It's that time of year again-hunting season. And our 1st hunt of the season begins with my Father-in-law, David's Antelope Hunt. Because Travis is still in school and David just started a new job, we could only go up for the weekend. We headed out late Friday afternoon, arrived at our campsite and pitched the tent in the dark. The weather was nice that evening, in the 70's, but definitely not cool enough to sleep in. So that meant the temperatures reached the upper 90's during the day. Not my favorite type of camping, but it was better than last year's deer hunt in a blizzard!
We started early the next morning in search of the big buck. Right outside of the campground we spotted our first group of antelope, and that was how it went the rest of the hunt-antelope everywhere. The thing with antelope is they can see very far distances and they run extremely fast. They hang out in the flats with trees spaced out very far apart which gives us no where to hide from them. So they usually see you before you see them and then if you do see them first and try to stalk up on them, once they know you're there, they're gone. This happened to us so many times!
That morning we found a nice size buck a couple of hours into the hunt. He was a couple miles off the main road, so we decided to take a dirt road to get closer to him. We dropped David off to have him stalk up on him while Trav and I kept driving in the truck. Well that didn't fool the antelope and off he went. So Trav and I went the other way in the truck to try and head him off to no avail. As we were turning around, a game warden (the police officers in the hunting world) pulled us over for a nice long chat. He was full of information and didn't even check the truck or our information or anything. We learned about another area to look for antelope and all sorts of babble about antelope. Once he was finally finished, we picked David up and off we went to the new area.
We took a dirt road that looked promising but ended at a herd of sheep that thought we had their breakfast for them or something. Can I just say sheep are UGLY! As we were turning around, a Hispanic ranch hand pulled up. David tried to ask him where another road was that would take us to the middle of the flats, but of course he only spoke Spanish. Travis insisted I talk to him in Spanish, and as usual, when a blond girl can speak Spanish they're willing to tell you everything. He explained to us exactly where a good road was and how to get there and we learned how to say antelope in Spanish: on-teh-low-pay. :) Too funny.
The rest of the day was spent searching for the big one and checking out the rest of the area. We did stop for breakfast burrito brunch but couldn't take a nap because the tent was so hot the thermometer couldn't get a reading. We ran into a few horses that were super friendly and took some silly pictures with them.
That evening was our first stalk on a group next to a ranch behind a berm. We were able to pull over without the antelope seeing us, walk up on them and jump a couple of barbed wire fences without them seeing us, and then crawl up the berm to peek through the shrubs to check them out. There were 13- all does and fawns, and 1 buck. The buck turned out to be mediocre so Travis convinced David to hold out for the next day until we found "the one". At least the stalk was all sneaky and fun. I take on the role as the camera lady once the stalk starts, while Travis and David determine all the right moves and places to be and where to shoot, etc. etc.
On we went and finally we ended up spotting 'the big one' (THE on-teh-low-peh) all by himself in a patch of trees that we wouldn't have guessed he would've been in. Of course he spotted us and took off so the rest of the night was spent trying to figure out where he went. We didn't see him again that night but now we had our buck to get the next day.
The next morning was filled with smokey skies from the Utah and California fires; we almost thought the fires were nearby because we could smell the smoke. But that wasn't stopping us and we began the shooting escapade. We found so many bucks that day and shot at so many, but with the wind and the long shots they were, David had a hard time connecting. The first buck we went after was the big buck from the night before. David took a long shot, but it was seriously a long shot.
Next we crossed back over the main road and stalked up on another group through a small patch of trees. They of course knew we were there and took off before David could even attempt to try and get one. We kept driving around the area and spotted a nice buck on a ridge which we possibly could have taken, but the set up was all too fast. David tried to shoot him from the truck door, but with it moving in the wind so much, he didn't connect. We took off after the buck and ran into the original group which we chased around for awhile until they were far out of site.
Now for the big story of the trip. We headed back to the area where we spotted the big buck (aka: on-teh-low-peh). Travis spotted a group through a small separation in the trees and off we went. Because there are more trees in this area, there were more places to hide. Travis and David were walking together to try and find them while I followed behind with the camera. We got to a clearing and Travis and I went one way and the David the other. Just as we got to the edge, a buck and 3 does ran behind David and almost behind us back the way we came from. We radio for David to start heading back. He decided to take the western edge and we snuck up the middle behind trees. The group had headed back to the watering hole and we were far enough behind and well hidden by the trees to keep following them until David was in position. This is my favorite part about the hunt-being all sneaky. :) We kept up on them wondering where and when David would reach us when all of a sudden we hear a shot go off and the 4 antelopes start heading our way. I happened to be moving between 2 trees so I dropped to the ground and hoped to appear as a bush or something. Just then, the buck comes into my view and starts walking very slowly right towards me! I mean directly towards me in a straight path, so much so that I thought it was going to charge me or something! So I flinched and he deviated to my right and passed by the tree Travis was hiding next to. I was seriously within 30ft of the animal. It was amazing! Antelope are so gorgeous. Anyway, as the buck turned to head toward my right I saw that he was hit and bleeding. So Travis and I had to keep on his tail and not be spotted until David could catch up to us with the gun to finish him off. The antelope could tell something had happened but was not wobbling or anything. After awhile it seemed like he was more concerned with finding his does then he was with his wound. Because the trees were getting thicker, I lost track of him and then all of a sudden I hear another shot. David had caught up to Travis and tried to finish him off. This second shot was too far away though and he missed. I had a partial view of the does and saw them go right and then left but never saw the buck again. I spotted the does off in the distance later, but no buck. We hiked all over the clearing but no sign of blood or the buck anywhere. While Travis hiked back to the truck I walked all over in the heat of the noon sun trying to find the buck and was sad that after such an exciting stalk that we let a wounded antelope get away. We think the hit was just on the skin, like a road rash or something, and that the buck would be fine, but I was still bummed about it. We drove all around and spotted a few more antelope but could never get close enough to figure out if it was the wounded one or not. We had to call it a day because it was getting late and we had to head home.
So although the story ends on a sad note, the hunt was the most action-packed, exciting, and most game-filled hunt I'd ever been on. I definitely recommend the antelope hunt to amateurs and life-long hunters alike.
