Coues
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2002
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Ok, I'll cut to the chase and leave out the frillies.
Saturday evening (day 2) I finally found a shooter. Problem was, he had TWENTY TWO does and it was next to impossible to get within ML’er range of this guy. My only hope was the fact that I saw him run a smaller buck off that was no where near his girls, so maybe the decoy OneTrack lent me would lure him in.
I watched them until feed out into the middle of large meadow right at sundown. I knew they would bed down for the night there.
Next morning, I was in position before daylight, decoy in hand. I was within 300-400 yards of the nearest doe and probably 800 yards or so from the buck. That is as close as I could get as the meadow was flat and the grass was ankle high.
One by one, the antelope got up to feed. At shooting light, they were all up and scattered over several hundred yards. Too many girls for this guy to keep corralled, so he just went from one small group to another. Just as was about unfurl the deek, a ranch truck stopped on the two track road that ran next to the fence line. In 4 weekends of scouting up here, I had never seen another vehicle on that "road". They were not hunters, just ranch hands working the gates and fence. Nevertheless, the goats wanted none of it and it was a stampede of white butts across the prairie.
Disgusted, I started glassing for more targets. I saw a group of 5-6 antelope far away and across the huge meadows in my spotting scope. Even on 45x, they were white dots. I could however, tell that the buck was very aggressive, running around chasing anything in his view. So, off I went.
10 minutes on the quad and a 40 minute hike put me in the location I last saw them. I could not find them no matter how hard I looked. After 30 minutes I decided that they had left the area or bedded down out of site, so I started the long, hot trek back to the quad. Just as I was about to cross the fence back at the road, I turned around and took one last look. There they were, ½ mile or so away from where I had last seen them.
I decided I could not let any opportunities pass, so back I went. Did I say it was hot? I have 100 oz Platypus water bladder in my Eberlestock Just one plus two 20 bottles of water inside the pack. It was going fast, but I still felt strong, so I was off to get a goat.
I had to take a long detour to get some cover between myself and the herd. Well, they came over the low ridge I was using for cover and busted me.
They trotted off and was ticked off, but then I realized they were headed for an area with some cedars and figured I still had a chance. Off I went again, still headed directly away from the road. Hope my water holds out.
20 minutes later, I stopped in the trees to glass the goats and make sure they were still headed in the same direction. I took this time to shed a soaked t-shirt and check to make sure my bullet was still seated properly after the long, rough quad ride this morning.
I took off again, through the cedars, and attempted to make up some ground on the antelope, which were still walking directly away from me. I crested the hill, grabbed for binocs and ...what the *****. Where the **** are my binocs? Crap, I left them 400 yards away hanging on the tree where I changed my shirt. Back I went. Then back toward the antelope, AGAIN.
This was a blessing in disguise I believe as the antelope were now at the edge of the trees, completely calm, and back to feeding and chasing each other. I skirted around the edge of the trees to get in front of them. As I was sneeking through the cover, I saw another buck, by himself. He was decent and by this time my standards were getting lower with every minute in the scorching sun.
I followed him, every once in awhile catching a glimpse of him. After a ½ mile or so of peekaboo, I lost him. The trees got thicker and there was no way to get above them to get a better view. Dejected again, I turned for the long, hot walk back.
Remember, I told you had a decoy. Well, it was strapped to the back of my pack, the head visible and pretty much hiding my outline when viewed from behind. As I was walking, head down, thinking about the cold MGD's buried in a foot of ice back at camp, I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye as I glanced behind me. I don't know what made me look, but I did and I saw a goat running about 3/4 speed right at me with his head down. I can only assume that he saw the decoy and was ready to rumble.
I unslung the Knight, pulled back the hammer, slid the safety off, and just at that moment he lifted his head and skidded to a stop with a "OH ****" look. Too late!
The trigger let go, the hammer flew forward, the cap exploded, the Triple 7 pellets ignited, the 250 grain Precision Rifle QT bullet started down the barrel and flew into the ribs of the buck. I heard the "whack", and saw him stumble, then run off about 40 yards before collapsing in a cloud of dust.
3 hours later I had him on ice at camp. That included a 3 mile walk back to the quad, riding 3 miles down the two track to get to a gate, 6 miles on the quad back to goat and then 6 miles back to two track. Then another 11 miles on the quad back to the truck.
Sadly, the cape went sour, but I was able to save all of the meat.
Saturday evening (day 2) I finally found a shooter. Problem was, he had TWENTY TWO does and it was next to impossible to get within ML’er range of this guy. My only hope was the fact that I saw him run a smaller buck off that was no where near his girls, so maybe the decoy OneTrack lent me would lure him in.
I watched them until feed out into the middle of large meadow right at sundown. I knew they would bed down for the night there.
Next morning, I was in position before daylight, decoy in hand. I was within 300-400 yards of the nearest doe and probably 800 yards or so from the buck. That is as close as I could get as the meadow was flat and the grass was ankle high.
One by one, the antelope got up to feed. At shooting light, they were all up and scattered over several hundred yards. Too many girls for this guy to keep corralled, so he just went from one small group to another. Just as was about unfurl the deek, a ranch truck stopped on the two track road that ran next to the fence line. In 4 weekends of scouting up here, I had never seen another vehicle on that "road". They were not hunters, just ranch hands working the gates and fence. Nevertheless, the goats wanted none of it and it was a stampede of white butts across the prairie.
Disgusted, I started glassing for more targets. I saw a group of 5-6 antelope far away and across the huge meadows in my spotting scope. Even on 45x, they were white dots. I could however, tell that the buck was very aggressive, running around chasing anything in his view. So, off I went.
10 minutes on the quad and a 40 minute hike put me in the location I last saw them. I could not find them no matter how hard I looked. After 30 minutes I decided that they had left the area or bedded down out of site, so I started the long, hot trek back to the quad. Just as I was about to cross the fence back at the road, I turned around and took one last look. There they were, ½ mile or so away from where I had last seen them.
I decided I could not let any opportunities pass, so back I went. Did I say it was hot? I have 100 oz Platypus water bladder in my Eberlestock Just one plus two 20 bottles of water inside the pack. It was going fast, but I still felt strong, so I was off to get a goat.
I had to take a long detour to get some cover between myself and the herd. Well, they came over the low ridge I was using for cover and busted me.
They trotted off and was ticked off, but then I realized they were headed for an area with some cedars and figured I still had a chance. Off I went again, still headed directly away from the road. Hope my water holds out.
20 minutes later, I stopped in the trees to glass the goats and make sure they were still headed in the same direction. I took this time to shed a soaked t-shirt and check to make sure my bullet was still seated properly after the long, rough quad ride this morning.
I took off again, through the cedars, and attempted to make up some ground on the antelope, which were still walking directly away from me. I crested the hill, grabbed for binocs and ...what the *****. Where the **** are my binocs? Crap, I left them 400 yards away hanging on the tree where I changed my shirt. Back I went. Then back toward the antelope, AGAIN.
This was a blessing in disguise I believe as the antelope were now at the edge of the trees, completely calm, and back to feeding and chasing each other. I skirted around the edge of the trees to get in front of them. As I was sneeking through the cover, I saw another buck, by himself. He was decent and by this time my standards were getting lower with every minute in the scorching sun.
I followed him, every once in awhile catching a glimpse of him. After a ½ mile or so of peekaboo, I lost him. The trees got thicker and there was no way to get above them to get a better view. Dejected again, I turned for the long, hot walk back.
Remember, I told you had a decoy. Well, it was strapped to the back of my pack, the head visible and pretty much hiding my outline when viewed from behind. As I was walking, head down, thinking about the cold MGD's buried in a foot of ice back at camp, I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye as I glanced behind me. I don't know what made me look, but I did and I saw a goat running about 3/4 speed right at me with his head down. I can only assume that he saw the decoy and was ready to rumble.
I unslung the Knight, pulled back the hammer, slid the safety off, and just at that moment he lifted his head and skidded to a stop with a "OH ****" look. Too late!
The trigger let go, the hammer flew forward, the cap exploded, the Triple 7 pellets ignited, the 250 grain Precision Rifle QT bullet started down the barrel and flew into the ribs of the buck. I heard the "whack", and saw him stumble, then run off about 40 yards before collapsing in a cloud of dust.
3 hours later I had him on ice at camp. That included a 3 mile walk back to the quad, riding 3 miles down the two track to get to a gate, 6 miles on the quad back to goat and then 6 miles back to two track. Then another 11 miles on the quad back to the truck.
Sadly, the cape went sour, but I was able to save all of the meat.

