I had a beautiful trip out west! I carried the flintlock for 4 days and was able to close the distant on several stalks to within 150 yards. At one point I ranged a goat from an elevated position at 133, I nearly took the shot a dozen times well rested off a front bag, but in the end the ethics of the shot won out and I eased the hammer back to safe and enjoyed the moment the 2 mile stalk awarded. Day 5 we were notified a large snowfall was inbound for the next day around 3pm. I switched over to my white gold medallion and headed out. After days of seeing hundreds of animals we put 150 miles on the truck and 13 on foot to see none, unbeknownst to us the front had trigger a mass migration from plains to southerly wintering areas. Day 6 (Crunch time) After a hearty breakfast we split up and headed out past the 77s and spent the morning scouting. Zero animals, we moved to a different area and found 4 antelope on a flat pivot roughly 1000 yards in all directions from cover. We retreated back to discuss a possible stalk on the 4 impossible animals. At this point I had willing accepted that the beautiful trip wasn't going to include a harvest and I was ok with that. We pushed back out to utilize a Cow decoy for the stalk in blustery 22mph winds. On our way we pasted a pivot that previously contained no animals, literally filled to the rim with antelope (close to 500). Amazing how plans can change rapidly, our initial stalk emptied the large field in chaos but a further stalk 1.5 miles over a ridgline to an elevated position yielded results.
Ironically if I would have been carrying my flintlock I would have been within 75 yards and it likely would have ignited when I pulled the trigger, but at 25 degree temps the browning firing pin failed to slam home hard enough to ignite the primer.
I will never forget the snap of 50 heads looking up as I racked in another round and the utter chaos that ensued. 315 yards later working his group up a ridgeline escape route that resembled the surface of the moon the second round struck home.
The adventure was exactly as I hoped full of drive, suffering, uncertainty, a ridiculous amount of knowledge gained, followed by a flood of adrenaline and triumph.
Just a few inches shy of Boone and Crockett he was a very large animal for our southernly unit.
Wyoming you truly are something special.
