American Handgunner July/August 1982

When you
onlX get
one cnance
HANDGUN HUNTING
J.D.JONES
FLAT SHOOTING CALIBERS GOOD
FOR ANTELOPE AT LONG RANGES
fully adjustable,
one size fits all.
Very popular with
trap and skeet
shooters.
$4.50
postpaid
A re antelope realistic big game animals
.l'"\.. to hunt with handguns? After reading
of the trials and tribulations of most rifle
hunters in pursuit of antelope, one gets
several impressions about them. One is
that they are never, never shot at under 400
yards and always running. Their eyesight
is super good-I've read at least 8X
magnification many times. Antelope are
very, very wary-always ready to run at the
sight of a man at 2000 yards.
Wyoming literally had an explosion of
the antelope population over the last few
years due to mild winters and the resultant
very light winter kill.
In most heavily populated antelope
areas last year, hunters were legally able to
harvest one buck and two does. Well, that
sounds great for riflemen, but how about
handgunners?
First off, a good antelope buck is one of
the finest trophies in the world. He is usually
hard to find and like good whitetail
bucks probably a little harder to get than
the average. Everyone looks for the good
bucks and shoots them when possible. This
makes it more difficult for a good buck to
live long enough to grow exceptional horns
and there is a resultant kill of the bucks
whose genes would produce other exceptional
bucks. I'm told that a hunter should
be satisfied with 13-inch horns and 15
inches are really good. Over 15 inch horns
are quite rare in most areas.
The antelope is a small, thin skinned animal
whose vitals are easily penetrated. He
is an animal that is easily killed with a well
placed shot. He will go for miles gutshot
with a high powered rifle. As in any game
shooting, shot placement is of paramount
importance.
Frankly, I think a 4X scoped TIC or XP
is the most practical way to hunt antelope
with a handgun. Any good flat shooting
caliber from .30 Herrett on up through the
powerful wildcats will kill 'em dead at unbelievable
ranges with a good shooter on
the handle.
Revolver shooters mayor may not have
good luck. Iflimited to a 100-150 yard maximum
range with a revolver, a hunter
would be greatly lessening his chances of
scoring. A revolver shooter would be bet~
ter off in most places to hunt over a waterhole,
or sit near some other well traveled
area and let the antelope come to him. A
.30 carbine, .357 magnum or any larger
caliber would probably do well in this typ~
hunting. The hunter would have to be patient
and have plenty of time.
Last fall, while hunting in the foothills
of the Story Mountains, I could have gotten
my buck and two does on the first day
of the hunt with a .357 wheelgun with no
sweat, but I didn't have another antelope
inside revolver range in the next several
days.
Yes, the antelope is a prime trophy for a
handgunner. Even though easily downed, I
feel the handgun caliber should be .30 or
This antelope buck (l5")was taken with
this .358 JDJISSK barrel at 190 paces.
larger, but if the 7BR or 7TCU have any
use at all in the field for anything larger
than varmints, antelope would be the animal
to try them on. Obviously, with heart
or lung shots they will kill.
I hunted with a group using a variety of
calibers from .30-40 Krag to All JDJ last
fall and all ofthem performed well. I made
the closest shot on a lucky-to-find IS-inch
buck at 199 steps with a .358 JDJ TIC by
SSK Industries.
The longest'shot was with a .30- 40
Ackley 1mproved TIC using a 165 grain
Hornady BTSP bullet. The shooter, Gary
Geraud, paced it at 748 steps on a flat,
rocky ground. His steps are a little shorter
than mine. Just call it around 700 ofmine.
I was on the spotting scope and the animal
dropped with one through the chest and an
insurance shot placed about 4 inches from
the first. The bullets penetrated completely
but the wounds looked as ifthere was some
expansion. Gary sights in at 400, lives in
the area, knows his distances, proper holdover
and most importantly-knows how to
shoot.
The antelope is a" fine handgun trophy
and well within the capability of a decent
hunter, good shot and patient man.
I had mine ground imd made ......
into salami and it's delicious. ~
22 AMERICAN HANDGUNNER· JULY IAUGUST 1982