Opening Day Spot N Stalk Antelope

[bonecollector]

Well this all started back in Apr when the results came out. I was really surprised to see that $90 charge from G&F on my card with only 3 pts.

 

Well my first scouting trip in the unit we didn't see a lot of goats but saw a big herd with a good buck in it. It was a short trip with the extremely hot temps but I was looking forward to the next scouting trip.

In between scouting trips for Antelope I was still out setting up trail cams for coues deer. I have yet to take a coues deer with my bow. As the summer went on and the fall results came out without getting drawn for a tag for the first time in 9 yrs I was now disappointed I wouldn't be able to hunt coues since my Antelope hunt starts on the same day as archery deer starts. I start questioning myself, do I really want to go hunt antelope. I have been after this nice coues buck the last 3 yrs and I really wanted to hunt him hard this year. Towards the end of July I check my coues cams and start to see the antler growth and start to get excited. The next week I go back to my antelope unit to go see how things are looking. I find the same big herd in the same exact spot as the first time. Just like the first trip I don't see many goats but where they were hanging out at I had put together a plan to where I could stalk them if they were there opening morning. After this trip only a couple weeks to go until the hunt starts, it finally hits me. People wait a very long time for a chance to hunt antelope in AZ and here I am just wanting to go coues with an antelope tag in my pocket. I decide to put all my efforts into this hunt and not go check or pull my cams before the archery deer hunts start.

 

Well the hunt is finally here and I am pretty excited to try to stalk these goats with bow in hand. I get to the unit Thursday before the hunt starts and setup camp before it gets too hot. Get camp all set and head out to try to locate a buck. After 3 hrs in the hot sun behind the glass I finally find a lone buck. I head back to camp and get some lunch and shade while I wait for my buddy Matt to show up. The evening comes and we head out. We find a good buck with 2 does and we watch them for a while and they bed for the night. We head back to camp to get some dinner and some rest.

 

Opening morning we locate the buck and 2 does in the same area where we left them the night before. We come up with a plan and we try to put a stalk on them with no luck. We chased them around for a couple hrs, we watch the buck steal a couple other does away from a smaller buck. We decide to split up and try to get the goats to come to me. I was setup on the fence line where we think the antelope went under at with the heads up decoy and I was able to get behind a bush to wait it out. Time goes by and I get up to see if I can see anything and I see Matt but no goats. He says they were headed right to me but then lost them. They never came by me. We finally relocated them and they were headed up the ridge and we decide to give them a rest for a bit and try to go locate some others.

 

We fail to locate anymore goats and we know the big herd is somewhere around we just couldn't find them. We decide to head up the ridge where the buck and his 4 does headed and we end up bumping them from their bed. They take off further up the ridge and we follow suit. We were under a juniper tree watching them and they were watching us. The 4 does take off and the buck follows, they were on the move back down the ridge and we try to cut them off. They pass us at about 75 yds, Matt tries to stop them but they never see us or hear us. We see where they end up going and bam the big herd is down in the trees. There are now 25+ in the herd. We go down the ridge and I ask Matt if he had time for 1 more stalk since he had some things going on that he had to go tend to. He said lets go. We get within 120 yds of the big herd and the bigger buck we haven't seen before runs off some of the smaller bucks. We are pinned under a juniper tree watching the herd hoping they would head down the canyon so we could make our move. They keep changing their direction, we almost get busted as I would move from one side of the tree to the other when they would move. I was starting to cramp up as I was standing still for a while. They finally go back to feeding and I was able to move. Some time goes by and all of a sudden Matt says 2 bucks are chasing a doe right to us. I quickly decide one of those bucks will do and I end up shooting my buck at 55 yds. I can't believe what just happened. Spot and stalk archery antelope on the first day. He's not a giant but I am dang proud of him. Sorry for the long read.

Not your typical antelope country, I was told by some deer hunters on Thurs that I was in the wrong part of the unit for antelope.

 

[kennyazman]

Well I'm intrigued. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

[tjhunt2]

Come on Shelvin don't stop there.

 

TJ

[wildwoody]

And then, and then, and then????????

[bonecollector]

Sorry for the delay, had to run an errand.

[Millhouse]

Awesome job! Good choice on focusing on the lope tag...

[Will K]

Very nice.

[lucky2hunt]

Outstanding!

[Lucky Draw]

Very cool! Congratulations.

[trphyhntr]

nice dude

[SWDesertRat]

Nice job Shelvin, that can be a tough unit for goats with a bow.

Way to get it done and thanks for sharing.

[idgaf]

Aparently, the deer hunters were mistaken. Congrats

[DUG]

Congrats! Antelope with a bow is an accomplishment!

[Flatlander]

Awesome! As much as I would have liked to join you this upcoming week I think this was better!

[SirRoyal]

Great buck, good job!