- Details
- Category: Antelope
- Published: Tuesday, 29 September 2009 19:23
- Written by Greg
Antelope Hunting
This year my son Dallas and I were lucky enough to draw antelope tags in Wyoming! We drew a tag for an under subscribed area that we chose as our 2nd choice and gained one antelope preference point in the process.
Since we only have a couple of antelope preference points, we didn’t expect to draw a tag for our 1st choice area, but we had our fingers crossed that we would draw a tag for somewhere in Wyoming. When we found out that we drew a tag near Laramie Wyoming, we knew that we’d have major scheduling difficulties due to the fact that we live over 400 miles away from Laramie and high school football would be in full swing.
As opening day approached, we had everything all packed and ready to go. With a football game scheduled for Friday night and a mandatory Saturday morning football game film review on tap, we knew we’d be lucky to arrive at our final hunting destination before dusk of the opening day.
Late Saturday morning we left Utah, headed for Laramie Wyoming. We made good time and did arrive about an hour and a half before dark. With our BLM maps in hand, we set off to get a lay of the land. The area we’d be hunting was relatively small, a hunter management area that was about 20 square miles. I hadn’t realized just how small the area was until we got there and saw the barren ground that stretched on for miles in all directions. How on earth would we happen to see an antelope on this heavily hunted land when the antelope could easily run a couple of miles in any direction and be safe from all hunting pressure? That is exactly what I asked the Wyoming Game and Fish guy that we saw within our first 10 minutes of arrival. He said that the antelope do cross the area and that earlier this morning before all the shooting started, there were a good number of antelope in the area. He did say that the antelope get wise in a hurry and move off the HMA property, but about mid-week the area should quiet down and the antelope will be less skittish and move back in. Hmm, we have less than 24 hours to hunt before we have to head back to Utah.
We continued our scouting quest. Not more than 400 yards from the Game and Fish guy, we had 6 antelope run right across the road in front of us! All of the antelope were does, but that was a good sign. Soon it was dark, so we found a place to camp for the night. Since we weren’t allowed to camp on HMA property, we found the only patch of BLM ground that was near by. However, the ground was pure rock and the wind was blowing 20 – 25 miles per hour, so setting up a tent was out of the question. We decided to sleep under the stars in the back of the pickup truck. At 1:00 am, the thunder, lightning and rain where more than we could handle. We both scrambled into the cab of the truck and slept the best that we could in the cramped quarters, until 6:00 a.m.
At 6:20 a.m. we were dressed, fired up the truck and headed back to the HMA property. Our plan was to drive the dirt roads and spot for animals out across the prairie. Around 7:00 a.m. we drove along a dirt road that topped out and the head of a long draw. We parked and started spotting. Within a minute, we spotted some antelope about 800 yards away. Since it was lightly raining we weren’t able to put horns on any of them at this distance, so we decided to make our way a little closer on foot. The wind was in our favor, blowing straight toward us at 10 – 15 miles per hour! We dropped down into the draw, concealed from sight and had made our way about 200 yards, when we inched up over the rise to take another look. There they were, 8 antelope staring directly toward us. Within seconds, they whirled and were on a dead run directly away from us. Wow, the antelope were skittish! If that wasn’t bad enough, within another minute, the light rain turned into a down pour! We were totally soaked before we could make our way back to the truck!
At this point, it was raining so hard we couldn’t see to use our spotting scopes/binoculars, so we decided to take a drive. At 8:00 a.m. we were on the border of the HMA and private ground. There on the other side of the road on private ground was a nice big buck antelope! He didn’t appear to be nervous at all. We kept driving right on past the antelope and stopped several hundred yards down the road to look back and see what the antelope would do. By now, it had stopped raining, so we could easily see him through our binoculars. Would he make his way across the road to HMA property where he would be fair game? To our surprise…not…the big buck slowly walked directly away from the public access land out across the private prairie that literally stretched out for as far as the eye could see. After he has a half a mile away, we decided to head back from the direction we had come.
Not more than 5 minutes later, we were driving down the dirt road when Dallas spotted 2 antelope running directly toward us! One of them was a buck! We both watch them approach and cross the road 50 yards in front of us. It wasn’t until the buck had passed and was 75 yards away that Dallas said “dad, I want to shoot him”! Hmm, I guess that makes sense. He wasn’t the biggest buck in the world, but he was the first buck we’d seen on huntable property. Before we could even blink, the buck and doe had disappeared over a gentle rise. We decided to head up the road a few hundred yards to see if we could intercept their path. A couple of hundred yards later, we stopped, got out of the truck and walked along slight depression. Not more than a couple of hundred yards later, the antelope appeared 200 yards in front of us. Dallas pulled up the .270 and dropped the buck in his tracks! Wow, we had an antelope! Our first antelope!
We field dressed and tagged the antelope, hopped back into the truck and headed down the road. We hadn’t gone a mile when we saw some guys 1000 yards ahead of us, on the side of the road doing something. We glassed the hunters and it looked like they were field dressing an antelope of their own. We kept glassing and that is when we spotted 8 antelope a few hundred yards from them, heading in our direction. They were a couple of hundred yards off the road, but were paralleling the road.
Quickly, we flipped the truck around and back-tracked several hundred yards to a dirt road that ran perpendicular to the main road. This side road ran up a draw, which would conceal our presence until “go” time. We reached the side road and put the petal to the metal. A couple of minutes later, we were out of the truck and positioned well…we’d hoped.
The antelope popped up over the hill on a dead run! The back one was a buck! “Wow, it’s smaller than the buck you shot, if that is possible”, I said to Dallas! We didn’t care, we were here for the outing and to get some antelope meat and there it was running full bore 150 yards away. They didn’t appear to have any intention of stopping, so I pulled up the .270, led him by a few inches and fired off a shot. Missed, couldn’t tell where I hit. I quickly chambered another round. Same thing, missed. The antelope now were up ahead of us and dropping down into the draw. We quickly scrambled 30 yards toward a new location. To our surprise, the antelope had crossed the draw and were now quartering toward us along a small side hill. Just before the antelope reached the top of the small hill, the lead doe slowed, with the rest of the herd following suit. There wasn’t much time…this would have to be an off-handed shot. I put the cross-hairs of the .270 on his shoulder and shot. Dallas shouted, “you hit just a hair above him”. I chambered my last round. Luckily the buck stopped, completely. This time my shot placement was perfect, my first antelope!
