hardscrabble
Active member
I was lucky enough to draw a ND antelope tag two years in a row. With the numbers down this year I knew it would be tough to find a good buck. We looked over alot of goats but found nothing but does and two small bucks. I figured I was going to eat the tag and have to wait four more years to draw another when my friend spotted a herd about a mile away. Darkness was aproaching quickly so I had to move fast to look over the goats to see if there was a good one in the group. After sneeking up a hill along a fence line to within 200 yards I looked them over and on the far left side of the herd I found this guy. I made one good clean shot on him and I am pumped with how the hunt turned out. He is about and inch and a half shy of my 08 goat but he has a ton of character.
![NDAntelope098-1[1].jpg](https://www.hunttalk.com/data/attachments/6/6252-f04355d6b8f80ef646302b99f788f65f.jpg "NDAntelope098-1[1].jpg")
![NDAntelope099-1[1].jpg](https://www.hunttalk.com/data/attachments/6/6254-d29c9532e9ed176569c9411461cf6330.jpg "NDAntelope099-1[1].jpg")
![NDAntelope095-1-1[1].jpg](https://www.hunttalk.com/data/attachments/6/6256-1e1209f5eac4b0b753f88676d2ab8731.jpg "NDAntelope095-1-1[1].jpg")
We also hunted South Dakota the same weekend. This was our first time hunting SD so we had no idea what to expect or the caliber of goats we would find. I just knew it would be tough with two weeks of hunting pressure. We found an area that had alot of antelope in it so we moved in to see what we could find. Two good bucks were spotted so we split up to make separate stalks. When a rancher came 3/4's of a mile away to check his buffalo the two antelpoe I was after got up from their bed and moved off over a hill. I hiked the mile to the hill and hoped they would be there. To my surprise they were. A short belly crawl to the nearest sage brush put me at 130 yards of them and I took the bigger of the two. I learned an important lesson about judging antelope on the SD hunt. When this class of animal is the big one in the area, he looks much bigger than he is. Don't get me wrong I am very proud of this trophy it is just that there was some ground shinkage
The way I read the SD law is that the entire animal (minus the guts) needs to be removed from the field on Walk-in-areas, which is private land open to public hunting walk in only. I put the hind quarters on my pack and drug the front half until my hunting partner met up with me and he took the fronts. It was a two and half mile pack-drag not to bad, could have been worse.
![SDAntelope0919[1].jpg](https://www.hunttalk.com/data/attachments/6/6259-4a6e1a82fbb358c0ff5ef9555551d85c.jpg "SDAntelope0919[1].jpg")
![SDAntelope0915[1].jpg](https://www.hunttalk.com/data/attachments/6/6258-807ae249e393cd06f09f9f66eb8258e9.jpg "SDAntelope0915[1].jpg")
We also hunted South Dakota the same weekend. This was our first time hunting SD so we had no idea what to expect or the caliber of goats we would find. I just knew it would be tough with two weeks of hunting pressure. We found an area that had alot of antelope in it so we moved in to see what we could find. Two good bucks were spotted so we split up to make separate stalks. When a rancher came 3/4's of a mile away to check his buffalo the two antelpoe I was after got up from their bed and moved off over a hill. I hiked the mile to the hill and hoped they would be there. To my surprise they were. A short belly crawl to the nearest sage brush put me at 130 yards of them and I took the bigger of the two. I learned an important lesson about judging antelope on the SD hunt. When this class of animal is the big one in the area, he looks much bigger than he is. Don't get me wrong I am very proud of this trophy it is just that there was some ground shinkage
The way I read the SD law is that the entire animal (minus the guts) needs to be removed from the field on Walk-in-areas, which is private land open to public hunting walk in only. I put the hind quarters on my pack and drug the front half until my hunting partner met up with me and he took the fronts. It was a two and half mile pack-drag not to bad, could have been worse.
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