sneakem
Well-known member
SO four dark 30 arrives and I spring into action, waking everyone up. Water is boiling, oatmeal ready, coffee is ready and we hit the ground running and out the door in time. So impressed that the boys got moving as quickly as they did. They are usually dragging there feet, complaining about how early it is, and how tired they are... and this is when they wake up to go to school. They totally got after it this morning with no complaints. Of course when its 32 degrees outside, you wake up fast...lol
Matt calls and says that he's running about 45 min's behind coming from Colorado. I told him I will try to hold off until he gets there, but no promises that it'll actually happen if there are tons of people out there. So I leave a trail of flagging tape along the route he'll need to follow to find us, kinda like a trail of bread crumbs. As we close in on the walk in area, light is slowly creeping on the horizon... a grey strip, turning to blue, then faint pink... and all of the sudden we see lights. They are heading towards the walk in area. Is it a hunter? an oil field worker? The lights drive out into the walk in area and continue to drive around. The lights are moving faster as we approach and light grows and suddenly the shut off. We stop on top of a hill with a view of the walk in area. There is now enough light that I can glass to see what is going on with the vehicle. I see the truck parked in a draw, far from any wells, and the faint glow of hunter orange inside. Busted... and they are trying to hide. I figured some idiot would pull this stunt I tell myself. I am thinking I should go get their license plate number and turn them in but I continue to the parking area in hopes that they don't go racing around chasing antelope off. As we pull to the parking area I see the vehicle start to move and leave the walk in area stealthily.
Disaster adverted... Or maybe not. I can't see a single antelope in the grasslands. Where there were hundreds a week ago, I now see none. A few minutes pass and I locate some antelope on the far fringes of the area. We wait.... shooting light is here, but no one has arrived at the walk in, so we continue to nervously wait for my friend Matt. We hear the roar of a truck running down the road at warp speed. I It takes several minutes for him to arrive. Its amazing how far sound travels out here in the silence. He arrives, everyone is orange on and the pumpkin patch is off to the races across the prairie, 3 adults, 3 kids, and an orange and reflective stripped dog on a leash...lol Unconventional to say the least. We see hardly any antelope on our way across and the few we see are running for their lives. I am fearing the worst has happened, but we continue to where I have see the antelope I am hoping to pursue. As we approach I see a herd, with several subordinate bucks surrounding, and in the middle its "Ric Flair" the flared big prong buck on my hit list.
So we sneak down to a water hole and hide the posse out of sight. They can safely observe the stalk from behind the dike where they wont be seen by the antelope, while Matt and I continue the stalk. The antelope herd is moving to the back corner where they always go at about 550 yards. I tell him I want to get close so we get good video. They continue to move up the draw heading towards a hole in the fence that they usually duck under. We continue to move quickly trying to cut the herd off, but keep running into antelope and subordinate bucks running around the herd. They are pulling away. I tell Matt, lets just make a move and hopefully they wont spook if we run other antelope into the herd, as it is pretty much happening anyways the are rutting so hard anyways. We find that our quick movement in orange is actually causing a number of antelope to be more curious than cautious. A few bucks almost walking to with in bow range, and stand there watching us pass. We creek to the top of the last hill before the fence and peek over. There stands "Ric Flair".....and to his right the other buck on my hit list "Heavy D".
Now here's a dilemma I hadn't thought about. If I had to pick between the two, which one would I shoot? Wyoming antelope are very tough to score. There is a certain gene in WY where some of the antelope have proportionally enormous heads compared to bucks in the state. Some have giant bobble heads other don't, so you often misjudge the size of some bucks here. New Mexico and Arizona typically have smaller bodies and heads, so they're horn size looks larger in comparison. These bobble heads often look small comparatively to their body. I Had looked at these bucks a number of times but never together, and here they stood both side by side. I knew both bucks had these giant melon heads, and was pretty sure I was close on approximating their scores. Seeing them both there, side by side reaffirmed my guess.
"Ric Flair" was a borderline B&C buck in my opinion but very pretty. As I was growing up I would always see pictures of big New Mexico bucks with enormous flared prongs and I always idealized this type as the classic B&C pronghorn. Over the years of hunting pronghorn, I learned that it wasn't all length and giant prongs that made a great buck, but actually mass and proportionately placed measurements relative to the length. Mass is incredibly hard to judge and is incredibly hard to judge especially with the bobble head antelope in Wyoming. "Heavy D" on the other hand was a little shorter but one of the heaviest bucks I had seen while bow hunting. What he lacked in length, he made up for in mass, a big ugly antelope. I figured he was in the 86-87 inch range a legitimate B&C buck. Decisions, decisions, I've got to choose..... BOOM.... its Over...
Matt calls and says that he's running about 45 min's behind coming from Colorado. I told him I will try to hold off until he gets there, but no promises that it'll actually happen if there are tons of people out there. So I leave a trail of flagging tape along the route he'll need to follow to find us, kinda like a trail of bread crumbs. As we close in on the walk in area, light is slowly creeping on the horizon... a grey strip, turning to blue, then faint pink... and all of the sudden we see lights. They are heading towards the walk in area. Is it a hunter? an oil field worker? The lights drive out into the walk in area and continue to drive around. The lights are moving faster as we approach and light grows and suddenly the shut off. We stop on top of a hill with a view of the walk in area. There is now enough light that I can glass to see what is going on with the vehicle. I see the truck parked in a draw, far from any wells, and the faint glow of hunter orange inside. Busted... and they are trying to hide. I figured some idiot would pull this stunt I tell myself. I am thinking I should go get their license plate number and turn them in but I continue to the parking area in hopes that they don't go racing around chasing antelope off. As we pull to the parking area I see the vehicle start to move and leave the walk in area stealthily.
Disaster adverted... Or maybe not. I can't see a single antelope in the grasslands. Where there were hundreds a week ago, I now see none. A few minutes pass and I locate some antelope on the far fringes of the area. We wait.... shooting light is here, but no one has arrived at the walk in, so we continue to nervously wait for my friend Matt. We hear the roar of a truck running down the road at warp speed. I It takes several minutes for him to arrive. Its amazing how far sound travels out here in the silence. He arrives, everyone is orange on and the pumpkin patch is off to the races across the prairie, 3 adults, 3 kids, and an orange and reflective stripped dog on a leash...lol Unconventional to say the least. We see hardly any antelope on our way across and the few we see are running for their lives. I am fearing the worst has happened, but we continue to where I have see the antelope I am hoping to pursue. As we approach I see a herd, with several subordinate bucks surrounding, and in the middle its "Ric Flair" the flared big prong buck on my hit list.
So we sneak down to a water hole and hide the posse out of sight. They can safely observe the stalk from behind the dike where they wont be seen by the antelope, while Matt and I continue the stalk. The antelope herd is moving to the back corner where they always go at about 550 yards. I tell him I want to get close so we get good video. They continue to move up the draw heading towards a hole in the fence that they usually duck under. We continue to move quickly trying to cut the herd off, but keep running into antelope and subordinate bucks running around the herd. They are pulling away. I tell Matt, lets just make a move and hopefully they wont spook if we run other antelope into the herd, as it is pretty much happening anyways the are rutting so hard anyways. We find that our quick movement in orange is actually causing a number of antelope to be more curious than cautious. A few bucks almost walking to with in bow range, and stand there watching us pass. We creek to the top of the last hill before the fence and peek over. There stands "Ric Flair".....and to his right the other buck on my hit list "Heavy D".
Now here's a dilemma I hadn't thought about. If I had to pick between the two, which one would I shoot? Wyoming antelope are very tough to score. There is a certain gene in WY where some of the antelope have proportionally enormous heads compared to bucks in the state. Some have giant bobble heads other don't, so you often misjudge the size of some bucks here. New Mexico and Arizona typically have smaller bodies and heads, so they're horn size looks larger in comparison. These bobble heads often look small comparatively to their body. I Had looked at these bucks a number of times but never together, and here they stood both side by side. I knew both bucks had these giant melon heads, and was pretty sure I was close on approximating their scores. Seeing them both there, side by side reaffirmed my guess.
"Ric Flair" was a borderline B&C buck in my opinion but very pretty. As I was growing up I would always see pictures of big New Mexico bucks with enormous flared prongs and I always idealized this type as the classic B&C pronghorn. Over the years of hunting pronghorn, I learned that it wasn't all length and giant prongs that made a great buck, but actually mass and proportionately placed measurements relative to the length. Mass is incredibly hard to judge and is incredibly hard to judge especially with the bobble head antelope in Wyoming. "Heavy D" on the other hand was a little shorter but one of the heaviest bucks I had seen while bow hunting. What he lacked in length, he made up for in mass, a big ugly antelope. I figured he was in the 86-87 inch range a legitimate B&C buck. Decisions, decisions, I've got to choose..... BOOM.... its Over...
