Tea Time and Antelope Hunting in Wyoming

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Important decisions must be made on every hunting trip. Some require immediate action while others may take hours or even days of consideration to reach a determination. The one at hand, which I was intensely mulling over in the cab of Chad Schearer’s pickup, was stretching into two or three minutes. It’s a good thing no one was behind us in the drive-through line at Sip’s Coffee.

Just off a plane, I was set on a café mocha when Chad said, “You know, you really ought to get one of these vanilla chai lattes.” The last three words were terminology that I’d never heard come from Chad’s mouth before, and we had been friends for almost 20 years. We had usually talked about bolt-action rifles, muzzleloader bullets, pronghorn antelope and mule deer bucks. Still, I had yet to receive anything but good advice from him, whether the subject was hunting or otherwise, and it sure seemed like Chad knew his chai.

I thought it over while Chad chatted with the young lady in the window about the 30-some flavor options on the drink menu, displayed in immaculate handwriting on the adjacent chalkboard. Rather than drift into the wild unknown on the first day of the trip, I stuck with what I knew. I ordered the mocha.

“What is chai anyway?” I asked while we waited for our order. I had heard about the stuff but until now didn’t know anyone who drank it.

“It’s a kind of tea,” Chad explained. “They make it with milk. I like it cold, and it’s better than coffee. Very refreshing. Here, give it a try.”

Chad took his cold vanilla chai latte from the barista and handed it to me with a straw. I had a sip (well, maybe two) and had to admit it was tasty. This wasn’t how I envisioned our pronghorn hunt starting, but it was one of those moments that make unhurried hunts so relaxing and memorable. The season didn’t open till the next day, and we had time to enjoy some local flavor in Douglas, Wyo., on our way to scout for a buck. Time, I’ve come to find, can be its own trophy.

A short drive later we turned onto a gravel road that took us to a ranch owned by folks Chad had befriended at one of the many elk hunting seminars he conducts each year. I’m not sure if the rancher knew about Chad’s affinity for chai, but he greeted us warmly and offered his back yard to us for checking the zero of the rifle that Chad and Dakota Russell, vice president of sales for Bergara, had brought along for the hunt. Granted, the modest yard ran to acres of cut alfalfa fields bordered by rolling hills that continued to the horizon, but it was still a hospitable gesture. There aren’t many places where a hunter can shake the hand of a landowner for the first time and then shoot a rifle outside his kitchen window, but Wyoming is one of them.

I didn’t want to wear out my welcome, though, and when my first two shots from the Bergara B-14 Squared Crest Carbon (see sidebar) pretty much landed on top of each other at 100 yards, I called it good. We had pronghorns to find, and I was itching to get a closer look at the country.

BUCK FOUND

One of the things I enjoy most about hunting pronghorns is that I can usually count on seeing lots of them. I consider it a good day of deer hunting if I put eyes on six or eight whitetails. With pronghorns, that number is often reached within the first hour or so of the hunt and can increase by a factor of five or more by the end of the day. When I’m seeing animals like that, I’m in no hurry to shoot. I don’t consider myself to be a trophy hunter, but I do like to take game that is a solid representative of the species in the area. With elk or mule deer, it’s sometimes tough to know exactly what that means when several days of hunting produce sightings of only a couple bulls or bucks. The definition of “representative” can be on a sliding scale according to the time left in the hunt.

This isn’t often the case with pronghorns, at least not in the areas of Wyoming that I’ve hunted over the years. The openness of the land and the pronghorns’ habit of strolling around on the sagebrush flats and short-grass hills with no intention of hiding their movements allows me to gauge what I should be looking for within a day or two. Then again, I may pass on the first two or three bucks I see but if the next one is bigger, my search might be over.

Of course, local intel, advice from a guide and suggestions from trusted hunters who have more experience with pronghorns than me heavily influence my shoot-or-pass judgement. On this trip, Chad fit into the latter of those categories and probably qualified for the first one, too, considering how often he had hunted the ranch in previous seasons.

“I think we can do better than that” and “not quite what we’re looking for” were the calls he made from behind his bino while taking stock of the first few bucks we saw during our afternoon scouting session. We took a ranch road through the alfalfa fields and into the hills beyond. Though we had spotted a dozen or so pronghorns in the fields, the hills held none—or at least none that afternoon.

“This place is like that,” said Chad. “There can be no pronghorns here now, but if we come back in a couple hours, there might be herds of them. They really move through these hills.”

Since we weren’t hunting and dusk was approaching, we decided not to wait around. There was another alfalfa field at the far end of the ranch that Chad wanted to check while we still had enough light to glass, and a 15-minute drive put us within sight of it. A few pronghorns were feeding along its edge, and one was a buck.

“Now that’s a pretty good antelope,” said Chad, sizing up the buck through his bino. “Nice hooks ... prongs aren’t really long but decent ... pretty good mass for here—that’s a nice goat for this ranch.”

Even if I wanted to be particular, I couldn’t have argued with the call. The buck was clearly a level above the ones we had looked at earlier. It was early October and he was fat and in his prime, a condition undoubtedly helped by a steady diet of alfalfa. His black horns stood stark against the greens, tans and yellows of the vegetation behind him, even in the fading light. He was a solid representative, and one that we would take a closer look at the next morning.

STALK FROM ABOVE

Chad was confident the buck and his small harem wouldn’t stray far from the alfalfa, and as daylight broke, we once again had the luxury of not needing to hurry. This time when we pulled up to the Sip’s window, I ordered a vanilla chai latte. There was just one problem with that decision: My drink was gone before we made it halfway to the ranch.

By the time we got to within glassing distance of the alfalfa field, there was plenty of light despite the low, gray clouds that filled the sky. It didn’t take long to find the buck as he and his does fed toward the center of the field.

“Let’s take a real good look at him now,” said Chad as he grabbed his spotting scope. “I think he’s a buck we should shoot, but let’s just be sure.”

Studying the buck through my bino in the better light of the morning, I didn’t see anything that changed my mind. Chad didn’t, either.

“You know, we could look at antelope for a couple more days and not find one better than this,” he said. “I’m not picky,” I replied. “He looks good to me. Nicer than anything else we saw yesterday. I like to look at pronghorns, but I’m also here to shoot one. Let’s try for him.”

Another aspect of hunting pronghorns that I enjoy is the quick change in the atmosphere of the hunt when getting a shot becomes the focus. Glassing animals can be passive; stalking an individual that I have identified as the buck that will take my bullet brings about full commitment. Suddenly it seems like there’s more on the line, even though the success of a hunt is always on the line. We were almost casual in our conversation while we sized up the buck, but as soon as I made the decision to pursue him, things took a serious edge.

A low hill stood beside the alfalfa field, and a ranch road ran behind the hump. Chad and I walked up the back side of the rocky hill, crouching and then lying on our bellies as we approached the top. As pronghorn stalks go, this one seemed to be a sure thing, but the danger of stalking pronghorns from above is the risk of being skylined. With several of them in the field, any movement on the horizon would instantly be spotted by at least one pair of sharp eyes, and we’d be busted.

The other complication was positioning the rifle for a downhill shot that wouldn’t strike the rocks a few feet in front of the muzzle. In order to ensure adequate clearance, I had to slide beyond the flat top of the hill so I could get the correct angle for the shot. It was a movement of only about 10 feet, but the effort required to gain those last few precious yards created much more disturbance than I liked. There was some low sage that helped break up the outline of my head and shoulders, but even so, by the time my cheek was on the stock of the rifle, the does were getting nervous. They began to mill around, glancing up the hill, but luckily the buck seemed to be focused on them and not me.

Chad whispered a range of 220 yards. The buck was quartering toward me, and when I pressed the trigger of the Bergara, the bullet from the 6.5 Creedmoor struck him on the point of his near shoulder. With the recoil and report deadened by the suppressor on the rifle’s barrel, I saw and heard the impact. The buck sprinted a short distance and fell among the short alfalfa that had helped to sustain him.

SHARING THE BOUNTY

The pronghorn is among my favorite game animals to eat, so after a quick photo session we dressed the buck and hung the carcass in an open tractor shed where the shade and breeze would cool the meat. Later that afternoon, after Dakota had taken a fine buck in the hills, we skinned the animals together.

The rancher and his family gathered in what had now become a skinning shed to help us with the processing. They provided cutting boards and zip-top bags so that we could trim the rich red meat and keep it clean. Our conversations while we skinned and cut covered hunting, of course, but also the constant work and upkeep required to maintain the ranch. This family was connected to the land as much as the pronghorns, deer and elk that lived on it, and I could tell they were fiercely proud of their lifestyle. It was also clear that they were happy for our success and pleased to be able to contribute to it. Generosity and caring are two standards of humanity, and they have not been compromised on this Wyoming ranch.

At the hotel in Douglas, the night manager permitted me to pack the meat from the pronghorn into the employee freezer. It almost filled the available space. By the time I left town to travel home, it was nearly frozen solid. Transferring the meat to the freezer at my house in Pennsylvania stirred a sense of satisfaction in having been able to process a game animal 1,700 miles away and bring it home myself, along with more appreciation for the people who had a hand in making it possible.

Several months later Chad and his wife Marsha were in the Harrisburg area for the Great American Outdoor Show, and I invited them to dinner. On the menu was pronghorn pot roast, a small token of my gratitude for his help with the hunt. If I had known where to get a vanilla chai latte, we would have had a couple of those, too.

Mississippi Pot Roast, Wyoming Style

Pronghorn is better than beef for this savory dish.

The first time I made Mississippi pot roast, I couldn’t believe the deliciousness that resulted from the unlikely combination of pepperoncini peppers and powdered ranch dressing. The meat wasn’t spicy but instead savory, and it quickly became a favorite of my household. The standard recipe calls for beef, but I use venison instead. A pronghorn hindquarter roast might be the best meat for the dish. Serve it over mashed potatoes, egg noodles or thick slices of bread as an open-face sandwich.

INGREDIENTS

• 3-4 lb. pronghorn hindquarter roast
• 1 packet of powdered ranch dressing
• 1 packet of au jus gravy mix
• 1 stick of butter
• 8-10 pepperoncini peppers
• Fresh chopped parsley

DIRECTIONS

1. Trim roast of exterior silver skin and place in slow cooker.
2. Sprinkle roast with ranch dressing and au jus gravy mix. Place stick of butter, whole, on top of roast, along with pepperoncini peppers.
3. Cook on low heat for 6 to 8 hours, or until roast shreds easily with fork.
4. Shred roast and mix well. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley. If hesitant about consuming peppers (they’re not hot), discard them before shredding.

Carbon Calling

Bergara beckons hunters with a new lightweight rifle.

There is more carbon fiber in the Bergara B-14 Squared Crest Carbon than steel, which is a good thing for hunters who want a lightweight rifle that doesn’t sacrifice strength or rigidity. The Crest Carbon is built on the two-lug, push-feed B-14 bolt action, but the two other major components of the rifle—the stock and barrel—bring the benefits of carbon fiber to Bergara’s mid-priced line.

Produced by carbon-fiber resin-transfer molding, the rifle’s stock is made by hand-assembling dry carbon fibers in a mold, which is then injected with resin. The result is a monocoque, all-carbon-fiber stock that incorporates a spine to provide more rigidity and strength. Rigid stocks tend to produce greater accuracy due to less flexing under recoil, and stronger stocks have more resistance to damage from drops, bumps and other mishaps encountered afield.

Bergara’s CURE carbon-fiber-wrapped barrel contains a network of continuous stainless steel strands woven into the carbon fiber that conduct heat away from the chamber and down the barrel for efficient dissipation. The result, according to Bergara, is an average reduction of barrel temperature of 50 degrees, which promotes more consistent accuracy.

While I had no way of measuring stock rigidity or barrel heat reduction while on my hunt in Wyoming, I can attest to the Crest Carbon’s accuracy, light weight and superb handling. The stock is ergonomically designed with a high comb for a solid cheek weld when using a riflescope and a nearly vertical pistol grip with a palm swell that feels wonderful in the hand while in the prone position. The stock includes three swivel studs for attaching a sling as well as a bipod, along with flush-mount quick-detach cups.

The action is finished in Sniper Grey Cerakote, and the Bergara Performance trigger is user-adjustable for a pull weight of 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 pounds. While the Crest Carbon ships with a five-round AICS-compatible detachable-box magazine, hunters who prefer a traditional floorplate design can switch to that configuration with Bergara’s M5 floorplate conversion.

Available in six chamberings from .22-250 Rem. to .300 Win. Mag. (including 6.5 PRC and 7 mm PRC), the Crest Carbon has a barrel length of 20 or 22 inches. Weight ranges from 6.2 to 6 1/2 pounds. (MSRP: $2,099-$2,149; bergarausa.com)

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• This article was featured in the October 2024 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe.

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