The story begins by not drawing this hunt on the first drawing. Yes I was one of the unlucky half of applicants that struck out in the drawing. Idaho has a deadline of Aug. 1st to purchase your permits or forfit them to a second drawing. Two hunting buddies and I decided to put in for the 6 permits that weren't purchased after the first drawing, I mean somdbody has to get lucky, right? Well, long story short. We drew 3 of the remaining 6 permits on a party application against 95 other applicants, (98 total applicants)or 1 in 16.33 chance of drawing. Many thanks you guys that drew this permit and failed to purchase it in time.
I work shift and my buddies had to work yesterday, so I went alone. For the first 2/3 of the day I drove around and glassed alfalfa and grain fields under center pivots. Antelope were vary scarce and the few I did see were out in the middle of huge open flats with no possible stalk options. In the early afternoon I located a heard coming in off the desert which is part of the INL (Idaho National Laboratory, a government nuclear research lab off limits to hunting) and entering a large alfalfa field. I glassed and video taped these antelope for 30 minutes but couldn't see a possible stalk opportunity.
By this time I was getting hungry so I drove over to Terreton for some Hotstuff pizza and a 32 oz. Pepsi. That hit the spot and I was back on the chase. I drove to a field that usually held lopes in past years. As I was nearing the field I saw little lite dots racing for the INL. They were very skittish, I was still a mile away. Through binoculars I counted 51 head with three mature bucks. These lopes had obviously been pressured. Around 3:30 I decided to look in an area on the far south side of the unit along the INL border. Being very carful I began glassing about a mile out with the pickup parked behind a high canal bank. I spotted antelope entering the alfalfa, 10 to 12 head with at least 2 mature bucks.
Along the INL border in this particular area there is an old canal that was dug by horse teams and plows back in the late 1800's or early 1900's. It has high bermed sides and hasn't caried water in years. This old canal bed runs right between the INL and the alfalfa field the antelope were in. If I could just keep my head low, I could walk down the canal bed to within muzzleloader range of the antelope. I slipped into the canal un-noticed, I was still 3/4 of a mile away. There was a cross wind which should keep my scent from reaching them. I hunched over and started walking. I soon found that 3/4 of a mile is a long way to walk hunched over like that.
I finally made it to were I thought the antelope should be. I carefully check my muzzleloader sights, musket cap, safety, etc. and crawled up the canal bank to get a look. There were 14 antelope from 88 to 123 yards away. There were 3 mature bucks. One was about 14 1/2, narrow, decent cutters, and a good hay hook up top. The second was wider but lacked mass and strong cutters, and didn't have much length above the cutters. The third had some of the best mass and cutters I've ever seen in Idaho so I decided right then the first two bucks were safe. I lasered the buck at 113 yards. As I was positioning for the shot one of the does locked on to my location. Thinking for a second I might start a fire shooting a muzzleloader through the dry weeds on the canal bank, I decided to take the shot and worry about putting the fire out later if one started. At the shot the antelope wheeled and headed straight for the Inl border. Initially, through the smoke and fleeing antelope, I couldn't tell if my buck was hit or not. He made it about 40-50 yards out onto the INL, spun in a little circle, and tipped over.
I was elated. Idaho is not known for huge antelope, and this unit rarely has much for maturity. Bucks with mass and long cutters are rare out there. The buck is only 14" long but with great mass and 6" cutters he will gross around 77 to 78". He sould net around 10-12" above the Long Hunter Society minimum of 64". Not that score matters, this is just a beautiful buck for this area.
I guess I'd rather be lucky than good, this was the first permit I have ever drawn on the second drawing. Keep yer powder dry and hold to the wind.
Smokepoler63 out
