After the boys left, the weatherman relented.  By the end of the week I was hunting in my short sleeves, sweating a bit.

The ranch let me continue to camp where I was.  There were some small chunks of public land in the nextdoor hunt zone. I got into a bit of a groove- I'd get up, swing by the hardware store for a leftover tag (and buy a canister of propane so the store could show some profit), drive 15 miles to the public land, hunt all day and kill an antelope, get back to camp around dark, cook dinner over the campfire, spend 3-4 hours butchering the previous day's antelope, and get to bed at midnight or one.; The next morning I'd hang the previous day's quarter bags in a cottonwood for the day, swing by the hardware store for a leftover tag...   Five days, five antelope.  And five 3-4 hour butchering sessions- became tiresome.


6 antelope (two buck tags, four doe/fawn tags).
11 shots (1 miss; 1 hit with 1 follow-up; 1 dropper with 1 .45 coup; 1 dropper; 1 dropper; 1 hit with 1 grazing follow-up and 1 coup; and 1 dropper).

The 7-08 with 140gr Ballistic Tips has proven to be a heckuva killer, though the above might not seem to show it.  But follow-up shots were required because of bad placement rather than bad ammo performance; and none of those animals went more than 10 feet after the first shot, most 0 feet.

One shot, 5 inches behind the shoulder (!) and mid-height, went in between two ribs and out the other side.  But-- 5 inches above the entrance were 5 shattered ribs!  You explain it.  But those Ballistic Tips seem to both penetrate and set off nuclear devices inside.  Another shot entered precisely on the point of the shoulder, making good mincemeat of bone and muscle, and exited on the straight path, bullet found resting under skin.  (I recovered only two of the bullets, both looking good.)

Here's the graze-

Along most of his body and then along his neck.  That was a near miss!
And then he toppled over from the initial shot but needed an arm's-length coup.

I had my autocommon error of shooting too far behind the shoulder; I don't know why.  And one of them, the above buck, must have turned as the trigger broke because, though I was shooting at a nearly broadside animal, the entrance was tight in his groin and the exit nicked the off shoulder- a more extreme angle than expected (and the reason another shot was needed).