Roaming the grass lands in seach of 'Lopes & Dreams...

Bruce Culberson

Bruce Culberson

Joined
Feb 6, 2007
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1,298
After 6 years of putting in my friend Matt & I drew antelope tags in Alberta this year. Where the antelope play there is not a tree in sight and you can see for miles:eek:

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Those antelope have crazy eye sight and will spook form over 1.5kms away!After the first day of hunting we noticed a few herds moved through an area between a dug-out & a fence so we set up there the next day and lay and waited. After about 1/2 hour I looked behind us and there where 3 bucks at about 500 yards...they were milling towards us! We looked atr them through our spotters and decided that the one with the curved in tip was the shooter. I got my rifle ready (7-08 Ackley custom) and waited. 450 yards on the rangefinder Matt said. We laid still and let them come closer. 400, 350,.....then when he said 300 yards I whispered back plug your ears cause when he stops walking I'm going to shoot............BANG!......SMACK! He drop staight down.

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The hike on the pack out was ~8km, but it was flat;)

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We hunted hard the rest of the trip but only got to within shooting range of smaller bucks and Matt already has a 14" buck on his wall so he was holding out for a big one.

I got to try out the new knife I made in CPM3V & osage:

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Thanks for the great hunt Matt!

Bruce
 
Very nice Bruce congradulations on the success.
Its on the list although my friend has left S Alberta this fall for Cranbrook.
Nice shooting 300yds is still a long poke and their not big animals overall.Great trophy
Knife looks a worker beautiful.That Osage hard as they say it is to work?
Dan
 
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Very nice Bruce congradulations on the success.
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Thanks Dan! It's going on my wall:) (I just have to sell several knives to pay for the mount).

Its on the list although my friend has left S Alberta this fall for Cranbrook.
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I highly suggest it - it's a very cool hunt. Grasslands, cactus, rock teepee rings - neat stuff. It's way different than any other hunt I have done before. Too bad your friend moved before you go to chase lopes.

Nice shooting 300yds is still a long poke and their not big animals overall.Great trophy
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They are quite a bit smaller than they look! If you look in the last pic you can see my rifle was wearing a bi-pod. The custom barrel combined with handloaded Accubonds and some range time helped with the shot.

That Osage hard as they say it is to work?
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About the same as cocobolo or bird's eye maple. All 3 are very hard woods that seem to burn easy on the belt sander - use sharp belts and quick passes!
 
Very nice buck Bruce! how do you like your ackley? did you go 7mm08 ackly due to short action restrictions or could you re chamber to .280 ackley? (and really spit some high BC bullets:D)

Jason
 
Congratulations on a successful hunt. :thumbup: That first photo of the fenceline is awesome.

Jeff
 
Those antelope are strange looking. Is it true they dont know how to jump a fence?
 
congrats- nice buck :)

bar none, antelope are my favorite game animal to pursue- generally lots of glassing, lots of walking, lots of crawling, lots of cussing, repeat :D

they are also one of the better eating fare (there are those that disagree, but me thinks those are the folks that don't get the hide off promptly and get them to cool quickly)- my wife prefers antelope to deer or elk

^ occasionally you'll see one jump a fence- they definitely have the ability to do so, but it's rare- under the fence is their MO

sadly there is a lot of sheep tight fence in the West and every winter 100's (1000's I'm sure some years) of antelope die as they get stuck in a corner of fence trying to move ahead (or during) a storm :(

a lot of work is done trying to educate landowners how they can easily mitigate those situations by leaving just a few strategic places that allow them to crawl under- more work to go
 
JasonSCarter said:
Very nice buck Bruce! how do you like your ackley? did you go 7mm08 ackly due to short action restrictions or could you re chamber to .280 ackley? (and really spit some high BC bullets:D)

Jason
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Jason - My rifle is a short action Remington 600 (they were only made in the '60's). It came with a 308 barrel that was badly pitted. I sent it off for a custom stainless barrel. I hollowed out behind the but plate to reduce weight. It is my "mountain hunting" rig and weighs 6lbs 15oz scoped. I get 2875fps with 140gr Accubonds over 49gr of H4350 in the 20" barrel. Two of my friends have 22" barreled 7-08 Ackleys and they get ~100fps faster.
 
I suspected it may be a short action only thing. My brother swears by his .257 Ackley! The 100fps faster is predictable. As you gain, on average, 50fps for every inch of barrel. the 140 gr's at 28-2900 fps is VERY respectable. :) Im looking on making a .243 Ackley falling block to take advantage of the high B.C. 6's (107-115 gr @ around 3200 fps) for bean field varminting around here in Indiana :D

Jason
 
Bruce Culberson said:
After 6 years of putting in my friend Matt & I drew antelope tags in Alberta this year. Where the antelope play there is not a tree in sight and you can see for miles.


Damn, & I thought Ohio was flat where I live. :) We don't have a thing on you guys. At least we have an occasional tree or two to break up the rolls of land. Great looking country, & I have to ask, being that flat of terrain, what about the back drops when you fire? That is the only problem we have here are the farms & buildings that are scattered over the landscape. Good shots of the land, thanks for taking us along.
Be safe.
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Beautiful hunt! I love prairies, although I've never had the experience of hunting antelope. For some reason I think I may have to change up from my .30-30 to chase them.
 
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