Got this medium Antelope last week on the Oct 18 opening day south of Cypress Hills Alberta.
I had hopes for taking a bigger animal but changed my plans after coming to the realization my knees most likely would not hold up to 10, 12 mile walks for a few days in a row.
I got down there Sunday afternoon the day before the season opened and spent the night in the truck.
I walked out into the prairie a couple hours before sunrise to the top of a big hill two miles away and waited for the sun to come up. Spent a couple hours glassing around then moved off to a drainage another 3 miles away.
When I arrived at the drainage I spotted two bucks a mile away slowly angling toward me as they walked and ate sage. The wind and terrain was perfect for me to intercept them and I knew I would probably be able to take one, but did I want them. I could see they were just average.
5 miles from the truck, another ½ mile to intercept them, 5-½ mile hump to get his boned carcass back to the truck. The hell with it, I’m here, there they are, take one and be done with it.
The shot was easy, 145 yards, the two of them looked like twins so the choice was easy too. Either one of them. I hesitated a bit, do I really want one these guys, I have all week. Boom, the indecisiveness was over.
After the shot I sat up and was looking around and I see 5 antelope on the side of a hill a long ways off. Maybe a mile and a half. I took a look at them through my spotting scope, 4 does and a real nice buck looking at me. I took my hat off and waved at them, the buck came a 100 yards closer. Cool.
I got an 11x17 satellite map out of my pocket and waved the white backside of the paper at him and closer he comes. By laying down in the grass and waving that paper around, then sitting up, laying down, I got him within 200 yards of me.
A very nice buck, much nicer than the one I had laying in the grass. What’s done is done, enough of playing with this big fella, I’ve got work to do. I got back to the truck at 10:30 pm with all his boned out body parts and mine intact. It was a good day.
Camp
Tough to sneak up on things out in the grassland, if you want to stay hidden you have to take the long, long way around
This is that nice buck that came in to investigate me, they certainly are curious.
My Antelope.
I had hopes for taking a bigger animal but changed my plans after coming to the realization my knees most likely would not hold up to 10, 12 mile walks for a few days in a row.
I got down there Sunday afternoon the day before the season opened and spent the night in the truck.
I walked out into the prairie a couple hours before sunrise to the top of a big hill two miles away and waited for the sun to come up. Spent a couple hours glassing around then moved off to a drainage another 3 miles away.
When I arrived at the drainage I spotted two bucks a mile away slowly angling toward me as they walked and ate sage. The wind and terrain was perfect for me to intercept them and I knew I would probably be able to take one, but did I want them. I could see they were just average.
5 miles from the truck, another ½ mile to intercept them, 5-½ mile hump to get his boned carcass back to the truck. The hell with it, I’m here, there they are, take one and be done with it.
The shot was easy, 145 yards, the two of them looked like twins so the choice was easy too. Either one of them. I hesitated a bit, do I really want one these guys, I have all week. Boom, the indecisiveness was over.
After the shot I sat up and was looking around and I see 5 antelope on the side of a hill a long ways off. Maybe a mile and a half. I took a look at them through my spotting scope, 4 does and a real nice buck looking at me. I took my hat off and waved at them, the buck came a 100 yards closer. Cool.
I got an 11x17 satellite map out of my pocket and waved the white backside of the paper at him and closer he comes. By laying down in the grass and waving that paper around, then sitting up, laying down, I got him within 200 yards of me.
A very nice buck, much nicer than the one I had laying in the grass. What’s done is done, enough of playing with this big fella, I’ve got work to do. I got back to the truck at 10:30 pm with all his boned out body parts and mine intact. It was a good day.
Camp
Tough to sneak up on things out in the grassland, if you want to stay hidden you have to take the long, long way around
This is that nice buck that came in to investigate me, they certainly are curious.
My Antelope.
