Top_Heavy's World

Saturday morning came quickly, the alarm was set for 4 am and I was ready to jump out of bed when it started beeping. We were packed and loaded quickly and headed North. The trip was about 45 minutes in the truck, we pulled in a farm gate and parked. We unloaded the 4 wheeler and I put on my backpack, grabbed my bow and got on the back rack. 15 miles later, one very sore butt, a bruised calf and a sore tongue (we hit a bump and I bit my tongue)and we were walking the final yards to my blind. Foy walked with me to the blind, got me situated, gave me the quick scouting report and told me where he would be watching from. I set up the stool, climbed in the Ameristep Doghouse blind and layed out my equipment. As the darkness lightened I could see the waterhole. There was a puddle on the ground about 20 yards across, in the center was the concrete slab and the main tank, a tire turned inside out and set into the cement. There was another steel tank about 8' across about 20 yards to West of the main tank. Antelope prefer to drink from the ground, avoiding actual tanks if possible, so I started ranging cactus and rocks to determine my kill zone.
I was facing South, towards the tank, there was a long ridge that ran East and West, the peak of the ridge was about 400 yards away. The first group of antelope, about 40 animals strong, came over the ridge East of me. The group of does move off to the East and never came into range. The next group did the same, as did the 3rd group. The animals were all showing signs of being pushed and were not on their normal paths. About 2 hours into my sit a white 4 door truck came over the hill and drove right up to the waterhole. The guy in the truck looked around and very slowly drove off... not the opening morning I was expecting, but I was hanging tough. 20 minutes later another white truck came towards the waterhole from the West, from the private property... this truck had 4 men in it and they too drove up to the waterhole and looked for tracks. They drove back towards the West and the guys piled out of the truck. 2 guys went up the hill and 2 guys went into the cactus towards the North... they left the truck parked about 400 yards away, in full sight of the blind. I was starting to get a little worked up, I watched as these 4 loosers worked back and forth, trying to intercept herds of antelope as they worked the ridge. I could see 2 guys standing in the back of the truck glassing, as one of the guys went up the ridge to cut off the herd coming right towards me. The herd had one really good buck in it and I was struggling to judge it, about 150 yards from me now, when I heard a bow "TWANG". I looked to see a short red haired idiot shooting from close to 100 yards at the buck. I was in disbelief. I turned on the radio and called Foy. "Time for a change Foy" was the nice version of my conversation.
We worked back to the truck and moved to another area. Close encounters but no shots ended the day as a huge rain moved in. The gully washing down pour ended any hope of sitting on waterholes, there would be water everywhere now. Day 2 started like day 1, I was still fairly fresh and I was excited about how the weather would affect the other hunters. We were glassing a new section when I found a fantastic antelope. His ears were well short of the bottom of the cutters and the tops were long, thick and had great curls. The tips actually curved so much that they touched in the center of the incredible heart shape. We set up the spotting scope, quickly knew it was a shooter, over 80", and I laid out a stalk plan. I played a game of cat and mouse with Lover Boy, due to the heart shape, for the rest of the day. The afternoon rain showers rolled in again and helped to make stalking challenging.
Dawn of Day 3 found me looking for Lover Boy. We found him close to where we left him last night. I again played a game of cat and mouse with him until he laid down about 11 am. I moved in behind the only cactus that offered cover and I was finally with in 65 yards of a monster antelope. I laid down on my belly, my glasses to my eyes, resting on my elbows. I stayed like that until almost 5pm. LB was facing me, so I would have been busted if I had tried to move around the cactus, so I just laid in the sun, 88 degrees! I was burning up at 88 degrees, but had to hope for him to stand and offer that perfect angle. Suddenly LB jumped up, I got to my knees quickly and grabbed my bow. I leaned out to range him, he was intently looking up the valley, and as I pushed the button, he snorted and raced off. My chance was ended in a matter of less than a second. I never got a range of him... I looked up the valley and 2 guys were walking right at me. They saw the goat jump up and then they saw me stand. "We didn't see you" was the their only response from 500 yards as I yelled "Are you F@#$%*@G kidding? I have been on that goat for 2 days!" a weak "Sorry" was muttered as they walked back up the hill. Foy said they were pointing at me from the ridgetop as I moved in on LB. They watched me set up and decided to move in anyway.
At this point of the hunt I was very unhappy with hunting BLM land, local hunters who acted like they owned the place and stupid nonresidents who were so concerned with a buck for themselves, they acted like they would rather have no one get a goat if they couldn't. The only highlight that made me smile was the fantastic head shot I put on a black tailed jack rabbit from about 17 yards. Rabbits and Coyotes are considered nongame animals and are huntable as long as I had an active nonresident license of some sort.

This jack made the mistake of being visible at the end of another trying day where I was beaten not by big antelope, but by inconsiderate hunters.