Magnum72576
FNG
I recently got back from an awesome antelope hunt where I was lucky enough to take my 5 y/o boy with me. Being that I'm from upstate NY, It takes a very understanding wife to allow DAD to take her boy on a few airplane rides and be gone for a week. I have always wanted to hunt antelope but never could add it on to another species. So I figured this would be great hunt to take my son on, I had one point and decided to put in. Being that we can walk when we want and ride and glass when we want it should keep his interest. We flew in opening day and hunted the afternoon on Sunday. Had a shot at nice buck the first five minutes but I just couldn't end my hunt that fast, so I passed. So we spent the next 4 days getting up at 6 am and heading to our public ground. We covered about 1/2 of the unit and saw antelope on a regular basis. I would say the pressure was minimal to moderate. I found plenty of bucks and does on public. I was looking for a really wide buck and as luck would have it on day 4 I found a group of 10 bucks on private, one of which was really wide. When they ran off I looked on my GPS and noticed a section of public about a mile away on the back side. So we drove around, parked and decided to go for it. 3/4 of a mile can be a long ways with a 5 y/o but he was a champ. I peered over the top of the hill and the bucks were headed our way and closing fast. Having so many bucks in a group is a double edged sword. So picture this. I've been looking for a wide buck all week. I finally find one. Well the problem is the bucks were single file and spread out. They came through a saddle and crossed broadside at 200 yds. So to me the inexperienced antelope hunter they all looked the same. I started to panic a little. We only had one day left in our hunt. I had them all dead to rights, but couldn't identify the wide one. Occasionally one of them would look my way and I could see it wasn't the wide one. Finally one looked my way and he looked to be one of the best ones i had seen all week. I knew he wasn't the widest one but I figured he was wide enough to make us happy. So bang and down he went. As they ran off I did see the wider one get away. I'm not so sure the wider one was as heavy. But we were more than happy with this guy and being able to make a nice stalk was icing on the cake. My son and I had the greatest time. I feel so lucky to get to spend a week hunting with him. Sometimes I think life gets in the way of whats important...
