Antelope hunt story
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Snake River Marksman
- 3 point
- Posts: 382
- Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2007 11:52 am
- Location: Etna, Wyoming
Antelope hunt story
The Perfect Stalk
It was an enjoyable two hour drive to my antelope unit. I like driving the countryside right around dawn. There usually isn’t much traffic. (There usually isn’t much traffic around Wyoming anyway) and it gives me the sense that I’m nearly alone in the world. That might scare the socks off of the city dwellers but I really like it. Just before Daniel, I spotted a bull and cow moose right next to the road. I tried getting pictures but the angle was directly into the rising sun. Spotting bull moose is never a bad way to start the day.
I’d missed opening day of the antelope season due to work and other commitments. It seems almost criminal to miss an opening day but in these times, you have to rearrange some priorities. So two days into the season and hunting on a Saturday, I knew there would be some other hunters to contend with. I pulled onto the county road and began my search. I didn’t really need a trophy antelope. My tag was for “any antelope” and I already have a decent goat on the wall at home. Something truly spectacular or very unusual would surely get my full attention, but otherwise I’d take an easy doe this morning.
The season has sort of snuck up on me. I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been. I had the essentials, rifle, ammo, license, knife. But I didn’t have my pack. My binocular wasn’t attached to the bino harness and I didn’t even have a way to attach it to the harness. I’d have to stick the binocular in my pocket. I had my rangefinder, and, in a pinch, it could work as a bino. I hadn’t loaded the wheel barrow into the truck so without that or a pack, I’d just as soon not shoot an antelope too awful far from the truck. I also didn’t have my shooting sticks with me.
I wasn’t far down the road when I spotted an antelope just below the crest of a hill off to the left. It was bedded down, alone, in the open. I knew if I stopped the truck to look it would bolt so I kept driving. Any antelope bedded down alone is likely to be a buck so I figured I drive around the bend and over the hill out of sight and then stop and walk back and glass him from a position of concealment. I pulled off the road and got out of the truck and immediately heard coyotes singing. If the early morning drive and the moose sighting weren’t enough to make for a perfect day, this definitely put the cap on it. Even if I didn’t get an antelope, the day was already made!
It just figures that after I climbed the hill and looked back for that antelope, I couldn’t see the spot where he was bedded from where I was. It didn’t really matter though. I wasn’t going to be picky Lynne has her first ever antelope tag and I just wanted to fill my tag so I could devote all my time to guiding her to her first game animal. So the plan coalesced in my mind that I would climb ALL the way up the hill, go over the top, circle around the back side of the ridge, creep over the top and make a nice easy shot on the bedded goat.
I got to the top and spotted more antelope in the next draw. I stopped to glass them and try to determine where they were headed. Now you have to ask yourself at this point, “what was he thinking”? I mean, he’s got a goat spotted where it will be a relatively short, down hill drag to the truck, and he’s looking at goats a mile from the truck. Well, you can ask, but I can’t answer ‘cause I don’t really know my own self. After having spent more than enough time watching that band, I continued my stalk. I came to the appropriate spot and snuck over the top. Guess what? No goat! I looked around towards the road and spotted about a dozen antelope headed away from me towards a waterhole. There were two bucks in the band and they would alternate chasing each other and herding the does. Well this changes everything and nothing. They’re moving closer to the truck, but the cover is going to be more sparse. They stopped at the waterhole and began to drink and browse, so I spent a few minutes developing a plan and then took off.
The first part was easy. I put a knob between me and the goats and walked down the hill. Once down near the bottom it got a little trickier, I was able to duck walk my way across an open spot and down into the bottom of the draw that led to the waterhole. Once in the bottom of the draw the terrain became somewhat varied. In places there was a washout that allowed me to walk upright. Then the washout would peter out and I’d have to duckwalk my way along from one sage bush to the other. All the time I was watching the goats. The bucks had gotten their water for the morning and were chasing each other around and browsing. All the time they were getting closer to the road and become visible to the other hunters who were driving on the road.
I’d started my stalk over a mile from the antelope when I parked the truck. The bucks had gotten out of my sight, but I figured they wouldn’t be far away from those does, so I kept closing the gap on the does. I had closed the distance to about 400 yds from the does and then it happened! Some other hunters coming down the road spotted those bucks and stopped on the road. That was all it took. The bucks and the does ran right across the road away from me. If antelope were logical beings, they should have run AWAY from the road and right towards where I was hiding but the cosmos don’t work that way and two hours of stalking was shot to heck. You’d never know how much effort was just trashed by the smile on my face. Who cared?
I watched until the last antelope was out of sight and the hunters on the road had driven off without ever getting out of the truck, then I stood up and walked to the road and back to the truck. All was not lost. Antelope, when not chased, will often just go over the hill or around the bend and then quit running. They’ll stop and watch their back trail for a bit. If nothing shows up, they’ll calm down and start feeding, often heading right back to where they were before hand. Since it was coming towards the middle of the day, and the hill they went over was facing another waterhole and was on the windward side, I guessed they’d bed down over there for awhile.
I got back to the truck and got some water and a snack and then broke out the glasses and began picking apart the hillside where the goats had disappeared. After a few minutes, I found them. One buck was bedded down and several of the does were up on their feet looking in just about every direction. I figured my best approach was to drive down the road till I was about even with them but out of sight over the hill, park and then stalk around the hill and see if I could get close enough for a shot.
This stalk went off without a hitch. From about the middle of the stalk till the end I was really starting to wonder if those goats had up and left that spot, but I just kept telling myself “Relax, they are still right there, THEY ARE STILL THERE! BELIEVE IT!” Sure enough I spotted that buck laying down. As I eased closer, actually crawling and hands and knees, I spotted the does. I found a decent spot just as the buck stood up. He wasn’t huge, but he was respectable and I figured I’d take him as the only does that were presenting me with a shot all had fawns with them. I figured the range for 200yds and a slight up hill angle. At the shot all of the antelope trotted up over the hill and I never saw any of them again. I searched the area for over an hour and never found any evidence of a hit. I had held high on the chest but still on the goat, but I think I actually shot over him. He may have been closer than I thought. I’ll never know for sure, what exactly happened but I’m confident I never touched a hair on that antelope and I can sleep soundly with that.
With 3 dogs at home, and one of them a puppy in the final stages of house breaking, and it being already two in the afternoon, I decided to call it a day. There was always tomorrow and the season doesn’t close till October 31st. It was a successful day.
Sunday
I got up late (6:00), putzed around the house for a bit making coffee etc. then loaded up the 3 dogs and headed back to my unit. I check out two new areas and finally spotted a group of antelope. I couldn’t believe it took me three hours to find antelope on public ground. The group split into two with a lone doe not moving. I ranged her at 262yds and settled in. She just stood there. I squeezed off the shot and heard the hit. She hunched up but stood still. I fired again and heard the hit once more but it sounded funny, she dropped and flopped around a bit. I walked down and she was alive with her head up, I tried to put one behind the ear but she turned her head at just the wrong moment and I hit her in the bridge of the nose. I finally put the barrel right behind the ear and finished her off. My first shot had gone in low at the back of the lungs. It was fatal but she was tenatious. My second shot, the one that sounded funny hit the front legs, just below the shoulder. That shot was too hurried and I think the wind died just as I let it go. It would have been a low lung/heart shot had it drifted back just a few inches.
My camera was on the fritz Sunday so I don’t have any pictures. I think it needs a battery change.
It was an enjoyable two hour drive to my antelope unit. I like driving the countryside right around dawn. There usually isn’t much traffic. (There usually isn’t much traffic around Wyoming anyway) and it gives me the sense that I’m nearly alone in the world. That might scare the socks off of the city dwellers but I really like it. Just before Daniel, I spotted a bull and cow moose right next to the road. I tried getting pictures but the angle was directly into the rising sun. Spotting bull moose is never a bad way to start the day.
I’d missed opening day of the antelope season due to work and other commitments. It seems almost criminal to miss an opening day but in these times, you have to rearrange some priorities. So two days into the season and hunting on a Saturday, I knew there would be some other hunters to contend with. I pulled onto the county road and began my search. I didn’t really need a trophy antelope. My tag was for “any antelope” and I already have a decent goat on the wall at home. Something truly spectacular or very unusual would surely get my full attention, but otherwise I’d take an easy doe this morning.
The season has sort of snuck up on me. I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been. I had the essentials, rifle, ammo, license, knife. But I didn’t have my pack. My binocular wasn’t attached to the bino harness and I didn’t even have a way to attach it to the harness. I’d have to stick the binocular in my pocket. I had my rangefinder, and, in a pinch, it could work as a bino. I hadn’t loaded the wheel barrow into the truck so without that or a pack, I’d just as soon not shoot an antelope too awful far from the truck. I also didn’t have my shooting sticks with me.
I wasn’t far down the road when I spotted an antelope just below the crest of a hill off to the left. It was bedded down, alone, in the open. I knew if I stopped the truck to look it would bolt so I kept driving. Any antelope bedded down alone is likely to be a buck so I figured I drive around the bend and over the hill out of sight and then stop and walk back and glass him from a position of concealment. I pulled off the road and got out of the truck and immediately heard coyotes singing. If the early morning drive and the moose sighting weren’t enough to make for a perfect day, this definitely put the cap on it. Even if I didn’t get an antelope, the day was already made!
It just figures that after I climbed the hill and looked back for that antelope, I couldn’t see the spot where he was bedded from where I was. It didn’t really matter though. I wasn’t going to be picky Lynne has her first ever antelope tag and I just wanted to fill my tag so I could devote all my time to guiding her to her first game animal. So the plan coalesced in my mind that I would climb ALL the way up the hill, go over the top, circle around the back side of the ridge, creep over the top and make a nice easy shot on the bedded goat.
I got to the top and spotted more antelope in the next draw. I stopped to glass them and try to determine where they were headed. Now you have to ask yourself at this point, “what was he thinking”? I mean, he’s got a goat spotted where it will be a relatively short, down hill drag to the truck, and he’s looking at goats a mile from the truck. Well, you can ask, but I can’t answer ‘cause I don’t really know my own self. After having spent more than enough time watching that band, I continued my stalk. I came to the appropriate spot and snuck over the top. Guess what? No goat! I looked around towards the road and spotted about a dozen antelope headed away from me towards a waterhole. There were two bucks in the band and they would alternate chasing each other and herding the does. Well this changes everything and nothing. They’re moving closer to the truck, but the cover is going to be more sparse. They stopped at the waterhole and began to drink and browse, so I spent a few minutes developing a plan and then took off.
The first part was easy. I put a knob between me and the goats and walked down the hill. Once down near the bottom it got a little trickier, I was able to duck walk my way across an open spot and down into the bottom of the draw that led to the waterhole. Once in the bottom of the draw the terrain became somewhat varied. In places there was a washout that allowed me to walk upright. Then the washout would peter out and I’d have to duckwalk my way along from one sage bush to the other. All the time I was watching the goats. The bucks had gotten their water for the morning and were chasing each other around and browsing. All the time they were getting closer to the road and become visible to the other hunters who were driving on the road.
I’d started my stalk over a mile from the antelope when I parked the truck. The bucks had gotten out of my sight, but I figured they wouldn’t be far away from those does, so I kept closing the gap on the does. I had closed the distance to about 400 yds from the does and then it happened! Some other hunters coming down the road spotted those bucks and stopped on the road. That was all it took. The bucks and the does ran right across the road away from me. If antelope were logical beings, they should have run AWAY from the road and right towards where I was hiding but the cosmos don’t work that way and two hours of stalking was shot to heck. You’d never know how much effort was just trashed by the smile on my face. Who cared?
I watched until the last antelope was out of sight and the hunters on the road had driven off without ever getting out of the truck, then I stood up and walked to the road and back to the truck. All was not lost. Antelope, when not chased, will often just go over the hill or around the bend and then quit running. They’ll stop and watch their back trail for a bit. If nothing shows up, they’ll calm down and start feeding, often heading right back to where they were before hand. Since it was coming towards the middle of the day, and the hill they went over was facing another waterhole and was on the windward side, I guessed they’d bed down over there for awhile.
I got back to the truck and got some water and a snack and then broke out the glasses and began picking apart the hillside where the goats had disappeared. After a few minutes, I found them. One buck was bedded down and several of the does were up on their feet looking in just about every direction. I figured my best approach was to drive down the road till I was about even with them but out of sight over the hill, park and then stalk around the hill and see if I could get close enough for a shot.
This stalk went off without a hitch. From about the middle of the stalk till the end I was really starting to wonder if those goats had up and left that spot, but I just kept telling myself “Relax, they are still right there, THEY ARE STILL THERE! BELIEVE IT!” Sure enough I spotted that buck laying down. As I eased closer, actually crawling and hands and knees, I spotted the does. I found a decent spot just as the buck stood up. He wasn’t huge, but he was respectable and I figured I’d take him as the only does that were presenting me with a shot all had fawns with them. I figured the range for 200yds and a slight up hill angle. At the shot all of the antelope trotted up over the hill and I never saw any of them again. I searched the area for over an hour and never found any evidence of a hit. I had held high on the chest but still on the goat, but I think I actually shot over him. He may have been closer than I thought. I’ll never know for sure, what exactly happened but I’m confident I never touched a hair on that antelope and I can sleep soundly with that.
With 3 dogs at home, and one of them a puppy in the final stages of house breaking, and it being already two in the afternoon, I decided to call it a day. There was always tomorrow and the season doesn’t close till October 31st. It was a successful day.
Sunday
I got up late (6:00), putzed around the house for a bit making coffee etc. then loaded up the 3 dogs and headed back to my unit. I check out two new areas and finally spotted a group of antelope. I couldn’t believe it took me three hours to find antelope on public ground. The group split into two with a lone doe not moving. I ranged her at 262yds and settled in. She just stood there. I squeezed off the shot and heard the hit. She hunched up but stood still. I fired again and heard the hit once more but it sounded funny, she dropped and flopped around a bit. I walked down and she was alive with her head up, I tried to put one behind the ear but she turned her head at just the wrong moment and I hit her in the bridge of the nose. I finally put the barrel right behind the ear and finished her off. My first shot had gone in low at the back of the lungs. It was fatal but she was tenatious. My second shot, the one that sounded funny hit the front legs, just below the shoulder. That shot was too hurried and I think the wind died just as I let it go. It would have been a low lung/heart shot had it drifted back just a few inches.
My camera was on the fritz Sunday so I don’t have any pictures. I think it needs a battery change.
Stupidity is expensive
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sneekeepete
- Monster
- Posts: 1757
- Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2008 1:15 pm
- Location: Utah
Re: Antelope hunt story
Great story! It sure made my morning much more enjoyable that is fore sure. Congrats on filling your tag and thanks a bunch for sharing. 
SNEEKEEPETE
OIF Vet.
Sgt Petersen USMC
Colossians 1:27,28
OIF Vet.
Sgt Petersen USMC
Colossians 1:27,28
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wingmaster36
- 2 point
- Posts: 206
- Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2008 11:17 am
Re: Antelope hunt story
Great story! Thanks for sharing. One more day!
"The things that are over my head are under God's feet." Adrian Rogers
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waynedevore
- Moderator
- Posts: 1669
- Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2005 8:42 am
Re: Antelope hunt story
I enjoyed reading your hunt to. Thanks for sharing.