1874sharpsshooter

Ive thought about taking the milk cow out to hide behind.
She would make a nice blind.

1874sharpsshooter

Update coming soon

1874sharpsshooter

Ok here's the update. While i wait to get muzzleloaders sighted in and get another kid ready for a mentor hunt ,I have been bow hunting for antelope. The one in the beginning of the post was around off and on but I found a lop horned one that was very unique. He must have gotten injured. His one horn turned down and was growing down the side of his face. Really cool looking.I really wanted him and I made 6 unsuccessful attempts. I did get with in 59 yds once, 70 twice and after that I never got closer than 250. I havent shot my bow 250 yards yet so I decided to look elsewhere. I found a nice buck just 1/2 mile from the house but struck out there also. I was able to get within 40 yards but only the back half of him was visible . The 6 does with him busted me and they were standing at about 500 yards within seconds. That ended that.
I went back to where the original buck in the post was and sure enough he was still hanging out in the area.
I am not hunting from a blind, not hunting over a water hole and not hiding behind a horse or anything so it is a big challenge to get within bow range. I am hunting open prairie in just a ghillie suit.
If you have never tried it then you might not understand how difficult it can be.

I will shorten the story by saying that I made 2 unsuccessful stalks on him. I was about to give up when Friday after work I decided to give it one more try . The temp. was 101. very hot to be hunting. I went to where he has been coming into a summer fallow field. .I didn't see him but decided to sit and watch for a while. There was only some tufts of grass and a few wild sunflowers, not much to hide behind.. I snuggled up into them the best I could..Then I noticed he was in the stubble field about 300 yards away staring my way.I just sat there as still as possible and he wandered around for a while then headed east. I figured that was the end of that but I stayed put. After ½ an hour I got up on my knees and was going to head east to see if I could spot him when I saw him coming right toward me. I quickly ducked back down . . I stayed frozen for what seemed like forever. Then I tried to peek again. He was staring right toward me. I just sat there. A vehicle was coming down the road and he was very close to the dirt road. When the car passed by he jumped and ran even closer to where I was. He kept staring intently my way and slowly walked into the path that would give me a shot. He was only about 45 yards away. I was breathing so hard and my heart racing. I just knew he could hear me. I slowly eased back to full draw. I had to shoot from a sitting position, there was no way to even get to my knees. I didnt have time to check the range for sure but guessed around 35 or 40 yards,. I released and heard a whack. He bolted and stopped at 110 yards away. He just stood there. Not a good sign. He stood for about 30 or more minutes. It seemed like forever. Then he finally layed down. I knew I should leave him and come back but it was so stinking hot out. Just at dusk since he was facing away from me I decided to try to sneak up on him and finish him off. Bad idea. I stood, took 3 steps and he jumped and ran. I decided to come back later, so I left. I went back at first light and checked the back field where I last saw him run to. Nothing. Then I saw a patch of white in the middle of the field. He had went right back to where he had been hit and layed down and died. Easy recovery thankfully. The shot turned out t be way to far back. I don't know if I just plain screwed up and made a bad shot or if he jumped the string. Doesn't really matter, it was bad either way but ended happily. I got him dressed out .I have to admit I'm a little concerned about the meat as the low was only 70 degrees . Here's a pic of him. He is the one in the beginning of the thread.





I consider archery antelope ,just spot and stalk , to be the ultimate challenge. Now its time to prepare muzzleloaders while i wait two weeks for archery deer to start.

SuperKirby

Glad to hear you had a successful hunt. Growing up in WY, I never really understood the challenge of hunting antelope with a rifle. They're not hard to find, and as long as you can make a shot at 200 yards they should be pretty easy to bag. However spot and stock with a bow would be a totally different story and in my opinion speaks to your skills as a hunter. Congratulations.

flounder33

Cool Story, Congrats. I hope the meat is ok.

jcampoli

Great write up and a happy ending. Don't get to hunt out west but it sounds like stalking antelope is hard as hell! What a trophy.

sdhunter11

congrats chet, its been two years since I have been out bow hunting them, I harvested my first buck with a bow in harding county, then after the bad winters we tried between newell and mud butte, I did get a doe one year but haven't been back since. I have been building preference points for rifle in west harding county for the past 4 years and finally decided to cash them in this year. Taking my gpr and my ruger. Really hoping to give the gpr its first taste of blood. Hope the numbers are on the rise up there. It should be a great father and son hunt either way. congrats again on that fine buck!!

1874sharpsshooter

Good luck. I hope the GPR does the trick for you. The numbers here are on the rise but so are the number of hunters. Its getting hard to get a rifle tag anymore. I usually hunt within a 5 or 6 mile radius of the house which makes it nice.. I wont even be rifle hunting this year for antelope but the kids have mentor tags so i will go with them for some doe.
Hope you success.Let us know how it goes.

lemoyne

Congratulations!

sdhunter11

Here is the update chet. Dad and I left for rifle antelope on Wednesday and hunted a little in the afternoon. Seen a decent amount of bucks but nothing we wanted to pull the trigger on. Thursday morning we put a stalk on a dandy buck that was hanging with three does but it didn't quite pan out. A few miles down the road later we found a decent buck bedded all by his lonesome at the bottom of a hill. Dad decided he was worth it so we put a stalk on him and dad shot him at about 300 yards. Ten yard trot and he fell over. Later that afternoon I found another buck bedded by himself again at the bottom of a hill. I stalked over the hill on him and he seen me and got very curious. he decided to let his curiosity get the best of him as he walked up on the very top of the hill to get a better vantage point on me. My shot was about 120 yards. I don't think he even heard the shot. He crumbled as soon as I touched the trigger. Here are the pics. I was so caught up in the moment that I forgot to tuck the tongues back in. Next time I will remember lol.