Optics Review: Vortex Kaibab HD 15x56 Binocular "Big Eyes"

Below is a gear review we received from a customer on the Vortex Kaibab HD 15x56 Binoculars, known as "big eyes".  These binoculars are high priority on the gear list for the Coues Whitetail Deer hunters of New Mexico, Arizona, and Mexico.  As our reviewer finds, perhaps they should be considered for hunting other species, such as Aoudad or Barbary sheep, or even for a big country Pronghorn, Mule Deer, or Elk hunt.

Vortex Kaibab HD 15x56 Binoculars

Worth the Weight?

As a backpacker and hunter, reduction of weight and bulk in my chosen kit is a never ending effort.   Over the last 20 years, two times stand out where I remember actually adding weight to my pack from the previous season.  The first was when I experienced the warmth of a Kifaru woodstove inside my tipi during a week-long hunt in western Washington.   The second was when I discovered the benefit of truly good glass, finding a bedded muley in thick sagebrush at 800 yards.  I subsequently added a pair of Swarovski 10x42 SLC binoculars to the “worn” column of my gear checklist.   2015 now marks the third time I’ve recognized performance outweighing reduction of weight. 

I hadn’t even considered not using my trusty Swarovski’s on an upcoming DIY Barbary Sheep hunt in New Mexico, until Matt from Sawtooth Rifles offered up some loaner optics.  As a new Vortex dealer, he was interested in getting feedback in multiple real-world field conditions.  Although Matt is a straight shooter, I was skeptical to believing his claims of the difference these “big eyes” binos might make for me.   Gasping at the advertised weight of 43.5oz, I remember thinking there is no way a little extra FOV and magnification is going to be worth such an increase in weight.   Reluctantly, I told him to send them anyway.

The Vortex Kaibab HD 15x56 along side the author's "trusty" and well traveled Swarovski 10x42 SLC Binocular.

The Vortex Kaibab HD 15x56 binoculars and Vortex Razor HD 11-33x50 angled spotting scope arrived well protected, with the factory packaging itself being impressively robust.  I quickly got things put together and grabbed my 10x42s for an informal comparison out my kitchen window.  I stared at our neighbor’s familiar barn, 400 yards across our pasture in the late afternoon light, first with the Swarovski’s, then the Kaibabs.  With the Kaibabs, I could now see there were bolts holding some of the barn boards together that I hadn’t noticed before.  I figured the difference was solely attributed to the extra magnification, so I packed everything up, not giving it too much consideration.  On my scale, the Kaibabs weighed right at 3 pounds including the neck strap and tripod adapter.   Although only 13.5 ounces heavier than my 10x42 SLCs, the additional 2.5 inches of length made them feel substantially larger. 

Arriving in El Paso, I hopped into the rented Dodge Club Cab 4x4 with 3 miles on the clock.   The rental agent told me to “please be careful, it’s brand new”, I just smiled, thinking to myself “noted”.  I headed north towards the Lincoln National Forest, it was going to be a good trip.   

I ended up backpacking into the same hunting area on two separate weekends, totaling 6 days of dawn-dusk use in a mixture of high desert cliffs, steep drainages and large ridges covered in sagebrush and cacti, i.e. Barbary Sheep country.   The average viewing distance ranged from 500 to 1600 meters, and legal shooting hours were ½ hour before and after sunrise/set respectfully.  My trips included over 30 miles of hiking, so this gave me a good overall appreciation for the performance of these binoculars under a variety of conditions.  Truth in lending, I was only looking for a mature ram, not trying to decipher a true trophy class animal at any distance.  As such, I didn’t spend a lot of time analyzing if the binoculars provided sufficient resolution for this at extended ranges.  Anecdotally, I could easily pick a mature ram out of a group at one mile, and could clearly see a herd of elk grazing at over 2.2 miles 10 minutes before dark.

Typical terrain in the homelands of the Barbary Sheep (we will call them that while roaming in New Mexico)

I used two methods while glassing, the first was off my Slik Sprint Mini II tripod and the second using my Primos Trigger Stick monopod for support while quickly glassing areas on the move.  I am an active hunter, and believe in finding the game where it is (especially in a new area), so I have a tendency to cover some ground.  Due to this fact, I quickly began using the binoculars exclusively, leaving the spotting scope in the pack.  When I did use the spotter, it was clear and easy to operate, but took me quite a bit more time to find the target, zoom in, then analyze.  New target, rinse and repeat.  If I was looking for a true trophy ram, this would be required, but since I just needed to discern a good set of horns inside of a mile or so, it became unnecessary.  The spotter has both a coarse and fine focus adjustment, making it very useful at seeing “through” various vegetation in depth without moving the optic itself.  The optical performance and usability it provides in such a small package is impressive.

The author's setup, with lightweight tripod.

Our author, comfortably glassing behind the tripod mounted Vortex Kaibab HD 15x56 Binocular.

The Trigger Stick worked extremely well due to its quick height adjustments, where a bit of leaning on the binos provided a surprisingly steady stance.  Nowhere near as stable as on the tripod, but for a quick “is there a sheep on that ridge?” check, it more than sufficed.  Although not designed as a primary hiking pole, the Trigger Stick served handedly in that regard as well, as the immediate height adjustments were especially useful when descending rugged terrain with a relatively heavy pack.  

Once in an area I wanted to explore in more detail, I broke out the tripod and started picking apart the landscape.  Suffice to say, glassing off a tripod with binos was a unique experience, as I was able to instantly identify any movement in the landscape.  The clarity of the glass allowed me to view from multiple angles, edge to edge, without moving.  So steady, that if something moved in that field of view, there is no question you were going to see it.  All of the sheep I saw were either standing, feeding or moving, so as soon as they entered my field of view, they literally popped out of the background at any range.

The optical performance of these 56mm binoculars extends a whole new “wow” factor as opposed to traditional sized glass, something about the combination of magnification and objective diameter was perfectly suited to the intended use for this hunt.  Every time I “cleared” a section of terrain, I felt certain I would have seen a sheep if it had been there.  The eyecups have three distinct settings, which came in handy during various light conditions and whether or not I was wearing sunglasses.  Could be purely coincidental, but I never bumped a sheep off a piece of terrain I had previously glassed after moving through it.  Again, every time I did see sheep (53 or so), they instantly jumped out to me in the binoculars.  It became clearly evident these binos were my “primary weapon system” for this type of hunting, so I quickly lost any concern over the weight or lack of suitable carrying configuration.   

The author, and his new "primary weapon system" for finding Barbary Sheep.

Speaking of carrying configuration, I explored a couple methods of transporting these big binoculars, but neither ended up completely satisfactory to me.  My requirement was no burden on my neck, no flopping while climbing/moving quickly, protection for the optic, and rapid employment/deployment.  I’ve become quite a fan of chest mounted packs, so I started out using the standard binocular neck strap and my Hill People Gear Kit Bag to protect/support the glass.  Since the binos didn’t fit into the main pouch very well, that configuration failed the flopping, protection and deployment criteria.  That pack is not designed for this, so I was not surprised.  The second time I used a similar setup, but substituted the Kit Bag with my Kifaru Koala Lite with an organizer pouch on the front.  This met all my requirements except the employment/deployment, since it required a bit of time to get them in/out and zipped up well enough to keep the pack from unzipping.   Bottom line, I may have to give up on my current chest pack rigs and go with a larger dedicated binocular pack when using these.

The one issue I had was with the configuration of the diopter adjustment.  Although the diopter adjustment on the right ocular lens has a locking feature, I found I was periodically getting it unlocked and out of adjustment.  I’m pretty certain this had to do with how I was carrying them since it slides in and out to lock/unlock, and that is the same motion/direction of going in and out of my chest pouch.  Since the fit was very tight in my pouches, the adjustment ring was always getting direct contact.  Then again, there were also times I found my finger on the diopter adjustment instead of the focus knob, since they are closely located to each other.  Good or bad, a slight change to the diopter setting is readily visible when viewing at range, so I knew immediately when an adjustment was in order. 

Once the diopter was set, the image was extremely clear at all ranges.  I found the most comfortable viewing range was from about 400 yards out to 1500 yards or so.  Closer than that increased the workload a bit due to decreased FOV, and beyond that, loss of detail had the same effect.   A few times I had to glass into the sun, and obviously the scene was a bit washed out, but the lens coatings made the image still very usable.   During the heat of the day, mirages were easy to see using various focus adjustments, allowing me to estimate wind speed at a distance.

So what about all those sheep?  I saw one group of 28 sheep at the same time from about 700 yards, and it was truly an impressive sight.  They were moving through the area, and I just couldn’t catch up.  Suffice to say, I had my chances, but only two of those were decent opportunities.   I could’ve shot one ram any time over the course of an hour at 300 yards, but couldn’t be certain I’d be able to recover him from the cliff he was feeding on, so I passed.  The second opportunity was a very nice ram at 501 yards.  Although I felt comfortable with that shot, I felt certain I could get closer.  But much like my initial speculations on the usefulness of a 3lb pair of binoculars, I was wrong.

Motivation, for planning your own Barbary Sheep hunt.

In summary, the fact that I never remember fussing about the extra weight or bulk over six days of hunting and 30 miles is testament itself to the usefulness of these binoculars.  More simply put, if I had to boil it down to just one word, it would be confidence.  I was confident that I didn’t miss a thing as I glassed the landscape with these binoculars.   This was reinforced every time I immediately spotted sheep, deer, coyotes and birds at extended ranges.   Over the same time, I kept thinking back to my antelope hunt last October in Wyoming, and just how useful these would have been for that application.    All said and done, I sent the Razor spotting scope back to Matt, but sent him a check in place of the Kaibabs.  I am truly excited thinking of the future opportunities I’ll get to use these binoculars to increase my effectiveness on upcoming open country hunts.  

Review by:  Spence Guida

Vortex Kaibab HD Binoculars:  http://www.vortexoptics.com/category/kaibab_binoculars
Purchase from Sawtooth Rifles:  http://www.sawtoothrifles.com/
or come on into Hagerman Valley Sports and Merc:  http://www.gunsandduns.com
Interested in an Auodad (Barbary Sheep Hunt)?  Hit up the guys at Gothunts.com for more info:  http://gothunts.com/hunting/sheep-hunting/aoudad-hunting/

Sawtooth Rifles team member with your own story to tell?  Send it in.  I'll make it worth your time...

Hunt Report: 2012 Wyoming Antelope Hunt- w/ Rifles #4 and #7

Our 2012 Wyoming Antelope hunt was concluded in 3 separate trips.  For the opening weekend, a good friend and a new friend representing the Army came with a pair of doe tags as an appetizer before our Colorado archery elk hunt.  We will call them Sierra and India to protect the innocent. After the archery hunt, my USMC/Navy team showed up.  We will call them Bravo and Lima.  After the smoke cleared on these sessions, I still had a buck tag remaining and was able to sneak back across the border for a day trip.

Round 1:  Team Army.

I had been telling Sierra and India that it was pretty much a sure thing and we might need to find something else to do for the afternoon.  I think they doubted my guiding abilities but were catching on as we got into the area well after sun up and they could see Antelope in about every direction we looked.  The unit we hunt is one of those with limited access to public grounds, so we had to drive past a lot of animals getting to the public sections I wanted to try.  On our first stop, we did just what I said we shouldn't do which is stop the truck when we see some and get out and expect to successfully stalk them.  The problem with Antelope hunting is when you spot one, it has been watching you since you left your home town.  Their eyes cant be fooled.  After the excitement of our unsuccessful first attempt, we went to a section that we had success at the previous year, one with a little terrain that can be used to your benefit.  On our walk in to the section, we spotted a herd of antelope on the top of a bluff.  They were far enough away that they were not alarmed even though they could easily see us.  As we progress, that terrain allowed us to sneak closer to the bluff out of their sight.  Sierra, being the self designated hard charger of the bunch declared he was taking the nearly 12lb #7 to the top of the bluff while India and I would stay out of sight and progress down a draw to see what was in the lower lands.  We saw a second small herd for a moment but they soon disappeared into a second draw.  Meanwhile Sierra was nearly to the top of the bluff.  I watch as he crested the bluff and instantly got back down and extended the bipod legs on #7.  It wasn't very long until we herd the shot and that distinct sound that a lead core bullet makes when hitting something at 3000 ft/sec.  Sierra soon reported in on the radios that he got his doe.  India and I herd the challenge and went after the second herd.  We gained some elevation and could see much of the area but couldn't find them.  I new the area well enough to know there were some draws coming off the bluff where they could easily be out of our sight.  It was about this time that Sierra peeked of the other edge of the bluff and reported that he could see the herd we were looking for.  Knowing where they were, India took off on a solo stalk while I waited in the middle.  I gained enough elevation on the slope up to the bluff that I could just see the antelope and India sneaking up on them.  I was at the perfect elevation to be in the line of sight of when the antelope would first see him as well and when he broke into that line of sight, the antelope took off.  India, being schooled in the ways of a Southern deer hunter simply pulls #4 up to his shoulder and swings, taking a shot at a doe running in the back of the herd.  She was hit and peeled off of the group and soon collapsed.  There may have been some luck involved, but it was a shot no seasoned antelope hunter would probably attempt let alone succeed at.  I noted a pretty nice buck remaining with the herd, but I was mid way between my two rifles and couldn't do much about it.  Lets just call him Mr. Lucky...

It was just before noon at this point.  Other than getting them in the cooler back in the truck we would need something to do for the rest of the day...  grabbing our last non dehydrated meal for a week, in Laramie seemed like a great idea.  We phoned my amazing wife from the bluff and convinced her to meet us in Laramie and take the rifles and meat back to base camp prior to our archery hunt.

First antelope for Sierra and #7, on top of the bluff.

India's first antelope, as well as the first of the North American variety for #4.

Team Army.  Two down before noon.

Round 2:  Team USMC/Navy

Bravo and Lima showed up on a Thursday night in Laramie for the second round of Antelope.  After discussing the plan over some drinks at the raging Holiday Inn bar we retired for some shuteye before an early start Friday.  That early start involved grabbing McDonald's.  Bravo was worried about not getting to eat the rest of the day apparently and ordered 3 breakfast sandwiches…  he hadn't been told about climbing the bluff yet.

First, lets back up a few hours to my first solo attempt at filling one of my buck tags.  I had climbed to the top of the above mentioned bluff with my spotting scope the previous afternoon to see if I could find the buck that I had eyed while team Army were getting their does.  After a few scans with the binoculars, I found him bedded down.  I was near the skyline and he had probably been watching me all along but he didn't seem too worried about me being there.  I was able to snap a couple pictures of him through the spotting scope and get a better look at his hardware.  I had decided that he was a better than average buck for the unit I was hunting and I would take him given the opportunity.  At about the same time, he stood up, looked around, and then leisurely started walking off.  I started packing and did a quick crawl off the crest of the bluff to where I could stand up out of his sight and make my move.  My plan was to cross the top of the bluff and go down the side out of his sight and then use one of the draws to get close enough for an interception on the direction he was headed.  It all worked beautifully and I was soon set up on the bipod waiting for him to come into view.  When he did, he was right at 350 yard.  I used my hold over point on the reticle and squeezed touched the trigger.  The shot broke clean, yet he stood there looking at dust.  He didn't stand for long and took off obviously untouched, right in my direction.  He stopped again at about 300 yards and I sent another one.  Dust again.  He had had enough at this point and bolted, almost right for me.  As I watched him running for me with 16x magnification, I was impressed with his headgear but ashamed of my shooting.  He gave me another chance, broadside, at about 200 yards after he passed me but I hit dirt for the third time.  After he went out of sight I started to check myself and the rifle assuming there was more of a problem than just horrible shooting.  I soon found my windage knob off 7 MOA and knew exactly what happened.  I missed him by 2 feet on the first shots.  I had the rifle up on my shoulder while coming down off the bluff and the turret had been turned by my backpack. I was glad it wasn't just my shooting ability but more so that I hit dirt each time rather than wounding him and having to go through that.  When I got back to the truck I set up a target and made sure that I was back on the right revolution of the windage knob's zero position. 

Lets just call him Mr. Lucky.

Our first spot the following morning with team USMC/Navy was back to my favorite spot.  When we were standing at the bottom of the bluff, Lima pointed out a couple does that had ran off the top and stopped at 100 yds to check us out.  I took a minute to explain to shoot first and point later…   Soon after the does ran off, three dogs came barreling down the hill.  These dogs along with my shootout with a buck the previous night in the same location must have been too much for the section, as there wasn’t another antelope on it.  We checked every corner.  We could count dozens just off the BLM section in each direction. 

We proceeded to check out some of the other isolated BLM sections.  The mileage added up in a hurry as some of them take a mile of walking to get to where you want to see.  Then a mile back.  On one occasion, I went back to get the truck for a pickup on the other side and sent my rookies over the hill with $8k worth of rifles and optics and the trusty GPS.  They actually pulled off a stalk and got a shot at a doe.  The shot wasn’t successful and they learned how small a does head is even at close range.  They got too close and couldn’t get enough elevation on the gun for clearance over the crest of the hill for a body shot, and the doe had them pegged.  I came around on the highway to witness the herd taking off at Mach2 and knew they must have got a shot.

Team USMC/Navy going over the hill.

After that, we took a look at some other sections and ended up on an HMA property.  HMA's in Wyoming are hunter management areas where you can get access to hunt private lands through the game and fish dept. We parked in the designated parking spot, with several antelope in sight every direction we could look.  We selected a herd and decided to try them.  Bravo was the designated shooter here since he was the only one granted permission for the HMA.  The HMA is flat as a pancake and I couldn’t figure out how we were going to pull it off, so we just started walking right toward them.  We were over a thousand yards starting off.  At about mid way, one doe peeled away from the herd and walked toward a water trough that happened to have a Mack truck parked next to it.  As she went behind the truck we closed some distance.  Then she popped out and ran like she saw us, and then turned and sneaked back up on the water trough.  This reminded me of the Impala in Africa and our host telling a story on how they think there is a crocodile in every water hole.  I knew there was something there she was afraid of, but was also thirsty.  She had no clue we were in the area.  Eventually she went behind the truck again and we closed from 500 to about 350.  We could then see her legs coming out so we got down.  She came walking out and was coming closer.  She stopped at around 315.  I had my range chart and told Bravo where to hold and he sent one.  The first shot wasn’t good and kicked up dust.  She ran in a circle and stopped in about the same spot.  Bravo sent another one, which landed perfectly on her shoulder.  Bravo had killed his first big animal, and the second antelope for my build #7 .264 Win Mag.  The 140 SST from the .264 did a superb job and we found very little damaged meat when we were skinning her despite going through the larger bone in the exit side leg.

Bravo, getting his first big game animal and antelope #2 for rifle #7

After getting her back to the truck, we decided to send Bravo and Lima in the other direction to see if it could be done twice with Bravo’s second tag.  We hadn’t noticed some cowboys driving cattle right through the middle of the next section.  The antelope were acting like bombs were going off, sprinting across the mile section in what seemed like seconds.  The stalk was a total failure.

Back to the truck, and to the section by the reservoir we went.  This resulted in about the 6^th mile hiked for the day with not much but a glimpse of antelope leaving the section for private land, and a rush back to the truck in hopes of catching them crossing the next square.  No luck there either.  We were pretty much done for the day but had to do another couple miles of hiking to my favorite spot again to convince ourselves.  That was a big day that wore us out.  Thai food time!  Our choice of staying in town as opposed to eating Mt House was starting to look like a grand plan.

The next morning we decided to let my favorite spot rest and hit some of the other ones before the weekend hunters trample them over.  Our first stop was the reservoir.  Pulling up to the reservoir, we saw some down drinking on what looked to be the edge of the public land.  It was hard to tell and there was a road that would take us much closer so we decided to drive it.  About half way down the road, Lima spots a single one well on public land out the left window from the back seat.   With all my antelope hunting wisdom, I smoothly just drive right by to the end of the levee where we could pull off and get out of sight.  With a quick walk back to the levee and a crawl up to the crest, we were in sight with a perfect prone rest.  The problem was the antelope looked 500 yards away.  I lasered her and was surprised to see a 325 pop up in the range finder.  Knowing that can’t be right I took an average of about a dozen more readings.  It was right.  There wasn’t much chance of getting closer without being seen so I coached Lima through a shot.  Then a second shot which connected with that distinct sound report.  Watching through the binoculars I could tell there was a lot of damage as she ran off.  I sent the guys in the direction she was running as she went out of sight under the eroded high water line of the reservoir.  She was never seen by any of us again, and we searched and searched.  While they were searching I had driven the truck over the levee and down the path all the fisherman had made.  We decided to send them back to the spot we shot from and I would go down to the water where they could hopefully put me in the spot she was shot at to start tracking.  As I walked back by the truck to grab the rangefinder to help get me in the right spot, I see her laying dead right next to where I parked.  At this point I realized why she was so hard to find and why she looked so far away.  She was on the little side, and that’s why the tags say doe/fawn on them.  Being by herself, we had no sense of scale on her and being rookies (me included) couldn’t put all the signs together.  I don’t really feel bad though because the day prior we had seen a couple fresh kill sites nearby which I am guessing included her mother.   Inspecting her, Lima had actually hit her both times.  There was what looked like a knife wound on the bottom of her neck where the bullet just barely broke the skin.  Lima’s second shot was right where it needed to be and exited mid body on the other side since she was slightly quartering.  The 180 Accubond from build #4 .300 WM was under matched in this case…

Lima's first antelope, #2 for rifle #4.

After filling Lima's one and only tag, we decided to start looking for a buck for me and would get Bravo another doe if the opportunity came.  We were running out of public sections and decided my favorite spot had rested enough…  As we were driving up on the highway we saw a herd on the edge of the public land where we usually parked while walking to the favorite section.  Noting their location as we drove by a second time, we came up with the plan to drive through the first section and park out of sight then try walking closer.  We made it to our goal location which was the perfect high ground about 400 yards from the edge of the public land and the herd didn’t seem to know we were there.  There was a herd buck that was very occupied with a smaller buck that was eying some of his 15-20 does.  He would chase this other buck off and then come back to his does.  This happened many times and was fun to watch, except that we were wanting to shoot him instead of watch him and the rock pile we were pinned down on wasn’t too comfortable.  As the bucks were doing their thing, the herd kept feeding closer to us and we realized that the next time the buck came back to round them back up he would both be in range and well within the public land boundaries.  As he did this, he stopped perfectly broadside and as I was about to pull the trigger he felt the urge for one more ½ mile jaunt over to say something to buck number 2.  The wait continued…   When he came back, he repeated his usual rounding up of the outer does and when he stopped this time the 140 SST from the .264 was en route.  It connected with a solid whack and the buck dropped in his tracks.  I immediately went back to coaching mode and grabbed the rangefinder and chart for the second rifle.  I picked out a doe that was away from the others and got Bravo on her.  The first shot hit dirt again in true USMC/Navy team fashion ;) but the herd hardly responded.  The second shot dropped her in her tracks as well.  The herd then actually ran right for us and stopped at 100 yards.  I very easily could have used my doe tag but decided having two on the ground would keep us plenty busy for a bit.  Bravo went back for the truck while Lima and I did some picture taking from our not so grassy knoll, and then met him at my buck.  While we were doing this, we could see Buck #2 leisurely walking in the direction the herd went.  I was pretty sure I could see a smile on his face even from ½ mile.  I then understood why these little bucks get such a herd of does in this hard to hunt, limited access unit.

The not so grassy knoll.  The buck was shot down near the windmill and the doe was to the left a ways.

Reenacting the shot.

Getting our first good look at him ( he had been spending more time far away than with the herd and the spotting scope stayed in the truck this time) we found him to be just an average buck for the unit.  I’ve yet to see a true big one up there so they all start looking big.  I was certainly happy with him though and he was certainly a tough herd buck from the pile of girlfriends he had, but there was also some ground shrinkage going on.  I was also a little disappointed with my shot placement as the bullet went right through the spine at the tenderloins.    I’m not sure what to blame there, as the duct tape holding the windage turret in place had done its job.  Bravo’s shot went right through the spine too.  I guess maybe we did it on purpose since we were pretty close to the edge of BLM property and didn't want them to wonder onto public land.   If anybody is still counting, #4 and #7 had each just killed their 3^rd antelope.  Getting them into the cooler, we realized how nice it is being able to drive the truck with camper right to them.  Running water has its virtues, as well as not needing the back pack.  When the tasks were complete, we decided to eat our sandwiches on the way back to town to get out of the hotel rooms and get more ice on the meat.  Our new plan was to stay in Fort Collins that night to get them closer to Denver for Sunday when they would be back to work instructing cross country flights back to Mississippi.  I think they even did the responsible thing and checked on their students when we got back to a cell signal. 

My first buck for the season, antelope #3 for build #7.  Rifle #4 on the left.

Bravo's second doe relocated for the picture, antelope #3 for rifle #4.

We spent the rest of the afternoon looking for my second buck but had no luck.  We did find a couple more sections of public land we could get to through so it wasn’t a total loss.

Round 3:  Solo day trip for my second Buck

After getting the USMC/Navy team on their way with packaged meat, I rested my legs for the rest of the day and talked myself into a day trip the following day.  When I got up to the area in the morning, my plan was to hit up the reservoir section as I knew there were a couple bucks that liked to be around there in the mornings.  As I pulled off the road and onto the BLM section, I stopped to glass the square mile section.  Sure enough, I see the white butt of a buck going cross country at a walking pace.  About the same time, I see another truck driving right through the section.  I drove further and parked to get a look at it from another angle and see if I could see where the buck went if the truck spooked him.  As I was looking for the buck, the truck pulled up and "Red" from Oklahoma got out.  We had quite a conversation about antelope hunting and I told him he had to have driven right passed the buck but he never saw it.  We wished each other luck and went separate directions.   I went to an adjacent public section thinking I might spot the buck crossing it but never saw him.  I did find a bunch of does bedded down, which would have been a simple thing with that doe tag in my pocket.  I was after a buck though and decided to keep hunting.  So to my favorite spot I went. :)

It wasn't too long once I got onto the section that I slowly crested the ridge above one of the draws and saw a herd up feeding.  I got back down and was pretty sure they never saw me.  I went down the back side of the ridge and made my move toward them with the ridge between us.  When I felt like I would be close, I crawled over the ridge, using the rifle up on its bipod as my fourth limb.  As I crested the ridge, I saw the tops of their heads.  I was close.  Maybe too close, at about 100 yards.  I stayed low and may have been busted as a few of the does started moving.  The direction they chose was going to have them crossing the ridge below me and soon I would be in plain sight.  I chose a spot and got into position for a shot but they never came.  It wasn't long before I figured out they were playing me and would be headed in the opposite direction.  I made my way back up to the crest of the ridge and sure enough, they were single filing it out of town, but at a walk.  The buck was in the back and all I could see from my spot was heads.  I had to crawl higher before I would be able to take a nice body shot.  There was a short distance when they went lower, out of sight,  and I was able to quickly make my move.  When they reappeared I was ready and put one of the 140 SST's right where it needed to go.  The buck soon fell and I had pulled off my combo.  I looked up at the does standing at about 200 yards and was tempted to shoot one and then realized I was by myself, over a mile from the truck and didn't need to pack two out of there.  My next thought was that my doe tag would just be a donation to the game and fish dept. and I would let her live and  have another fawn next year.  I guess that is why the published success rates for these units is always around 98%.  When I got to the buck, I confirmed his identity as Mr. Lucky which was the third time I had caught him in the same location. 

A little closer look at Mr. Lucky.  Antelope #4 for Rifle #7.

This background should look familiar by now.

A great ending to our 2012 antelope season.

Keywords: SR#4, SR#7