406LIFE
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2016
- Messages
- 3,129
After not drawing in MT, I had to get up early to try and get one of 10 leftover tags in the state. I hadn't hunted the area before and it was almost all private land. I spent a couple of hours scouting the night before and saw nothing.
I got up the next morning and saw this small group and blew my first stalk as I stepped out if the truck. They knew when the season opened.
The rest of the morning and afternoon I did some more looking and the #antelope I found were all inaccessible.
I went back to this small chunk of state land and saw a couple of does filtering in with the buck raking sage nearby. Moving wide behind them, I kept the wind in my fav or and the sun behind me. About 1000 prairie dogs sounded my presence. Using the small hills, I was able to get close, too close. As I peered over the hill they were 40 yards and a for caught me. She wasn't sure what I was but took the herd about 400 yards off. They went back to feeling and I backed out.
I used a small draw to get to about 800 yards of them, then had to low crawl and half crawl about 500. They were feeding away and to the right. I setup my triggersticks, and used my sling to steady my reticle. I didn't have a range on them, but knew they were under a distance I needed to adjust for. I waited for the buck to fall in line and follow the does, and when he did I breathed and squeezed. The packout was an easy one mile on my Mysteryranch Metcalf.
Tremendously happy with this bonusbuck and with every opportunity to hunt antelope. Never pass on a chance to hunt a tag you didn't expect in country you've never been.
I got up the next morning and saw this small group and blew my first stalk as I stepped out if the truck. They knew when the season opened.
The rest of the morning and afternoon I did some more looking and the #antelope I found were all inaccessible.
I went back to this small chunk of state land and saw a couple of does filtering in with the buck raking sage nearby. Moving wide behind them, I kept the wind in my fav or and the sun behind me. About 1000 prairie dogs sounded my presence. Using the small hills, I was able to get close, too close. As I peered over the hill they were 40 yards and a for caught me. She wasn't sure what I was but took the herd about 400 yards off. They went back to feeling and I backed out.
I used a small draw to get to about 800 yards of them, then had to low crawl and half crawl about 500. They were feeding away and to the right. I setup my triggersticks, and used my sling to steady my reticle. I didn't have a range on them, but knew they were under a distance I needed to adjust for. I waited for the buck to fall in line and follow the does, and when he did I breathed and squeezed. The packout was an easy one mile on my Mysteryranch Metcalf.
Tremendously happy with this bonusbuck and with every opportunity to hunt antelope. Never pass on a chance to hunt a tag you didn't expect in country you've never been.
