In the thrill of the chase

In all the excitement I hit publish in the wrong page but the think I got it together now. When I typed say tuned I was in a hurry because Heart Buck was walking into the field. For having such a sweet name he's got an attitude. He was feeding straight towards me at the 80 yard mark when another small buck got too close,his ears when back and chased him off. My luck in the wrong direction. He bedded down for an hour at the 160 yard mark then got up and ran 150 yards across the field to run off one large buck and three small boys. He's bedded again just off the end of the pivot I'm setting under, about 300 yds.

Now is the time for patience. I'm in the perfect location and by previous observations he should exit with 50 yards. No the question is; do I call Michele and have her drive out to the field and push him out or wait and take the chance of the getting up and leaving in a different path???????????????????

Stay tuned

Day 6 and a half

It's Friday and I'm starting to scramble. Thursday started at 4 AM and by 5:15 I was in position in a ditch ready to ambush a good buck that was feeding in the field with four little bucks. I knew the rancher was going to move his wheel line about mid morning so the plan was to ambush them when they exited the field using their normal route. The wind was perfect but what I didn't expect was a buck trying to enter the field from the back side. For the next couple of hours he twice feed up to within 70 yards, would sense my presence, snort and move back up the hill. Each snort would alert the bucks in the field that something was up and when Carl showed up to move the wheel line they headed my direction only a few hundred yards. I was laying in the direct sun for hours and I was using a spray bottle to keep my camo wet. The small buck caught my movement during a wet down session and blew up the mountain spooking everything in the field. At 11AM I was toasted and walked the mile back to the truck and headed back to camp to rehydrate.

We spent the evening watching the herd and putting them to bed and making plans for this morning.

The plan this morning was to get to the field at daybreak, located the herd and the targeted bucks and then choose a ambush point. The problem was the wind was blowing from the west which messed up my entry paths to the back of the ranch. The weather report indicated a 180 change at 11am so we decided to check out the other ranch and try to locate the buck that got away on Tuesday. No luck ythere and when we returned, Carl had just started a pump in the back field. Unfortunately all the Antelope were on top of the hill. I decided to set in the middle of the field in the shade of the pivot and wait for them to return. It's time out for a minute because a nice buck and his girls just crawled under the fence and is entering the field. Say tuned

Day 4 and 5

Sorry I didn't post yesterday but I was very busy and completely exhausted when I got back to camp. I made one stalk on a good buck at the Doyle Ranch at about 10am. I crawled on my hands and knees for a couple hundred yards down a rocky ditch. When I got into position they must have sensed I was there and headed West.
I got a call from another rancher who had a good buck spotted and the rest of the story could be another chapter I'm not going to attempt on a iPhone. The bottom line is I took three shots at a great buck, stuck him twice and I've been on his trail ever since. Neither hit was life threatening and when we located him this morning he seemed to be in good shape and did a good job of giving us the slip. We quit about 10:30 and I searched tonight from 6 til dark. Randy said he would call me when he shows up again.
Recap: in five days I've had five shots at three bucks. Stay tuned.

Day three

Posting with a smart phone sucks because I could write a novel about today. I put myself in the perfect spot twice and missed twice. I've missed before and I will probably miss again but the image that I will never forget is the sight of 30 Antelope trying to go under a fence in one spot after an arrow put everything in panic mode.
One buck got his horns caught in the fence and almost pulled the posts out of the ground. Dirt was flying and they were acting like someone was screaming fire in a movie theater. No one was hurt except my arrow and my pride. I would like to make excuses why I misses but all I can say is " I would have got him if he had a paper plate on his side". Tomorrow is a new day and I have lots of arrows left.

Sunday thunderstorms

The weather changed big time this morning. Since the forecast wind direction was lousy for my blind setup I decided to take a long hike in darkness to setup in a ditch close to the bedding area. The last 50 yards was on my hands and knees. The big clump of grass that I was using for cover all of sudden started to wiggle and I quickly put it into reverse. Wether it was the hike or the thoughts of sharing my hiding spot with a big snake in the dark, I started sweating profusely. Just as it was getting light enough to make out the images of bedded Antelope I felt the wind hit the back of my neck. Two does jumped to their feet, started snorting and the whole herd headed for the hills. After an hour of glassing I spotted the herd of six bucks bedded about a mile up the mountain in a safe location. The thunderstorms started blowing in and the winds were swirling in all directions. After another hour watching bedded Antelope and wind and rain blowing in all directions, I decided to back out and let everything settle down. Tomorrow looks like a better wind day and a nap sounds pretty good. Chalk up another point for the Antelope.

Opening morning

We've been watching three herds all morning but none within range. One small buck came by at 100 yards. One herd of 6 bucks still in the field with a really good shooter. Stay tuned

Back to camp

It's the day before the opener and we are back to Adin, unpacked and ready to go. We spotted this buck on the north shore of Eagle Lake. I'm ready!