wymoosehunter
Active Member
- Messages
- 134
My son turned 12 on Friday and I offered to let him take the day off from school to go hunting. He said that he would like to go to school and not miss his math class. He is doing awesome in school and I don't want to do anything to discourage that, but wow, I skipped a lot of school as a kid to hunt. Hopefully he keeps that up.
Because of his late birthday and not being able to hunt until the middle of the month, we looked hard for a decent antelope unit for him to hunt that stayed open late. Decent unit, but man, had those antelope been hunted hard. They were wild.
We made it a family adventure as he was with his mother when she got a nice bull elk earlier this year.
He made two stalks that just did not turn out in his favor and he really showed maturity by not taking a shot on one. Then his mother spotted a real nice buck all alone in the absolute middle of nowhere. My son made a great stalk with me, getting within 50 yards of the buck, but we could not get to a spot where he could make the shot. All we could see were its horns where it had bedded down. We waited over an hour for the buck to stand up, but to no avail. We then circled around and came in at another angle and got to 78 yards of the buck. Watching my son crawl through the prickly pear sure made my day. No complaining, just get it done.
We ended up behind the last bit of cover and put the shooting sticks up so his gun just cleared the sage bush in front of us. We waited about 20 minutes, but my son was getting nervous just watching the horns and I told him to get really ready and let me know when he was ready to shoot. I told him that I would do a coyote howl and the buck would stand up, but his window of opportunity would be short, since we were so exposed.
My son said he was ready and I howled. The buck stood up, turned broadside and before I could say shoot, the buck was down. My son was so happy and proud of his one-shot kill, that I can't say who actually was prouder, dad or son.
The buck is a stud of an antelope, 15" horns with 4 1/2" cutters. He had fought hard during the rut, he was full of scars, scabs and was missing hunks of hair, and had a big hunk of horn busted off one side and the cutter on his fight side is almost broken off. Just a little more mass and it would have made B&C. Not bad for a first antelope.
What an awesome introduction to big game hunting. He had shot a number of ducks and a pheasant last year and a sage grouse this fall, all on the fly, so he was ready for big game. Next weekend we are going deer hunting. I can't wait. Then he has a cow tag for later this season.
He and his mother are putting the meat on the table this year and I am not going to do something that I have done for almost every single year since I was my son's age, hunt elk and deer. The rest of this season is for him and we plan to make the most of it. I did draw a buffalo tag, so I will hunt, so don't feel bad for me
.
Good Luck this season,
WyMo
Because of his late birthday and not being able to hunt until the middle of the month, we looked hard for a decent antelope unit for him to hunt that stayed open late. Decent unit, but man, had those antelope been hunted hard. They were wild.
We made it a family adventure as he was with his mother when she got a nice bull elk earlier this year.
He made two stalks that just did not turn out in his favor and he really showed maturity by not taking a shot on one. Then his mother spotted a real nice buck all alone in the absolute middle of nowhere. My son made a great stalk with me, getting within 50 yards of the buck, but we could not get to a spot where he could make the shot. All we could see were its horns where it had bedded down. We waited over an hour for the buck to stand up, but to no avail. We then circled around and came in at another angle and got to 78 yards of the buck. Watching my son crawl through the prickly pear sure made my day. No complaining, just get it done.
We ended up behind the last bit of cover and put the shooting sticks up so his gun just cleared the sage bush in front of us. We waited about 20 minutes, but my son was getting nervous just watching the horns and I told him to get really ready and let me know when he was ready to shoot. I told him that I would do a coyote howl and the buck would stand up, but his window of opportunity would be short, since we were so exposed.
My son said he was ready and I howled. The buck stood up, turned broadside and before I could say shoot, the buck was down. My son was so happy and proud of his one-shot kill, that I can't say who actually was prouder, dad or son.
The buck is a stud of an antelope, 15" horns with 4 1/2" cutters. He had fought hard during the rut, he was full of scars, scabs and was missing hunks of hair, and had a big hunk of horn busted off one side and the cutter on his fight side is almost broken off. Just a little more mass and it would have made B&C. Not bad for a first antelope.
What an awesome introduction to big game hunting. He had shot a number of ducks and a pheasant last year and a sage grouse this fall, all on the fly, so he was ready for big game. Next weekend we are going deer hunting. I can't wait. Then he has a cow tag for later this season.
He and his mother are putting the meat on the table this year and I am not going to do something that I have done for almost every single year since I was my son's age, hunt elk and deer. The rest of this season is for him and we plan to make the most of it. I did draw a buffalo tag, so I will hunt, so don't feel bad for me
. Good Luck this season,
WyMo
