Some little bucks falling...

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For the fourth year in a row, I missed out on an antelope tag for an area I've scouted a few times and Google earthed the hell out of. I talked my dad into also putting in this year and of course, he drew first try.

My brother also drew a tag, but for the exact opposite side of the state. It worked out that I could tag along on both hunts and help spot. After a couple long days and a ton of miles on my pickup, it's been a long week.

First up was my brothers tag on the Eastern edge of the state. We were the only ones hunting a ~20 section ranch that had 60-80 antelope on it.
Hunting that ranch was a humbling experience. Neither of us have hunted antelope in ten years, so we really didn't have a clue what we were doing. Most of the antelope were in two bunches of 20-30 each, and we couldn't get within shooting range of these two herds to save our lives. No idea why they were so spooky, but they kept five hundred yards between us the entire hunt. Finally at the end of our hunt, we came up over some cliffs and had a young loner buck in the valley below us, and my brother was more than happy to take him out of the herd.

 

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SW hunt

Quick run across the state, dropped off my brother, picked up my dad, and away we went.

This hunt was a lot closer to home and was in the unit I had been researching for the last couple years. Growing up, we hunted in the unit but on private property, but the neighboring public land is what really intrigued me.

As soon as we pulled into the public area, we starting seeing antelope, and as much sense as this makes, they were a hundred times easier to put stalks on than their Eastern, private land dwelling cousins. Within an hour after shooting light, we had moved into two hundred yards of a herd with a good 13ish inch buck. My dad tried a shot, but with a pretty bad crosswind missed.
After a couple hours of trying to get back on to that herd, we made the three mile trek back down to the pickup. As soon as we started driving further in, more antelope started popping up. Around noon we jumped two young bucks out from under some cliffs, and spent an hour trying to get in range of them. Eventually we lost them, and headed back down for lunch.
After checking out some different areas, we went back to the area the two smaller bucks were in and glassed during lunch/dinner. After a while of glassing, dad picked up the two bucks from earlier bedded in the cliffs. Took a while of convincing, but eventually I got my dad to follow me back into the cliffs to try to get in on the bucks. Our mile and a half stalk ended up working out perfectly, and dad put the buck down with a two hundred yard shot. The picture with the spotting scope and the one after shows where we saw the bucks before we started the stalk. The hillside they are on is the same one in the background of the last picture.

All in all it was an awesome two hunts. I got to spend some quality time with my dad and brother, see some new and amazing country, check out an area I've been wanting to hunt for quite some time, and get a beginners course on how to hunt these awesome animals. Can't wait until I finally draw.

 

[Oak]

I like the looks of that "badlands" type of country, but haven't really had the chance to hunt in it.

Thanks for sharing the photos.

 

[schmalts]

Thanks for the great pics and congrats to the hunter on a fine buck

 

[Missoulaz28]

It was definitely an interesting experience chasing that herd around the ranch for a day. Will absolutely need to try a different tactic next year if we go back.