San Augustin Speedgoats, Round 2
Contributors to this thread:Pronghorn
From: Chasin Bugles
18-Aug-17
About to jump on a plain to New Mexico to chase antelope on the Plains of San Augustin. This is the second time I’ve drawn the tag so I’m familiar with the area, can’t wait to be back. My first hunt down there was in 2012 and I came home with a story I have no expectation of topping this time around. Here’s what happened..
From: Chasin Bugles
18-Aug-17
From: Chasin Bugles
18-Aug-17
It was day 4 of the hunt and we decided to look at some new country south of Magdalena. We hoped that the big buck I'd missed south of the VLA’s yesterday would return if we left the area alone for a day. Ten miles down highway 107 we spot a good buck with nine does bedded on a hillside. We employ a buck antelope decoy in hopes that the buck will try and run us off.
From: Chasin Bugles
18-Aug-17
We're 100 yards from the truck crouched behind the decoy and moving towards the antelope when a black ranch truck trailering an empty water tank slows and parks behind our truck. Our first thought is that maybe we'd looked at the ownership map wrong and were mistakenly on private property and about to get called on it. Out gets a lady who yells “Are you guys surveyors?” Will holding the decoy, me bow in hand yell back the obvious “No, we’re hunting antelope” as our antelope run off over the hill.
From: Chasin Bugles
18-Aug-17
She waits for us as we make our way back to the trucks and after fifteen minutes of small talk introduces herself. She has a small ranch a few miles to the south and also happens to be a shaman. She would do an antelope hunting ceremony to help us on the hunt if we would like. With only one day left on the hunt, we’re open to whatever at this point. We assume it’s something she will do on her own time later in the day…
From: Chasin Bugles
18-Aug-17
Nope, we’re doing this thing right here and now. She grabs a leather pouch of tobacco from her truck and puts some in my left hand while asking me to lay the back of that hand on the ground. She then begins her prayer by closing her eyes and summoning her spirits.
From: Chasin Bugles
18-Aug-17
It’s English, but hard to make out what/who she is talking to. Towards the end we understand a little. She is asking Antelope Annie, goddess of antelope, to provide us an antelope that is willing to give its spirit to us. Upon finishing, she instructs me to roll my hand over and pour the tobacco from my hand, and not to break contact with the ground in the process. With that complete, she numbly says “Your antelope will find you. Just walk up to it when it does”. She turns abruptly to leave, walking around the front of her truck before stopping and spinning around in slow circles while looking up at the sky. After a few seconds of this she says “Go north. The colors are better in the north today.” before getting back in her truck and driving up the dusty road to the north and out of sight.
From: Chasin Bugles
18-Aug-17
Will and I share the same blank look as we get into the truck. After a short silence, we both agree that we should probably head north despite it being the way we had come from this morning. A mile and a half up the road, an empty water tank is lying in the middle of the road. Our shaman’s tank had fallen off of the back of her trailer. We both knew that she wasn’t physically capable of loading it by herself and that in the small village of Magdalena, it would be easy to find her to return the tank. We also knew that we hadn’t come all the way from Montana to New Mexico to be good Samaritans. Time was running short on the hunt and we needed to be hunting. After a few minutes we decided to do the right thing and see if karma played a hand by returning her tank.
From: Chasin Bugles
18-Aug-17
We make short work of tracking her down, loading and re-strapping the tank back in her trailer. She thanks us and a few minutes later we’re back to the spot where the tank had been laying in the road. Here’s where it gets really weird… Less than 50 yards from where the tank had fallen from her trailer there are three antelope bucks feeding casually. Two of them are nice bucks and the third is a younger buck. Twenty minutes ago, there had been no goats in sight of this area. And you can see a long ways in the desert.
From: Chasin Bugles
18-Aug-17
With no other real play, we decide to follow the shaman’s advice and try walking straight towards them. By the time I have my release on and an arrow knocked, they are at 95 yards from the truck. For forty yards I walk in disbelief straight towards them before they start to trot away, still not overly concerned with me.
From: Chasin Bugles
18-Aug-17
Back at the truck we decide to try for the same group again. They are still standing in view but feeding away from us. We back up looking for a secondary road that would get us in front of them. There aren’t a lot of roads in the desert but of course, on this day there is one. We begin down a two-track towards the antelope. After a quarter mile we’re back within 100 yards of them before they take off on a run.
From: drycreek
18-Aug-17
Damn, that's why I struck out last year. No shaman !
From: Chasin Bugles
18-Aug-17
The two the bigger bucks never slow down but the smaller one stops after a few hundred yards looking unsure of what to do. Again I walk slowly towards him. He keeps an eye on me but lets me continue to get closer. A few minutes later, I’m standing within 45 yards of him and have decision to make. This was a younger buck than I had planned on harvesting, but after what had happened over the last hour, I decide to give this story the right ending.
From: Chasin Bugles
18-Aug-17
As I draw my bow back, Will yells from behind me “Eric! Don’t shoot, you’re on private! If you can walk him to the other side of the road (100 yds. away) you’re good!” Caught up in the excitement of the hunt we had forgotten to check if we were still on BLM land. The antelope is between me and the road at this point and I start walking towards the road, pushing the buck in the direction he needs to go.
From: Chasin Bugles
18-Aug-17
A few minutes later we both cross the two track and are back on BLM. The buck stops and begins feeding only 35 yards from me. As I begin to draw my bow, incredulous that this is happening, he begins walking to me before stopping at 26 yards. He then turns broadside and continues to feed. The moment is so surreal that I have absolutely no nerves as I put my top pin on his vitals. The shot is true and a few seconds later it’s over.
From: Chasin Bugles
18-Aug-17
From: Chasin Bugles
18-Aug-17
Less than an hour after our roadside antelope hunting ceremony, we are standing in disbelief over a buck that seemingly gave himself to us.
From: Chasin Bugles
18-Aug-17
From: Chasin Bugles
18-Aug-17
Chasin Bugles's Link
Will was able to film the ‘stalk’ and shot on his IPad. Not the best footage but here’s the link..
From: sitO
18-Aug-17
That one needed to be removed from the gene pool, very strange, but congrats anyway!
From: bulldancer
18-Aug-17
Great story, and some of the best people I know live in that area of New Mexico. Have a great hunt.
From: walking buffalo
18-Aug-17
Hey Hey!
That's the way we have been doing it for hundreds of thousands of years. It works.
From: Bake
18-Aug-17
Cool story. I love that area. I've never hunted it, but I love driving across the plains of St. Augustine.
I always chuckle at the appropriately named "Very Large Array"
From: stealthycat
18-Aug-17
best story ever
little does that shaman lady know, she could make $$$$$$ doing that little dance thing
From: Ermine
18-Aug-17
Crazy story!! Wow. I've never ever been able to just walk up to pronghorns like that
From: Ermine
23-Aug-17
Crazy story!! Wow. I've never ever been able to just walk up to pronghorns like that
From: nmarchr
13-Sep-17
well, how did your hunt go? we were the guys loading up a goat in the gold dodge that you stopped to talk to on the first morning.
