“Charlie, shoot on three. One, two, three.” BANG.  “Devin my gun had a bad shell”, I whispered.  As I started loading a new 140 grain shell in, the whole heard of 80+ antelope started running across the open valley.  The were a good 340-370 yards out. 

Charlie, Devin, and I were sitting on top of a hill stalking a heard that we had followed all day.  It was about 4pm now and we walked a good 20 miles so far in the 70-degree heat.  

Charlie dropped a nice buck with his 6.5 Creedmoor.  The herd slowed down to a trot and I whispered to Devin,” I’m taking my shot.”  I picked the biggest buck out of the heard and lead it by about 10 ft.  I waited till the buck was on the outside of the heard.  After about ten seconds I got my chance.  I slowly pulled the trigger on my Savage 7mm 08.  Everyone else had nice fancy 22x scopes and I only had a 9x.  As soon I heard the bullet leave the barrel, the buck dropped instantly and rolled across the prairie.  I jumped up and high fived Charlie and Devin.  It was only the second day and I already tagged out on bucks.  Last night Devin and I both shot 10 pointers on the foot hills of the Bighorn Mountains.

The mountains weren’t aren’t very big compared to the Rocky’s, but it was the first mountain I’ve ever saw, and it was breath taking.

               We threw on our camo and packs back on and headed down the steep slope.   My right elbow started having a sharp pain when it rubbed up against my jacket.  I looked down and my whole arm was covered in cactus needles.  I must have had so much adrenaline I didn’t realize I laid down on one.  By now I started screaming.  I had over 300 needles in my arm.  There was blood running down my arm like a river.  Charlie and Devin started laughing hysterically.  I yelled at them “get these out of my dam arm.”  They started plucking each one out as I was biting down on my sweatshirt hood.  They got more of my arm hair than the needles.  They whole time they couldn’t stop laughing.  The more I thought about the pain, the worse it got. 

               After about five minutes, they got most of them out.  My whole arm was stained a light red from all the blood.  Most of the holes clotted up with blood and it stop bleeding for the most part.  Now I had to look forward to the 700+ yard walk up and down a valley.  We left the side by side a few 100 yards behind us by the free way cutting through the open valley below the mountain.  Charlie and I continued our walk down the valley and Devin made is journey to the side by side.  Took about an hour just to reach the top of the valley, going uphill was horrible with 30 lbs. of gear and a 10 lbs. gun hung over my back. 

The valley was so steep, we could hardly see the top of the hill.  The side of the valley was scattered with rocks and bushes, which made it even more difficult to continue our climb.  Charlie brought his speaker with for some reason, so we decided to play some music while walking.  We took a quick break and he started playing Toto by Africa.  Our favorite song at the time.  We kept on walking over the top of the hill while singing to the song.  We both have ever word memorized.

 Finally, we crowned over the hill and could see the two white spots out in the prairie.  It was so calm we could hear Devin come flying over the hills with the side by side a couple hundred yards behind us. 

We both walked over to Charlies buck.  The animal was a tank for an antelope.  Its horns were a dark black with a touch of brown.  They also had a bit of a heart shape.  Perfect trophy buck.  Devin came into sight finally as I was taking a few pictures of Charlie and his kill. 

As soon as Devin came up to us, Charlie and I picked it up with ease and threw it in the back of the side by side.  We all hoped in the side by side and drove over to my buck.  I got out of the side by side and my heart dropped.  This thing was tiny, I must have shot the wrong one.  Or maybe it just looked a lot bigger in the scope.  I wasn’t quite sure and so was Devin and Charlie.

It wasn’t a bad size, but it was only about a two-year-old buck.  I didn’t even want to take a picture with it.  That’s how disappointed I was in myself.  Devin helped me throw it in the back of the side by side, on top of Charlies buck.           

 I looked over my shoulder as I hopped in the side by side and seen a bunch of dirt mounds.  Prairie dogs.  I jumped out with my gun and sat next to a fence.  There was about 100 holes and about 20 of them had dogs sticking their heads out.  I focused on the one farthest away, trying to redeem myself for my last shot.  It was about 150 yards away, and it had its whole body out now.

  There not very big animals, so it was going to be a very difficult shot.  I leaned up against a post and got ready to end its life.  I aimed right for its neck.  Slowly pulled the trigger, so slow that it scared me when the shot went off.  I looked in my scope and could see a headless dog laying on the side of the dirt mound.  Charlie and Devin were amazed I hit it at that distance.  I was pumped up now and my heart was racing.  I looked back down range and seen two more dogs grab the one I shot and pull it down the hole.  

We started our long drive back to the sheep camp.  Sheep camp was an old farm probably from the late 1800s in the middle of nowhere.  It’s where we keep all the machines and trailers.  We were about half way back to camp when we saw another heard of antelopes about 500 yards off the trail.  We still each had a doe tag. 

We bailed out of the machine and grabbed the spotting scope.  Devin and Charlie started stalking up to a hill that was about 200 yards from the herd.  I set the spotting scope up on top of the side by side.  I was on the phone with Charlie telling him what the herd was doing.  Devin was going to take the first shot at an antelope.  The herd started getting closer to where they were going to, so I told them to kick it in gear and get to the top of the hill fast.  In just a few minutes they made it to the top of the hill. 

The herd was now about 150 yards away from where they were, and they never even seen Charlie and Devin.  I watched Devin get his bipod set up and Charlie was using the range finder.  Devin adjusted the scope, aimed at the biggest doe, and pulled the trigger.  Dropped dead.

The herd ran about 900 yards away from them.  Herd stopped running and started grazing in a valley again.  I searched with the spotting scope for a hill I can creep up on and take a shot.  I found a huge hill that had to be at least 400 feet tall.  I called Charlie what I was doing and told them to stay in the same spot and be a spotter for me.

  I started running down a valley on the other side of the huge hill.  I made the long climb to the top of the hill.  The last 30 ft of the ill I started crawling, I didn’t want to be sky lined.  I got to the top and laid down on a nice flat rock.  I don’t have a bipod on my gun, so I just used my sweatshirt or back pack.

 Charlie is a horrible spotter and never told me that the herd had ran off.  I used my binos and started glassing around to see if there was any doe’s left.  Lucky, I seen 2 more about 340 yards away.  I had to sit there for about 5 minutes just to slow my breathing down. 

The biggest one was looking right at me now.  I was shooting just about straight downhill.    I got settled again and got the deer in my scope.  I aimed right between its eyes, because my bullets drop about 10 inches at 300 yards.  I breathed out and pulled the trigger.

Dropped right to the ground.  It spun a few circles and tried to get up.  Then dropped to the ground like a rock.  I figured I shot in right in the heart.  I couldn’t believe I made a 340-yard shot with my gun.  Devin and Charlie meet up with me now and couldn’t believe I shot it.  I was just about running all the way down the hill back to the side by side. 

We all hopped in and drove out to my kill.  It was at least an 80 deer.  Huge for an antelope.  We chucked it in the back, along with our bucks and Devin’s doe.

We made our way back to camp, and I couldn’t believe I tagged out on the second day already. The rest of the week I spotted for Devin and Charlie mostly, and went dog hunting a couple times.