Casey Buffington, an avid Montana hunter and a Marine referred to as “The Bone Collector”, recalls the hunt that got him his largest antelope buck to date.  Check out his story:

On the windiest day yet of the 2012 Antelope Rifle Season, I decided to do a late afternoon hunt after work. I had been scouting before archery season and also during archery but never getting close enough to take a shot with my recurve.  I did, however, get close enough to snap a few pictures of a lot of nice bucks in the 16-inch range.

I knew with the wind in my favor, it would cover up almost all of the noise and movement I made, as a result of the 50 mile an hour gusts.

I spotted this buck and two others along with nine does, about a mile away, making their way off of the winter wheat into the Basin Coulee.  They were moving fast so I knew I was in for a foot race.  I took off at a trot, and by the time I made it to the draw, the lead doe was already across the fence and making her way down to the bottom.

Next to cross the fence was another nice buck, about 14.5 inches with nice curls, but missing one cutter.  I sighted in on this buck due to the fact that this was going to be one of the last days for me to hunt to do work.

Just as I flipped my safety off, I caught the tips of some horns moving to the right of me just over a little rise in the tall prairie grass.  I flipped my safety back on and made my way down the draw, taking the risk of the doe and the buck ahead of her winding me if i waited too long.

The big buck finally made his way to the crest of the hill, so I put the cross hairs of my 25-06 right in the “boiler room” and lowered the boom.  The buck dropped in his tracks.

He doesn’t look to terribly tall because he carries his mass all the way to his great white ivory tips, but he measured up at 15.5 inches with great mass and respectable cutters.

My biggest antelope buck to date.