Wyoming’s One-Shot Antelope Hunt Is All About Dropping A Buck With One Bullet 

Just after dawn Saturday, Craig Ritchey stood with his Browning rifle shouldered, trying to hold the crosshairs steady on a skittish pronghorn in a spot where the astounding vastness of open steppe near Jeffrey City gives way to the foothills of Green Mountain.

Richey pulled the trigger, and the initial concussion, then the lingering report of a .300 WSM cartridge firing, cut through the morning silence, previously disturbed by only a slight breeze. 

It was a miss. 

And thus ended Ritchey’s chances of scoring in the 82nd running of Wyoming’s legendary One Shot Antelope Hunt. 

He dropped the buck with a subsequent shot, but the contest rules are inflexible. To be counted, a kill must be made with one shot — the first shot only. 

A Lander-Based Tradition 

The One-Shot Antelope Hunt has been based out of Lander since 1940 and conducted every year since except during World War II (1942-45) and COVID-19 (2020).

Ritchey was participating in the hunt as part of Team Prairie Prowl, based in Colorado. 

This year’s event featured eight three-hunter teams. 

The teams don’t hunt together. Hunting parties include two hunters, from different teams, setting out in two vehicles, each driven by a guide. 

Ritchey was guided by Mollie Dahl. 

Her great-grandfather, Hank Dahl of Golden, Colorado, founded the hunt with Harold Evans of Lander. 

Over the years, celebrities and prominent people have participated. Included are legendary fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut Chuck Yeager and Hollywood icon Jimmy Stewart. 

Each year, a series of events in Lander associated with the hunt are held, including a banquet at the Lander Community Center the previous evening. 

Afterward, participants file outside to meet with members of the Shoshone Tribe. 

According to the “Legend of the Hunt,” white pioneer hunters decided to help the Shoshone people gather pronghorn meat one fall long ago in anticipation of a harsh winter. 

Out of respect for the skill of the Shoshone hunters, who got only one shot with their bows, the white hunters agreed to each take only one rifle cartridge. 

During the evening’s ceremony, Shoshone leaders give the hunters Indian names and bless each “one shot” bullet. 

Tougher To Recruit Celebrities

Bob Tipton is the hunt club board of directors head greeter and a Lander native. 

Standing near a bonfire and waiting for the ceremony to start Friday evening, he told Cowboy State Daily about being up Sinks Canyon years ago, watching from a safe distance as his father and other hunters were observing the tradition of sighting in their rifles. 

"I was about 5, and this older guy came, sat down next to me, and started talking with me. He was incredibly nice. And it turns out, he was Roy Rogers,” Tipton said. 

"I was a huge fan of Roy Rogers' Western movies, so that meant the world to me,” he said. 

In recent years, it’s been tougher recruiting celebrities to participate, Dahl and Tipton said.  

Because of contemporary politics and social sensibilities, celebrities are hesitant to be associated with a hunting event, they said. 

Even so, they noted, it’s amazing that the One Shot has lasted as long as it has and remains as big as it is. 

For her great-grandfather and Evans, “it really just started as a friendly rivalry,” Dahl said. 

Though not quite the “legend of the hunt,” the basic idea was to replicate the challenges faced by Native American hunters armed with bows and pioneers carrying single-shot muzzleloading rifles.  

The rules have essentially remained unchanged since the first hunt, according to the board of directors. 

Heading Out Before Dawn 

On Saturday, hunters and guides trickled into a local hotel convention center for a 4 a.m. breakfast. 

Then, they hopped in their vehicles with their guides and headed out to various points across central Wyoming’s prime pronghorn habitat, some of well over an hour’s drive away.

The other half of the hunting party Ritchey went with was Evan Thalgott of the Mohave Marksmen team out of Nevada, guided by Lander local Mike Lilygren. 

A coin toss before the hunt determines who gets the first crack, hunting for an hour. After an hour, or the hunter’s first shot, it’s the other hunter’s turn. 

In the pre-dawn gray, Dahl turned her pickup off the main highway near Jeffrey City, up a side road leading toward Green Mountain. Lilygren followed. 

It wasn’t long before the distinctive white flanks of pronghorn appeared near the roadside, setting them apart from nearby cattle and mustangs. 

Dahl and Ritchey briefly considered going after them, but they seemed a little skittish, so the hunting party continued up the road. 

Later, a short hike turned into a bent-over creep, as Dahl and Ritchey tried to carefully work their way up to the lip of a small rise, with the buck he’d picked out just on the other side.

 Only What God Put There

After that buck was down, as hunters are wont to do, Ritchey and Dahl discussed what could have been done differently. 

Ritchey initially tried making a standing, offhand shot from about 140 yards, which is no mean feat, even for an experienced rifleman. 

“I should have done what you said and gone to the rock and used it as a rest,” Ritchey said. 

“I think you could have made it without spooking him,” Dahl replied.

Judging his first shot in retrospect, Ritchey agreed. He should have risked creeping just a few yards closer and rested his rifle on the rock.  

One Shot hunters aren’t allowed to use rifle bipods or anything that “God didn’t put there” as rifle rests, Dahl previously explained. 

"How about a fence post?" Ritchey asked during that conversation.

"Did God put it there?” Dahl replied.

“Well, no,” Ritchey replied, settling the matter.

Asked how disappointed he was about missing the first critical shot, Ritchey told Cowboy State Daily: Not too much.

“You always are disappointed when that happens. But it is what it is,” he said. 

Governor’s Team Second 

As soon as Ritchey’s first shot boomed, Thalgott’s hunt was on.

As Ritchey and Dahl were skinning and quartering his buck, the crack of a rifle shot came from the hills, perhaps three-quarters of a mile away. 

Thalgott had hit his mark, killing a buck with a prone shot from about 200 yards. 

Later, describing the shot to Cowboy State Daily, he said he wasn’t immediately sure if he’d hit the buck with his custom-made 6.5 Creedmoor rifle. 

“He just disappeared,” Thalgott said. 

"He twisted and went behind a little rise. I was pretty sure you’d hit him,” Lilygren said. 

Lilygren was right: The buck was likely dead before it hit the ground. He and Thalgott had just finished skinning and quartering the buck by the time the others arrived to greet them.

The hunters and guides were back at their trucks in time for a mid-morning snack. 

Despite being disqualified from scoring, Ritchey said he wouldn’t hesitate to participate in another One Shot hunt.

“It’s about being out here with people who share your hunting ethics and sense of conservation,” he said.  

As the day wore on, hunting parties made their way back to Lander, eager to tally the final score. 

The winners: Team Caprinae, comprised of Gray Thornton of Montana, Matt Besko of Alberta, Canada, and Glen Pyne of California. They all made their first shots, with a combined hunting time of 1 hour and 13 minutes.

The Wyoming Team, led by Gov. Mark Gordon, was second. The team included Bob Budd, Director of the Wyoming Wildlife Trust, and Lander hunter Allen Kerkhove. They also made their first shots with a combined hunting time of 1 hour and 59 minutes.  

The One Shot Antelope Hunt and related events raise money for the Water For Wildlife Foundation. The foundation provides “guzzlers” (watering stations) for wildlife in drought-stricken areas and undertakes other habitat improvement projects. 

This year’s hunt raised $325,000 for Water For Wildlife, Tipton said. 

Contact Mark Heinz at mark@cowboystatedaily.com

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.