Here’s some of the pics from our weekend in New Mexico hunting antelope. We arrived at our assigned ranch early Friday morning to look around and learn the ranch. The ranch that we were assigned to was 66,000 acres chalked full of antelope. We figured that in the 2 ½ days that we were there, we looked at over 250 lopes, and probably close to 40 bucks. After scouting Friday, we had 4-5 bucks that we thought we would try for on Saturday morning. We looked for #1 at first light with no luck. After glassing for a couple hours, we located #2. We spotted him from about a half mile away, and Wifey was up. She wiggled out through the sage to try and close the distance. After about 20 minutes of stalking in, she got herself to 270 yds. and ran out of cover. She set up and made a perfect shot! I was watching through the spotting scope and watched him tip over. It was pretty exciting to watch, to say the least! This was her first antelope, and he’s a handsome one.
A few hours later we were glassing a huge bowl and found one of the other good bucks that we were hoping to get about a mile away. He was very intent on running the heck out of his does. Off I went. The only cover I had was a small rise between us, so I tried to stay as low as possible, and even crawled the last 50-60 yds. to try and close the distance. I got about as far as I thought I could go and ranged them at about 475 yds. It was pretty windy so I didn’t even consider taking a shot from there so I thought if I worked over to my right just a bit, I might be able to crawl down through the little swail that was there. I was bent over and slowly walking to the right when I looked up and noticed that the buck was staring straight at me. I froze. He immediately started running straight at me, and fast! He probably thought that I was another lope buck and was coming to run me off or kick the snot out of me. When I saw him running towards me I got down in position to shoot. The thing was, he dropped out of sight in a swail and I couldn’t see where he was going to pop up. He popped up about 75 yds. left of where I thought he would and was standing there looking at me from about 150 yds. I took him right there. Pretty exciting stuff, and Wifey got to watch the whole thing through the spotting scope! Obviously we cant wait to get back to New Mexico again!
Since we were done on the first day, we got to be tourist for a little while. Since we stayed in Roswell, NM, we went to the Alien Research Institute (yawn). On the way home we stopped in at Tombstone, Az (Wyatt Earps old haunts) as well as Bisbee, Az. Lorie and I have been wanting to check out that part of Arizona for a few years now and its really a neat area!
Enjoy the pics!
Dave
A few hours later we were glassing a huge bowl and found one of the other good bucks that we were hoping to get about a mile away. He was very intent on running the heck out of his does. Off I went. The only cover I had was a small rise between us, so I tried to stay as low as possible, and even crawled the last 50-60 yds. to try and close the distance. I got about as far as I thought I could go and ranged them at about 475 yds. It was pretty windy so I didn’t even consider taking a shot from there so I thought if I worked over to my right just a bit, I might be able to crawl down through the little swail that was there. I was bent over and slowly walking to the right when I looked up and noticed that the buck was staring straight at me. I froze. He immediately started running straight at me, and fast! He probably thought that I was another lope buck and was coming to run me off or kick the snot out of me. When I saw him running towards me I got down in position to shoot. The thing was, he dropped out of sight in a swail and I couldn’t see where he was going to pop up. He popped up about 75 yds. left of where I thought he would and was standing there looking at me from about 150 yds. I took him right there. Pretty exciting stuff, and Wifey got to watch the whole thing through the spotting scope! Obviously we cant wait to get back to New Mexico again!
Since we were done on the first day, we got to be tourist for a little while. Since we stayed in Roswell, NM, we went to the Alien Research Institute (yawn). On the way home we stopped in at Tombstone, Az (Wyatt Earps old haunts) as well as Bisbee, Az. Lorie and I have been wanting to check out that part of Arizona for a few years now and its really a neat area!
Enjoy the pics!
Dave
