|
|
|
I
was ecstatic when I drew an Arizona archery antelope tag. This would only be my
second chance to hunt antelope in my home state. I have hunted this unit several
times in the past for elk and always seen enough antelope to try for the few
tags available.
I had the great pleasure of being accompanied by Creed Botts (Double D
Archery), Bryant “Opie” Ogle (Double O Outfitters) and our very own Rick
Williams of Arizona Wilderness Productions. We all had great expectations for
this unit producing a good antelope. I had received information from a close
friend of mine who said that we shouldn’t have too much trouble getting to the
big bucks that were in this area. He had told me that the year before he was
into the goats all day, everyday. I didn’t doubt this information at all due
to my own observations from past years of elk hunting.
This country is not your typical antelope habitat. It is primarily made
up of mature pines and small grassy parks.
Hunting over water is not a viable option due to the abundance of stock
tanks that are always full of water.
The day before my hunt arrived just a too little quickly. I wasn’t able
to leave work when I wanted then commitments forced me to stay three hours
longer. Opie and I had more
buisness to take care of at our rendezvous point. Finally,
we were able to head out and do a little scouting for the next days hunt.
I had spoke to personnel in charge of the area and got the combination to the
lock on the gate. Well, it was wrong. So I had to drive all the way back and get
a hold of someone who had the correct combination before we could get into the
area.
Our intention for the evening was to out check the area for tracks and
other sign. We pulled up to the first big meadow and walked over the ridge to
glass the basin. We had been glassing for about 15 minutes when I saw a doe
antelope make her way through the tree line. We then continued on to go look for
tracks at a near by stock tank. All that we found were elk and beef tracks.
While inspecting the pond a very large Black Angus Bull came walking up. As the
bull walked over the dike of the pond he came face to face with Opie and they
both stood there and look at each other like they were long lost buddies. That
was one “dog-gentle” bull.
We continued on and things were not looking too good. The places where I
had seen antelope in year’s prior had little sign and we saw no antelope at
all. We set back about 500 yards from a water hole to see if anything would come
to drink. That was almost a fruitless effort.
We got to hear some bull elk bugle. After deciding that nothing would be
coming to the pond to drink we drove down to check for tracks. Again all we saw
was elk sign. I started to look through the trees and found two big bulls and
bunch of cows. The one bull was a big 7x6 and the other was giant 6x6. Both
would have made the B&C with ease. Seeing stuff like that can sure take care
of any type of depression that a hunter might have.
Day one of the “Antelope” hunt was on! Our game plan was to still
hunt through a big pine flat and then approach them by using calls and
decoy’s. I know it would have worked like a charm if we had seen even one
goat. The day produced NOTHING!
Day 2 started the same as day one. No Antelope. The only thing different
was we were seeing an over abundance of coyotes. During the morning hunt we had
seen 4 coyotes working through a pine flat. We approached one of the bigger
meadows that had a stock tank in the middle of it so we decided to sit and wait
and see if anything would be coming in to drink. It wasn’t 10 minutes when I
saw movement along the tree line on the other side. I raised my glasses and saw
a coyote hunting mice and whatever he could get his teeth into. I told Rick to
role camera. I started to lip squeak and that coyote came running to me like a
run away train. I let the coyote get about 15 yards away and I let the 115-grain
MUZZY tipped Carbon Express arrow go…right into the dirt behind him. That
coyote went back to the where he came from just as fast as he came. We all got a
big laugh out it and Opie teased me for missing at such a close range. Oh well,
it is called hunting not killing. The afternoon produced nothing as far as
antelope were concerned. We then went on to an area that had a very large dry
lakebed.
We all broke out our binoculars and started to glass the big meadow when
we all said to each other, “Do you see all those coyotes out there.”
There was one pack of 5 and probably 4 to 5 more scattered out across the
meadow. I asked Creed, Rick and Opie if they wanted to try and get a shot at
these coyotes. Creed replied, “We might as well hunt coyotes they have
obviously eaten all the antelope.”
We walked down the tree line and got into position for what we hoped to
be some exciting archery coyote calling. I figured I would start out with the
sound of a distressed rabbit and move on to the sound of “dog fight”. We
weren’t three minutes into the stand when all of sudden we were surrounded by
the sounds of what seemed like a dozen howling and barking coyotes. Usually,
when a coyote is howling at you, you have been busted. This time it wasn’t the
case. Using the Coyote Thriller I managed to get the first two coyotes to come
into bow range. I let one of them get within about 20 yards and let an arrow
fly… killing the rock next to the coyote. I immediately got back on the call
and turned the coyotes back around. They wouldn’t leave the area!
All they did was run in circles and bark at the sounds of the mock coyote
fight. Of course Rick didn’t miss a single moment with his camera. We kept
this going for about 10 minutes before deciding to call it quits. Come to find
out Creed had almost gotten run over by one of the first coyotes. He said they
that it came in so fast and close that he didn’t get a chance to draw his bow.
He also said that while I was calling and keeping the coyotes running in circles
another one had tried to sneak past him. He had gotten a shot off but missed.
This “Antelope” hunt was sure turning into a lot of fun.
We got up the next day and decided to do nothing but scout for our
upcoming elk hunt and call in more coyotes. The elk hunt sure looks to be a lot
more promising than our antelope hunt had turned out. We made a couple of more
stands and called in a few more coyotes and missed more shots. But oh well we
had a good time. Like I said before they call it hunting not killing. Better
luck next year. Thank
you for the memories, Creed, Opie and Rick. Louis
Urquides Hunting
Editor for AZOD |
|
|