LAST EDITED ON Aug-21-12 AT 10:57PM (MST)[p]
LAST EDITED ON Aug-21-12 AT 10:48?PM (MST)
>That's awesome, Congrats! Let's hear he
>story.
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http://andymansavage.blogspot.com/
We started scouting in July but we didnt see
very many antelope but there were some pretty big ones hanging around so I was still optimistic. However, with how dry its been all the water sources on the public land started drying up one by one until there wasn't even a decent antelope to be found on the part of the unit I was going to hunt. They had all moved on to private land. So two weeks before the hunt I really had no clue what I was going to do. I had looked at another area in the unit on a map and on Google earth and saw what appeared to be a water source. So in a last ditch effort to save my hunt I drove out to this area where I thought there was a water source. I drove around quite a bit and saw maybe five antelope total. Granted, a couple of them were worthy of my arrow but still five antelope in a large area isn't very encouraging. I got lucky enough to notice a fairly worn game trail off the side of the road while I was driving around and I hopped out and followed it. I walked up on a giant water hole probably twenty five yards across. It didn't have a huge amount of antelope sign but I knew those bucks I had seen had to have been using this water source because of how dry the area is. So I set up my blind and drove home.
The week before the hunt me and my dad drove back to check and make sure my blind hadn't become a tumble weed and to see if there were any more bucks that had moved into the area. Funny enough this time I only saw three antelope total and one of them was fairly decent ( I actually think the decent buck we saw is the one I ended up killing). Needless to say my dad seemed a little on the negative side about the area and that didn't comfort me much but it was the best shot I had. The reason hunting water was such a big deal is I only had really the first Saturday and Sunday of the hunt because the following Monday college started up again ( I'm an engineering student so there is no slacking off even on the first week of school). So the hunt was rapidly approaching and I didn't have much time to hunt and my area didn't look real good. Needless to say I felt like my chances were not very good of having a successful hunt.
So the night of the hunt arrives and we get out to where I'm going to hunt and we glass up a nice buck using the water with a few other antelope so that was encouraging. Then I decided to take a couple practice shots at my target and my bow was shooting a foot high. So after tinkering with my sight it gets sighted back in.
The next morning I got to the blind early and start the waiting game. My dad and one of my good friends were on a ridge above me doing some glassing to see if any antelope were in the area. Well while I'm waiting I decide to take a practice shot at a bank just to make sure that my bow is good( its a little unnerving to have to tinker with your bow the night before the hunt so I was double checking). This time my bow was like 2 feet low. So I am losing my mind. I called my dad and he came and picked me up. I get up to camp and realize what had happened was part of my rest had rattled loose on the drive in. So I look for my tools to fix my bow and..... well they were in my pack in the blind. So I decide to go and try and fix my bow in the blind and set up again. I returned to my blind and started tinkering with my bow and got it back to where I thought it should be and took a practice shot at the same bank. This time it looked like it was back to normal....... Now after all that having confidence in my shot was a little tough but I just told myself If I got a shot to put the pin right where I would if my bow was tuned.
About and hour went by and I text my dad and he and my buddy had not even seen one antelope all morning. We were all thinking we were in for the long hall when all of the sudden out of the corner of my eye I saw movement. It was a buck moving towards the water. I saw how high above his ears his curls were and there was no question of whether or not to take him. I drew my bow settled the pin and let the arrow fly. It was a 25 yards shot so I heard the hit very distinctly and instantly saw blood right in the pocket where I aimed. He ran 80 yards, teetered over and died in less than one minute. This was more than I could have hope for given my circumstances. I called my dad and he and my buddy about broke my truck driving down to see the buck. I shot him with a rage two blade and he died super quick.My arrow even passed through and flew another twenty yards and dug into the mud .However even on an antelope both blades had bent a fair amount. I liked how fast he died but I wouldn't recommend those heads for much more than antelope. So there you have it, an Eastman bow hunting journal length account of my antelope hunt.
