Wow! What a great evening. Vance and I have been taking it pretty easy with the antelope, looking over as many as possible each day, looking for a likely candidate.
So far we've seen some very nice bucks. Tonight we found one that deserved our attention so we suited up for a serious stalk.
As serious stalks on antelope often go, we found ourselves too far from the buck with zero cover and darkness coming on fast.
Instead of attempting the final push across open ground, we opted to leave the buck undisturbed for another day.... maybe tomorrow.
With each passing day, the antelope come closer to rut and we watched some of the preliminary chasing that signals the beginning of the crazy time for bucks.
They'll move more and more looking for does like bucks of all the other species. Couple that with the natural tendency for the animals in this area to start "drifting" toward winter range this time of year and we'll be seeing bucks tomorrow, the day after and for the next several weeks that we've never seen before.
Hunting pressure will also move them onto the ranch once the firearms season opens.
It will pay us to wait.
After we pulled away from the buck, I suggested to Vance that we find a place to set up and give my varmint call a try.
I didn't have to say it twice and Vance was tucking himself into a leafy willow nook overlooking half of the pasture. I quickly found my own hiding spot and proceded to do my rendition of the dying rabbit blues.
I don't think more than a couple of minutes went by from the time I blasted out the first notes of the call until I spotted a jackrabbit loping toward me. As he approached he suddenly veered back in the direction from which he had come. That's when a flash of movement to my right brought my attention to a large coyote bounding in toward me.
Considering where he came from there was a possibility that Vance hadn't seen him.
I raised my bow ever so slowly and the dog reacted away from my position. I started to draw the bow, but it was pretty hopeless as the coyote was now 50 yards away and leaving.
I'm always happy when anything responds to my calls. I've made a hell of a lot of dying rabbit noise in my life with very few resonses.
I relaxed a little as I watched the coyote go only to be surprised by a second yodeler coming past on the same course.
Caught flat footed again, the second dog reacted just as the first one had.
Thrilled beyond words, I watched the two departing dogs convinced it couldn't have worked out better.
That would be when the THIRD coyote came romping in.
(Cont. in the morning)
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Topic: The Way West...a bowhunting journey. (Read 53494 times)
