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| Antelope with a Bow; A Fine and Worthy Challenge |
| By Jon Mitzel | 04/30/07 |
| Taking advantage of the pronghorn's natural curiousity, combined with the rut, you can get pretty darn close to a buck. |
When hunting the prairie pronghorn with a bow, the thought of the challenge can be disheartening. The objective of getting close to a big game animal on endless terrain that’s often flat with short grass, no place to hide, pursuing an animal that’s been aptly blessed with survival talent, well, it can be discouraging. But the joy of success lies in direct proportion to the difficulty.
There are ways to increase your chances when attempting to arrow a prairie speedster. Here are some tactics that have helped us arrow antelope and build outdoor memories. We started from scratch, not having any idea of how to hunt these great creatures. But experience has allowed us to learn.
1. It’s important to match the color of your clothing to the terrain. In our prairie scenery, antelope roam areas where there’s often sage, and since the season occurs during the fall, most grasses are brown. A lighter camo clothing works best to blend you into your surroundings. Colors like light gray, brown or tan are ideal. Forget the stuff you wear when hiding in a stubble field or duck blind. Lighter colors are best.
2. Most antelope are taken by water-hole-hunting, which is managed by locating a specific hole that’s frequented often. In this drought, those spots may now be hard to locate, but they’ll be more valuable than ever. Hunting from a blind here is imperative. It’s definitely a waiting game, but chances are good that your time spent will pay off.
Ideally, the best days for sitting in a blind by a waterhole are those really hot days. And keep in mind that you can plan or time movements of antelope, unlike white-tailed deer where high movement times are early morning, late evening and night. We’ve watched antelope water during all times of the day, but moreso the late evening hours when the sun is just above the horizon.
If you do plan to hunt by blind, it’s a good idea to have two people. Have one on watch and the other can rest or read. This is a waiting game and it can be boring much of the time, so a magazine is handy, as is a snack and plenty of water.
3. Stalking antelope is another successful method. There’re many things that can help you get close for a shot, and generally, 30 yards is the distance we try to achieve.
Most important is that the terrain needs to somehow allow you to sneak within that short distance. Things like dry creeks, bluffs, hills or whatever you can find are always helpful. Also, ideal stalking days have lots of wind, rain and overcast skies. All three reduce noise, scent and any movement you make.
4. Hunting while the antelope rut is in full swing greatly increases your chances of tagging an animal. It’s during this time that the antelope is most vulnerable. Antelope bucks spend their time guarding their harem and trying to ward off intruding satellite bucks, animals that spend much of their time a good distance away from a herd waiting for the ideal time to sneak in and steal a doe.
5. If you happen to see a satellite buck being run off, try to get between the dominate buck and his harem on the path in which he used to run-off the intruding buck. It’s quite common that when he exhausts himself and runs off the intruder, he’ll make his way back to the herd following his first route. This is an ideal time to have him walk right past you.
6. The decoy method also works very well, but the rut has to be going strong for them to commit to the decoy. With the decoy, you’re trying to mimic a smaller, horned, satellite buck attempting to steal a doe. The buck will become aggressive and try to charge the decoy and run you out of the area. When he reaches a safe shooting distance, you’ll want to draw back.
The majority of the time they’ll stand and stare at you. They’ll rarely dart off right away. Generally you’ve got several seconds to draw back and release an arrow.
When decoying, it’s important to get as close to the herd as you can before propping up the decoy. As a general rule we try to reach 100 yards and closer before propping up the fake.
Most of the time, bucks will charge the decoy from the tail-end. If there’re two guys in the field, have one work the decoy and the other 30 yards or so away on the tail-end of the decoy. Often, the buck will come in and be so fixated on the decoy he won’t see the other draw back.
7. Be prepared for anything. You can never fully predict what the animal is going to do or which way he’ll charge the decoy. I’ve heard from guys who’ve had bucks charge and ram the decoy, knocking them over and causing bruises and cuts. Just be ready for anything to happen. That’s what makes it such a great adventure. Remember, you’re in their territory at a time when they’re not fully aware of what’s going on around them because of the rut.
This is a drastic change from the environment of wetlands, CRP and fishing, but it’s a nice change. This hunt offers some great scenery of the western prairie and a once-a-year chance to enjoy it. I spend my trip hunting every second I can, waking up well before sunrise and hunting until the end of the day, making many stalks and decoy attempts. I walk several miles and see many great things, taking lots of pictures to capture the adventure.
I still haven’t encountered any rattlesnakes, though I know they’re out there. This year I’ll invest in some snake-proof boots, a wise investment I believe, if you plan on being in rattlesnake country.
Other than that, I’ll enjoy some great food, cooking my own breakfast and dinner. Food in the outdoors always tastes better. I don’t know why they call this “roughing it”, ‘cause it’s not. In fact, it’s a little piece of Heaven. • |
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