Hunting Memories - Antelope

Hunting Memories

Lassen County Pronghorn

I bagged this buck antelope on August 22, 2004, near Skidadle Mountain in Lassen County, California. I was hunting California pronghorn in Zone 4. It was about 7:40 in the morning when I dropped the buck. I was shooting a 1970's Ruger M77 .30-06 with 150-grain Hornady SP over 48 grains of H4895. One shot took him down at about 280 yards.

I scouted for about six days and spotted him the evening of opening day after stalking two "record book" bucks all day Saturday. Sunday morning he wandered in with a beautiful doe and was challenging two younger bucks — the whole time I was running over flagstone and ducking behind junipers that were few and far between. I followed the line they took the night before and had him in my cross hairs 20 feet from a winter spring.

Having lived in Lassen County since 1967, it was a great honor to finally draw a tag and bag a buck less than 20 miles from the home I grew up in.

My dad, who passed away two years ago, would have been so proud. We hunted upland birds, ducks, geese and deer together, but we never got a chance to hunt antelope, so this hunt was a memorial to him… This one's for you, Dad!

Submitted by JR Johnson
California

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