Top_Heavy's World

Day 4 was tougher to get out of bed, my body was feeling the dozens of miles I walked, crawled and crouch walked. We started a little later this morning as we were both going to glass from the truck until we found a monster. We played the usual cat and mouse game through the cactus and yucca and I was moving pretty well on a group that held a promising buck. I was at the usual 100 yard distance or so when the entire herd came over the rise right at me, I had no choice but to sit down right there in the open grass. The herd saw me and just walked right at me. The buck was mid 70's so I figured he was good enough. The buck offered me a quartering away shot at about 80 yards and I drew and held perfect, unfortunately he was later determined to be only 65 yards so I sent the arrow cleanly over his shoulder about mid horn high!
We decided to do a push of a huge flat that was just full of goats. It was an open grass field about 7 square miles in size. With no cover, the antelope bunch up here as no one bothers them. I dropped off Foy and drove clear around the field and tried to determine the best funnel in the open ground. I chose a ridge that offered good visibility and also put me in line with a saddle I believed they would push through. Foy started his push and the faucet turned on. 100's of antelope paraded in front of me, from 400 yards to only 19 yards away. I passed on several nice bucks well in range, the 4 best bucks having skirted me by about 100 yards. Foy finally came over the hill and that ended the middle part of the day.
We headed to a ranch called "Crazy Man Ranch". This huge property got it's name from the behavior of the young son that controlled the hunting on the private part of the ranch. We hunted the BLM land here, in years past, he was quick to follow Foy around, act unfriendly and otherwise try to run Foy off of "HIS" property. I am not the type of guy to be pushed when I am in the right, so I ensured Foy that if we met this young man, I would handle it! What we found was just short of amazing. We found 20 bucks and 3 of them would easily beat the desired size of 80". I was in goat heaven, I quickly surveyed the situation and started yet another stalk. I closed the gap to about 120 yards when the biggest of the bucks, about 82"ish, growled and started chaising a young buck. They ran by in range 2 times, but there was no shot. I was left standing on the ridge as the herd moved onto the flat.. the sun set on another day.
I did manage to kill another jackrabbit and a rattle snake that was on the road. I kept the rattle from the tip of the tail, 8 full rattles and a button.

Day 5 proved to be a great day. We returned to the ridge of 3 monsters and they were all there. I played cat and mouse for hours, close was good, but really close would have been better. The best of the bunch moved South onto private land, he took the other 80"er with him and I was now after the remaining great buck. I worked into a valley and set up against a couple of yucca where the buck had passed a couple of times. The herd did a circular route around a ridge again and I got into position. 2 hours into the wait the herd started back up my valley, I was jacked! I sat watching as the herd moved into the bowl below me and bedded down. I was pinned against the yucca in the hot sun. A coyote moved up the valley and ventured too close... he took an arrow at 40 yards!

The goats finally rose and moved off again. I pursued the group slowly until they headed for the open sections North of me and the game was over. I had about 2 1/2 hours of season left here in New Mexico. I had been able to chase 7 or 8 animals that would have gross scored 80ish or better with at least one of them big enough to net B&C for sure. I had a great hunt and was actually very happy with the week. I walked back to the truck, I needed a fresh bottle of water, my hydration pack was empty
"It sure would be nice if you got an antelope, you deserve one" was Foy's only statement as he started the truck. We drove about 3 sections over and as we got very close to the end of the BLM land I spotted a nice buck close to the road. "He is good enough" I blurted and we turned around at the first sheltered area. We approached the buck, who had moved off a couple of hundred yards, I waited until I was sheltered by yucca and I bailed out of the door. I waited until the truck was out of site of me and I started speed crawling. I located the buck about 300 yards ahead in a small bowl, he was standing looking at the truck, now parked about a mile away on the next ridge. I kept yucca plants between us and low walked and crawled up to 31 yards from the buck. The Rage 2 blade head did it's job and I was able to recover the 15" buck with about an hour remaining on the last day of the hunt! We took tons of pictures and loaded the buck as rain clouds moved in, the lightning was incredible in that high mountain area.

I hunted with Foy, guide for Jess Rankin of West Tex/New Mex Outfitters, I loved it and will be there again next year, chasing one of those monster antelope bucks!