Chris Roe's Link
Obviously, the more an object stands out from its background, the more "visible" it will be (i.e. wearing either dark clothing or very bright clothing when you're walking across a tan or light green background will make you stand out and cause you to be easily spotted). ...and for motion, they are REALLY good at picking up "lateral" motion, motion moving left/right/up/down of their field of view.
Motion going straight toward a pronghorn (little to no lateral motion) is often a good way to close the distance if you have to, but keep in mind if you're dropping down off a hill, they'll pick up on your "downward" motion even if you're headed right at them.
Some people (especially rifle hunters) forgo trying to "hide" from pronghorn in open areas (things that tend to "hide" tend to be the dangerous things they want to avoid), and actually let the goats see them as they walk left or right of the goat's location, but use the goat's limited depth perception (at least initially) to allow them to angle toward the goats rather than actually parallel to them. By angling in, the goats can sometimes feel "safe" because the "spooky object" never leaves their sight, but the angling in allows the hunter to close the distance for a shot. Again, this works best for rifle hunters, because often times, once you're under 100 yards or so, the goats will take off.
I'm guessing some other folks will chime in on their tactics, but...I hope that helps at least some.
Chris Roe - Roe Hunting Resources
But they do have several weaknesses and one of them. is they get so horned up, during the rut, that they pay far more attention to their urge, than their eyes. Stalking antelope, during the heat of the rut, or decoying them at that time, is by far the best time to "beat their eyes". You really don't beat their eyes at that time, you just take advantage of their weakness.
Stalking a truly wild antelope, at any other time, is almost impossible, if you want to take a close bowhunting shot. It's not too tough if you will shoot 70-80 yards, but if you are looking for a 20-30 yard shot, good luck.
I know antelope see faces and don't like them. I learned that many years ago, in my early hunting them at waterholes, out of a dug in ground blind, I first did.
I dug a hole in the ground, not far from a good waterhole, next to a trail they used coming to the water. I did this the day before the season opened. On opening day I got in my hole, before daylight and not long after I had antelope coming, non stop, until they would walk down off the hill by my blind. One of them would always stop right by my blind, look into my eyes and away they would run. That happened a number of times and I soon learned, that was not going to work. So I got out of the hole, walked back to my truck, painted my face with the old camo colors and went and sat back in the hole.
The next group walked down off the hill, stopped and looked right at me, and then headed for the water. Each group after that did the same thing. I still could never get a shot, because as soon as I moved to draw my bow they saw me. But I did learn, as long as I painted my face and stayed still, I could fool their eyes. I also learned you could not draw a bow while staying still!
They don't miss much and they sure as heck don't like anything to move, that is close the them, that they are not expecting.
And they can even see you, even when they are looking the other way.
Have a great bowhunt. BB
Got in bow range a few times, but that doesn't mean I could have killed one. No matter, no tags anyway....
I don't know what they see, I've heard 8X vision? They do seem curious, I've read stories of guys waving white flags and bringing them in fairly close (rifle range anyway).
IMO #2 rule with any animal is if you can see their eyes, they can see you. It's always one thing to get close, another even to get drawn. At times it seems like the planets have to align to kill anything on the ground....
BB, that's a GREAT shot...... and explains a lot.
#1? Hunt the wind of course..... I'd assume their noses aren't to bad either? =D
I can't tell you how that works for antelope but if you ever hunt woodland caribou, that's an incredible tactic.
That said, they can also be extremely curious. I almost had to shoot my first goat with a bow out of self defense. Tried to sneak in on him right at first light. About 70 yds out, he saw me move. Don't know if he thought I was a coyote or what, but he charged into about 15 yds.
Many years ago, I saw a buck feeding on a hillside. I took a long detour and got over on his hillside and used the curvature of the hill, to keep him from seeing me. I finally billy crawled to a service berry bush and peaked thought it, only to see him looking right at me. I knew he had me spotted, so I just keep tossing my head back and forth. It got him curious and he headed for me. While tossing my head and keeping his attention and interest, I pulled my bow. Long story short I killed that buck. And although waving flags works once in very many attempts, and so does bobbing ones head, most of the time, you will never get a good bowshot.
If the bucks are in the heat of the rut, things change big time and will do some very stupid stuff. But don't plan on that happening in the middle of August or after the 10th of Oct.
I don't personally know one guy, who has successfully stalked and shot antelope, at less than 20 yards, on more than a couple of bucks. I know there are a few guys around that have. But they are very rare and most that accomplish this, do it when the bucks are in the rut or around bucks that are semi tame and used to humans.
A truly wild antelope, is by far, the hardest animal I have tried to stalk, for a multitude of reasons, and their eye sight leads the list.
Antelope have pretty darn good noses. They just don't use them much. They also have pretty good hearing, of which they utilize far more than their nose. But they primarily depend on their eyes, and they don't miss much.
Its not nearly as hard to get really close to an antelope, as it is to a buck deer or a bull elk in my experience, as they don''t use their nose that much or trust what it says. And although their hearing is good, it is nothing like a deer or an elk's. I think their hearing is just a bit better than a humans.
So with that said, and a bit of cover to keep out of sight, its not too difficult to get within bow range of an antelope. Where the real difficulty lies, is when you are close and you have to raise and pull your bow on a critter who is wired, like few critters for close, unknown movement.
They might have lots of curiosity at a distance and even come running in to see what it is, but when something close moves, that they did not know was there, they turn inside out and don't stop to look until they are way out of good bow range.
If a guys calls riding around in a vehicle, in an area where antelope are accustomed to seeing trucks, cars and people, stalking, then by all means it can be done with reasonably long shots.
But there are very few people, who walk the face of this earth, that can consistently stalk in on a truly wild antelope, and kill it with a reasonably short (30 yards or less) shot. That is unless the antelope are rutting and at that point all bets are off.
Have a great bow hunt. BB