The quick and the dead

[Duck-Slayer]

Another great adventure from the Antelope family. Some of you know that my daughter was in a really bad horse accident in September of 2023. She cracked some vertebrae and busted up her knee. After 3 months in a upper body brace and a knee scope, she was about back to normal, (Training Horses) grrrr.... not much you can do to tell a 16 year old junior trainer that she can't do something ha ha.... So my disgust for horse's worsened after last year.
To the Antelope story, so since she was hurt for her hunt last year and couldn't walk, Idaho fish and game being awesome reissued her, her tag for this fall. So between her bf homecoming night football game and dance I was able to notch out a couple of days for this hunt and take her.
Matt

 

[Duck-Slayer]

Our luxurious camp ️
Matt

 

[RunNGunSC]

Glad she’s better, following

 

[WNC2500]

Good luck. Following along

 

[Duck-Slayer]

We were set up and back in the truck about 1pm. I wanted to drive around the area and take inventory on the size of bucks and get 1-3 bucks found as potential shooters. We found 2 that made the list a typical heart shaped buck and another that was massive and big prongs, was only 13” or so tall though. We also got to see another young female hunter harvest her first animal ever, which was a decent 13” buck antelope. After some discussion with my daughter she wanted to try for the heart shaped buck first.
Matt

 

[typhoon916]

Following

 

[Duck-Slayer]

Well the stalk on the heart shaped buck went very well. We got 350 yards or so until we ran out of cover. So we got setup and luckily they were rutting fairly hard still on Sept. 29. They ended up getting to about 252 yards from us. She took the shot and no go, and those antelope took off like a rocket lol.... i.e. the quick in the title... these Antelope ran out onto a flat that you couldn't get within 500 yards of. And my daughter does not shoot enough to make that type of shot. She also didn't realize how small a body Antelope have, more on that later. So off we went back to the truck, we already knew the exact spot the heavy shorter horned buck was, he was bedded with a Doe/Fawn so I was pretty sure he wasn't going anywhere. We did a drive by and sure enough the buck was still bedded in the exact location we left him 30 min prior. This stalk was spot on also, we tried inching our way just a smidge closer and the dang wind swirled, we were at 125 yards at this point. Sure enough them dang Doe's took off like rockets also but the buck was a bit more concerned with keeping those Doe's right there and kept heading them off, if you've seen this, you know what I'm talking about. He was dogging those 2 like a 16 y/o lol..... back to the drawing board, both of the target bucks were in not stalkable positions now. Good thing I needed propane so we headed toward the nearest town to see if I could get the tank filled, than we would return and see if either of those bucks were in a spot more conducive for a stalk.
Matt

 

[Duck-Slayer]

The sunsets in the desert are so amazing!
Matt

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

First lacking pictures now camping like a king. Idk what's happening here! Haha
Following.

 

[Duck-Slayer]

Unfortunately no dramatic ending really, headed to town for propane, saw a herd along side the road, on the way back we stopped short, made a quick sneak along the road to some bushes about 15 yards off the main highway got to 75 yards, boom whappppp dead, pulled the truck up, threw it in the back and off we went. Didn’t want to hang around next to a busy highway, not the impression I wanted to give to passer by’s…. Pic session back at camp,
Matt