Back on Track

Ok, everyone is asking what happened to my Antelope Hunt.  I know I just disappeared all of a sudden and left everyone hanging.  I'm sorry.  The darn Antelope just beat me to death and I just gave up and headed back to Lake Almanor.  I needed to get back to the cabin on Friday before everyone showed up for deer season. My season was six days long and everyday it was a cat and mouse game with the one and only good buck on the ranch.  In the end, he won. I head home with my tail tucked between my legs. 

Deer camp started out slow but having two new hunters in camp this year made it a blast. I resisted the comment "You should have been here last year" for almost a week.  The area that was holding a lot of bucks last year was logged last fall and moved most the the bucks to greener pastures.  We found the bucks on Swain Mountain but the hunting pressure made the bucks very skittish and very hard to get close enough for an arrow. Hunting pressure usually falls off dramatically the second week and the bucks peek there noggins out of the brush and stretch their legs a little.  We spotted four bucks on Monday, four on Tuesday and two today.  That makes a total of twenty one for twelve days hunting.  I would like to expand and tell a great story but my legs are cramping and writing is very painful. Here is the results of today's hunt. 

I promise to post more adventures soon. 

Day 5.1

I just realized I haven't posted any photos of Antelope yet. I think I'll email Apple and request iPhone 6 have a 20 power zoom so you can actually see what I'm hunting. 

 

Day 5

Here's the plan. I've notice three of the last four days that the twins spend the night out on the flat and mom and Tagalong bed somewhere below the dam or in the triangle just north of the back pivot. At sunrise mom has slipped under the fence about 200 yards to the west of my blind and trotted out looking for her kids. They generally reunite about 300 yards north of my blind, nurse for a minute and then bed down for a short time. Tagalong on the other hand lags behind until after the reunion and then makes a Bee Line to join up for the trek up the hill. Depending on his location in the fields and the reunion spot, his path crosses the wing dam and close to my blind. On day 1 he came over the wing dam 125 yards to my east. On day 4, when I was in the ditch, he crossed very close and maybe within shooting range. 

This morning I parked at the upper dam and followed the fence line to my blind hoping  not to spook Tagalong that I assume would be bedded between my blind and the back pivot. At first light a was scanning the flat looking for the twins and sure enough after fifteen minutes I spotted them bedded by themselves about 300 yards north. Thirty minutes latter they get up and slowly start feeding to my left. When they both came to attention I knew my plan had started to roll. Mom shows up for the reunion on schedule, the twins nurse and browse out to the 200 yard mark. Mom comes to alert looking at the wing dam just to my right. I get my bow ready, quickly review my yardages down the bank and anticipate my next move. The hair starts to raise on the back of my neck when I and hear the soft crunching of the grass behind me on the levee. My hands started to tremble and I had to control my breathing in fear of Tagalong hearing my almost uncontrollable body functions. I took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, relaxed and readied myself when the sunflowers began to wiggle and out popped a damn coyote at 15 yards. Crap, all that adrenalin for nothing.  I quickly realized that if the coyote came by me Tagalong certainly wouldn't follow the same path. I was right because ten minutes Tagalong slipped under the fence 200 yards to my left and met up with girlfriend and twins. 

It's been an hour and a half and I've been watching the foursome feed across the hill and finally bed down in their normal spot. It's time to plan a new strategy. 

Day 4

Day 4 was nothing to write about. I sat in the main ditch at my ambush site until Carl arrived to change the water. It was a lot hotter and I wasn't going to bake for three hours waiting for the antelope to enter the fields. After three and a half days I was tired and ready for an afternoon break.  We had lunch at the frosty and did a couple of loads of laundry. We watched a couple of movies and topped of the day with a chocolate Sunday. I've got a plan for Wednesday. 

Day 3

I don't know where to start. Day 3 was a pretty exciting day. I forgot my phone in the trailer and had to make a mad dash back and still made it to my new ambush site before daybreak. After watching the two bucks for a couple of days they seem to stick to a somewhat predictable pattern.  I realized this pattern yesterday afternoon and finished off the day with a two hour 600 yard stalk down a wet and muddy ditch that splits the middle of the three pivot fields.  I was in position and getting ready to range the smaller buck when Tagalong (the larger buck that follows his girlfriend and kids everywhere) came out of nowhere and chased the little guy all the way to the end of the ranch. On the way back to camp I devised a plan to ambush the bucks when they crossed the ditch from the alphalfa field to the grass field. 

At daybreak I was in position, laying in a grassy ditch behind a big clump of grass that gave me cover. The only problem was Tagalong was already in the field and girlfriend was up on the flat behind my blind. It was like they had a date for breakfast in the back pivot which was not part of my plan. 

Carl arrived to change the water and swoosh, Girlfriend and kids headed to the top of the hill with Tagalong close behind. They bedded down for the rest of the morning and I knew they wouldn't start their pattern until Carl finished his work. Now it's starting to get hot laying in a ditch that has come alive with ants and spiders. Tagalong is bedded probably a mile up the mountain but is looking down on his little kingdom with eight power eye balls. I know that the pattern will start when Carl leaves the field but its close to lunch time before he is finished. 

Thank God the clouds blew in a cooled things off but for some reason my antelope were lazy today. Here I am tucked up under some overhanging grass talking to Tadd on the phone when they get up and start the trek down the hill. A half hour later they are on the pattern to the tee. They entered the field  on the far side of the pivot which put a wall of water spray between us. I guess antelope don't like showers because when they decided move to the grass field they made a big loop around the end of the pivot and crossed my ditch out of range. 

Now they are 200 yards in the grass and I'm pondering a backup move when Tagalong comes to attention looking over my right shoulder and up the hill. To my surprise little buck is right on the same pattern. I was practicing mental telepathy  saying " enter on this side of the pivot" and it worked. Antelope with an arrow is not easy so I made the decision to take little guy if the opportunity arose. It was like he was on a string. My first range was 130 yards, then 112, then he is walking in a straight line right at me. I slipped down the edge of the bank readied my bow and peaked my head up and he's looking right at me. Damn why could he have been 25 yards to the left. 

Busted. My first reaction was to dip back down in the ditch and give him a minute to hopefully forget he was looking in the eyes of death. Yea right. I slowly raised back up and nothing. Where did he go?  I peaked a little higher and he is now down wind to my right at 80 yards.  The next ten minutes was a stare down that I won because he broke first and walked south towards the main road. 

I was hoping that he would exit the field and head up the hill so i could head back to camp but the crazy little guy marched down the field about 300 yards and bedded down. He is now bedded within shooting range of the ditch I'm laying in. What the heck it's only 300 yards. After 200 yards Carl decided to work on the back pump, drove his tractor down the edge of the field and ended another fruitless stalk. I needed a beer anyway. 

Three beers later and I've got a plan for Tagalong. Be back tomorrow. 

Day 2

Today is a waiting game. At first light I spotted the buck I had the somewhat close encounter with yesterday. He was bedded with his girlfriend about 300 yards north east of my blind on a big flat. The doe got up, gathered her children and fed in a big loop around me and entered the alphalfa field on the opposite side of the lake.  Something spooked the buck out of the field about 10am and he has been bedded at the top of the hill. It's just a waiting game now and hopefully he will get thirsty and come down the fence line. See if you can spot him on top of the grassy hill in front of Fox mountain. 

Oh, did I mention its getting hot in this blind?  I came prepared. 

Report back later. 

Day 1 update

It's been ten hours in the blind. Starting to get a little bored so I thought I'd share my view of Fox Mountain. 

Day 1

Where did all the Antelope go?  

The alarm went off at 4:15 and I was at the ranch by 4:45. My blind is setup on the back fence line of the 1200 acre ranch and I didn't want to spook any animals that might be bedded in the fields so I chose not to use a flashlight and snaked my way along the perimeter roads then cut across the base of a dam and finally reached the blind at 5:35am. 

By the time I got setup it was shooting hours. I scanned the hillside with my glasses and nothing. I tried to convince myself that that was a good thing assuming all the Antelope were still in the fields. The sun had just peaked over Hunter's Ridge when I spotted two fawns stand up and stretch in the middle of a huge wild sunflower patch. The sunflowers were new this year and probably a result of all the thunderstorms this last month. 

They were about 500 yards north on a huge flat when they came to attention looking back to my left. Not one but two coyotes were on the hunt and for the next 20 minutes I watch a cat and mouse game all the way to the top of the hill. When the coyotes realized they couldn't close the distance enough for a fair chase they wandered off up a side canyon.  I never saw mom until they reunited back at the bedding area in the sunflower patch. 

Mom and her twin fawns started feeding up the mountain and again came to attention looking down the hill but a little right of my location. When I looked out my side window and down the levee there stands a really nice buck looking up the hill with love in his eyes. At least I fascinated love because he was about 125 yards away and my heart was trying to jump out of my shirt. After a few nibbles of grass he slipped further out of range closing the distance to his future love on the hill.  About 300 yards up the hill he paused to make a scrape and then urinated in it to mark his territory.   Rather than meet face to face and start a conversation he crossed her path about 20 yards behind and sniffed her tracks. She looked over her shoulder as to say don't even thing about it Buster.  When the girls are hot their hot and I guess she's not so he climbed the hill a little further and bedded down for a snooze.

Well, that was it for excitement on opening morning. It's now five hours later and who knows we're all the Antelope are hiding. I'm still in the blind and plan on staying here until dark, maybe.  

I've watched the same four goats walk up and down the hill twice but they are using a break in the fence about 300 yards east of my blind. I haven't seen the buck in about two hours so i hope he is in the fields behind me. My hope is Carl will have business tending the pumps and will push him my direction. Unless something changes this afternoon this is Day 1 report. 

Back to Adin. Day -2

We rolled into Adin this afternoon and had Antelope camp setup and ready to go by 3:00pm. My last chore was getting the satellite dish pointed south when the power went out. It's almost 6:30 and still no Fox News. I'm actually enjoying the pease and quiet. We drove out to the ranch and spotted four nice bucks I'd love to take on Saturday.  It's Day -2 and I'm started to get a little excited. Stay tuned.