BoulderBulls
Well-known member
Good luck, really enjoying this one
KHunter NM Pronghorn 2022
- Thread starter Khunter
- Start date
noharleyyet
Well-known member
Khunter
Well-known member
Friday/tomorrow will get back to it and finish
noharleyyet
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Buckskinbob
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2022
- Messages
- 238
Good luck!
Valley1320
Well-known member
Which Friday did him mean
Khunter
Well-known member
Picking up where I left off…Late in the afternoon and after I stalked the big group of bucks and things were looking good till hunter interference wrecked it.
Here is video @abqbw shot toward the tail end of that encounter. It started with my brother @abqbw spotting them a couple miles away and then driving to about 3/4 mile away to start the stalk. Initially they cleared out when I got to a couple hundred yards from them after hiking down a rare gully deep enough to hide an upright human, but I then stalked in again to what you see in this video which is about 140 yds from them. You can see the bucks curiosity getting the better of them. Was feeling at least a bit hopeful in my antelope hat and shirt and with the doe decoy.
Shortly after preceding video action they started looking hard to their right as you will see in the below video. Then a nice buck runs into the scene from the left and runs through them, spooking them for good after another hunter drove though the basin I was in. I had no idea that is what caused the rando buck to run through this group till my brother filled me in later on.
So this stalk was now officially toast.
Here is video @abqbw shot toward the tail end of that encounter. It started with my brother @abqbw spotting them a couple miles away and then driving to about 3/4 mile away to start the stalk. Initially they cleared out when I got to a couple hundred yards from them after hiking down a rare gully deep enough to hide an upright human, but I then stalked in again to what you see in this video which is about 140 yds from them. You can see the bucks curiosity getting the better of them. Was feeling at least a bit hopeful in my antelope hat and shirt and with the doe decoy.
Shortly after preceding video action they started looking hard to their right as you will see in the below video. Then a nice buck runs into the scene from the left and runs through them, spooking them for good after another hunter drove though the basin I was in. I had no idea that is what caused the rando buck to run through this group till my brother filled me in later on.
So this stalk was now officially toast.
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220yotekiller
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2017
- Messages
- 777
that sucks, hate it when that happens.
Khunter
Well-known member
Next up ws a lone buck I spotted about 1/2 to 3/4 miles away, watched him head from the flat, short grass for some patchy sage on the lip of a shallow draw and bed down with all but his headgear obscured by sagebrush. In this video he was more visible than when the stalk started.
So I started hiking toward him. Buck never seemed to see me till I was 350 yards away. I did my best antelope impersonation and worked in to 160 yards. The buck stood up and walked to my left into the draw, stopping to look me over a few times…and then closed to about 80 yards and stared at me for a few minutes then trotted away 20-40 yards at a time before turning back and giving me a look for a few seconds to a minute. It was obvious this stalk was not going to pan out so I turned around once he was a good 350 yards away and headed back toward @abqbw and the truck while stopping occasionally to glass all around for another opportunity.
I was now maybe a mile and a half from the truck and mostly trudging up the slope in earnest as it was getting late and not seeing other viable stalking opportunities.
About a half mile from the truck I spotted a lone buck feeding in the wide open to my right about 800 yards away and @abqbw and the darned hunter with him out in front of me. Was getting late and I had been visible to the buck as I walked for at least a half mile, but figured, what the heck, why not give it a go.
I sat for a few minutes and then started slowly working toward the buck who had bedded quartering away. The buck got up when I was 450 yards out and alternately fed and watched my hunched over “I am an antelope, nothing to worry about” approach.
The buck trotted/walked away another hundred or so yards and then circled up as I kneeled down trying to show my best antelope pose.
At one point the buck was 350 yards away and slowly walking away from me, so I decided I needed to press it or give up. I fast walked, hunched over and reeled in the distance to 162 yards and decided to park it and set up with the doe decoy and play my hand right there.
In this video you can see the buck going away from me and then getting curious as I kneeled down and set up the doe decoy. It looks like a losing situation but then you see the buck start quartering to me. What is missing from the video, unfortunately, is the buck coming in to bow range and me drawing but not quite getting the shot off on the now broadside buck before he has had enough and trots away in earnest. A cool encounter overall that started with, to me, the unlikeliest of beginnings. The video ends when the buck had come into 100 yards and was still coming.
Here is a acreen grab of me and this buck. Hardly looks like a situation leading to a great shot opportunity but a few minutes later I was at full draw as the buck had decided to come in. That is the appeal of spot/stalk and decoying lope for me is you almost never know which stalk will be a complete bust and which one will be a close call or get your tag punched.
So I started hiking toward him. Buck never seemed to see me till I was 350 yards away. I did my best antelope impersonation and worked in to 160 yards. The buck stood up and walked to my left into the draw, stopping to look me over a few times…and then closed to about 80 yards and stared at me for a few minutes then trotted away 20-40 yards at a time before turning back and giving me a look for a few seconds to a minute. It was obvious this stalk was not going to pan out so I turned around once he was a good 350 yards away and headed back toward @abqbw and the truck while stopping occasionally to glass all around for another opportunity.
I was now maybe a mile and a half from the truck and mostly trudging up the slope in earnest as it was getting late and not seeing other viable stalking opportunities.
About a half mile from the truck I spotted a lone buck feeding in the wide open to my right about 800 yards away and @abqbw and the darned hunter with him out in front of me. Was getting late and I had been visible to the buck as I walked for at least a half mile, but figured, what the heck, why not give it a go.
I sat for a few minutes and then started slowly working toward the buck who had bedded quartering away. The buck got up when I was 450 yards out and alternately fed and watched my hunched over “I am an antelope, nothing to worry about” approach.
The buck trotted/walked away another hundred or so yards and then circled up as I kneeled down trying to show my best antelope pose.
At one point the buck was 350 yards away and slowly walking away from me, so I decided I needed to press it or give up. I fast walked, hunched over and reeled in the distance to 162 yards and decided to park it and set up with the doe decoy and play my hand right there.
In this video you can see the buck going away from me and then getting curious as I kneeled down and set up the doe decoy. It looks like a losing situation but then you see the buck start quartering to me. What is missing from the video, unfortunately, is the buck coming in to bow range and me drawing but not quite getting the shot off on the now broadside buck before he has had enough and trots away in earnest. A cool encounter overall that started with, to me, the unlikeliest of beginnings. The video ends when the buck had come into 100 yards and was still coming.
Here is a acreen grab of me and this buck. Hardly looks like a situation leading to a great shot opportunity but a few minutes later I was at full draw as the buck had decided to come in. That is the appeal of spot/stalk and decoying lope for me is you almost never know which stalk will be a complete bust and which one will be a close call or get your tag punched.
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El Jason
Well-known member
Great stuff!
Khunter
Well-known member
The next day was the last day of the season. With my brothers great help and incredible glassing skills over the last week we had spotted and sized up dozens of bucks and uncountable does and fawns across a ton of varied terrain from 6300 to 8600 ft elevation and from ponderosa pine forest, to tall grass, short grass and sage.
The last day I was determined to make it a short one before starting the 9.5 hour drive home, unless I had a real whopper I was stalking.
Did get in one more cool stalk that morinimg on a big buck in very open country. that did not pan out and passed on a couple other good stalk opportunities on smaller bucks before tossing in the towel and heading back to Colorado.
It was a great time with my brother in tough, wet, conditions throughout the 8 days of hunting.
Never did try to sit the blinds we set up and the game cameras we placed supported that decision. Also another hunter sat his blind all week with almost no action to show for it. Of course he camped 1/3 mile from blind in plain view of his blind which we found a little nuts given the massive tracts of public land he could have chosen for a camp site. Here are the two mammals caught on the cams over 5 days. The pronghorn simply were not hitting waterholes. I even let another hunter sit one of my waterhole blinds to no avail.
Can’t overstate just how cool it is to be able to hunt extended period with my brother. We are both hunting nuts and pull tags from all the western states and usually schedules conflict. This year he arrived before me to start scouting and stayed for the week. Last year we were able to spend 24 days chasing elk together holding the same “primo, high points” tag. Cant take these hunts for granted as they do not come around often enough.
As
The last day I was determined to make it a short one before starting the 9.5 hour drive home, unless I had a real whopper I was stalking.
Did get in one more cool stalk that morinimg on a big buck in very open country. that did not pan out and passed on a couple other good stalk opportunities on smaller bucks before tossing in the towel and heading back to Colorado.
It was a great time with my brother in tough, wet, conditions throughout the 8 days of hunting.
Never did try to sit the blinds we set up and the game cameras we placed supported that decision. Also another hunter sat his blind all week with almost no action to show for it. Of course he camped 1/3 mile from blind in plain view of his blind which we found a little nuts given the massive tracts of public land he could have chosen for a camp site. Here are the two mammals caught on the cams over 5 days. The pronghorn simply were not hitting waterholes. I even let another hunter sit one of my waterhole blinds to no avail.
Can’t overstate just how cool it is to be able to hunt extended period with my brother. We are both hunting nuts and pull tags from all the western states and usually schedules conflict. This year he arrived before me to start scouting and stayed for the week. Last year we were able to spend 24 days chasing elk together holding the same “primo, high points” tag. Cant take these hunts for granted as they do not come around often enough.
As
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BAKPAKR
Well-known member
I am sorry you didn’t punch your tag but what an incredible experience. I admire your perseverance. Thanks for sharing your story and photos, and good luck in Idaho!
