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RE: goin antelope hunting
 

Hey nothing like a good hunt for an excuse for buying a new rifle.;):D However, no matter what you use it is likley to blow right through an antelope unless it's waaaay out there. If you don't buy another rifle I wouldn't change loads in that 7mm Mag. if the BT's are shooting into a half inch.

I haven't tried them with a rifle yet, only with a bow and that hasn't worked out yet. Close but just not quite close enough. In my limited experiance with antelope and a bow it's not all that hard to get within 200 yards. That was the easy part. Getting them inside 50 has been the hard part.[&:]

Good luck!!!

RE: goin antelope hunting
 

You are in for a ton of fun. Don't shoot the 1st one you see. Look over a bunch of them. Take good glass--both binco's & spotting scope. Your 7 Mag & bullet choice I think are dang near perfect. Good luck---You'll have a ball !!!!:D

RE: goin antelope hunting
 

Your 7mm Rem. Mag., and 150gr. BT's will do a fine job for you. Good luck.

RE: goin antelope hunting
 

You are set as far as your rifle.
Bring kneepads and leather gloves for the sneak.
Bring a bipod, the tall one for use either prone orseated and practice with it.
You need strong optics to tell the difference between a 12" antelope and a 14" antelope. In my opinion a 12x scope is minimum for hunting antelope and prefer 16x to 20x. Often stalking antelope you have to keep your movements to a minimum as their eyesight is amazing. Switching between binos spotting scope and the rifle scope is a sure way to blow the stalk. A high power rifle scope can be used to judge the animal and then take the shot without excess movement.
Although I am sure lots of people do fine with the old 3x9.

Sight in for a minimum of 200 yards. I usually sight in at 300 yards and know your drops out to 500 yards and practice out to that distance.
A laser rangefinder will be your most useful tool out on the open prairie.

Antelope are usually within a couple miles of a water source and they have to water once a day.

There are a lot of antelope in Wyoming. Don't be in a hurry to shoot the first one you see.
Be aware however that if you are hunting public land the opening day can be a bit of a track meet, and I recommendyou go two weeks after the season opens for a more enjoyable hunt.
If you are on private land go ahead and hunt on the opener.

Lastly antelope often return to the area they were spooked from. If you blow a stalk on an especially nice buck it may payoff to hang around cause he may be back. Or return the next day to the same spot and look for him again.

Get a couple antelope videos and practice judging antelope. They are one of the hardest animals to judge in the field. There are a couple Eastman's videos that give tips on how to field judge and they were filmed in Wyoming.

Anyway you are in for a great time. Hunting antelope in Wyoming is hard to beat!!
Good luck!

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RE: goin antelope hunting
 

your gonna have a blast!
i live in wyoming, and that 3x9 scope should do fine. i personally dont like the idea of using my rifle scope as my binoculars, for obvious reasons, but i do know hunters who do, so.........
either way, you are gonna want some decent optics though, a good spotting scope probably. small game opens here september 1, your good there, but i usually refrain from shooting rabbits until we have had some really cold weather, it helps get rid of the bugs. coyotes are predators here, no license required. knock em dead.
i dont think you will regret that last week thing, it may be a blessing. someone earlier on here said so too, a lot of the out of staters will be gone, and a lot of the locals will be filled out. i dont know if the place your hunting borders any great expanses of public land, but if it does, there just may be some real slammers pushed on to your property. i think youll do fine.
a swap hunter last year with me used that same caliber rifle your using, with good results. its a little big, but you appreciate the distance shooting it allows. i try to shoot right behind the shoulder. a lot of hunters here try to take out the two front shoulders so the goat wont run off before it dies, but antelope arent big per say, and the meat is excellent, so i like to try to preserve all of it.
hope ya have a helluva hunt, and if ya have any more questions, post here or email me
brad

RE: goin antelope hunting
 

You'll love plains goat hunting. Try the Hornady Customs 139 or Federal TBBC in 140's both shoot to same Point in my 7 Rem mag.
I'll be hunting zone 47. Now the excuse to buy a new rifle ,that 25-06 is dandy for antelope.

RE: goin antelope hunting
 

huntnmuleys,
I wasn't trying to say a person would use the higher powered scope as binoculars. I was talking about during the stalk after you have already spotted the animal you think you want and are ready to stalk closer and get a better look. I totally agree rifle scopes should not be used in place of binoculars.

Lets say there are a couple groups of antelope out in the flat and a few decent bucks you have picked out through the spotting scope, one definitely better than the others.
Now you drop behind a hill and make a half mile stalk to get closer.
You crawl to the top of the hill and pop your head up, bam the does are looking right at you (which often happens). If you can slide your rifle up slowly with little movement you might not spook them.
Then looking through your scope with a minimum of movement you can tell which of those bucks was the 15 incher you spotted from the truck and which is the 14 incher which was not quite as good.
At 400 yards that is much easier to do with a 20x scope that it is with a 9x scope.
That is the point I was making.
But as I said lots of folks do just fine with the 3x9 scope.
Have a good one.

RE: goin antelope hunting
 

noway is exactly on the dime here. What you might think is a 15" is really only a 12-13" most of the time. So have fun!