Horniac
Very Active Member
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Just got back from scouting with my son for his youth antelope tag at Gerber Reservoir.
The unit is as advertised; lots of water, lots of mosquitoes, lots of trees, and very few antelope.
We got there Saturday mid-morning so we just drove the western boundary from Bonanza to Bly. Then headed to Gerber Reservoir to get camp set-up. After learning some of the roads around Gerber we took a short hike in an area a previous hunter told me about and jumped one group of antelope out of the trees. There was one small buck with the 8 or 9 does. That was it for Saturday.
Sunday morning we made another hike in a likely area and found one small buck bedded by himself.
Drove more of the unit during the rest of the day to thunderstorms and lightning with many air to ground strikes all over the unit. The lightning strikes started several small fires. Didn't see anymore antelope until just before dark when we saw two more small bucks hitting some water. There was a pretty neat sunset as we started heading back to camp.
I knew going in that this was going to be a tough hunt for my son but I didn't know it was going to be this tough! I am not sure why they would offer a youth hunt in this unit. My son was pretty depressed after driving around for hours upon hours without any antelope sightings to show for it. I guess we are both spoiled after hunting antelope in Nevada! I now understand why the muzzleloader success rate is only 5% and the bow hunt is 10% on this hunt!
If anyone has any words of wisdom or tips on hunting this unit we would appreciate any help anyone is willing to share. PM me if you prefer. We only have a day to scout prior to the opening and a day and a half to hunt so we won't be too choosy. We intend to target the small bucks we have found unless we can locate something bigger Friday. Hopefully the bowhunters won't have them too buggered up so we can relocate one of the bucks we found if need be...
I will be happy to provide info to any of you on this site who may still have a youth hunter in the field after we are done Sunday or anyone who has a muzzy tag for this hunt. Of course if I can't relocate the few bucks we found or find a few new ones I won't be of too much help to you but I will do my best...
Good luck to all!
Horniac
The unit is as advertised; lots of water, lots of mosquitoes, lots of trees, and very few antelope.
We got there Saturday mid-morning so we just drove the western boundary from Bonanza to Bly. Then headed to Gerber Reservoir to get camp set-up. After learning some of the roads around Gerber we took a short hike in an area a previous hunter told me about and jumped one group of antelope out of the trees. There was one small buck with the 8 or 9 does. That was it for Saturday.
Sunday morning we made another hike in a likely area and found one small buck bedded by himself.
Drove more of the unit during the rest of the day to thunderstorms and lightning with many air to ground strikes all over the unit. The lightning strikes started several small fires. Didn't see anymore antelope until just before dark when we saw two more small bucks hitting some water. There was a pretty neat sunset as we started heading back to camp.
I knew going in that this was going to be a tough hunt for my son but I didn't know it was going to be this tough! I am not sure why they would offer a youth hunt in this unit. My son was pretty depressed after driving around for hours upon hours without any antelope sightings to show for it. I guess we are both spoiled after hunting antelope in Nevada! I now understand why the muzzleloader success rate is only 5% and the bow hunt is 10% on this hunt!
If anyone has any words of wisdom or tips on hunting this unit we would appreciate any help anyone is willing to share. PM me if you prefer. We only have a day to scout prior to the opening and a day and a half to hunt so we won't be too choosy. We intend to target the small bucks we have found unless we can locate something bigger Friday. Hopefully the bowhunters won't have them too buggered up so we can relocate one of the bucks we found if need be...
I will be happy to provide info to any of you on this site who may still have a youth hunter in the field after we are done Sunday or anyone who has a muzzy tag for this hunt. Of course if I can't relocate the few bucks we found or find a few new ones I won't be of too much help to you but I will do my best...
Good luck to all!
Horniac