement, speed, range, vision, habits, etc. We chased them around the unit for about 7 miles on foot all of Tuesday morning. Went back to camp to have lunch, take a nap, then hit it again in the afternoon.
After cruising some trails for a few hours, I spotted a lone buck about a half mile off the road around 5:30pm. I backed the truck back up the road about a 1/4 mile out of his sight, loaded up my pack, and we started walking. Circled my way around the back of an adjacent hill that concealed me from his vision. Ranged him from the crest of the hill at about 548 yds. From there, I bear crawled a little closer through the brush and grass and ranged him again at 504 yds. From a prone position, I got set up for the shot using my bino harness as a forend rest; as the angle wasn't optimum to employ my tripod. I hit him broadside with the 120 TTSX and dropped him.
Man, I am beyond happy with the experience and outcome of this hunt, and especially happy with the performance of the rifle and terminal ballistics of the ammo. Entrance wound the size of my finger; exit wound the size of a golf ball. Obliterated the guts, all fortunately with minimal meat damage. Got him tagged, quarted and bagged right as the sun was setting. I'm looking forward to antelope burgers, jerky, and a nice european mount to remind me of this beautiful creature. Fingers crossed I'm lucky enough to draw again next year. Cheers, all.
-Matt
