WY Antelope Hunt

[Thunderflight]

This story actually began in 2008 when Bill Allard from bowsite.com offered to take a few bowsiters on a WY antelope hunt. I was actually supposed to go last year, but I had to choose between elk hunting ID or pronghorn hunting WY and I chose elk. In January of this year, and after 5 years of building preference points, I finally dropped the $$$ for my WY speed goat tag. In june/july I recieved my much anticipated tag in the mail and later purchased my archery and habitat stamp. A few months later and literally HOURs after my USMC retirement ceremony I was on a Delta flight to Salt Lake City to begin my adventure.

 

[Thunderflight]

Shortly after arriving in SLC, Bill and I met up near Parley Pass on I-80. Two hours later we were at camp. After a few hours of driving and checking out blinds and tuning equipment bill and I retired back to camp. The next morning around 0400 we left to hunt a blind called "Holy Water". Water hole sitting is the BOMB if it's 90+, hot, and there isn't anywater, but that wasn't the case during this hunt. The outside temps were in the mid 60's, it was drizzling, and had rained several times that week making water hole hunting difficult. After Sitting from 0600 to 1300 and only seeing one goat that was over a mile a way we decided it was time to pursue other methods of hunting.

 

[Thunderflight]

The area we hunted is checkered with public and private land. I had permission to hunt the private land as well as public. On several occasions I tried to put the moves on a bedded goat only to be spotted and humiliated by my quarry running away, laughing, and making snide comments about inept NR hunters. However, persistance paid off and finally one goat allowed me to within 43 yards....... TBC.

 

[Thunderflight]

Sorry for not getting back sooner. I'm in the middle of packing my house and moving.

Anyway, just a few years ago I would have never considered taking a 40+ yard shot on an animal the size of a deer or pronghorn. After shooting only trad for almost 10 years I guess I developed good form and found it almost child's place to a razor tipped arrow in the kill zone out to 55 yards. After ranging my goat I drew back, aimed, and shot. However, just as I shot he started walking and my well placed arrow ended up hitting him high in the ham. I horror I watched him take off like the Mellinenum Falcon jumping into Hyper Drive. If you have never seen an antelope run then you have no ideal how fast these animals are. I actually paced a fawn running in my car at 40 mph for over 1/4 mile. An adult is even faster.

After a bit we found blood and LOTS of it. The trail was supper easy to follow and actually got better as time went on. I've never seen a meat shot animal bleed like this so I suspected that my arrow had also hit his lower intestine. This was confirmed about 3/4 of a mile later when we found where he had defecated also excreted a very large amount of blood.

There are dirt roads and two tracks all over this country so we marked the last spot and I ran back to the truck to bring it closer (this way we wouldn't have to drag a dead goat 6 miles back to the car and it gave him more time). A short time later I picked up Bill and started to head down to where we thought the goat might have been. As I mentioned Bill is probably the best hunter I have ever met. At 75 he has hunted sheep, moose, goats, elk, deer, bears, and just about every other animal in North America. he's the real deal, a true mountain man, who lives for back pack hunts in hard to reach places and has tails from previous adventures that read like an article from Field and Stream magazine.

Bill recommended that we park my jeep and glass a small depression in the terrain (the direction my goat was headed) to see if he had bedded up. Guess what, not two minutes into glassing I found him 230 yards away staring right at me.

 

[Thunderflight]

We decided to park the car and just watch him. Over the course of the next 5 hours we watched him. Twice he stood up waivering as if he was about to fall over and several times he put his head down as if he was starting to succumb. Our plan was to wait until 1800 when I'd sneak around and try to come from behind him and put a finishing shot into him, BUT at 1730 he stood up and started walking off away from us.....

Even Bill was shocked because we both thought he was just about done. At this point I'm feeling the weight of hopelessness and guilt when Bill says "Chuck if you want that goat you are going to have to run him down". The theroy is that he's hurt bad, going to die anyway, but if I push him I might speed up the process that much quicker. As I'm chasing him, Bill would drive down to try and put pressure on him from the other direction.

For those of you who don't know this year I'm not in the "shape" I normally am. Over the past 12 months I've dealt with back issues, shoulder problems, knee surgery, and an irregular heart beat (28 years in the Marine Corps is rough on your body). I'm not in horrible shape, but nothing compared to what I usually am. Regardless, I'm responsible for wounding this animal and its my duty to suck it up and finish the deed.

So, off I go, jogging through the high desert at 6500 ft, in soft sand, jumping sage brush chasing an animal that is easily 10X faster that me. However, he's hit BAD and can only gallop along as pace still much quicker than mine. After about a mile the goat is back to the area I shot him, Bill is in the truck heading that way, I'm 150 yards behind him, he stops....... You could almost see the wheels turning in his head as his escape options are lessening.....

Just then in one last bust of energy the goat explodes and sprints 100 yards, jumping off a 300 foot shale cliff!!!!

 

[Thunderflight]

Luckly the cliff wasn't a straight drop down. It was steep, but one could easily slide down the 70 degree angle covered in loose rock. Disgusted Bill and I watched him slowly, and I mean slowly walk off. I figured this was it and that he was going to be fine, but Bill was confident that pushing him and his last ditch jump would do him in. The buck only walked 100 yards more and then bedded up again. As soon as he did that Bill looked at me and said "come back in the morning and he'll be right there".

Honestly I was skeptical. Even if he was there the coyotes would surely get him, but luckily this area doesn't have the concentration of coyotes normally found in western states. After a long night I was at the cliff just as the sun rose from the East. Expecting the worse, I raised my Luepold Arcadia 10x42 binos and RIGHT where we left him was my buck; dead.

Now the problem..... How do I get to him. Going down the cliff would normally be an option for me, but my knee and back make that option very risky. I can see what appears to be a two track that gets to about 200 yards from my goat, but I can't figure out how to get to it. The road isn't on the map and after 20 minutes or so of looking for it I decided to suck it up and hike the mile (from the nearest road) and get him.

 

[Thunderflight]

So, I grab all my gear for quartering an animal (knives, tarp, trash bags, etc) and make the 20 minute hike. When I found him I was relieved that no coyotes had found him and amazed at just how small body wise the pronghorn was. If I had to compare them to a whitetail I'd say they are the size of a two year old doe. My buck was obviously mature and honestly way bigger than I had remembered, but then again I only glanced at his horns once before focusing on making the shot.

I tried to adjust him for pictures, but every time I grabbed his hair it would slip. Figuring he was rotten I texted Bill who told me that antelope hair is very brittal (sp?) and it's probably just breaking off. Once again he was correct because when I caped him it was obvious that the meat was still good and the cape was fine. If I had to guess I say he had only been dead a few ours as his meat was still warm with no smell, bloating, or discoloration. That night the temp also got down to the mid 40's which I assume helped.

So after about an hour of prep work I quartered and caped him and began the hike back to the truck. I didn't have a pack frame so I tied the cape onto my Sitka Ascent pack and rolled the meat into the tarp and put it across my shoulders. The hike back sucked but it was rewarding knowing that I stuck with it, recovered the animal, and would be able to make use of the resources he gave me.

The rest of the time I spent hiking and exploring. Delta was a gracious enough to get me flight out sooner at a fair price and I returned home to PA three days early.

I'm going to do this hunt again, probably in four to five years. There are goats everywhere and if you are ever interested in hunting WY I'd me more than willing to give you some pointers and suggest a few places. I have to admit that I have this "thing" for the western states. I'm seriously thinking of hanging out here until my daughter is out of high school or maybe college and moving to Utah. I can get a job doing what I do at Hill AFB and living in Utah literally puts me in the center of everything I love; elk, mountains, snow skiiing, mule deer, hiking, antelope, etc..... I guess we'll see what the good lord has in store for us.....

 

[Thunderflight]

I have to resize all my pictures. Once I do I'll post a few.

 

[JPN]

nice job!

 

[brock ratcliff]

Enjoyed the read, Chuck! It's always an adventure just reading your stories, must be great to live them!

 

[Ricer2231]

Awesome story. Great read. Congrats!

 

[Bigslam51]

Cool story, sounds like a lot of fun!

 

[Boarhead]

Great story sounds like it was a great trip.

 

[Geezer II]

Hay Chuck - congrats on a great hunt and story - dang