I was lucky enough to draw a South Dakota Prairie Antelope Rifle tag this season—though to my surprise, I mistakenly applied for a different unit than I originally planned. But hey, no big deal. After working two long days at the fire department with hunting on my mind, the minute Sunday arrived, it was go-time. A co-worker was kind enough to cover my shift early, giving me a head start on the 2+ hour drive to my hunting unit. Erik picked me up from work, his truck loaded with all our gear, and we hit the road.
As we rolled into the unit, we spotted plenty of antelope does but weren’t seeing many bucks. Lucky for us, previous years of archery hunting in the area gave us an edge—we knew some prime spots to glass. We started in a large chunk of walk-in land, glassing for about an hour when we finally spotted a herd over a mile away. It was time to make a play.
The prairie offered a perfect drainage to conceal our approach. After a solid stalk, we popped up over a cut bank and spotted the herd—560 meters away. My 7mm PRC was ready, and I felt comfortable making the shot. Unfortunately, I had dialed my scope incorrectly and held for too much wind. The bullet sailed right over his back. It was a clean miss, and I knew if I hadn’t overestimated the wind, that buck would’ve been mine.
Frustrated but determined, we headed back to the truck, determined not to make the same mistake twice.
The day dragged on with little luck as we moved between different chunks of walk-in land. Late in the afternoon, we decided to head back to our starting spot. Deeper into the area, we spotted another herd—this time 10 does, but no bucks. Something told us to keep pursuing. A shallow drainage provided cover, and as we moved closer, we noticed the terrain took a steep dive. There were more antelope down below—this time, with a nice buck.
The does were already spooked, but that didn’t stop the buck from making his appearance. We quickly dropped to our knees, and I set up for the shot. He was 480 meters out, but this time I didn’t overthink the wind. I held 3 mils and squeezed the trigger. I watched the vapor trail of the bullet as it slammed into his vitals. He jumped, stumbled, and dropped within a few feet.
Getting up to him, I was blown away by how beautiful he was—this was truly a trophy in every sense of the word. The shot was perfect, right through the heart.
As we quartered and skinned him after tagging him, a doe wandered up to within 30 yards, curiously watching us work. It was one of those surreal moments only hunters understand. We got the quarters into our game bags and secured them onto our packs—though I quickly realized I needed to practice using the meat shelf on my Killick frame pack. It was a wonky setup, but we made it work.
Back at the truck, we cracked open our celebratory "kill beer"—a cold Coors Banquet—before loading the meat into the cooler and heading home.
The next morning, I processed all the meat, deboning and separating the backstraps, tenderloins, and prepping the rest for breakfast sausage. My dogs love this part of the hunt—they know they’ll get some scraps to snack on. With the meat packed away, I took the buck’s head to Black Bear Taxidermy in Blackhawk, SD, to have a shoulder mount done.
This hunt will go down as one of my favorites. The gear I used performed flawlessly: my Weatherby Model 307 MeatEater Edition chambered in 7mm PRC, Arken Optics EPL4, MagPul bipod, Badlands bino harness, Kuiu camo, UnderArmour boots, and my trusty Killick frame pack.
We documented the whole hunt, so be sure to check it out on our YouTube channel, linked below!
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