I headed out yesterday to try to find some antelope. I had waited a few days to avoid the opening weekend crowd, but ended up with lousy weather. Upper 30's and drizzle the whole night before the hunt....making most of the roads impassable. I drove around where I could and didn't see much interesting. At around 11am I decided to fill my doe tag when a good opportunity presented itself (read: she was close to the road
). I snuck out behind a farmer's equipment quonset and rested on the back tire of one of his tractors. Even 250 yards was too far to drag her in that mud. Every step I was trying to shake off 10-15 pounds of mud off my boots.
Later in the afternoon I braved the gumbo and headed out to an area I hadn't checked yet. I spotted a decent buck about 3/4 mile away, bedded with two other bucks and 8-10 does. I put a plan together and strapped on the backpack. As I got to the area they had been bedded, I couldn't find them. I bumped into another small bunch of 5 bucks, and as I followed them on my hands and knees trying not to spook them, they joined the original herd, which had fed over the next ridge. I realized that one of the new bucks looked a little better than the one I was after, which turned out to be bad for him.
Pictures, caping, quartering, and then a heavy pack back to the truck. The pics leave something to be desired, but it's hard to do by yourself. I made a better shot on the buck than it looks, but full speed while bleeding out makes a mess.
