At 10 yards from the edge of this cliff we crouch as low as we can and approach the drop off. The last few yards, Chuck signals me to hold up, and he belly crawls towards the rim and peers over the edge. He looks left and right. A few times. Then backs up back to my location a few feet behind him. He tells me the buck had moved since he last glassed him, and that hes about 10 yards towards are right, a little bit higher up on the hillside. Great...let's throw a few more feet in on the distance.
Again, Chuck belly crawls to the edge, looks over, then backs up and rolls over on his back and gives me the Thumbs Up and whispers, "Raise up and kill him."
Sounds simple right? Raise up and kill him.
I began to step towards the edge as I raised up a little to see the antelope. As soon as his head came into view I froze. Afraid to move. I'd always been told that if you see an antelopes eyes, hes gonna see you.
"Kill him." Chuck whispered again.
At that moment, 3 feet from a 30+ plus yard drop, I was more afraid of being seen by this animal than falling to my death.
I took another slow step towards the rim, brought my bow up and bent at my waist as I drew my recurve slowly, and counting off my shot sequence.
I tend to be more accurate if I hold at anchor for about 2 seconds. Maybe more. But about half way thru my draw, the bucks head turns and looks up at me. I knew my release was gonna have to be touch and go this time. That buck wasnt gonna let me get away with a solid anchor. He didnt care about my accuracy.
As soon as I hit anchor, the string slipped off my tab. This was now a race between man-made creations of carbon and steel, and the fastest land mammal in North America; and 2nd fastest in the world.
In a split second the buck levitates up and forward as I watch my arrow descent towards him. I watch as my arrow disappears fletch and all into his ham as easily as youd push a toothpick into butter. My stomach suddenly feels like it had a huge rock in it. The buck does a 180 spin and heads the opposite way into the sage bowl. I lowered my bow arm and looked at Chuck.
I'm paraphrasing here. There was a lot more curse words involved, but basically I said "Chuck...I just shot him in the butt."
Chuck says "That's excellent! That's a great hit!"
I look back at the antelope and expected him to be out of sight, but the buck had slowed to a stop after only 40 yards, and stopped in a small gully. He turned slowly, revealing a huge patch of blood on his hindquarter, blood draining off his leg like it had been poured out of a bottle onto him. He wobbled, then collapsed. From me drawing the bow to the antelope falling over had taken less than 15 seconds.
I had always heard that the rear legs of antelope were so highly vascularized that even a small wound would result in massive blood loss.
My bow hit the dirt, and I grabbed Chuck up and bearhugged him. Then I sat down on the dirt and laid back with my face in my hands. Even right now I couldnt tell you what I was doing..but it was somewhere between maniacal laughter and a sob.
After I settled down, I told Chuck about all the stories I've read with guys like Chuck Adam's and Fred Asbell. Getting above bedded animals and either waiting for them to stand, or having to send an arrow down at steep angles in their beds. They made it sound so easy. Now I know what it's like to do that.
Hell, I just wanted to come to Wyoming and wouldve been happy to just shoot one at a water hole. Didnt have to get my fear of heights all involved.
The top of the cliff looking at the antelope way down there in a narrow gully. May be hard to see the antelope laying there, but the view was too nice to pass up a pic.
Topic: 1st antelope hunt or Great Plains on the Great Plains. (Read 5668 times)
