Unit 21 Antelope

[thegunsmith2506]

When I found out I had drawn a Unit 21 Antelope tag I set my goal on an 80in buck. I have never been a trophy hunter, and I never get hung up on scores. I just wanted to make sure I shot a nice mature buck, and I wanted something that would look nice on the wall. My strategy was scouting all the out of the way places I could in hopes of staying away from all the other hunters. Most of the summer months, I scouted at least 1 or 2 days a week. We did a ton of hiking with little to show for our efforts. When August rolled around I started scouting hard every weekend. We looked over dozens of bucks and I started to realize there are not too many 80in bucks in this unit. With 2 weeks left to scout, we looked over all the bucks we had seen this summer, and I picked the 4 bucks I thought looked the best. We focused on finding those 4 bucks. We never did find #1. I believe he may have been killed during the archery hunt. We did however find a new buck that was quickly added to the list.

I was very fortunate this hunt to have my dad, wife, and huntin buddy Jason all with me for the first 3 days. I was very excited to have them all there. The day before the hunt found my dad and I glassing for the buck I wanted to kill. We watched him and his 6 does for several hours before heading back home to get out of the heat. The afternoon was spent prepping gear, and shooting the rifles. That evening we checked a new spot, but only found a few antelope.

Finally it was opening morning. We were up at 3:30 and left the house around 4:15 for the 40min trip to our glassing spot. It was hardly light enough to see and we had the buck located about 800yds in front of us. I took off down the hill only to realize there were several hunters all around the basin looking for this same buck. I am not sure exactly how everything happened, but someone bumped the buck and everyone took after him. He ran by me at about 400yds, but I decided to pass on the running shot. About 2 hours later our chase ended when 4 guys on quads cut us off and started chasing the buck. I have never been on a hunt with some many people after the same animal. That was enough of that! We got caught in the rain on the way back to the Jeep, so we headed home to dry out. That evening we hunted another area only to run into more hunters. I was amazed at how many guys were driving cross country looking for antelope. It was a real shame to see. That evening we watched 3 guys on quads with rifles ready, ride within 200yds of a bedded buck. They had no clue he was there, and he never got up. He wasn’t big enough to shoot, so we hiked out and made plans for day 2. On the morning of day 2 we hiked in to a canyon that I knew help a good buck the week before. After a few hours of glassing we had only spotted a herd of 3 does. With lots of hunters in the area, I figured this buck may have already been killed. About 9am I decided to make a change and head for a spot I thought would get a lot less pressure. By 10am we were hiking some big hills and glassing several big basins that were a ways off the road. My plan was to stay on the top and move from basin to basin all afternoon. It was getting hot, very hot. I stopped in the shade as soon as I got to the 4^th basin of the day. I put up the binoculars just in time to see a buck stand up, stretch, and lay back down. The 4 of us crammed ourselves into the shade of a tiny little Juniper tree and set up the tripod. We all looked over the buck and decided he was worth a closer look. We decided my dad and I would make a mile long stock while the other 2 watched the antelope from the shade. Once we determined the antelope was not going anywhere we headed out. It took us about 40min to get to the edge of the bench they were bedded on. The wind was swirling all over the place so I tried to stay higher on the hill, but there wasn’t much cover. It was great having my wife and Jason spotting for us. They let us know when to sit tight and when we could move. When we knew we were close we began glassing every few steps. I was just about to leave the cover of a Juniper when Jason came on the radio and said the antelope were on the move. One had turned into 7. The six does were up, and headed right to us. He had warned me just in time. I had just enough time to sit back down as the lead doe came into view. A few minutes later I had the buck in the 15’s at less than 300yds. My first thought was to shoot. I settled down and looked the buck over for a few minutes. He looked nice, but just didn’t seem to be as big as I had hoped for. After a few minutes of debating in my head, I asked my dad what he thought. He said he thought the buck look nice, but he couldn’t see him very well. I only had one more morning to hunt with everyone before I was going to be on my own. Everything had worked out so perfect. I decided to shoot. Of course that is when the buck fever kicked in, the wind swirled, and the buck decided it was time to leave. He started heading for his does as I was getting the rifle rested on my tripod. I got the crosshairs on him just before he made it to the Junipers. The shot felt good, but I couldn’t see if it hit. I looked back at my dad and he said he thought I missed. I ran 20yds down the hill and set up again hoping for another shot. Just as I sat down Jason came on the radio and said I got him. They got to watch the whole hunt unfold through the binos. Without their help we never would have got him. The .243 had done its job well. The buck made it about 75yds before falling over. He isn’t the biggest buck, but he is a great trophy for me. It’s always better to have family there with you. Thanks to everyone for all the memories!

 

I would also like to thank TLH for answering a ton of questions for me, and offering lots of good advice.

 

 

[bhuntin]

Thats a dandy buck,love the black face marking,great shot and nice pics.Thank you for the story,Im pretty sure ill never apply for 21 after reading that.Congrats again!

[Kaffer62]

Great job! Way to keep at it! Nice buck too!

[loco4coues]

what a hunt! Good job getting away from the other hunters and putting in the work to make something happen. Thanks for sharing the story and pictures with us.

[trophyhnter]

Great story to go with a great buck! Thanks for sharing!

[wendt]

Nice Antelope! I know how hard this unit can be to find them.

[muskrat]

tlh and I bombed around quite a bit Friday and Saturday. I went back out again Tuesday. Then back to work and now I have one day left - Sunday, back out with tlh

 

Congrats on a nice buck! We saw a few hunters too, but not to the extent you did!

[bonecollector]

Way to make it happend with all the other hunters around an to get it done with family and friends there is awesome.

[thegunsmith2506]

thanks for the replies!

[Snapshot]

Great story, and nice buck!