Can you pattern antelope?

woodruffhunter

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I will be going on a family antelope hunt within the next few fews weeks. Being as my dad has a tag in an area near my house, I have been doing a lot of the scouting for him.

With the limited experience I have had with scouting antelope, I have found they are hard to pattern.

What is your opinion? Have you been able to pattern them? What have you found their range to be? As always, I appreciate your advice.
 
The only consistant thing that I have found with antelope is that they will water in a known area, but it has been pretty wet this fall (at least in Wyoming) and that gives the antelope more options on watering locales. It will be interesting to see what everyone else has to say on this subject.

Mike
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I've hunted antelope in Wyo for quite a few years and can tell you that antelope in the areas I've hunted in Wyo have about a 2 mile radius home range. Some bucks may have larger areas than this and some may have less. Obviously winter, rut, hunting pressure, etc can change this.

I've done quite a bit of waterhole hunting and the same bucks tend to water at the same waterhole. Especially if there is only 1 water source within their home range and it is hot/dry. Obviously when it rains they may not water at all at this waterhole (until things dry back up) and if there are quite a few water sources they may not hit the same hole. I've also noticed that they may water at first light one day and not water again for a couple days...and possibly the next time they water may be during mid day.

Things change dramatically with temperature, moisture, rut, wind, hunting pressure, and even from buck to buck, etc. One year I hunted a ranch where there was only 1 water source and I never saw a particular buck I was interested in water. I raked the waterhole right at dark and found out that the smart ole buck was watering at night!

Another place you may be able to pattern antelope is around hayfields, fencelines, etc. If you are hunting with a bow it may take several days or a week to get a buck to come within bowrange of a blind, but if a buck is using an area regularly they may wander down a fenceline, cross a particular saddle, etc.
 
Actually, the bucks aren't hard to pattern at all. They are quite territorial, in fact, and they make scrapes similar to whitetail deer. If you find a 'stud pile', ie, a pile o' poop with dirt scraped around it, you have a scrape. A buck will makes his rounds frequently; I have found that the bucks in the are I hunt will come back to a scrape within 3-4 days.

I have also found the same bucks year after year within 1/2-1 mile of the previous year, if not in the same area. They like their territories for reasons, one of which I am sure is water, so things may change during a drought.

Then there is the almighty rut....decoys work every time. I've been seeing some pre-rut stuff going on already in E. Utah-got some great footage of a buster buck running down and poking in the butt a smaller buck...all over one silly doe!
 
Some very good feedback and I appreciate it. Actually Predator, we will also be hunting in Utah and I have also noticed some "pre-rut" activity.

We did some more scouting on Saturday and I can actually say that my second thoughts of buying a Swarovski Spotting scope are now over. We saw 3 really nice bucks (that were near a water hole). I don't know how I would be able to make a decent judgement without a Spotting Scope.

Thanks again for your help and best of luck on your hunts!

Jason
 
Woodruff, which unit? Post some pics when you get back. I know we can't probably beat anything ELI tortures us with, but I'm excited to share!
 
Predator:

We will be hunting the North Rich Unit. I have seen many bucks but only a few decent, nice ones. I have found they are hard to field judge and am mainly going with some previous advice (if they fork above the ears they are probably worth considering).

I have found that most animals in this unit do not have very good mass but regardless of that I am hopeful that it will be a fun hunt.

I will definately post some pic's

Jason
 
I hope this works. Its been awhile since I have posted pics. My dad passed over a lot of different bucks and finally decided on this one. Although it was not the biggest one we saw, he was happy with it. I think my oldest son was the most excited.

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Predator/Brian:

Thanks, I believe the length was around 14" My dad scored it at 72 (but that could be way off). It was the first antelope he attempted to score.

Jason
 

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