Tight Guy Report post Posted October 24, 2015 I posted here in June about my excitement to have finally drawn a unit 9 Az Antelope tag after waiting 21 years. Here is the story. I meet with "Sir Royal" and then later with a friend of my son Ryans father-in-law who had this same tag last year, and picked their brains about where to start my scouting. As usual the amount of time I wanted to devote to this was cut short by real life commitments. I did manage to squeeze in 3 days in Aug. and to arrive 4 days prior to the opening day. What I found while scouting was that the West side of highway 64 is wide open spaces, and the east side is more dense with scattered openings. Most of the hunters concentrate on the west side because of the easier conditions. While scouting the west side we would encounter maybe 20 Antelope a day, of which 5 or so would be Bucks, This is not at all like a Wyoming Hunt where you see 2 - 3 hundred a day. That being said the bucks you do see in 9 are more likely to be bigger then Wyo. due to the lack of hunting pressure. We found 1 shooter buck that would most likely score in the upper 70's The East side is much harder to scout and hunt due to the terrain, but we did manage to find one shooter buck, I couldn't guess a score because it was a brief encounter, but he just looked "good" Opening day and the day after we hunted the West side and tried to use the crowds to herd the Bucks our way which worked to a point. We did see some bucks, and after a stalk had the high 70"s buck at 200 yards and unaware of our presence. My oldest Son Jason was whispering "shoot him, while my younger son Ryan was saying "don't shoot we can do better. It was decided that we would wait and come after him later in the week if we didn't do better. We did take turns looking thru the scope and that buck never knew how lucky he was. Sunday morning we decided to hunt the East side. We found a shooter buck hanging with a doe in the perfect location for a stalk. After using the terrain for cover we used a blind stalk to put us in range. When we found him he was watching us from about 300 yards away. My first instinct was to shooting from a sitting position but then I decided to lay down to be more steady. Not only did I miss high, I didn't realize that I was laying on a downhill angle and as you can guess I got the "scope eye" I started to cuss and my boys were saying, don't worry he didn't go far. I said im cussing about the blood running down my nose, not the miss. Jason whipped off his shirt for me to wipe blood, I did manage to find a stump to shoot off of and again missed low. We never had the time to range him for either shot, and that's my story. After 2 more days of searching we found him again and this time we made it count. It wasn't the best shot but thank God for Barnes Bullets I coundnt be more happy with this buck, it was a great hunt, a harder hunt then you would expect, and who wants a lay-up hunt anyway. Well I had my turn, and would be happy to help anyone who might draw this tag in the future. 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Millhouse Report post Posted October 24, 2015 Excellent. Thank you for sharing your story and congratulations on making the most out of a hunt you waited so long for. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Flatlander Report post Posted October 24, 2015 Hunting with your boys. It doesn't get much better than that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Couzer Report post Posted October 24, 2015 Congrats and way to stick with it Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
naturebob Report post Posted October 24, 2015 Nice Loper .Way to go.................BOB! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SirRoyal Report post Posted October 24, 2015 Congratulations on a great Goat! I was wondering how you did !! Awesome awesome awesome ! Good story!!! Great your boys were there!! Love the war wound !!!! Lol Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
murfys69law Report post Posted October 24, 2015 Great looking buck!! Nasty looking scope mark!! Well worth the trade off I would say. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wildwoody Report post Posted October 24, 2015 Awesome buck, sucks about getting scoped Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pwrguy Report post Posted October 25, 2015 Congrats Bill, great job. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
308Nut Report post Posted October 25, 2015 Bill Bill Bill... Wow! Very nice buck. Congrats. You deserve it. M Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cramerhunts Report post Posted October 26, 2015 Congratulations on a super buck! Enjoyed reading your story and very special to have your boys there to share it with you. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nw07heavy Report post Posted October 26, 2015 Great job and nice kill. Congratulations. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Will K Report post Posted October 27, 2015 Sweet buck. Congrat's. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ElkyG Report post Posted November 2, 2015 Congrats on a nice buck Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
