Every year I have applied for Antelope tag in Montana since I was in my teens growing up in eastern Montana. I usually plan to hunt with my rifle when I get the tag as antelope meat is on the top of my list even above elk.. I know blasphemy. I have shot more than I can remember but for the last couple of years I have not been lucky enough to draw a Antelope either sex tag. 2019 I applied again for a area that I am allowed to hunt them and if drawn is usually a day or 2 adventure. Patiently I waited til he last results of all Montana drawings. NOT SUCCESSFUL!
But wait.. this year Montana had extra 900-20 archery only tags in surplus. I just had to be up at 5:00 am on a Monday. to be online and grab one. So 4:45 am I wake up and get online - success. Wow, now what, I have not hunted antelope with a stick and string for close to 40 years(damn, I am old) In my early years I would dream about sitting in a make shift blind on a water hole and wait until one decides to get a drink and I would send an arrow.. I never took the opportunity to do this, as growing up we always got that 700 tag and I could always get an antelope with my rifle. I did try to spot and stock some in my teens but not successful at all. As the years pass and life happens, priority became about getting opportunities for my sons to shoot these fast prairie goats. Both of my boys have gotten nice antelope and are now out of the house and doing their things.
I have archery hunted most of my hunting life with a few exceptions, and have harvested a several deer, one elk, never an antelope. Always thought i should try, kind of became a bucket list. Archery Elk was the top of the list but got that taken of in 2015 because of great friends. you can see it here
Back to the present,
I have a 900-20 tag in my pocket and no plans. Where do I go, how should I hunt. Spot and Stalk or from a blind. Since I am AARP member and get Senior discounts now I choose sitting in a blind. I asked a friend if I could borrow his blind and was given the ok. So I set is up and started practicing. This blind was small, and I am not, so this was not working... Cabelas here i come. I now have a Cabelas XL Blind
I did not have the luxury of time to scout public land and pattern my quarry, like I wanted. So I asked, a local Farmer/Rancher if I could setup on his water hole. Permission was granted. Small caveat, his archery antelope experiences with other hunters had not gone well. One hunter hit an antelope high and back and it ran around the fall with an arrow sticking out of it. Another the hunter had a decoy, the rancher watched an antelope approach the decoy and lick it but no arrow was flung.. Asked the hunter what the $!#&? Hunter was sleeping.... So needless to say he was not impressed with archery hunters.
I was shown the best water hole next to some harvested wheat field and on last Saturday evening we dropped my blind off for me to set up Sunday morning. The plan was to sit until after lunch that day and possible come back after work during the week and the following Saturday. I was in the Blind and ready about 6:45 am - not knowing what time they would water I was prepared to sit for 5- 6 hours. 8:53 am I look up and here come 2 does and 2 fawns, the Blind is set up perfect they walk in front of it 30 yards broadside.. they come in water and leave the way they came I wonder were is the bucks? Should I have used that opportunity to harvest a antelope I asked myself. I answered myself with no if you don't have patience it won't be what you want. There is more antelope then that. So I sit some more. Around 12:00 I am getting stir crazy and wonder if i should call it a day.. I talk myself in to taking a walk around the edge of the fields to see if I can see more antelope. About a half mile in to the walk I spot a antelope buck bedded in the wheat field with about 20 does. According to OnXmaps he was about 800 yards from the water hole. He was the only buck. Knowing from OnXmaps (Randy influence plug here) that this water hole was the closest and easiest to get to I figure that I could sit it out the rest of the day for an opportunity. i texted my wife saying there is a bedded buck and I will be late for supper. Back in the Blind at 12:53, great day for sitting in a blind temps started in the 50's got into the high 60's maybe 70 degrees.
I will admit 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm there was a lot of head bobbin going on. I think I woke myself up snoring.. I thought oh great I will get a lot of grief if the antelope water and i am snoring. I started reading on my phone, texting some folks about what I am doing and reading work emails to stay awake. Still hoping that they need to water once a day...
then it starts to happen here come more does, 4 at first, then fawns. I count 8 or 9 that walk by cautiously and start to drink. I see more coming single file, they have a path in the harvested wheat. Finally I see horns. He is still several hundred yards out and I have antelope all around me. The wind is not great but does not seem to affect their desire to water.. Several does stop short about 60 yards out. They hesitate as something is not quite right. At this point I have been on my knees for 10-15 minutes waiting and waiting. I am thinking don't screw this up. It is a great opportunity, keep calm, aim small, all the things that go thru your mind. Finally the buck reached the does and pushes them onward toward the watering hole. They still have some concerns but he is persistent. He is the last one in the line. I start ranging the does. 32 yards, 38 yards, 35 yards. The buck is now walking broadside in front of the blind. I want him to get just past straight in front of me. range him 37 yards. Draw back, breath out, focus on the small spot behind the shoulder, squeeze the release ( don't jerk).
The release of the string surprised me,(meant I squeezed the release correctly) but the sound was different and I lost the flight of the arrow. What happened? I see the antelope take off running. Did I hit him. I find him in the middle of the herd and suddenly he veers off about 80 yard from where I shot at him. I see blood and I know he is hit.. How bad? He stops and just stands there for a minute I see more blood coming out but not a lot. He decides to lay down.
What happened? where did i hit him and how come I lost arrow flight... My answers. I hit the blind window. How did this affect the Flight of the arrow. How bad of a hit was it...
Since the buck is laying down only 100 yards away and looks sick, I figure I will wait him out. I look at my phone it is 3:30 pm. Fifteen minutes later his head is still up. wait some more. He tries to get up stands for a moment. then back down. He does not look very good. Not knowing how bad the shot was I did not want to push him if he was still able to run.. Wait his head fell down, now it up. Man this is excruciating!
Finally his head is down and the white belly is up. I still wait 5 more minutes.
I nocked an arrow and walk up to him. He is dead. Big sigh. Wow I just did what I dreamed about as a teenager almost 40 years later. Happy Dance ( at least in my head)
The shot was low and a little back because of the deflection but still deadly.
you can see the blind in the trees in the back ground. The Buck did not go far.
But wait.. this year Montana had extra 900-20 archery only tags in surplus. I just had to be up at 5:00 am on a Monday. to be online and grab one. So 4:45 am I wake up and get online - success. Wow, now what, I have not hunted antelope with a stick and string for close to 40 years(damn, I am old) In my early years I would dream about sitting in a make shift blind on a water hole and wait until one decides to get a drink and I would send an arrow.. I never took the opportunity to do this, as growing up we always got that 700 tag and I could always get an antelope with my rifle. I did try to spot and stock some in my teens but not successful at all. As the years pass and life happens, priority became about getting opportunities for my sons to shoot these fast prairie goats. Both of my boys have gotten nice antelope and are now out of the house and doing their things.
I have archery hunted most of my hunting life with a few exceptions, and have harvested a several deer, one elk, never an antelope. Always thought i should try, kind of became a bucket list. Archery Elk was the top of the list but got that taken of in 2015 because of great friends. you can see it here
I have a 900-20 tag in my pocket and no plans. Where do I go, how should I hunt. Spot and Stalk or from a blind. Since I am AARP member and get Senior discounts now I choose sitting in a blind. I asked a friend if I could borrow his blind and was given the ok. So I set is up and started practicing. This blind was small, and I am not, so this was not working... Cabelas here i come. I now have a Cabelas XL Blind
I did not have the luxury of time to scout public land and pattern my quarry, like I wanted. So I asked, a local Farmer/Rancher if I could setup on his water hole. Permission was granted. Small caveat, his archery antelope experiences with other hunters had not gone well. One hunter hit an antelope high and back and it ran around the fall with an arrow sticking out of it. Another the hunter had a decoy, the rancher watched an antelope approach the decoy and lick it but no arrow was flung.. Asked the hunter what the $!#&? Hunter was sleeping.... So needless to say he was not impressed with archery hunters.
I was shown the best water hole next to some harvested wheat field and on last Saturday evening we dropped my blind off for me to set up Sunday morning. The plan was to sit until after lunch that day and possible come back after work during the week and the following Saturday. I was in the Blind and ready about 6:45 am - not knowing what time they would water I was prepared to sit for 5- 6 hours. 8:53 am I look up and here come 2 does and 2 fawns, the Blind is set up perfect they walk in front of it 30 yards broadside.. they come in water and leave the way they came I wonder were is the bucks? Should I have used that opportunity to harvest a antelope I asked myself. I answered myself with no if you don't have patience it won't be what you want. There is more antelope then that. So I sit some more. Around 12:00 I am getting stir crazy and wonder if i should call it a day.. I talk myself in to taking a walk around the edge of the fields to see if I can see more antelope. About a half mile in to the walk I spot a antelope buck bedded in the wheat field with about 20 does. According to OnXmaps he was about 800 yards from the water hole. He was the only buck. Knowing from OnXmaps (Randy influence plug here) that this water hole was the closest and easiest to get to I figure that I could sit it out the rest of the day for an opportunity. i texted my wife saying there is a bedded buck and I will be late for supper. Back in the Blind at 12:53, great day for sitting in a blind temps started in the 50's got into the high 60's maybe 70 degrees.
I will admit 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm there was a lot of head bobbin going on. I think I woke myself up snoring.. I thought oh great I will get a lot of grief if the antelope water and i am snoring. I started reading on my phone, texting some folks about what I am doing and reading work emails to stay awake. Still hoping that they need to water once a day...
then it starts to happen here come more does, 4 at first, then fawns. I count 8 or 9 that walk by cautiously and start to drink. I see more coming single file, they have a path in the harvested wheat. Finally I see horns. He is still several hundred yards out and I have antelope all around me. The wind is not great but does not seem to affect their desire to water.. Several does stop short about 60 yards out. They hesitate as something is not quite right. At this point I have been on my knees for 10-15 minutes waiting and waiting. I am thinking don't screw this up. It is a great opportunity, keep calm, aim small, all the things that go thru your mind. Finally the buck reached the does and pushes them onward toward the watering hole. They still have some concerns but he is persistent. He is the last one in the line. I start ranging the does. 32 yards, 38 yards, 35 yards. The buck is now walking broadside in front of the blind. I want him to get just past straight in front of me. range him 37 yards. Draw back, breath out, focus on the small spot behind the shoulder, squeeze the release ( don't jerk).
The release of the string surprised me,(meant I squeezed the release correctly) but the sound was different and I lost the flight of the arrow. What happened? I see the antelope take off running. Did I hit him. I find him in the middle of the herd and suddenly he veers off about 80 yard from where I shot at him. I see blood and I know he is hit.. How bad? He stops and just stands there for a minute I see more blood coming out but not a lot. He decides to lay down.
What happened? where did i hit him and how come I lost arrow flight... My answers. I hit the blind window. How did this affect the Flight of the arrow. How bad of a hit was it...
Since the buck is laying down only 100 yards away and looks sick, I figure I will wait him out. I look at my phone it is 3:30 pm. Fifteen minutes later his head is still up. wait some more. He tries to get up stands for a moment. then back down. He does not look very good. Not knowing how bad the shot was I did not want to push him if he was still able to run.. Wait his head fell down, now it up. Man this is excruciating!
Finally his head is down and the white belly is up. I still wait 5 more minutes.
I nocked an arrow and walk up to him. He is dead. Big sigh. Wow I just did what I dreamed about as a teenager almost 40 years later. Happy Dance ( at least in my head)
The shot was low and a little back because of the deflection but still deadly.
you can see the blind in the trees in the back ground. The Buck did not go far.
