Opening morning Antelope

MuleySniper

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LAST EDITED ON Aug-23-14 AT 10:23AM (MST)[p]Had an amazing hunt and was able to share it with my dad in Nevada. We drove 14 hours from our homes in Washington and made it to the south end of my unit at around 2 am. Slept a couple hours and headed out a half hour before daylight to have a look around. After spending the majority of the day not seeing the quantities of antelope we were expecting my hopes were still high after spotting a couple quality goats. Later that day we ran into a local archery hunter he tipped me off on an area he had seen some nice goats. Using the gps with the Nevada hunt chip we found ourself in our own little oasis surrounded by numerous amounts of antelope. That night we glassed up a buck I was interested in as a potential opening morning shooter. Only problem was he was surrounded my 17 does and spent his time in the wide open hillside where he had a perfect vantage point of his surroundings. We continued to look around but I had that buck pegged in my memory bank. After looking over 5 or 6 other bucks in the area we had found one other potential shooter. That night it rained with thunder and lightning all night. I was hoping it would all pass by morning and when we were finally out of the tent things had cleared. We snuck out from our camp and were instantly hunting, spotting groups of antelope right away. We made our way to our planned glassing point and set up. Right away my dad found the herd way out on the same ridge close to where they were the night before. After picking apart the surrounding areas we decided we would start the sneak. Before too long we had made it within 500 yards. I wanted to close the gap a little further so we backed out and made our way around to a different group of sage we hoped would gain us a little ground. After crawling on our hands and knees through waste deep sage we made it to the last bush that offered any cover from the 36 eyeballs that were looking our way. I layed my pack down and pulled out the range finder. Read the bedded buck at 400 yards. Confident in my shooting ability and hand loads I set up for the shot. Expecting to wait hours for him to stand surprisingly only after about ten minutes and just enough time for my buck fever to settle he stood broadside. BOOM! My dad jumped surprised I shot so quick. I watched through my scope as he buckled. He made just a short journey to the top of the ridge when my dad said he saw him drop. Sigh of relief and some high fives we regathered and made the walk over to him. Admired him for a moment, took some pics then went to work. Packed him out a mile and a half to camp and were back on the road headed home by the early afternoon. It was a great hunt, had lots of fun and was able to have my dad along to enjoy it with me.
97242014antelope.jpg
 
Congratulations! And thanks for the great write-up. I head out next weekend with my father-in-law and my son (10 - his first time hunting with us) and hope to find an Antelope. What area were you hunting?
 
Thanks guys. Yeah his extras are cool, don't see that a lot on speedgoats. I misjudged his height a little, my dad and I both thought he was taller. He looked real tall from a mile away through the spotter. They are tricky to judge but by now I have a feeling a 17"er would be fairly easy to notice by comparison.... Ive only hunted antelope a few times and since they do not exist where I live I don't have a lot of experience field judging them. I know he was heavier than other maybe taller bucks I could have had a chance at but he offered a good challenge being the only buck with as many does as he had so the stalk alone was pretty rewarding. Forepaw the camo I am wearing is Kuio Vias. Ive had it three seasons now and it is the best gear I have ever worn. Warm when it needs to be and plenty breathable when it heats up. Fits nice and is very comfortable. My tag was for areas 061 062 064 071 and 073.
MS
 
Thanks for info, I will check it out. Very nice buck. It will make a great mount, especially if you are able have it side by side with one from WA, WY,or OR, or another NV buck for that matter!

forepaw
 
LAST EDITED ON Aug-24-14 AT 08:16AM (MST)[p]Sounds like they were acting the same as they did when I had that tag two years ago. Nice buck love the character.

Just curious did you notice smaller bucks running solo? That was my experience smaller bucks alone and the one good one I saw had a group of does.
 
Yeah the majority of the smaller bucks were in bachelor groups or running single. Saw a handful of single or paired does running around. The other buck I was considering shooting had five does with him.
 
Nice job ms! And with yer pops that's awesome! I agree those 17" 95pt goats gotta make yer eyes pop when u see em!
 

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