cooperjd
Well-known member
ok guys, if anyone is interested, i finally got my notes typed up from this years antelope hunt. fair warning, this is long. like 5,000 words.
As this might turn out to be a very long story, I will write it play by play, just as I wrote it in my notebook…
Cheyenne River Outfitters
Edgemont, SD
Guide: Tye McFarland
Owner of CRO: Mark Hollenbeck
23 August 2008
With no sleep the night before in anticipation of today’s start of our next adventure, I board my flight from DC to Minneapolis to meet up with Dad. We both had good flights and as I’m finishing up my overpriced airport food and drinks, Dad joins me for a few minutes until we board our flight into Rapid City. They put me in business class for some reason, so it didn’t take much arm twisting to get the lady seated next to Dad to swap seats with me so we could sit together. We did have an exit row, so at least I had some legroom after giving up the first and only business seat of my life…?
We landed, got the rental car, and a quick 1.5 hour drive later we were pulling up to Hollenbeck’s place near Edgemont, SD. The weather is hot, the rainy season has been one for the record books, but we’re still optimistic. Tye is a very hard working guide and has seen several nice goats in the area, and has a couple of blinds set up at fence crossings, since hunting water holes isn’t an option in the wet conditions. This time of year is too early to decoy the goats in; the rut is still a few weeks away, so this will be a tough hunt. Getting in bow range of these sharp-eyed prairie speedsters is going to be fun!
We show up, unpack, I took a few practice shots to make sure the bow is still sighted in, and start talking with Tye. He is very optimistic about the morning’s hunt, as they have been seeing a large group of antelopes crossing a fence near a blind setup. Dad and I will both be sitting in the blind in the morning, and we think we have a very good chance for a shot opportunity.
Tired from traveling we hit the hay and ready for our first morning hunting antelope.
24 August 2008
The 1st morning of our hunt. After staying up too late and swapping stories, the morning comes early. Dad and I are shown to our blind and dropped off by Tye so he could go scout some other areas. We spot our first antelope at 6:30; a solitary doe that is WAY off in the distance. Eventually we spot the others in her group, but they are probably 1500 yards away and not really moving any closer. There is one nice buck in this group that we were hoping would make his way towards us. A lone buck is also making his way across the front of our blind, but several hundred yards in front of us. He hangs out near a water hole for most of the morning. Nothing ever works in close and Tye comes to pick us up and head in for breakfast. There were two bucks bedded down behind the blind that we never saw, but they were several hundred yards away as well.
We eat breakfast and meet our host Mark. Mark is a chemical engineer and somewhat of a gear head, so we all got along great. After swapping more stories and relaxing for a bit, we head out again about noon. This time Dad is to sit in the blind, and Tye is to take me to a ‘special’ blind they have picked out. They say that while chuckling, I am a little nervous….
We drop Dad off at the blind and head out for my ‘special’ blind. It turned out to be just an old root cellar dug into the side of a hill. Very overgrown and filled with spiders, but not bad at all, and actually offered a great place to hide.
As we were driving to the cellar, the antelope were already out and feeding nearby. There was no way to approach from the normal direction, so we parked the truck, grabbed our gear, and headed around in a big circle. The blind is dug into a small hill that runs along the fields. The field is then flat for about 200 yards, until it hits train tracks. After the tracks, it is flat again for a few hundred yards going into a river bottom. The lopes are near the train tracks, so we are on the other side trying to get them to either cross towards us, or just watch and wait and see where they go, until we can find a way to intercept them. As we are sitting next to the tracks, in the baking sun, with no shade, in camo, on rocks, I get hot. Then the train roars by, and just sitting a few feet away, it made me jump! These things shake the earth from 6 feet!
As we crawl to the top of the train tracks and peek over the edge, the lopes are just out of range at 75 yards. We throw up the decoy hoping to entice the buck away from this 3 does, but he does not pay us any attention. After watching them a while, they turn and start heading away from us. Once they go down into a small dip and out of sight, we run over the tracks and see if there is a way to ambush them. The buck splits from the does and starts feeding kind of towards us, so up goes the decoy again. And again, we are ignored. His feeding route may take him in a half circle within my bow range, so we sit tight to the fence line and wait. The buck doesn’t like to be too far away from his group of does, however, and turns around and feeds back towards them. This was our cue to leave them alone for a while, as there was no way to sneak up on them.
We drive around to glass some different areas for a little while before returning to the cellar blind. When we get near the lodge, we spot a lone buck in the horse pasture. Now these antelope are use to seeing farm trucks, so Tye drives as close as he dare to this buck and slows down to let me hop out of the truck and range the lope. They are curious animals, and in full camo and as small as I can make myself, he sees me but doesn’t run. He is out of my range, however, at 70 yards. Though he is curious, he does not get any closer, and eventually starts to turn and walk away. Tye picks me up in the truck, and drives towards the lope again. He is heading down towards a small ditch, so if we can get me down in that ditch, the lope may walk right into me. So again, he slows down, I jump out and start crawling down into this ditch. This plan nearly works, as the lope just watches the truck drive off and keeps heading my direction. Now when I say ditch I mean a small depression in a field, not much of anything to hide in. The lope comes down and I see his head and horns at 55 yards through my rangefinder, but he also sees me and retreats to circle around to get a better look. The next time I see him he is off to my left at 68 yards, too far for a shot. This guy had enough of me and decided to leave the pasture, so Tye again picked me up and we head for the cellar blind.
Meanwhile Dad is sitting in the blind and still seeing lots of antelope, just very far away. For some reason they will not come into the pasture he is sitting in, even though they have been doing it every day for several days in a row.
As Tye is showing me the cellar blind and I’m getting settled in, we look across the field, and on the other side of the train tracks Tye spots horns. The buck had come back to find his does, and is now bedded down watching us! We decide he is not in a stalkable position, so I am to sit in the blind as planned. Tye takes the truck to go scout some different areas.
As I am sitting in the blind, clearing a little brush for a shooting lane, and taking range measurements of anything I can find in the field in front of me, I realize I am not alone in this cellar. There are tons of spiders in here with me. I do not like spiders. Especially black widows, of which I see 2 within an arms reach. I have a stick for spider mashing detail. An hour or so passes and I see 3 does up and feeding, but no buck. I can’t find him anywhere; he has disappeared on me, probably while I was ridding the world of spiders.
As I watch the does feed for a while, they finally get back out of sight, and straight out in front of me I spot the head of a doe climbing the hill and crossing the train tracks. With my binoculars up, I spot horns inching their way up behind her! Here he comes! Their trail should lead them up a fence row to the open gate, which is to my right about 35 yards away, easily within my range. As they slowly feed my direction, I get my bow ready, start planning how I will place my feet, and start preparing myself in case a shot presents itself so I can remain as calm as possible.
The doe finally comes through the gate, and is heading towards me. She crosses under me at about 20 yards. This is perfect! If he will just follow her, I will wait until he gets by me and shoot him with a quartering away shot. Well, nothing really goes as planned. He gets to the gate, and for some unknown reason, decides to sprint out into the middle of the field. This rattles me a little, but I get my rangefinder on him and laser him at 48 yards. OK, a little longer than I like, but I can make this shot. As I come to full draw, he is quartering away and taking a few steps and hops. I whistle him to stop, and he turns perfectly broadside to me to look at the source of the whistle. I guess him now to be about 58 yards, and shoot just over his back! I should have guessed him closer to 50, as their steps aren’t that long, but hindsight is 20/20. With that missed shot they ran out to about 80 yards and started blowing at me (kind of like a whitetail snorting at you), and eventually would leave the field.
A storm is brewing by this time, Dad has been picked up from his blind, and Tye comes back to get me. I am almost sick and very disgusted with myself for the miss. Dad saw several antelope today, but nothing even close to being in range. He and Mark drove around and glassed some places before the storm hit, so he got to see more of Mark’s land.
We go back to the lodge for some good food, good fellowship, and a few cold drinks before bed. And of course I have to relive my miss for Dad and Mark, and at no point did I get harassed for missing...
25 August 2008
Day 2. Well, a few too many cold drinks and we slept in a little late this morning. But still up pretty early to go chase some speedgoats. We drop Dad off in his blind and Tye and I head out in the truck to try and put a stalk on one today. We figure the railroad buck that I missed yesterday is not coming back to his crossing, plus he doesn’t show up until closer to dark, so we’ve got most of the day to look for more.
The first herd we see is out in the middle of a pasture, pretty far from a fenceline, but we sneak up to the fence in the tall grass using the decoy. The mosquitoes are horrible. There is 20 or 30 buzzing around us at all times. This is the dang prairie, where do mosquitoes come from??? There was one buck with this group of does, and he was having none of the decoy, so they run off. Oh well, next…
Lots of driving around and looking this morning. Yesterday we saw tons of antelope while driving around. Most were either on other folks land that we could not hunt, or just out in the middle of the prairie and not in a position for a stalk. Today, however, there are fewer goats around. We’re not real sure where they went, we’ll find them eventually. We take some pretty treacherous roads on Mark’s property, good thing we’re in a 4x4. Finally we spot a buck near one of the pasture roads. There is no way to stalk him, no cover, so Tye wants to see just how close we can drive past him. Turns out we can drive really close to this guy, and he just stares at us. He’s not afraid of the truck. So we drive by him again, and stop and I jump out to see if he’ll let me get a shot at him. At 57 yards, he is staring at me wondering what I’m doing. This buck is broadside, standing still. I know this is a long shot, but I have been practicing for months, and have shot hundreds of arrows at this distance and farther, I am confident in my abilities at this range. So I put my 60 yard pin on him and touch the release. As I am watching the fletchings arch straight towards the goats vitals, they drop too low. I shot right under this bucks chest, and nicked the inside of his leg below his chest. I have no excuse, I just missed. I don’t know why. I could have dropped my arm, maybe my form wasn’t perfect, but I now have wounded an antelope. I am almost sick.
This guy runs off and we follow on foot for a little bit to see where he goes. There is a little blood on his upper leg, and he is favoring it a little when he walks, but runs no problem. We watch him go to the top of a hill so he can see danger coming from all directions. There is no way we can get close, so we decide to leave him alone and go eat breakfast. We will come back and find him, hopefully watch him bed down and get a stalk on him.
At breakfast, there was absolutely no harassment for nicking the buck. None. Dad was still seeing antelope from the blind, but nothing would come near the fence crossing. We think they must have seen us the first morning and remembered, so Dad is now coming with us to try and help get my wounded buck.
We spot the buck working his way down a fenceline. The fence dips down in a draw, and I run get set up in a few trees to hopefully intercept him when he comes my way. I wait and wait, and finally see the buck on the other side of the draw than the direction he was coming towards. I am confused. He ducks under the fence and runs away, nowhere near me. I hear Tye yelling for me, so I join he and Dad for the story. The buck was making his way towards me, then decided to change directions. So Tye tried to drive him back towards me with the truck to no avail. The antelope went down into another draw, so Tye had Dad take the truck and go one way, while he ran the other way trying to keep the buck down in the draw and headed towards me. It almost worked, except antelopes are faster than guides, so the buck outran him and crossed the fence a couple hundred yards from me. I have never really heard of a bowhunting antelope drive, but I guess there’s a first time for everything.
We watch the buck and spot him again down in a small ditch. This is our best chance for a stalk, so off we go. Dad drove the truck away from us so the buck would think we were gone, and Tye and I started sneaking up the edge of the ditch. As we closed in the last few yards, I saw the top of the buck’s horns on our side of the ditch. He was coming straight up at us. Well by the time we got stopped it was too late, he saw us and bolted for the other side. I came to full draw in case he stopped, which he did, at 55 yards, but bolted again before I could get a pin on him. That was it for this guy, he had enough of us and ran and ran and ran. We searched for him for quite a while longer to no avail. We think this buck left the county. I did not want to leave this buck wounded, but it was a non-fatal hit, and we gave it a solid effort.
Dad goes back to his blind, and Tye and I drive around looking for a stalkable buck. Not much luck, so we decide to try and push the herd that Dad was seeing towards him. Tye gets out and walks behind the herd, and they actually run around him and went towards him instead of away from him. This confirms our suspicions that something has them spooked and they are not going to use the crossing near the blind.
We drive back to where the railroad buck has been hanging out in the afternoons and spot him and his does again. Same place, on the opposite side of the tracks as the blind. We are not sure if he’ll cross again, and if he does will probably be on the lookout for me in the cellar blind. So this time we construct a blind on the ground under a large cottonwood tree on the opposite side of the fence opening. I sit in the blind until dark, but the buck won’t allow his does to cross the tracks and head my direction. He knows there is danger over there, and the gig is up. So its back to the lodge for dinner and some much needed sleep.
26 August 2008
With Dad’s blind obviously not working we decide to try some new areas today. We drive around and see lots of antelope, but none in a stalkable position. We spot a very nice goat working towards the road, and dad is in the front seat, so he jumps out and crawls down into a small ditch to hide out and see if the buck will continue working his way towards Dad. Now this is a big antelope! Probably the nicest buck we saw the whole trip. The buck is working towards Dad, but also angling off, so Dad has to crawl in the ditch until he finally runs out of cover. The big buck crosses out of range and out of our lives.
We drive around a lot more, spot several antelope, and finally see one that looks stalkable in the distance. We bail out of the truck and start hoofing it. This antelope is on the other side of a hill and we are approaching so he cannot see us. When we finally get near the top of the hill and peak over, the buck is bedded too far for a shot, so all we can do is wait. This buck winds us or something, he gets nervous and circles around us and heads out without us getting anywhere near a shot opportunity.
We keep driving and find a group of 3 bucks, but can never find them in anything but wide open country. And these goats, unlike several others, do not like the truck, and will run from it.
We finally see a large group of goats with one nice buck in the mix. We decide to try and stalk them. They are near a fence line, as well as a hill, so we send dad along the fence to intercept them should they travel that way, and Tye and I circle all the way around behind them to try and sneak up from behind them. As Tye and I are stalking up, one of the does spots us, so we have to hunker down immediately and can go no further. Tye throws up the decoy, and crawls to the top of a small rise to show it to the buck. I stayed down low, so I could not see what was going on up on top of the small rise. The buck actually came into the decoy. Tye was shocked, but this buck came in 3 different times, and was as close as 30 yards to Tye. But being on the bottom of the small hill, I only caught a glimpse of his horns one time, and that’s all I saw of the buck. We cannot believe decoying actually worked, and when it did I could not see the buck to get a shot. The buck then rounded up his does and left us standing there shocked.
We are heading back towards the lodge when we spot some more goats out in some taller grass. So Tye and I hop out and try to stalk up to them. I have no idea how, but they spot us and spook off. The grass is tall and we are walking down in a small drainage, so the grass is to the top of my head. But they bust us and we head for home. Except for the small problem of Tye’s truck kept quitting on us. The fuel pump relay is overheating and shutting down. This is not good. We are in the backside of nowhere. But it finally cools down and we make it back to the lodge area and back on Mark’s property.
We drive around and look for the wounded buck, but he is nowhere to be found. We drive to see if we can spot the railroad buck, but he too is missing. In a last ditch effort we hatch a plan to set me up in a ground blind near where the railroad buck and his does had been feeding the previous two afternoons. So they drop me off, I douse myself with bug spray for the hundreds of mosquitoes, and brush myself in next to a big old cottonwood tree. After a little while of sitting something amazing happens. The antelope show up!
And not only do I see them, but they are feeding directly towards me! First it was the 3 does, then bringing up the rear I spot the buck. The does feed to within 20 yards of me and never see me. The buck is feeding about 35 yards away, and is at the worst possible side of the tree for me to get a shot. Finally the does move away and get on the opposite side of the tree from me, so they will not spot my movements. The buck is feeding from my right to my left, about 33 yards away. The tree is against my right shoulder, so I really need the buck to feed towards my left a little more so I can get a shot. As he slowly works his way into position, I clip my release on my string loop. This is going to be it, I am going to get a shot in easy range. I am on my knees and hunkered down to hide under the tall grass and brush, so as I shift my weight slightly to rise up to draw my bow, my knee slips off a small piece of log. With one hand on my bow and one hand clipped to the string, I have no way of catching myself, and I fall over a little. Well this makes enough noise to scare the buck. I immediately right myself and try to dig myself into the tree to hide, but it’s too late. When I peek around the tree the buck is 62 yards away and looking at me. I contemplate trying to draw and get a shot, but I am shook up too bad at this point, and the buck turns and trots off back to his does. This is heartbreaking. I mean seriously, who else does this happen to? Of all the things to go wrong, a little slip and game over. Oh well, it was really cool to be that close to so many antelope at once, and on the ground with them. An awesome experience.
Dad and Tye show up to get me about dark. They had driven around and tried to find a stalkable buck, and I think attempted a couple of stalks, to no avail.
We get back to the lodge for a great steak dinner and of course a retelling of my blunder. And I assure you, I got no harassment for this one!!
Dad and I have to leave in the morning, but we decide to get up early anyway and try for the last 1.5 hours of available hunting time to fill our tags.
27 August 2008
When we get up, Dad decides to keep sleeping, so Tye and I head out.
Time is very short, so we first look for the railroad buck. We spot his 3 does bedded near a small hill, so in case he is with them we fight the mosquitoes and crawl up to the top of the hill and peer over. He is nowhere to be found. We spook the does, so it is time to give up on this group. Next we look for the wounded buck, gone. We drive around for a bit looking for any stalkable buck, but see none. We are driving near the lodge looking for a buck that was seen last night by Mark and spot his 2 does down in a ditch just a few hundred yards from the lodge. We figure the buck is still with them, so I hop out of the truck and go as quietly and quickly as I can to the edge of the ditch to try and spot the buck. As I am heading towards the ditch, I see heads coming up and out. The 2 does are out and have me pegged. I drop down to my knee and knock an arrow. Antelope are very curious creatures, so they do not spook immediately, they actually start coming towards me. The does get to about 40 yards when I see the bucks horns start to rise out of the ditch. He is further back and I am hoping he will join his does to look at the strange creature holding a Mathews bow. He is not as curious, though, and at 63 yards facing me there is no shot. That is as close as I get to this guy, he turns and trots out into the middle of the pasture.
They turn, however, and start to head back down into the draw. So Tye grabs me in the truck and we drive down to the other end of the draw, for me to work my way back and try to meet them. As I am working my way up this draw I catch a glimpse of the ‘lopes, and they appear to be feeding towards me. Perfect. Unbeknownst to me, however, Ace, the camp yellow lab, also sees the antelope. And Ace wants to play. Well, as it turns out, antelope don’t like to play with big goofy yellow labs, so instead of continuing to feed towards me, they decide to run away very quickly and very far away from me… and Ace.
Well, this is it. The hunt is over now and its time to pack up and head to the airport and back to normal life. I have no complaints. I should have an antelope with my tag on it, but since my shooting abilities obviously aren’t there, nor my balance, I am going home with my tag intact. I got 2 shot opportunities on an unbelievably tough animal to bowhunt, in very very tough conditions. Dad and I got to hunt ground blinds, makeshift blinds, we tried spotting and stalking, decoying, you name it we tried it. We are leaving feeling satisfied that we gave it a very good try. We will be back, though Dad will probably bring his .270 next time, don’t have to get quite as close with that. I still want to take a goat with my bow, so I think the Mathews will make the trip with me whenever we can return.
Now I’m sitting in the airport relaxing, thinking back and trying to absorb the last few days that felt like a weeks worth of work. It was a lot of fun. We made a new friend in Mark H., Tye was a fantastic and hardworking guide just like last year. It was truly an awesome experience with my favorite hunting partner. Dad has caught his flight back to Memphis, I’m waiting to head back to DC. I think I’ll try to take a nap before my flight gets here, as this will wrap up another of Tony and John’s Big Game Adventures!
As this might turn out to be a very long story, I will write it play by play, just as I wrote it in my notebook…
Cheyenne River Outfitters
Edgemont, SD
Guide: Tye McFarland
Owner of CRO: Mark Hollenbeck
23 August 2008
With no sleep the night before in anticipation of today’s start of our next adventure, I board my flight from DC to Minneapolis to meet up with Dad. We both had good flights and as I’m finishing up my overpriced airport food and drinks, Dad joins me for a few minutes until we board our flight into Rapid City. They put me in business class for some reason, so it didn’t take much arm twisting to get the lady seated next to Dad to swap seats with me so we could sit together. We did have an exit row, so at least I had some legroom after giving up the first and only business seat of my life…?
We landed, got the rental car, and a quick 1.5 hour drive later we were pulling up to Hollenbeck’s place near Edgemont, SD. The weather is hot, the rainy season has been one for the record books, but we’re still optimistic. Tye is a very hard working guide and has seen several nice goats in the area, and has a couple of blinds set up at fence crossings, since hunting water holes isn’t an option in the wet conditions. This time of year is too early to decoy the goats in; the rut is still a few weeks away, so this will be a tough hunt. Getting in bow range of these sharp-eyed prairie speedsters is going to be fun!
We show up, unpack, I took a few practice shots to make sure the bow is still sighted in, and start talking with Tye. He is very optimistic about the morning’s hunt, as they have been seeing a large group of antelopes crossing a fence near a blind setup. Dad and I will both be sitting in the blind in the morning, and we think we have a very good chance for a shot opportunity.
Tired from traveling we hit the hay and ready for our first morning hunting antelope.
24 August 2008
The 1st morning of our hunt. After staying up too late and swapping stories, the morning comes early. Dad and I are shown to our blind and dropped off by Tye so he could go scout some other areas. We spot our first antelope at 6:30; a solitary doe that is WAY off in the distance. Eventually we spot the others in her group, but they are probably 1500 yards away and not really moving any closer. There is one nice buck in this group that we were hoping would make his way towards us. A lone buck is also making his way across the front of our blind, but several hundred yards in front of us. He hangs out near a water hole for most of the morning. Nothing ever works in close and Tye comes to pick us up and head in for breakfast. There were two bucks bedded down behind the blind that we never saw, but they were several hundred yards away as well.
We eat breakfast and meet our host Mark. Mark is a chemical engineer and somewhat of a gear head, so we all got along great. After swapping more stories and relaxing for a bit, we head out again about noon. This time Dad is to sit in the blind, and Tye is to take me to a ‘special’ blind they have picked out. They say that while chuckling, I am a little nervous….
We drop Dad off at the blind and head out for my ‘special’ blind. It turned out to be just an old root cellar dug into the side of a hill. Very overgrown and filled with spiders, but not bad at all, and actually offered a great place to hide.
As we were driving to the cellar, the antelope were already out and feeding nearby. There was no way to approach from the normal direction, so we parked the truck, grabbed our gear, and headed around in a big circle. The blind is dug into a small hill that runs along the fields. The field is then flat for about 200 yards, until it hits train tracks. After the tracks, it is flat again for a few hundred yards going into a river bottom. The lopes are near the train tracks, so we are on the other side trying to get them to either cross towards us, or just watch and wait and see where they go, until we can find a way to intercept them. As we are sitting next to the tracks, in the baking sun, with no shade, in camo, on rocks, I get hot. Then the train roars by, and just sitting a few feet away, it made me jump! These things shake the earth from 6 feet!
As we crawl to the top of the train tracks and peek over the edge, the lopes are just out of range at 75 yards. We throw up the decoy hoping to entice the buck away from this 3 does, but he does not pay us any attention. After watching them a while, they turn and start heading away from us. Once they go down into a small dip and out of sight, we run over the tracks and see if there is a way to ambush them. The buck splits from the does and starts feeding kind of towards us, so up goes the decoy again. And again, we are ignored. His feeding route may take him in a half circle within my bow range, so we sit tight to the fence line and wait. The buck doesn’t like to be too far away from his group of does, however, and turns around and feeds back towards them. This was our cue to leave them alone for a while, as there was no way to sneak up on them.
We drive around to glass some different areas for a little while before returning to the cellar blind. When we get near the lodge, we spot a lone buck in the horse pasture. Now these antelope are use to seeing farm trucks, so Tye drives as close as he dare to this buck and slows down to let me hop out of the truck and range the lope. They are curious animals, and in full camo and as small as I can make myself, he sees me but doesn’t run. He is out of my range, however, at 70 yards. Though he is curious, he does not get any closer, and eventually starts to turn and walk away. Tye picks me up in the truck, and drives towards the lope again. He is heading down towards a small ditch, so if we can get me down in that ditch, the lope may walk right into me. So again, he slows down, I jump out and start crawling down into this ditch. This plan nearly works, as the lope just watches the truck drive off and keeps heading my direction. Now when I say ditch I mean a small depression in a field, not much of anything to hide in. The lope comes down and I see his head and horns at 55 yards through my rangefinder, but he also sees me and retreats to circle around to get a better look. The next time I see him he is off to my left at 68 yards, too far for a shot. This guy had enough of me and decided to leave the pasture, so Tye again picked me up and we head for the cellar blind.
Meanwhile Dad is sitting in the blind and still seeing lots of antelope, just very far away. For some reason they will not come into the pasture he is sitting in, even though they have been doing it every day for several days in a row.
As Tye is showing me the cellar blind and I’m getting settled in, we look across the field, and on the other side of the train tracks Tye spots horns. The buck had come back to find his does, and is now bedded down watching us! We decide he is not in a stalkable position, so I am to sit in the blind as planned. Tye takes the truck to go scout some different areas.
As I am sitting in the blind, clearing a little brush for a shooting lane, and taking range measurements of anything I can find in the field in front of me, I realize I am not alone in this cellar. There are tons of spiders in here with me. I do not like spiders. Especially black widows, of which I see 2 within an arms reach. I have a stick for spider mashing detail. An hour or so passes and I see 3 does up and feeding, but no buck. I can’t find him anywhere; he has disappeared on me, probably while I was ridding the world of spiders.
As I watch the does feed for a while, they finally get back out of sight, and straight out in front of me I spot the head of a doe climbing the hill and crossing the train tracks. With my binoculars up, I spot horns inching their way up behind her! Here he comes! Their trail should lead them up a fence row to the open gate, which is to my right about 35 yards away, easily within my range. As they slowly feed my direction, I get my bow ready, start planning how I will place my feet, and start preparing myself in case a shot presents itself so I can remain as calm as possible.
The doe finally comes through the gate, and is heading towards me. She crosses under me at about 20 yards. This is perfect! If he will just follow her, I will wait until he gets by me and shoot him with a quartering away shot. Well, nothing really goes as planned. He gets to the gate, and for some unknown reason, decides to sprint out into the middle of the field. This rattles me a little, but I get my rangefinder on him and laser him at 48 yards. OK, a little longer than I like, but I can make this shot. As I come to full draw, he is quartering away and taking a few steps and hops. I whistle him to stop, and he turns perfectly broadside to me to look at the source of the whistle. I guess him now to be about 58 yards, and shoot just over his back! I should have guessed him closer to 50, as their steps aren’t that long, but hindsight is 20/20. With that missed shot they ran out to about 80 yards and started blowing at me (kind of like a whitetail snorting at you), and eventually would leave the field.
A storm is brewing by this time, Dad has been picked up from his blind, and Tye comes back to get me. I am almost sick and very disgusted with myself for the miss. Dad saw several antelope today, but nothing even close to being in range. He and Mark drove around and glassed some places before the storm hit, so he got to see more of Mark’s land.
We go back to the lodge for some good food, good fellowship, and a few cold drinks before bed. And of course I have to relive my miss for Dad and Mark, and at no point did I get harassed for missing...
25 August 2008
Day 2. Well, a few too many cold drinks and we slept in a little late this morning. But still up pretty early to go chase some speedgoats. We drop Dad off in his blind and Tye and I head out in the truck to try and put a stalk on one today. We figure the railroad buck that I missed yesterday is not coming back to his crossing, plus he doesn’t show up until closer to dark, so we’ve got most of the day to look for more.
The first herd we see is out in the middle of a pasture, pretty far from a fenceline, but we sneak up to the fence in the tall grass using the decoy. The mosquitoes are horrible. There is 20 or 30 buzzing around us at all times. This is the dang prairie, where do mosquitoes come from??? There was one buck with this group of does, and he was having none of the decoy, so they run off. Oh well, next…
Lots of driving around and looking this morning. Yesterday we saw tons of antelope while driving around. Most were either on other folks land that we could not hunt, or just out in the middle of the prairie and not in a position for a stalk. Today, however, there are fewer goats around. We’re not real sure where they went, we’ll find them eventually. We take some pretty treacherous roads on Mark’s property, good thing we’re in a 4x4. Finally we spot a buck near one of the pasture roads. There is no way to stalk him, no cover, so Tye wants to see just how close we can drive past him. Turns out we can drive really close to this guy, and he just stares at us. He’s not afraid of the truck. So we drive by him again, and stop and I jump out to see if he’ll let me get a shot at him. At 57 yards, he is staring at me wondering what I’m doing. This buck is broadside, standing still. I know this is a long shot, but I have been practicing for months, and have shot hundreds of arrows at this distance and farther, I am confident in my abilities at this range. So I put my 60 yard pin on him and touch the release. As I am watching the fletchings arch straight towards the goats vitals, they drop too low. I shot right under this bucks chest, and nicked the inside of his leg below his chest. I have no excuse, I just missed. I don’t know why. I could have dropped my arm, maybe my form wasn’t perfect, but I now have wounded an antelope. I am almost sick.
This guy runs off and we follow on foot for a little bit to see where he goes. There is a little blood on his upper leg, and he is favoring it a little when he walks, but runs no problem. We watch him go to the top of a hill so he can see danger coming from all directions. There is no way we can get close, so we decide to leave him alone and go eat breakfast. We will come back and find him, hopefully watch him bed down and get a stalk on him.
At breakfast, there was absolutely no harassment for nicking the buck. None.
Dad was still seeing antelope from the blind, but nothing would come near the fence crossing. We think they must have seen us the first morning and remembered, so Dad is now coming with us to try and help get my wounded buck.We spot the buck working his way down a fenceline. The fence dips down in a draw, and I run get set up in a few trees to hopefully intercept him when he comes my way. I wait and wait, and finally see the buck on the other side of the draw than the direction he was coming towards. I am confused. He ducks under the fence and runs away, nowhere near me. I hear Tye yelling for me, so I join he and Dad for the story. The buck was making his way towards me, then decided to change directions. So Tye tried to drive him back towards me with the truck to no avail. The antelope went down into another draw, so Tye had Dad take the truck and go one way, while he ran the other way trying to keep the buck down in the draw and headed towards me. It almost worked, except antelopes are faster than guides, so the buck outran him and crossed the fence a couple hundred yards from me. I have never really heard of a bowhunting antelope drive, but I guess there’s a first time for everything.
We watch the buck and spot him again down in a small ditch. This is our best chance for a stalk, so off we go. Dad drove the truck away from us so the buck would think we were gone, and Tye and I started sneaking up the edge of the ditch. As we closed in the last few yards, I saw the top of the buck’s horns on our side of the ditch. He was coming straight up at us. Well by the time we got stopped it was too late, he saw us and bolted for the other side. I came to full draw in case he stopped, which he did, at 55 yards, but bolted again before I could get a pin on him. That was it for this guy, he had enough of us and ran and ran and ran. We searched for him for quite a while longer to no avail. We think this buck left the county. I did not want to leave this buck wounded, but it was a non-fatal hit, and we gave it a solid effort.
Dad goes back to his blind, and Tye and I drive around looking for a stalkable buck. Not much luck, so we decide to try and push the herd that Dad was seeing towards him. Tye gets out and walks behind the herd, and they actually run around him and went towards him instead of away from him. This confirms our suspicions that something has them spooked and they are not going to use the crossing near the blind.
We drive back to where the railroad buck has been hanging out in the afternoons and spot him and his does again. Same place, on the opposite side of the tracks as the blind. We are not sure if he’ll cross again, and if he does will probably be on the lookout for me in the cellar blind. So this time we construct a blind on the ground under a large cottonwood tree on the opposite side of the fence opening. I sit in the blind until dark, but the buck won’t allow his does to cross the tracks and head my direction. He knows there is danger over there, and the gig is up. So its back to the lodge for dinner and some much needed sleep.
26 August 2008
With Dad’s blind obviously not working we decide to try some new areas today. We drive around and see lots of antelope, but none in a stalkable position. We spot a very nice goat working towards the road, and dad is in the front seat, so he jumps out and crawls down into a small ditch to hide out and see if the buck will continue working his way towards Dad. Now this is a big antelope! Probably the nicest buck we saw the whole trip. The buck is working towards Dad, but also angling off, so Dad has to crawl in the ditch until he finally runs out of cover. The big buck crosses out of range and out of our lives.
We drive around a lot more, spot several antelope, and finally see one that looks stalkable in the distance. We bail out of the truck and start hoofing it. This antelope is on the other side of a hill and we are approaching so he cannot see us. When we finally get near the top of the hill and peak over, the buck is bedded too far for a shot, so all we can do is wait. This buck winds us or something, he gets nervous and circles around us and heads out without us getting anywhere near a shot opportunity.
We keep driving and find a group of 3 bucks, but can never find them in anything but wide open country. And these goats, unlike several others, do not like the truck, and will run from it.
We finally see a large group of goats with one nice buck in the mix. We decide to try and stalk them. They are near a fence line, as well as a hill, so we send dad along the fence to intercept them should they travel that way, and Tye and I circle all the way around behind them to try and sneak up from behind them. As Tye and I are stalking up, one of the does spots us, so we have to hunker down immediately and can go no further. Tye throws up the decoy, and crawls to the top of a small rise to show it to the buck. I stayed down low, so I could not see what was going on up on top of the small rise. The buck actually came into the decoy. Tye was shocked, but this buck came in 3 different times, and was as close as 30 yards to Tye. But being on the bottom of the small hill, I only caught a glimpse of his horns one time, and that’s all I saw of the buck. We cannot believe decoying actually worked, and when it did I could not see the buck to get a shot. The buck then rounded up his does and left us standing there shocked.
We are heading back towards the lodge when we spot some more goats out in some taller grass. So Tye and I hop out and try to stalk up to them. I have no idea how, but they spot us and spook off. The grass is tall and we are walking down in a small drainage, so the grass is to the top of my head. But they bust us and we head for home. Except for the small problem of Tye’s truck kept quitting on us. The fuel pump relay is overheating and shutting down. This is not good. We are in the backside of nowhere. But it finally cools down and we make it back to the lodge area and back on Mark’s property.
We drive around and look for the wounded buck, but he is nowhere to be found. We drive to see if we can spot the railroad buck, but he too is missing. In a last ditch effort we hatch a plan to set me up in a ground blind near where the railroad buck and his does had been feeding the previous two afternoons. So they drop me off, I douse myself with bug spray for the hundreds of mosquitoes, and brush myself in next to a big old cottonwood tree. After a little while of sitting something amazing happens. The antelope show up!
And not only do I see them, but they are feeding directly towards me! First it was the 3 does, then bringing up the rear I spot the buck. The does feed to within 20 yards of me and never see me. The buck is feeding about 35 yards away, and is at the worst possible side of the tree for me to get a shot. Finally the does move away and get on the opposite side of the tree from me, so they will not spot my movements. The buck is feeding from my right to my left, about 33 yards away. The tree is against my right shoulder, so I really need the buck to feed towards my left a little more so I can get a shot. As he slowly works his way into position, I clip my release on my string loop. This is going to be it, I am going to get a shot in easy range. I am on my knees and hunkered down to hide under the tall grass and brush, so as I shift my weight slightly to rise up to draw my bow, my knee slips off a small piece of log. With one hand on my bow and one hand clipped to the string, I have no way of catching myself, and I fall over a little. Well this makes enough noise to scare the buck. I immediately right myself and try to dig myself into the tree to hide, but it’s too late. When I peek around the tree the buck is 62 yards away and looking at me. I contemplate trying to draw and get a shot, but I am shook up too bad at this point, and the buck turns and trots off back to his does. This is heartbreaking. I mean seriously, who else does this happen to? Of all the things to go wrong, a little slip and game over. Oh well, it was really cool to be that close to so many antelope at once, and on the ground with them. An awesome experience.
Dad and Tye show up to get me about dark. They had driven around and tried to find a stalkable buck, and I think attempted a couple of stalks, to no avail.
We get back to the lodge for a great steak dinner and of course a retelling of my blunder. And I assure you, I got no harassment for this one!!
Dad and I have to leave in the morning, but we decide to get up early anyway and try for the last 1.5 hours of available hunting time to fill our tags.
27 August 2008
When we get up, Dad decides to keep sleeping, so Tye and I head out.
Time is very short, so we first look for the railroad buck. We spot his 3 does bedded near a small hill, so in case he is with them we fight the mosquitoes and crawl up to the top of the hill and peer over. He is nowhere to be found. We spook the does, so it is time to give up on this group. Next we look for the wounded buck, gone. We drive around for a bit looking for any stalkable buck, but see none. We are driving near the lodge looking for a buck that was seen last night by Mark and spot his 2 does down in a ditch just a few hundred yards from the lodge. We figure the buck is still with them, so I hop out of the truck and go as quietly and quickly as I can to the edge of the ditch to try and spot the buck. As I am heading towards the ditch, I see heads coming up and out. The 2 does are out and have me pegged. I drop down to my knee and knock an arrow. Antelope are very curious creatures, so they do not spook immediately, they actually start coming towards me. The does get to about 40 yards when I see the bucks horns start to rise out of the ditch. He is further back and I am hoping he will join his does to look at the strange creature holding a Mathews bow. He is not as curious, though, and at 63 yards facing me there is no shot. That is as close as I get to this guy, he turns and trots out into the middle of the pasture.
They turn, however, and start to head back down into the draw. So Tye grabs me in the truck and we drive down to the other end of the draw, for me to work my way back and try to meet them. As I am working my way up this draw I catch a glimpse of the ‘lopes, and they appear to be feeding towards me. Perfect. Unbeknownst to me, however, Ace, the camp yellow lab, also sees the antelope. And Ace wants to play. Well, as it turns out, antelope don’t like to play with big goofy yellow labs, so instead of continuing to feed towards me, they decide to run away very quickly and very far away from me… and Ace.
Well, this is it. The hunt is over now and its time to pack up and head to the airport and back to normal life. I have no complaints. I should have an antelope with my tag on it, but since my shooting abilities obviously aren’t there, nor my balance, I am going home with my tag intact. I got 2 shot opportunities on an unbelievably tough animal to bowhunt, in very very tough conditions. Dad and I got to hunt ground blinds, makeshift blinds, we tried spotting and stalking, decoying, you name it we tried it. We are leaving feeling satisfied that we gave it a very good try. We will be back, though Dad will probably bring his .270 next time, don’t have to get quite as close with that. I still want to take a goat with my bow, so I think the Mathews will make the trip with me whenever we can return.
Now I’m sitting in the airport relaxing, thinking back and trying to absorb the last few days that felt like a weeks worth of work. It was a lot of fun. We made a new friend in Mark H., Tye was a fantastic and hardworking guide just like last year. It was truly an awesome experience with my favorite hunting partner. Dad has caught his flight back to Memphis, I’m waiting to head back to DC. I think I’ll try to take a nap before my flight gets here, as this will wrap up another of Tony and John’s Big Game Adventures!
