Antelope...Lets See Them!!!

Here is an archery antelope from late August this year. Arguably my favorite animal to hunt with a bow. Spot and stalk for several hours on a group of 11 bucks, one of which was a real bruiser. After crawling into position to cut off the herd feeding through a shallow gully, I waited for about 20 minutes and this buck along with two or three smaller bucks fed past me. One shot, and the tag was filled.

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MTHeifer said:
I was only able to spend a weekend hunting antelope his year. I kept hearing about how bad the drought in central Montana was, and I went in with low expectations. The first day was pretty uneventful. The only antelope I saw were running before I noticed them. On the second day, I got a tip from a rancher. There was a herd hanging out near a reservoir on the opposite side of the BMA. I hiked in and found the herd of about 15 bedded on top of a gently rounding ridge. I stalked up a coulee and relocated them.

I was only 100 yards away, but the hill's contour didn't give me any way to get a solid rest. If I stood up, I could see them (and they could see me), and when I was kneeling, they were blocked by the top of the hill. I opted to crawl closer and try to get a kneeling shot. At about 75 yards, I could see the tips of ears and horns when I was on my stomach, so I decided to try to get a shot. I switched to a kneeling position, found a buck in my scope, and flicked off the safety. Then, they bolted. They only ran about 50 yards, and they turned back to face me. Once again, their bodies were obscured by the hilltop, but I could see the buck's head and neck clearly.

I'm not proud of my shooting on this one. I aimed right at the base of the head and started to squeeze the trigger. I shot, and he dropped. He only laid on the ground for a split second before he regained his feet and took off with the rest of the herd. I figured that I had hit him in the nose or the jaw, so I kept shooting at him, hitting him twice in the stomach and once low in the hind leg. He ran to the bottom of a sandstone coulee and laid down. I was walked to 30 yards and killed him with a shot in the neck. The first shot had hit him in the base of the prong, stunning him momentarily.

Even though I made some poor shots, I'm happy with the hunt. I recovered the animal, the meat was fine (thanks gutless method), and I filled a tag in the two days I had this year. I might reconsider taking neck shots in the future based on how this one played out.

What are all of your thoughts on head and neck shots?

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Head and neck are great, stones them right away. The problem is the margin for error is too great, for my liking. I fancy myself a pretty good shot but I feel like your odds of an ethical kill with lowest amount of meat loss is to hit the lungs (assuming broadside).

***I get it, some people love the neck shot, bring on the hate mail
 
Breaks Runner said:
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Come on all you "Goat"chasers, lets look at a few!! I've been scanning a few today.....

Shot this one in 2004..
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Very nice.
 
2005 Antelope (or was it 2006) - my first - archery on a trespass fee hunt. I shot it late in the day and hung it (like a fool) in the ranchers walk in cooler - won't do that again as the meat was "off" and the ones I skinned 'post haste' were excellent

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that place was full of antelope back then. Drove through that area this past September going from Eastern Montana to Colorado and it was sad, so few of them.
 
My buddies and I drove from PA for a 3 hunt day DIY antelope hunt in SE MT back in 2019. I was hunting with a Ruger American chambered in 243 Win and had extensive practice out to 500 yards at the range, hitting the 6" metal plate with boring regularity, but was limited myself to a hunting range of 300 yards.

We stayed together that first hunt day. Saw a few antelope but they were far off and already headed away toward the private land border we were skirting. Same deal the morning of the second hunt day. Got a little intel at lunch from a local who took pity on us and we decided to split up to cover more ground for the afternoon. Figured one of us would at least get a shooting opportunity, spook some toward the others, or see some and we'd have an idea where to look the last day. Turns out we got lucky and all three things happened.

I had crawled up the backside of a small rise (being careful where I put my hands/body parts, those low spikey plants are no joke) and spotted a group of antelope a long ways off but appeared to still be on public access land. I was kneeling to keep low while glassing with my binos to see if there was a buck in the group, when a second smaller group came around the bend into the large depression slightly below me. There was was a nice buck in this group but he seemed to be staying right in the middle of the does which didn't afford me a shooting opportunity. As I watched the group get beyond my effective range a lone buck came around the bend walking well behind the the main group. He was smaller than the other buck but still respectable to my untrained eyes. I have always was been a believer that when hunting public land you take the opportunity that presents itself so I decided that if the lone buck presented me with an opportunity I was going to take him. When he passed within my effective range I sent him to the big sage field in the sky (see picture with my buck and my two buddies).

Turns out my one buddy (short sleeved and sunglasses) bumped that group which enabled my opportunity and that first group I saw stayed put so we were able to get a stalk on them the last day. My other buddy (long sleeves and sunglasses) was able to get a buck out of that group and thus fulfilled all three of the possible outcomes listed above. Unfortunately we couldn't get a third buck to cooperate but for a 3 day DIY hunt and punching 2 outta 3 tags we felt pretty good. We left with some full coolers, great memories, and don't worry we shared all the meat evenly so we each has some antelope steaks to put in the freezer.
 

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gradeAchuck said:
My buddies and I drove from PA for a 3 hunt day DIY antelope hunt in SE MT back in 2019. I was hunting with a Ruger American chambered in 243 Win and had extensive practice out to 500 yards at the range, hitting the 6" metal plate with boring regularity, but was limited myself to a hunting range of 300 yards.

We stayed together that first hunt day. Saw a few antelope but they were far off and already headed away toward the private land border we were skirting. Same deal the morning of the second hunt day. Got a little intel at lunch from a local who took pity on us and we decided to split up to cover more ground for the afternoon. Figured one of us would at least get a shooting opportunity, spook some toward the others, or see some and we'd have an idea where to look the last day. Turns out we got lucky and all three things happened.

I had crawled up the backside of a small rise (being careful where I put my hands/body parts, those low spikey plants are no joke) and spotted a group of antelope a long ways off but appeared to still be on public access land. I was kneeling to keep low while glassing with my binos to see if there was a buck in the group, when a second smaller group came around the bend into the large depression slightly below me. There was was a nice buck in this group but he seemed to be staying right in the middle of the does which didn't afford me a shooting opportunity. As I watched the group get beyond my effective range a lone buck came around the bend walking well behind the the main group. He was smaller than the other buck but still respectable to my untrained eyes. I have always was been a believer that when hunting public land you take the opportunity that presents itself so I decided that if the lone buck presented me with an opportunity I was going to take him. When he passed within my effective range I sent him to the big sage field in the sky (see picture with my buck and my two buddies).

Turns out my one buddy (short sleeved and sunglasses) bumped that group which enabled my opportunity and that first group I saw stayed put so we were able to get a stalk on them the last day. My other buddy (long sleeves and sunglasses) was able to get a buck out of that group and thus fulfilled all three of the possible outcomes listed above. Unfortunately we couldn't get a third buck to cooperate but for a 3 day DIY hunt and punching 2 outta 3 tags we felt pretty good. We left with some full coolers, great memories, and don't worry we shared all the meat evenly so we each has some antelope steaks to put in the freezer.
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Good story, thanks for sharing!
 
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