As most of you know we had quite a few sucky winters so
the antelope season was canceled for I believe four years. The winters from
2008-10 really took a toll on the number of animals in western North Dakota. It
took a while for them to rebound to get back to a huntable number. The antelope
season opened back up in 2014. When the seasons opened up again I started
applying for a tag. I believe it took me five years and five points to receive
a tag. 2019 was my year.
I applied for the unit I knew I would have the best
chance of knowing landowners. My friends and their relatives either live in
this unit or right next to it. There were only 50 tags available in the unit I
applied for and probably three quarters of those tags went to landowners. I
played the reverse psychology and applied for this unit thinking not many other
non-landowners would apply. My theory worked, at least this time.
My buddy Lucas and his wife Jaime live just a
quarter-mile into South Dakota just south of this unit. I wanted to get out
there all summer but decided to wait to see if I would either get a South
Dakota mule deer or antelope tag or a North Dakota antelope tag. Luckily my
plan worked and I drew a tag. So Lucas graciously said that I could stay at his
place during the hunt. So Lucas and Jaime's cousin JP hooked up the ramp for me
to get into their house. He and Jaime also took off a couple days of work to
help with the hunt and Luke was going to be my personal guide. They are the
definition of awesome friends. I am indebted. I brought them some Maple Valley
Meats bacon and pork chops plus some of my deer sausage I had made at the
locker but they deserve much more.
The season always starts on a Friday at noon. In 2019 it
started on October 4 at 11 AM because I was in Mountain Time zone. I decided to
head out on October 2 to get there at least a day early to do some scouting
before the season open. It was a good thing we took off early. We left on that
Wednesday and headed west for the 6 hour road trip. We were making good time with
the wind to our back heading down I 94. It started raining around Bismarck and
then that rain turned to snow around New Salem. The snow got heavy and wet by
Richardton. By this time my mom's knuckles were white. She is a chicken shit
when it comes to driving in any weather. So we made the decision to get a room
in Dickinson and head to my friends south of Scranton in the morning.
When we left in the morning the fog was thick. We
couldn't see much of anything besides the lines on the road heading south from
Dickinson. By the time we hit New England the fog was starting to lift and the
sun was peeking through. There were still signs of snow from the night before
but it was melting quickly. We saw the first antelope just west of New England
by the Big Muddy Butte. This was just west of where I hunted in 2009.
My friends live just in to South Dakota south of Scranton
on the Stateline Road. This area has gotten a lot of moisture this year. They
are not used to it. There is water standing in places that they have never seen
it. My friend Lucas told me to call him when we got through Scranton and he
would meet us on the Stateline Road because the gravel roads sucked. He knew my
mom didn't like mud. It was a good thing he met us. It was like a Baja. Mud
runs around here have nothing on the roads out there.
I believe we got to their house around 10:30 AM. We got
all of the stuff out of the pickup, settled into our rooms and I tilted back in
my chair for my allotted ten minutes per hour. After I was done tilting Luke
and I decided to do some scouting. The roads were sloppy but we were able to
get around with my 2017 GMC Sierra 2500 4 x 4. It didn't take us long to find
some antelope. The best part about it was it was on land that I could hunt.
There were actually no posted signs on this stuff so it was open for everyone
to hunt. We put on quite a few miles when Lucas decided to call up one of his
friends and landowners to see if he wanted to scout with us. His name is Eddie.
He is neat. He hopped in the back seat and we took off from his house. He showed
us quite a few locations where we could hunt, he also called landowners and
asked them permission for us. Eddie and his wife Rauna are good people.
After driving around for about three or four hours we
figured we had enough intel to go into tomorrow with a good plan of attack. The
amount of land and the number of animals on those pieces of land that was
available for me to hunt was unbelievable. When we got back Luke and Jaime's
house it was time for me to lie down for a couple hours. I am still on time
limit for being in the chair and I knew that night was going to be long. You
see they were throwing a going away party for one of their friends who was
going back to the East Coast after a couple weeks vacation back home in the
Scranton area. People started coming to the house around 5:30 PM. I was visited
in my room while I was lying down by two of the youngsters. Evidently the Wii
is in the room I was staying and I was on their turf. They were neat.
It was a grand party. There was enough food for
thrashers. Seven layer dip, chicken drummies, garlic toast, zucchini bars,
pickles, meats plus a lot of others that I am forgetting. The libations were
flowing and the laughs were plenty. It was a great time. It was a great bunch
of people. About the time I thought about going to bed someone said we should
all play Heads Up. It is kind of like charades. I sucked. But it was
entertaining. I think I went to bed around midnight. I was a good boy. The
others partied until around 2 AM. I was glad I went to bed early. Because I
woke up early thinking about the days hunt.
I got in the chair around 9:30 AM, had some seven layer
taco dip for breakfast and Lucas and I got ready to head out. Doing the night I
could hear that the wind had picked up. It was fuck windy. I believe the winds were
around 25 mph gusting over 30. The wind was out of the southeast on that Friday
opener. We were on our way over to pick up Eddie with his antelope decoy when
we spotted some different antelope on the way. The good thing was it was on
Eddie's land with some school land right next to it.
We made it down a mile long grass prairie road below a
big hill in the pickup before we made our plan. Eddie would walk a quarter-mile
to the south with his decoy and set it up while Lucas and I would work our way
to the west hoping that the decoy would entice the buck away from the group of
about 15 does. Man it was windy. I had three layers on and I was already
starting to get cold only being out of the vehicle for about 20 minutes. As
Eddie got to the top of the hill we could see him looking around. Somehow the
herd got spooked and took off. It was disappointing but we learned some things
right away. Lucas learned how to attach my rifle mount to my chair and attach
the trigger to my rifle very quickly. We also learned that the wind sucked.
We hopped back in the pickup and made our way to some
more land we knew there were some goats on. The pickup felt like a sauna. It
was great. The temperature outside wasn't too cold but 45° with a 30 mph wind
bites through a guy. At least the sun was out.
We found another herd that was in the same spot they were
the day before. The best part about the land they were on was there was a bunch
of alfalfa bales in the field. We could use these to our advantage. The group
of goats were of course in the middle of the section on top of a little knoll.
They could see forever in any direction pretty much. Our only hope was to come
from the east using the bales as a shield from their vision. There was probably
close to 20 animals in this group. That is a lot of eyes to not get spotted by.
This herd had been not moving all day but they were starting to work their way
to the east. We just needed to intercept them with my .243.
We made a plan and we set it into motion. Lucas drove
into the ditch and found a spot where it was nice and level so that I could get
out of the pickup easily with the wheelchair in the soft conditions. When Lucas
was attaching all of my gear to my wheelchair, Eddie hopped in my pickup and
headed north so the antelope wouldn't have their attention on Lucas and me. It
worked perfectly. They had no clue there was a lucky boy in a wheelchair
waiting to ambush them. We just needed to get into a good location behind a
bale before they came over the hill. And we did.
The first time the 13 inch buck came cresting the hill he
was skylined. He was beautiful but I didn't take that shot because I didn't
know what was on the other side of the hill. He was just over 200 yards when he
was coming over the hill broadside. It would have been a perfect shot if there
was a backstop because I have my rifle zeroed in at 200 yards. As he moved
farther south and gave me a backstop for my bullet, he kept going in and out of
the other antelope. No clean shot. They were continuously moving south and soon
they were all going into a saddle and out of sight. I looked over at Lucas and
he said, "Do you think we can make it over to that other bale before they
can see us?" I said, "Let's do it." So Luke grabbed my rifle and
rifle mount and I kicked my motorized scooter into high gear across the alfalfa
field looking out for badger holes and gopher mounds on the way.
I couldn't believe we made it to the alfalfa bale that we
needed to get to before they could get to where they could see us. As soon as
we got into position Luke replaced my rifle cradle and rifle into my rifle
mount that attaches to my chair and took off the safety. It worked perfectly.
First a couple does walked by then I could see two distinct 13 inch black horns
appearing through the alfalfa stubble. He took a few more steps and he was
perfectly broadside at 100 yards. I lined up my scope a little behind the
shoulder as he was facing south and I pulled on the trigger. Nothing happened.
There was no bang. I looked down at Lucas who was sitting behind the bale to my
right and he looked at me with a confused look. I looked back down at my
trigger and pushed it forward to pull it back again. I lined up on the buck one
more time and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened again. Lucas got up and
jacked the action open and the bullet was still in the chamber. He grabbed the
rifle from the cradle and got the bullet out of the chamber. He then punched
the magazine back into the rifle and jacked in another bullet. By this time the
herd was another 50 yards to the south. By the time we got the rifle strapped
in they were trotting at around 200 yards now heading east as I was looking south.
By the time I got my scope on him he was at 300 yards and starting to run. I
had him in my scope so I pulled the trigger but it was a clean miss. That
reminds me of this Clintism: "A bad hit is a lot worse than a clean miss."
I had our target buck in my scope at least three
different times within a half hour or so and couldn't close the deal. I thought
to myself, what just happened. I had the perfect shot at 100 yards and my rifle
did not fire. After years of waiting I had a perfect 100 yard shot and my rifle
failed me. Frustration set in and there was some F bombs flying from both of
us. Was it the bullet or was my action on my rifle not all the way shut. I
probably shouldn't have taken that 300 yard running shot but it was mostly in
frustration that I let it fly. Not a very good excuse. But at least it was a
clean miss. The whole herd ran to the east onto some land that I did not have
permission to hunt. By this time Eddie, who was about a half-mile away watching
with his binoculars was pulling up beside us. He was wondering what went wrong.
He thought maybe he spooked them by pulling up in the pickup too quick. I
assured him it had nothing to do with him. It was all me and my equipment. I
know I heard that action slam shut. But my Remington model 7400 failed me. That
sucked.
After talking about what happened we drove around for a
little bit more and dropped Eddie off back at his house. I think we were all
frustrated. I know I was. But we were not deterred. We checked out some more
spots on the way back to the house and devised a couple more plans for the next
day. Lucas made a feast that night. Stuffed pork chops, baked potatoes and
creamed corn. I was almost too full not to have a cocktail. But I choked a
couple down. We actually went to bed early that night. I was whupped.
There was a chance of rain overnight and wouldn't you
know it I started to hear it starting to rain around 2 AM. It rained for quite
a while as I could hear it pounding on my north window. This rain was not
needed. It was not a good thing. Luke knew that we were not going to be able to
go to places that we needed to. Knowing this we were not to motivated to get
out too early. But I think we were on the sloppy muddy roads before 9 AM. The
Stateline Road which is usually good was completely crap. We hopped on the
highway headed toward Scranton and then jumped off on another so-called gravel
road. The roads would've been better but they decided to grade them on Friday
afternoon. This made them really really soft. It was a quagmire. I remember we
wanted to turn north to check out a couple groups of goats we had seen and I
knew this road wasn't going to be good. This road had two big hills and was
minimal maintenance. Or at least it looked like it. I couldn't believe we made
it up the first hill. The pickup was of course in four-wheel-drive and we were
going pretty much sideways up the hill. The back tires were in the ditch and the
front tires were trying to keep us on the road. Once we got to the top I looked
at the next hill and I thought this isn't going to be good. But we made it. The
mud was flying. It was entertaining. The pickup got a good douching of mud. I
also learned on this voyage that the tires on my pickup suck for these type of
conditions.
I was glad we went down this road not just for the
entertainment. We found another group of antelope but they were in the middle
of the section and there was no way to get to them. There was one big boy in
this group. Probably 15 incher or so. But he knew he was safe where he was. We
also saw quite a few mule deer on this road and we also saw a dandy whitetail
buck struggling to run across the wet muddy fields. We knew if the deer were
struggling there was no way I was going to be able to get into any of the
fields to shoot. The only way I was going to be able to get out of the vehicle
somewhere was on a road and that isn't very good idea. The one thing we needed
was wind and wouldn't you know it, it was gusting again over 30 mph. Hopefully
that would dry things out just enough for it to be doable with my wheelchair in
the afternoon.
During our scouting mission in the morning we found the
same group that I screwed up on the day before were on the same section of
land. The only problem was there was another pickup eyeballing the same group
of animals that we were. Only one of two guys had a tag and that was the only
guy we saw hunting antelope while we were hunting. We actually saw more grouse hunters.
They were older gentleman and we talked to them a little bit the day before.
They actually made a move on this group but didn't take any shots. We also
checked out some different parcels of land that we had permission to hunt on.
We found one huge group closer to Bowman that probably numbered around 40
animals. But this group was surrounded by crap roads and muddy fields. They
were a no go. We went into town, got some gasoline and some supplies then
headed back to the house to watch the Bison game to let the roads dry out some
more.
After the game Jaime decided to come along with us for
the afternoon hunt. She said she was going to record the events. It was a good
thing she came along not just for the company and photography skills but you
will find out why.
We made our way to the same section of land that we tried
hunting the day before and that we drove by earlier in the day. Luck was on our
side and the group of antelope were in the same general area. They were just a
little bit to the west of where they were earlier in the day. But this might
work to our advantage. From where they were they couldn't see us if we came
from the north on a grass prairie road. This road was wet. The mud was flying
and we were going sideways most the time. Good stuff. We made it to about as
far as we needed to in order to have a good spot for me to get out of the
pickup. Lucas got all my stuff attached to my chair and all three of us started
the sneak. Lucas and I were in front and Jaime was in the back recording stuff
and things.
We needed to sneak along a fence line for about 200 yards
or so. When we got to the spot where we could see them I couldn't get my scope
on the buck. He was probably 300 yards out at that time, working his way closer
towards the big group of goats. The wind was gusting. I had my scope on him a
couple times but with the wind blowing the way it was and him moving constantly
I just couldn't get everything lined up to take the shot. We moved closer and
got into a better position but I still wasn't able to get everything lined up
in time before he was too far away. The good thing was that he caught up with
the 15 or so females and the two satellite bucks. It was another failed sneak but
well worth it.
We decided to turn back and work our way back to the
pickup. I was cold. The wind was howling and evidently my layers of clothing
weren't enough. I was making ruts with my wheelchair through the alfalfa field
all the way back to the pickup. But somehow I made it. I wish I had 4-dig on my
motorized cart. Once we got back to the pickup I had Lucas crank my heat up to
high. He was sweating and I was freezing. We made our way back out of the
swampy quagmire onto the highway to get a better vantage point of where the
group of goats went to. We stopped in an approach and glassed them for a little
while. The good thing was that they were going back to the same spot they were
the day before but the bad thing was that I was still freezing. Lucas and Jaime
convinced me to do one more sneak before we headed back to the house. I was
glad they did.
 |
| Just some of the ruts I left behind. |
We went back to the exact same spot we were the day before. But this time Lucas, Jaime and I were going to make the sneak. We left the pickup in the same spot we parked the day before but this time we were going to leave it there. Lucas got everything attached to my wheelchair and the sneak was on. We probably needed to make the distance of 300 yards without getting seen and for some reason it worked. But it only worked because of teamwork. The field was muddy and I was sinking in with my wheelchair. Lucas had my rifle and rifle cradle in his hands and Jaime pushed my wheelchair. My chair was losing a lot of power trying to maneuver through the soft alfalfa field. But somehow everything worked perfectly and we made it to where we need to be. We went from bale to bale making sure we didn't get busted by one of their wondering beady eyes. I got onto the south side of one of the bales and tried getting the 13 incher in my scope. But it was tough with the wind, females were also in the way and as I was trying to turn my chair in the soft field. Mr. Goat wouldn't stop moving. He kept drifting and drifting. I would whisper to Lucas and he would reach over and pull my chair because my chair was not able to turn. As soon as I would get on him and ready to pull the trigger he would move farther. There was at least another two or three times that I was on him and just couldn't get lined up in time. We were close. We were less than 100 yards from him. It would have been an easy shot if I could've gotten on him. But it didn't happen. Eventually one of the females spotted us and the whole herd took off to the west.
It was discouraging but it was fun. I couldn't believe we
got that close to the whole group twice within an hour. They had no clue we
were there. Evidently I am like a ninja in my wheelchair. Stealthy is me. We
discussed the events that just took place and started our way back to the
pickup. Good thing it was downhill, I didn't need to push this time. I gave it
the onion and made it back to the pickup in no time. I think it was so windy
that it even pushed me. We got everything off of my wheelchair and packed into
the pickup. By this time I think my core temperature was below the healthy
level. But on our way back we spotted three bucks on land we knew we could hunt
so this warmed me up in a hurry.
I knew this was going to be the last chance of the
evening. It was maybe the last chance of the weekend to wrap my tag around a
horn. Once again we pulled over in an approach and got my rifle rig hooked back
onto my wheelchair. There was one problem though, we were close to the landowner’s
farmstead and we didn't want to shoot that close. Lucas got on the cell phone
and tried getting a hold of him. But there was no dice. He called a couple
times and there was no answer. But as luck should have it the animals move
farther away from the farmstead. We had Jaime hop in the pickup and distract
the goats from our position. As she was driving away we could see another group
of at least 30 goats get up from a hayfield and the three that we were looking
at joined them. They were gone in a second. The landowner called back later and
said that it would have been okay to shoot that close to his place. But I was
glad we didn't before we asked.
We got everything loaded back into the pickup for the
third or fourth time that day. By this time the sun was getting low so we
started heading back to the house. I was beat. Traveling takes a lot out of me
and being outside in that cold wind with the fresh air just drains me. They
asked if I wanted to go hunting in the morning and I said I would let them
know. In my brain I wanted to but my body said no. Hunting in the morning and
then a 6 hour road trip home would have been too much.
We had another feast that night. We dined on grilled burgers,
Jaime's hash browns and homemade pickles. Of course there were some libations
also. Everybody was beat. I think Lucas was snoring in his recliner by 9:30 PM and
Jaime retired to their bedroom about the same time. I watched baseball for a
bit and texted buddies who also had tags in the unit to the west. When my head
hit the pillow about 10:30 PM I think I was instantly KO'd. I was worn out from
the two days of hunting and one day of travel.
I woke up to the sound of Lucas in the kitchen. The night
before he asked me what I wanted for breakfast. I didn't have anything in
particular in mind so he decided to make a biscuit and gravy with pork sausage egg
bake. Holy shinto was that good. As I was eating my breakfast I could hear the
wind outside howling again. Today, Sunday was the worst wind of the three days.
It was a stinging wind. I knew I wasn't going to hunt in that and made the
decision that we were going to head home after breakfast.
The whole trip was a grand time. Everything about it was
perfect. I can't thank Jaime and Lucas enough for their hospitality and good
times. I can't thank Eddie and the other landowners enough for their generosity
of letting me hunt on their land. I was treated like a king and I also ate like
it. I don't know if I will make back out there to try and punch my tag, but if
I don't it won't bother me. Because this hunt was awesome. It was perfect. The
old cliché is true. It's about the hunt, it's not about the kill.
I just love that country out there. I love the wide open
spaces. We saw a lot of animals and had a great time. I think we saw at least
90 head of antelope within a 20 mile radius. We saw a lot of mule deer and some
whitetails. There was also of course a lot of pheasants and plenty of grouse.
It's always good to see that much wildlife. Hopefully the storm this weekend
doesn't hurt them that bad. I know one thing, I won't be traveling west this
weekend.
I have learned some stuff and things about hunting
antelope. They are a very skittish animal. They might get spooked and run a
mile. But they are also very inquisitive. I have heard stories of them charging
a decoy from a long distance away. I think I thought this hunt was going to be
easier than it was. The conditions were tough. When I hunted antelope in
Wyoming in 2013 with the Helluva Hunt group I was done hunting within an hour
of legal shooting time. The first goat I saw with horns was in the shaggin
wagon after two shots. But this year's hunt was a lot more rewarding. It was
more challenging. I like having to earn it.
Thanks for reading, Clint.
Clintism #42: Failed hunts are palatable because of the
knowledge gained and the defeats experienced.
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