6a goat

[S Davis]

Looks like this thread petered out last year, but I’m a little bit hoping for a resurrection.

 

Nobody has ever asked me for help on an Antelope hunt in 6A, but alas, I answered the phone a few days ago, and that is exactly the request I got. I have to admit that I knew there are Antelope in 6A, but I have never spent any time specifically looking for them.

 

I’ve kind of avoided 6A for the last few months due to the lack of a winter with any appreciable moisture, and then also subsequent the fact the government closed everything up due to how incredibly dry it has been. Well, the rains have arrived and the phone call was received. Looks like the next few weekends will be spent in 6A.

 

I have a pretty good idea where I am going to start shopping tomorrow, but insight is always appreciated.

 

Since I’m a strong advocated of eliminating bad genetics from a breeding population, or the particularly cantankerous, and sometimes just the unusually large, any good advice will be welcomed.

 

I’ll post pics if I find anything particularly of interest. Thanks in advance for any advice anyone can lend.

 

[S Davis]

Rough weekend of scouting aggressively inhibited by an ATV that needs some serious TLC. Did manage to find this dude, but certainly didn't cover as much ground as I had hoped. Hopefully I get my issues resolved and back into the field soon.

[knothead]

How did the 6a hunt go?

[S Davis]

So I am clearly bad about jumping on this forum to report anything of note.

Following the pic I posted on August 6, and then two weeks of ATV repair deeply corroding into my free time, I did get out again to explore the Antelope habitat of unit 6A. Subsequent scouting did little for me in the way of finding more or better Antelope, but it did eliminate some large tracts of land where we wouldn't be spending valuable season time.

Opening morning arrived and we spent about half of day 1 in a multi mile area in the vicinity of where I had seen the August 6th buck. We saw a total of three Antelope and 60-80 Elk. Nothing to attempt a stalk on. The afternoon of day 1 we set out for higher ground in the hope of glassing up something for an afternoon stalk. We found a mediocre buck with a 1/2 dozen does. I was a bit ambivalent given the buck wasn't very big, but hey, it wasn't my tag and the shooter wanted to give him a try. We'll never know what went wrong, but that herd had moved on by the time we got to the hill I thought we could shoot from. We never did find them once we were prowling around within gun range and that was the end of day 1.

Day 2 started out heading toward a new area I wanted to check. The route into this new area entailed passing down a road that was in the basic area were I photographed that Buck early in August. Viola! Guess who was standing about a quarter mile off the road!  He was on the move at a leisurely pace and after about 30 minutes of cat-and-mouse through the broken junipers, we got a decent shot window at him at 290ish yards. Season over!

I looked back at the pics I posted here on August 6 and I'm positive the buck my tag holder harvested is the same buck I photographed. Quick field tape put him in the high 70's. He was right at 15", but what really helped him score was strong fronts. 

Thank you to all of the forum members that PM'ed me with advice. good input was appreciated. Interestingly though a lot of the advice I got was from Elk hunters that had hunted the elk rifle season in years past. I did see Antelope in some of the areas that forum members directed me too, but not nearly in the numbers that were mentioned in PM's.  I think 6A Antelope are a lot more spread out in early September then they are in late November (IMHO).  Likely a lot of them are in the timber, and I honestly mostly never found those groups. 

Interestingly, at least to me, was the fact that I had 3-4 days of glassing in the area where we harvested that buck and I only saw that one buck and maybe a half dozen does. When I caped him though his face had deep bruising on his skull. So he wasn't the "boss" buck of the area because he had been fighting and apparently lost since he was by himself. This doesn't necessarily mean his nemesis was bigger, possibly just meaner. I just found it interesting that given hours of glassing in that area that I never spotted another buck, and not much for two bucks to be fighting over.  

So in sum we had a successful hunt. filled the tag with a nice buck, I wouldn't though consider this an easy tag to fill. I logged a lot of time glassing and frankly saw few antelope. I had a great time hunting this area, it just isn't an easy antelope area to hunt.

Thanks again to all the members that PM'ed with advice. Feel free to reach out if you think I could help because I would gladly reciprocate. Just apparently reach out far in advance since I don't log in here regularly enough to reply in a timely manner, (insert smiley face emoji here).  

 

 

[knothead]

Does anyone have pics of 6a antelope that have been taken over the last few years?  

[goma]

here is a fuzzy shot taken sept. 9th last year about 630pm. I was a passenger in by brother in laws can am so it's not the greatest. if you enlarge the pic you can see the goat.

we were pacing him along the tree line in the back about 200 or so yards out. this was south of the stoneman lake road exit into 6A.  aside from that I also followed a pair in 5bs

(basically across the street) on my quad in early Oct. last fall while scouting for deer. Managed to stay behind them about 250-300 yards as they criss-crossed a fire road I was on

for about a mile. They would stop when they felt far enough ahead, usually at the edge of a field/grass area, mill around until I got closer and then would dart back through the trees

up until the next field/opening.  I've seen numerous antelope thoughout the past few years in both units.

regards

goma

 

[wish2hunt]

1 hour ago, goma said:

here is a fuzzy shot taken sept. 9th last year about 630pm. I was a passenger in by brother in laws can am so it's not the greatest. if you enlarge the pic you can see the goat.

we were pacing him along the tree line in the back about 200 or so yards out. this was south of the stoneman lake road exit into 6A.  aside from that I also followed a pair in 5bs

(basically across the street) on my quad in early Oct. last fall while scouting for deer. Managed to stay behind them about 250-300 yards as they criss-crossed a fire road I was on

for about a mile. They would stop when they felt far enough ahead, usually at the edge of a field/grass area, mill around until I got closer and then would dart back through the trees

up until the next field/opening.  I've seen numerous antelope thoughout the past few years in both units.

regards

goma

 

Where is the Antelope?

[goma]

just above the downed log in the pic, running from bigfoot😉

regards

goma

[29 camel jockey]

[29 camel jockey]

Just now, 29 camel jockey said:

Saw this buck around the buck mtn area, always seems to be antelope in that general area

[29 camel jockey]

[wildwoody]

Pine tree goats..

[Mr. Natural]

This was a couple of years ago.

[Jesushunt]

This was few weeks ago 

[knothead]

I hope to be posting a picture in the very near future of one laying down and me right next to it.