Another good antelope hunt!

Friday, I had the day off so we decided to head out and see if I could fill one of my permits. About noon we found a nice herd of antelope. At first they were bedded down about 400 yards off of a brush line so it was a perfect opportunity. Unfortunately, as I got down and started to crawl a guy stopped on the road and shot at one. Clint and I were fairly cranky cause it's illegal to shoot off the road and he didn't have permission to hunt this piece. Clint stopped him and talked to him, but the guy was clueless and although he apologized he had the classic "It doesn't really matter, it's just antelope" attitude that give all of us hunters a bad name.

Luckily, the critters hadn't moved completely off of the piece of land so Clint drove me down and dropped me off at the other end so that I could crawl out and see if I could get a shot.

Well, to make a long story short, the goats turned and started heading the other direction so it ended up being a REALLY long belly crawl. Belly crawling may not seem like hard work, but when you are doing it with a gun, rangefinder, binoculars, and shooting sticks it is complicated and quite the workout for your shoulders and chest. Anyway, after about an hour and a half, I finally got close enough after to where I figured it was probably about 250-300 yards (I couldn't get a range with the rangefinder cause I was laying flat and the landscape is flat so it makes it really tough, it ended up being about 300-350 yards) By this time they had spotted me and kind of banded together and were milling around trying to decide what to do. Luckily, antelope are curious and when you are laying on the ground they don't necessarily think that you are a hunter. If you sit or stand then they will turn and run. Finally, I was able to pick a doe and determined where to hold with the distance and crosswind and everything came together beautifully.

My awesome hubby was hanging out with Dane this whole time cause it's too hard to do a long crawl with him on your back. Once the doe was down, they hiked out with the meat pack and other gear so we could get her field dressed and packed out.

As soon as Clint and Dane got to the antelope, Dane wanted to go right up and check it out!


After Dane had pet her and poked her, he decided to put wheat stubble on her head. (I don't know if you can see it but he was picking the stubble and then covering her head with it...)

Although Clint offered several times, I insisted on packing her out myself.

It was a great hunt and although I wish Clint had been right beside me to share the moment, we have many more opportunities this fall and I was happy to harvest a beautiful doe.

Now, the trick is to get the two critters cut up and I plan on starting as soon as I get Dane dropped off at daycare!