I hope you'll enjoy the story and pics.
But first I must thank Flinger (aka Chris) for all of his help.
I sent the landowner a letter in February requesting permission to cross her land. She responded to my letter a week before i was to leave and granted me permission to cross her land. Before her email i was working on plan B and C..
my camp for the week
Because I wasn't hunting a traditional water hole, more of a short creek, I had to come up with way to get the antelope close.
I went with a decoy blind to make the antelope have to drink by one of the two blinds.
it never failed the antelope preferred the decoy blind..
Nothing was coming closer than 60 or 70 yards away from my blind, but just before 11am a buck came down from a hill to the southwest of me.
He made a beeline to my decoy blind and then turned west and paralleled the creek walking past my blind at fifteen yards.
Having everything finally come together I was able to draw, aim and make a good shot on him. He jogged forty yards and literally fell over.
I was ecstatic! but it was very warm out and after gutting him and a few pictures I ran him to the meat processor.
His bases here huge. I haven't had him scored, but his bases have way more mass than the 78" pronghorn I shot a few years ago.
long days in the blind require a fully stocked cooler and good binos.
I ranged him at 27 yards. He was quartering to me slightly. I got into a good position in the blind and made the shot.
I heard the arrow hit and I thought I made a good shot, but the buck ran 100 yards in front of me and bedded down.
You can see from the picture where my arrow hit. I will spare everyone how agonizing the next six hours were as I sat in the blind and watched the buck.
I knew he was hit, but even with my 10x binos i couldn't see a drop of blood on the buck.
I would only learn later that the quartering shot was more extreme than I had thought and the arrow missed the heart and lungs.
A group of bucks came along and eventually (after six hours) the buck got up and walked over the ridge.
I didn't want to push the buck so I waited until the next morning. Luckily a cold front had moved across WY.
As I crested the hill where I had last saw the buck I saw his white belly fifty yards away. He was stiff, but still warm. I was expecting to puke at the prospect of a gut shot, but the guts were intact.
I cant believe the coyotes, which I had around camp every night, hadn't found him before I did.
I have to give a big hand to Dan's Meat Processing of Casper- they were reasonably priced and really worked with me to get me what i wanted.
Jerod- congrats on your hunt too. I have never hunted muleys and loved every second of your story.
Awesome goat! He's really tall.
and your second picture makes me laugh no matter what you're looking for...and rc I dont think they need a tow rope for an arrow
after a couple of days sweating in the blind I would have jumped in...maybe bought a floating chair to hunt from, one with an umbrella
Holding the rope is also interesting. Unless this dude thinks there will be quicksand (quickmud?), I don't know the reason to have the safety rope - unless he planned to tie it to something and have the 3 goofballs pull it out.
I have no idea.
AND WOW what a goat there buddy. CONGRATS!
anyone willing to take a guess at the score?
I did not get one this year, but I am enjoying the meat from my friends goat. Good field care and quick cooling.... I thought it was quite good, and had several meals in deer camp on it...............
LMAO!
Congrats!
Antelope steaks are my favorite!
