The weatherman got it right for a change. I woke up to howling wind, but the temp felt a lot cooler as a front pushed through last night. I was out before daylight, and found a few goats at the first place I hunted. One was a pretty nice buck, and was in a place that he could be stalked. The problem was his two girlfriends between me and him. I got to a place where the odds were high that they would bust me, so I waited for a while before peeking over a bump in the earth. Guess what was staring at me; yep, the does had me busted, and of course ran right to the buck, leaving me very lonely. Antelope 1, Me 0.
As the sun rose, the smoke from fires in Idaho made the scene somewhat surreal.
Even the irrigation canal looked like it was ablaze.
Having worn out my welcome at the first location, I went to another spot, and didn't get far before I spied a buck feeding, alone. With no does around, I figured I would give it a shot, and as I snuck to within about 80 yards of him, he bedded down. His bed was on open and flat ground, where approaching any closer was not possible, so I hunkered down and waited for him to make his move. After about an hour, he got up, stretched, and started feeding, but not in my direction. I was pretty helpless at that point, and couldn't do much more than watch as he fed out into a big open area. He never saw me, and I did get one picture of him as he left.
All in all, it was a fun morning, and I didn't have to gut anything.