Tough Archery Antelope Hunt!

[matthewp45]

I was sure pumped up for drawing a unit 1 archery antelope tag this year. I scouted my tail off seeing a ton of bucks in quite a few different spots. Every scouting trip I would check all of my spots and usually see most of the same bucks. I would usually see the antelope on each trip in the same areas and many times would stop and glass them a couple hundred yards away and they would pay no attention to me. I have been scouting a couple times a month since May. In July on both of my scouting trips I saw what seemed to me to be sure signs of the rut. The bigger bucks were with 10-15 does and had a couple satellite bucks around.

Well fast forward to opening day on Friday. The first spot I tried I found about 30 does in a large group with a tiny buck chasing them around. We got about 3/4 mile from them and they took off and ran about 2 1/2 miles before they stopped. I thought wow I have never seen antelope this jumpy someone must have been messing with these and why is that tiny buck with all the does? So I leave and go to another spot. I drove across about 8 miles of prairie where regularly I would see 8-10 bucks on every trip through. I finally found 1 buck at the end of the road. He had 54 does with him (yes thats right 54) and he was a tiny buck as well (maybe 11" tall). No other bucks to be found.

Fast forward to today. I ended up seeing about 20% of the bucks that I would normally see on a scouting trip during 3 days of hunting. The only thing I did different while hunting was cover a lot more ground and glass as far as we could see until our eyes were about to pop out. I have never been as clueless as I was on this hunt. The biggest buck I found was about 12-13" tall and OK mass. All of the does were in huge groups of 20-54 in each group and each group had a little buck running them around. I only saw about 4 or 5 bucks that I would consider to be satellite bucks. Another crazy thing was how jumpy they were. If you were with in a 1,000 yards of a group and stopped to look at them or god forbid they see you walking they would take off for at least a mile or 2 and this is the first hunt, they have not had any pressure until Friday. I did get two good stalks in where I got with in range on some small bucks by belly crawling in but the wind shifted both times and I got screwed.

My conclusion which could be totally wrong is that the rut is pretty much over and the big bucks have moved off the does and the satellite medium type bucks have as well and are not very active trying to recover from the rut. I can't explain why they were more jumpy than I have ever seen any antelope.

I was just wondering if anyone else had a tag around unit 1 and what their experience was to see if it was just the areas I was hunting or if they had the same experience too. Do any of you guys know why the bigger bucks would disappear, the does were in such huge groups, the little bucks were running these huge groups around and why so dang jumpy. Sorry such a long post but after putting in so much time for the hunt and to have it turn out this way was straight crazy ad I want to find out why. Thanks in advance for any and all info.

[mje1]

Thats a real bummer that they arent rutting but i think they should start soon. I was up there with PineDonkey the weekend before and we didnt see much rutting activity. We saw a group of six bucks and the bucks we saw with the does really werent doing much chasing. We did see the herd of 55 but there were 2 bucks in them, the small one and the other we took pics of that i think you saw. I dont know much about antelope but i thought the rut started around this time. Good Luck and maybe we will run into you this weekend.

 

Mark

[matthewp45]

I have not seen hardly any pics of antelope being taken during the bow hunts. I wonder how it was for others in different units? Just curious. I am also curious to see if others in unit 1 had the same experience or maybe it was better in other areas in the unit?

[BML]

I had the early 19A archery antelope hunt. The hunt was great as far as opportunities. About half the bucks were showing some rutting activity. Every now and then a buck would get a hot doe and just terrorize her. I sat water the first weekend and passed two average bucks, knowing that there was a big buck in the area. He never watered in three days and I was sitting the only water source in the area.

 

The biggest problem I had was the wind. I had several shots on an 83-84 inch buck but the high winds made it nearly impossible. I took those shots, but never really came close.

 

I did also experience the large herds as you did. I only hunted a specific few bucks in the 10 days I hunted. One had 9 does, one had 42 does and another had 24 does. Tough to get close with all those eyes!!

 

 

[ruthunter]

I just got back from my hunt in 19a and i was lucky enough to take a buck on the 2nd day. I saw alot of rutting going on and plenty of bucks to shoot but not alot of big ones.

[BML]

I just got back from my hunt in 19a and i was lucky enough to take a buck on the 2nd day. I saw alot of rutting going on and plenty of bucks to shoot but not alot of big ones.

 

Care to share a picture or two?? I know most of the bucks up here and wouldn't mind seeing which one you took. Congrats!!

 

[ruthunter]

Here is the buck i took, it wasnt the big one i was after but after waiting 10 years for a tag i decided to take him.

[CouesWhitetail]

Here is the buck i took, it wasnt the big one i was after but after waiting 10 years for a tag i decided to take him.

 

 

Congrats ruthunter! How far was your shot?

[matthewp45]

That is awesome and congrats that is a great looking buck especially with a bow. I had the 19A archery tag 3 years ago and it was unbelievable. You have to walk every where but was worth the 10 miles or so a day because you were constantly stalking bucks. I had my buddy on the side of a huge hill spotting for me and when I got done with one stalk he already had another lined up to go after. I would run into other bucks on my way to stalk another. Even though I took six shots and missed them all. which was because I would get in to to much of a hurry and not get a range on them and guess the yardage and shoot over them every time. It was still one of the most action packed hunts I have ever been on. Not to mention there are quite a few good bucks in there. The only bummer about 19A is the AZ Antelope Foundation took 80+ goats off the ranch that I huntedlast year so there may not be as many bucks butt I know there were a lot more than 80 antelope on the ranch when I hunted it. Good to hear it was good to hear it was good in other areas and congrats on a good buck.

[russdiggins]

I had a late archery 19A tag this year also, I shot a 74" buck the third day of the hunt. I agree there were not as many goats on the ranch that I was hunting as there were last year on my buddys hunt. I also noticed that the horn groth was not near as good as the year before. I didn't see as many 80+ bucks this year. Thats hunting!