I don't know what most people think about antelope hunting but this was a very tough hunt. I scouted 5 days on seperate weekends before the hunt and started getting depressed as I was not seeing the numbers that were supposed to be there. Previous years that unit had high numbers. The year before game and fish did the survey in aug and assigned 35 tags for the muzzleloader hunt. With a dry winter most of the goats had moved all the way down to the unit below. Hard for me to believe but the game warden said some were chipped and they had gone as far as 26 miles. Anyway I had found 8 bucks in different spots but only 2 that would be shooters. When I say shooters I mean 70 or more. I wanted to find a pine buck but they are few and far between. When the hunt started my brother Richard and my friend Steve Bailey came up to help. The old drive around and see one from the truck went right out the window. We went up to a point at5:30 and started glassing the prairie and I found a buck about 700 yards out and Steve and I tried a stalk. I know some people think its crazy but this was a muzzy hunt not a rifle hunt so we decided to use decoys and call. We got within 200 yards over a ridge when Steve blew the call. The buck came a little closer and I realized he was not real big he was "tweener" I had seen previously. Then I sat back to think what to do and looked to my right and a huge buck was coming straight at us. I tried to gab my rangefinder when he stood broadside. I dropped it due to Goat fever and then he moved to the left. I threw Steve the rangefinder but it was picking up the prairie grass so we guessed him at 100 yards.. More like 175 after I blew the shot. he didn't spook but just trotted off back into the pines on the edge. Sitting there in disbelief at what had just happened we regrouped and decided not to push the woods but go after another buck I had seen the week before. We tried but got busted by the does and they went into the middle of the flat where there was no grass or any cover. Then on the way back to get some lunch we came up with a plan that Steve would drive down the road in the direction the buck went which until this day was locked by the rancher every time. So later that afternoon we did the plan and Steve came back to where my brother and I were glassing from and had great news. He had found a huge group of does in the pines on the edge of a pocket prairie. He had to be there! Then Steve and I decided to go through the forest and try to come in from the backside and my brother went to watch the other side. We got within 300 yards we figured and crawled on our hands and knees the rest of the way. Steve brought along the montana decoy but we were not going to call this time. When we got within sight of the does they were starting to feed. Then one of them picked us up as we were going downhill towards them. The buck then stood up and looked our way. I smacked Steve and said put up the decoy. After he popped it up all was calm they lost attention and went back to feeding. I could not get a good rest cause we were dowhill on our bellies so Steve told me to pop up next to the tree in front of us. The buck went out of sight and I got next to the tree and found a perfect 3 inch branch to put my gun on. He came clear and I squeezed off. He went down with a shot through the heart and 1 lung. I am very grateful to have my brother there and to my friend Steve for taking a day off work to come help. I hope you all have the best of luck this year. And yes his hooks do come forward.
