Post by akdd on Oct 18, 2007 1:21:32 GMT -5
Well to make a long story short the antelope won round one and round two. But there is always next year. I will be back. Blew several stalks and missed one shot because I misjudged the distance by ten yards. Shot right over his back. There were some blood trails but they all came from my hands and knees. All in all it was a blast. Here are some of the things that I learned about antelope hunting.
1. If you are spot and stalking like I was invest in good gloves and knee pads. I blew one opportunity because I was busy picking cactus spines out of my knee.
2. Practice judging distance in open terrain with something antelope sized. Sometimes you won’t have time to use your range finder. I am used to judging distance on bigger animals in brushy terrain and this caused me to miss the one shot that I had. Thought he was at 45 yards and in reality he was 30 to 35 yards.
3. You will probably have better success if you are in an area with limited water where you can sit by a waterhole. The area I was hunting had a lot of irrigation water around and they did not seem to return to the same place to drink. But I like spot and stalk hunting better than sitting.
4. The decoy can be used several ways I had some come to it, used it to distract there attention from me and hid behind it while stalking got within 60 yards of some bedded antelope before they got up and wandered off. I don’t think that they ever got spooked they just moved off.
5. The bucks seemed to like to stay in the same general area day after day.
6. When the bucks were chasing the does they would hang out closer to water. I think that they would get hot from the running and need to drink more often.
7. Scent and sound did not seem to alert them to much mostly they use there terrific eyesight and speed for protection. Any movement they pickup on right now. Crawled up close to a few that were bedded but then you are laying flat and when you raise up to draw and shoot they are out of range in about two jumps then they turn around and stand there giving you the hoof. Good camo is a must.
8. Them most important thing I learned though is how much fun it is to hunt them. I am definitely going back for more abuse. If not this year next year.
1. If you are spot and stalking like I was invest in good gloves and knee pads. I blew one opportunity because I was busy picking cactus spines out of my knee.
2. Practice judging distance in open terrain with something antelope sized. Sometimes you won’t have time to use your range finder. I am used to judging distance on bigger animals in brushy terrain and this caused me to miss the one shot that I had. Thought he was at 45 yards and in reality he was 30 to 35 yards.
3. You will probably have better success if you are in an area with limited water where you can sit by a waterhole. The area I was hunting had a lot of irrigation water around and they did not seem to return to the same place to drink. But I like spot and stalk hunting better than sitting.
4. The decoy can be used several ways I had some come to it, used it to distract there attention from me and hid behind it while stalking got within 60 yards of some bedded antelope before they got up and wandered off. I don’t think that they ever got spooked they just moved off.
5. The bucks seemed to like to stay in the same general area day after day.
6. When the bucks were chasing the does they would hang out closer to water. I think that they would get hot from the running and need to drink more often.
7. Scent and sound did not seem to alert them to much mostly they use there terrific eyesight and speed for protection. Any movement they pickup on right now. Crawled up close to a few that were bedded but then you are laying flat and when you raise up to draw and shoot they are out of range in about two jumps then they turn around and stand there giving you the hoof. Good camo is a must.
8. Them most important thing I learned though is how much fun it is to hunt them. I am definitely going back for more abuse. If not this year next year.