http://www2.snapfish.com/share/p=723161239905875455/l=672544014/g=88767098/cobrandOid=1000131/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB
For our 2008 doe Pronghorn antelope hunt, we chose to do the “Ranching for Wildlife” program offered through the Colorado Division of Wildlife. In this program, private ranches offer tags to the public for hunting in exchange for extra tags for their land that they can sell in “hunt packages” etc. We chose to apply at the Blue Gravel Ranch north of Craig, CO., for the season that runs from September 6th – 10th. Matt Cosley, Mike Finch, and I were in the hunting party.
We left Friday afternoon to get to Craig. Although only a 4-hour drive, we had to go through Hot Sulphur Springs (between Winter Park and Kremling) and stop at the DOW office to pick up a reissue tag for Mike. He had put his antelope tag in a really safe place. So safe that he couldn’t find it before we left. Then, after an otherwise uneventful drive to Craig (the trees, though, in Grand County and across a large swath of land are being affected by Pine Beetle kill) we arrive at the dingy Super 8. I suspect that the owners are extracting as much money from the hotel as they can, deferring maintenance, and when the condition of the hotel impacts their ability to fill it on a regular basis, they will just turn it back over to the corporate office and go buy another hotel and do the same. However, they did have all varieties of HBO, so we sat back and watched Office Space before we went to dinner. Oh yeah, we were roughing it. It was so bad that we couldn't even shower. There was, what appeared to be, black mold on the ceiling in the bathroom above the shower. We go have dinner and fill the coolers with ice in preparation. Before we turn in, we watch 300. Nothing like that to get your blood pumping.
The next morning, we were supposed to check in at 7:00 AM at the Elkhorn outfitters (Blue Gravel) office. We decided to get there a little early so we could get a jump on the other hunters. At 6:45, they opened the doors, and Matt, Mike, and I checked in, signed the waivers (so that we wouldn't hold them accountable if I cut my leg open), etc. Then we were off - north on Highway 13 out of Craig to a left turn on County Road 103, then a right on 89. As soon as we pulled in I recognized that this was the area where Kaoru and I had gotten an elk a few years previous.
After we drove onto the property, we saw that some of the guest hunters had camped on the property, were already out, and dragging antelope back to the road. But, we weren't worried - there's always enough antelope to be had.
An interesting thing about these antelope hunts is that some hunters like to do some close-in hunting - i.e., they'll see a herd of antelope close to the road, get out and walk the legal distance from the road, and shoot one. However, if the herd requires considerable walking, they'll just continue driving until they see a closer herd. It's convenient to do it this way, but, it's more 'shooting' than 'hunting'.
What we do is more of a spot and stalk. Although an antelope hunt is typically an 'easy' hunt, we don't necessarily need to make it that easy. So, we drive along, and we spot a herd about 700 yards from the road, in plain view. There are other hunters on the road looking at that same herd. However, none of them are getting out of their trucks. Of course not - they want something within 100 yards of the road. So we get out, get our gear, and start to go after them. However, there's no approach vector to remain hidden - they can see us coming as plain as day. They are on a hillside opposite us. We walk down the hill towards them, and they start running up the hill they're on. Not surprising. Often, we can typically spot a herd, start after them, and they'll go over the next ridge, where we can sneak up the ridge and pop over the top, and usually they're in range. So, we get to the bottom of the hill, and there's a fence we need to hop to get closer to them. We lay our rifles on the wire to get a solid rest, and Mike ranges them at over 400 yards. I know that the bullet drop for a 30.06 at 400 yards with my bullets is between 20 and 26 inches. I'm not going to take an unethical shot at an antelope when I know there's going to be more opportunities later. The bullet has enough power to put it down, but I don't have built-in crosshairs at given distances in my scope. But, Mike, with his 7mm mag, doesn't have as much bullet drop at that (400 to 450 yards) distance, and takes a shot. He hits it, and the other antelope run away. It's probably about 7:10.
Matt and I decide to go after the herd, and Mike starts walking to start taking care of his downed antelope. Matt and I go down the road a little ways and get out where we think they might be. We haven't spotted them, but we take off on a brisk walk. We decide that if we don't see them right away, we'll go back and help Mike haul his antelope out.
We go about 600 yards (during which we hear the coup-de-gras shot for Mike's antelope) and we see the antelope from the herd we are chasing go up and over the hill out of the hunting property. We pause for a bit, and, just before we decide to turn back (near a pond), we spot another herd over the next ridge. We sneak up a little valley and start climbing a hill, when I spot an antelope on the far ridge. The antelope can see us, but, it's not alarmed, so we continue up to the top. We then knee-crawl to the edge and get a closer look. The antelope is still looking our direction, and, with it's ears, I'm thinking it might be a buck. It's standing in the shadow of a hill, without the sun shining directly on it, and the ears look like they might be horns at that distance. So we pause and wait while looking through binoculars. Finally, it turns its head, and we see ears, not horns. My concern was that it was standing alone, or, at least we couldn't see other antelope near it, which I've typically seen with antelope buck behavior. Again, ethically speaking, I want to be sure of my (or Matt's) shot. So, we eventually come to agreement that it's a doe, and Matt, with his 30.06 resting on some shooting sticks, takes a shot. The bullet hits high-shoulder, and the animal drops dead. We stand up and start walking towards it, when the rest of the herd runs up the same hill. We drop to our knees, I grab Matt's shooting stick, and pick out the largest doe. I gently squeeze the trigger and the animal drops. It's a shoulder/spine/lung shot, and it drops in its tracks. Matt asks me the time. It's 8:09 AM.
We then go and find my antelope, and spend about a half-hour looking for Matt's. I was sure it was on the hill opposite where mine dropped and we go looking about in some high sage. Not finding it, we start walking back towards mine to re-judge where we think it dropped, and come across his 20 feet above mine on the same hill.
So, Matt goes back to the truck and I start working on quartering the antelope. Mike radios me and asks our status. I tell him we have two antelope down. He responds that his antelope is already bagged and packed and on the road ready to be picked up. Matt gets back to the truck, picks Mike up and his antelope, and come back to where I'm quartering. In the picture, you'll see that the antelope I'm holding only has legs on that side. The other legs are already off and in plastic bags, ready to be packed out.
After they're hauled out (white 13-gallon kitchen bags) we drive into Craig, wash off the antelope quarters in the local car wash (which, in Craig Colorado, is not an uncommon sight and the locals accept it as part of the millions of dollars that hunters pour into their local economy every year), and head home.
The next day I debone my antelope and make it almost entirely into breakfast sausage. I save the backstraps / loins separately to grill up (bacon wrapped, on the grill, with a light teriyaki marinade, is the best). All said and done, I have about 22 lbs of breakfast sausage and 4 lbs of backstrap.
In this link view you can see the road, the line at the bottom of the hill where the fence is, and the field/hill to the south. This is where Mike shot his antelope.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=craig,+CO&ie=UTF8&t=h&layer=c&ll=40.688127,-107.540655&spn=0.002681,0.004715&z=18
In this link view, you can see the pond, and from there, a valley going southwest towards a couple of hills in the center of the view. That's where Matt and I took our shots towards the east (where you start seeing the sagebrush).
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=craig,+CO&ie=UTF8&t=h&layer=c&ll=40.684462,-107.530135&spn=0.005361,0.009431&z=17&iwloc=addr
For our 2008 doe Pronghorn antelope hunt, we chose to do the “Ranching for Wildlife” program offered through the Colorado Division of Wildlife. In this program, private ranches offer tags to the public for hunting in exchange for extra tags for their land that they can sell in “hunt packages” etc. We chose to apply at the Blue Gravel Ranch north of Craig, CO., for the season that runs from September 6th – 10th. Matt Cosley, Mike Finch, and I were in the hunting party.
We left Friday afternoon to get to Craig. Although only a 4-hour drive, we had to go through Hot Sulphur Springs (between Winter Park and Kremling) and stop at the DOW office to pick up a reissue tag for Mike. He had put his antelope tag in a really safe place. So safe that he couldn’t find it before we left. Then, after an otherwise uneventful drive to Craig (the trees, though, in Grand County and across a large swath of land are being affected by Pine Beetle kill) we arrive at the dingy Super 8. I suspect that the owners are extracting as much money from the hotel as they can, deferring maintenance, and when the condition of the hotel impacts their ability to fill it on a regular basis, they will just turn it back over to the corporate office and go buy another hotel and do the same. However, they did have all varieties of HBO, so we sat back and watched Office Space before we went to dinner. Oh yeah, we were roughing it. It was so bad that we couldn't even shower. There was, what appeared to be, black mold on the ceiling in the bathroom above the shower. We go have dinner and fill the coolers with ice in preparation. Before we turn in, we watch 300. Nothing like that to get your blood pumping.
The next morning, we were supposed to check in at 7:00 AM at the Elkhorn outfitters (Blue Gravel) office. We decided to get there a little early so we could get a jump on the other hunters. At 6:45, they opened the doors, and Matt, Mike, and I checked in, signed the waivers (so that we wouldn't hold them accountable if I cut my leg open), etc. Then we were off - north on Highway 13 out of Craig to a left turn on County Road 103, then a right on 89. As soon as we pulled in I recognized that this was the area where Kaoru and I had gotten an elk a few years previous.
After we drove onto the property, we saw that some of the guest hunters had camped on the property, were already out, and dragging antelope back to the road. But, we weren't worried - there's always enough antelope to be had.
An interesting thing about these antelope hunts is that some hunters like to do some close-in hunting - i.e., they'll see a herd of antelope close to the road, get out and walk the legal distance from the road, and shoot one. However, if the herd requires considerable walking, they'll just continue driving until they see a closer herd. It's convenient to do it this way, but, it's more 'shooting' than 'hunting'.
What we do is more of a spot and stalk. Although an antelope hunt is typically an 'easy' hunt, we don't necessarily need to make it that easy. So, we drive along, and we spot a herd about 700 yards from the road, in plain view. There are other hunters on the road looking at that same herd. However, none of them are getting out of their trucks. Of course not - they want something within 100 yards of the road. So we get out, get our gear, and start to go after them. However, there's no approach vector to remain hidden - they can see us coming as plain as day. They are on a hillside opposite us. We walk down the hill towards them, and they start running up the hill they're on. Not surprising. Often, we can typically spot a herd, start after them, and they'll go over the next ridge, where we can sneak up the ridge and pop over the top, and usually they're in range. So, we get to the bottom of the hill, and there's a fence we need to hop to get closer to them. We lay our rifles on the wire to get a solid rest, and Mike ranges them at over 400 yards. I know that the bullet drop for a 30.06 at 400 yards with my bullets is between 20 and 26 inches. I'm not going to take an unethical shot at an antelope when I know there's going to be more opportunities later. The bullet has enough power to put it down, but I don't have built-in crosshairs at given distances in my scope. But, Mike, with his 7mm mag, doesn't have as much bullet drop at that (400 to 450 yards) distance, and takes a shot. He hits it, and the other antelope run away. It's probably about 7:10.
Matt and I decide to go after the herd, and Mike starts walking to start taking care of his downed antelope. Matt and I go down the road a little ways and get out where we think they might be. We haven't spotted them, but we take off on a brisk walk. We decide that if we don't see them right away, we'll go back and help Mike haul his antelope out.
We go about 600 yards (during which we hear the coup-de-gras shot for Mike's antelope) and we see the antelope from the herd we are chasing go up and over the hill out of the hunting property. We pause for a bit, and, just before we decide to turn back (near a pond), we spot another herd over the next ridge. We sneak up a little valley and start climbing a hill, when I spot an antelope on the far ridge. The antelope can see us, but, it's not alarmed, so we continue up to the top. We then knee-crawl to the edge and get a closer look. The antelope is still looking our direction, and, with it's ears, I'm thinking it might be a buck. It's standing in the shadow of a hill, without the sun shining directly on it, and the ears look like they might be horns at that distance. So we pause and wait while looking through binoculars. Finally, it turns its head, and we see ears, not horns. My concern was that it was standing alone, or, at least we couldn't see other antelope near it, which I've typically seen with antelope buck behavior. Again, ethically speaking, I want to be sure of my (or Matt's) shot. So, we eventually come to agreement that it's a doe, and Matt, with his 30.06 resting on some shooting sticks, takes a shot. The bullet hits high-shoulder, and the animal drops dead. We stand up and start walking towards it, when the rest of the herd runs up the same hill. We drop to our knees, I grab Matt's shooting stick, and pick out the largest doe. I gently squeeze the trigger and the animal drops. It's a shoulder/spine/lung shot, and it drops in its tracks. Matt asks me the time. It's 8:09 AM.
We then go and find my antelope, and spend about a half-hour looking for Matt's. I was sure it was on the hill opposite where mine dropped and we go looking about in some high sage. Not finding it, we start walking back towards mine to re-judge where we think it dropped, and come across his 20 feet above mine on the same hill.
So, Matt goes back to the truck and I start working on quartering the antelope. Mike radios me and asks our status. I tell him we have two antelope down. He responds that his antelope is already bagged and packed and on the road ready to be picked up. Matt gets back to the truck, picks Mike up and his antelope, and come back to where I'm quartering. In the picture, you'll see that the antelope I'm holding only has legs on that side. The other legs are already off and in plastic bags, ready to be packed out.
After they're hauled out (white 13-gallon kitchen bags) we drive into Craig, wash off the antelope quarters in the local car wash (which, in Craig Colorado, is not an uncommon sight and the locals accept it as part of the millions of dollars that hunters pour into their local economy every year), and head home.
The next day I debone my antelope and make it almost entirely into breakfast sausage. I save the backstraps / loins separately to grill up (bacon wrapped, on the grill, with a light teriyaki marinade, is the best). All said and done, I have about 22 lbs of breakfast sausage and 4 lbs of backstrap.
In this link view you can see the road, the line at the bottom of the hill where the fence is, and the field/hill to the south. This is where Mike shot his antelope.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=craig,+CO&ie=UTF8&t=h&layer=c&ll=40.688127,-107.540655&spn=0.002681,0.004715&z=18
In this link view, you can see the pond, and from there, a valley going southwest towards a couple of hills in the center of the view. That's where Matt and I took our shots towards the east (where you start seeing the sagebrush).
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=craig,+CO&ie=UTF8&t=h&layer=c&ll=40.684462,-107.530135&spn=0.005361,0.009431&z=17&iwloc=addr
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