BackofBeyond
Well-known member
Had a successful ID unlimited archery antelope weekend, but not necessarily the success we were going for...
To start out, my hunting partner (I'll call him Dannie, because that his name) and I spent two weekends in our area scouting speed goats, the second setting up blinds on water holes closest to where we were seeing the majority of the antelope. It basically lays out they are concentrated on a very large bench with water on the north/south side that are on the public, and a third water hole to the west on private. Cool. Plan was to set up blinds and hunt the two accessible water holes.
First morning, no antelope, but this guy and his 8 cows came down the ridge straight away from me, hung up about 100 yards, cows were skeptical of the blind, he just bugled, pee'd on himself, and left. Of course, the elk tag here is a draw tag.
Fun to see, definitely got the heart rate up, but not what tag I had in my pocket. After he left, rancher Bob showed up and decided this weekend was the best time to fix the fences around his grazing lease and maintain the water trough, so after words were exchanged - none of which are appreciated by Mrs. Fin, I abandoned that water hole. Dannie wasn't seeing any movement at his water hole either, so we switched tactics to spot and stalk.
We spent that afternoon and the next morning hitting our heads against the wall trying to spot and stalk. Finding them wasn't hard, stalking them wasn't necessarily hard either - closing that last little bit from 90 to 45 yards was incredibly difficult. Come to find out, the reason they were living on that big bench was that the wind is constantly switching. Just when we think it's a constant northeast wind, plan a stalk accordingly, get close enough that I was shucking off my boots etc to close the last little bit of distance the wind would switch and off go the speed goats.
Sunday around lunch time we see a group heading towards water hole #2 (where Dannie had sat and his blind was still up) but he was over sitting water, so I snuck into the blind before they could get there. I sat there for 6 hours with no action until right around 7:15 I hear a rattle from the fence behind me, and a spike muley steps out staring at the blind. Now general deer tags are open in the unit, with the 2-point or less requirement. I start thinking - hey, meat in the freezer is good. The spike starts coming in, and there's another rattle at the fence and a 2 point comes in. The spike got hung up on some green grass below the water hole, but the 2 point makes a bee-line for a drink. I double check, spike's head is behind some sage, 2 point's eyes are on the water and away from me, so I come to full draw. Just as I settled into my anchor there was another rattle at the fence and I see a very nice 4-point step into view. No go for the big one (that's twice now,) I settled my 30 pin on the 2-point and away we go. Shot broke clean, he jumped the string a bit, but my arrow still landed in the boiler maker, just a bit higher. He jumped, spun 180 in the air, landed, jumped the fence, and made it another 50 yards before stopping and tipping over out in the sage. The spike and the 4-point are still standing there wondering WTF just happened.
I gave it a total of 10 minutes before I was up and out of the blind, spike and 4-point scatter the way they came, then stop. I saw another 4-point just as big, if not bigger than the one that came to water, plus a couple more spikes/2-points hanging out just out of view from within the blind. The whole bachelor group scatters, and I'm left to get this guy cleaned up and in the cooler.
It may not be a huge trophy to most, but it's my first deer with my bow, so I'm just happy as hell. He's cut/wrapped and in the freezer now. Backstrap is on the menu tonight just because I'm saving the heart for next time my dad is in town.
Long story short, not exactly the success I was going for, but I'll take it!
To start out, my hunting partner (I'll call him Dannie, because that his name) and I spent two weekends in our area scouting speed goats, the second setting up blinds on water holes closest to where we were seeing the majority of the antelope. It basically lays out they are concentrated on a very large bench with water on the north/south side that are on the public, and a third water hole to the west on private. Cool. Plan was to set up blinds and hunt the two accessible water holes.
First morning, no antelope, but this guy and his 8 cows came down the ridge straight away from me, hung up about 100 yards, cows were skeptical of the blind, he just bugled, pee'd on himself, and left. Of course, the elk tag here is a draw tag.
Fun to see, definitely got the heart rate up, but not what tag I had in my pocket. After he left, rancher Bob showed up and decided this weekend was the best time to fix the fences around his grazing lease and maintain the water trough, so after words were exchanged - none of which are appreciated by Mrs. Fin, I abandoned that water hole. Dannie wasn't seeing any movement at his water hole either, so we switched tactics to spot and stalk.
We spent that afternoon and the next morning hitting our heads against the wall trying to spot and stalk. Finding them wasn't hard, stalking them wasn't necessarily hard either - closing that last little bit from 90 to 45 yards was incredibly difficult. Come to find out, the reason they were living on that big bench was that the wind is constantly switching. Just when we think it's a constant northeast wind, plan a stalk accordingly, get close enough that I was shucking off my boots etc to close the last little bit of distance the wind would switch and off go the speed goats.
Sunday around lunch time we see a group heading towards water hole #2 (where Dannie had sat and his blind was still up) but he was over sitting water, so I snuck into the blind before they could get there. I sat there for 6 hours with no action until right around 7:15 I hear a rattle from the fence behind me, and a spike muley steps out staring at the blind. Now general deer tags are open in the unit, with the 2-point or less requirement. I start thinking - hey, meat in the freezer is good. The spike starts coming in, and there's another rattle at the fence and a 2 point comes in. The spike got hung up on some green grass below the water hole, but the 2 point makes a bee-line for a drink. I double check, spike's head is behind some sage, 2 point's eyes are on the water and away from me, so I come to full draw. Just as I settled into my anchor there was another rattle at the fence and I see a very nice 4-point step into view. No go for the big one (that's twice now,) I settled my 30 pin on the 2-point and away we go. Shot broke clean, he jumped the string a bit, but my arrow still landed in the boiler maker, just a bit higher. He jumped, spun 180 in the air, landed, jumped the fence, and made it another 50 yards before stopping and tipping over out in the sage. The spike and the 4-point are still standing there wondering WTF just happened.
I gave it a total of 10 minutes before I was up and out of the blind, spike and 4-point scatter the way they came, then stop. I saw another 4-point just as big, if not bigger than the one that came to water, plus a couple more spikes/2-points hanging out just out of view from within the blind. The whole bachelor group scatters, and I'm left to get this guy cleaned up and in the cooler.
It may not be a huge trophy to most, but it's my first deer with my bow, so I'm just happy as hell. He's cut/wrapped and in the freezer now. Backstrap is on the menu tonight just because I'm saving the heart for next time my dad is in town.
Long story short, not exactly the success I was going for, but I'll take it!
