Indian Style

When hunting antelope in flat country, where both
the hunterand thehunted can see for miles with little
cover available, we are inclined to forget good stalking
procedure; to see without being seen. We drive to
some little rise where we can see for miles in every
direction, take a good pair of binoculars or a spotting
scope and glass the country so far away that if there
are antelope there--even if they see us-- they're
seldom disturbed. Then we try to figure how to get to
them for the final stalk ( if any ) , and drive off in some
other direction in a big circle and ry to come within
range without spooking them. In mountain hunting the
same technique will buy you only disappintment.
This rough country antelope hunting is true stalking
from start to finish. You don't walk the ridges and climb
every high point to glass from its top. If you do that you'll
stick up like a sore thumb, to be seen by every antelope
anywhee in the area. Do't do it unless you've finished
glassing every ridge, sidehill and basin within a mile or
so, and want to study country so far away that antelope
there won't see you or pay any attention to you if they do.
In this kind of hunting you stay below the skyline.
If you are traveling in the same direction the ridges run,
up or down, stay below the crest, taking only an occasional
peek to glass the country beyond. If you are walking the
contours, as is usual with hunting rough country , you
don't just pop up onhigh part of the ridge and sit on its
top to do your glassing. When you top a ridge, no matter
which way you are traveling, pick a spot where there is
brush, high grass, an outcrop of rock, anything to break up
the bare line of the ridge. Find something you will blend in
with, something to help break up your silhouette.
Then you ease up to the top very slowly, sometimes on your
silhouette, Then you ease up to the top very slowly, sometimes
on your hands and knees or your belly, and you slip the binocular
or spotting scope over the top slow and easy like. You keep
moving up until you can see everything here is to see from
that point. Then, and only then, do you cross the top and move
on.
In this type of hunting you may find the antelope within spitting
distance when you poke your head over a ridge. If you've done it
right, they may not even knwo you are there. You may also spot
them--which is more usual--far out of range, feeding or bedded
on some wide slope, on the top of some ridge or bench, or down
on the floor of some high basin. In any of these situations you'll
be able to plan and execute your stalk in much the same manner
as in hunting sheep. Always remember to keep the wind right, stay
off the skyline, and,if you come up close for the shot, keep
quiet--don't talk aloud. Antelope also have sensitive ears and they
believe what they hear, too. If you must say something, whisper!

Watch the Wind!

When stalking antelope in rough country, especially high
rough country along the toe of mountain slop where the wind
whips around in unpredictable directions, don't let it get
behind you. An antelope doesn't like your smell any more than
a sheep, deer or elk does, and you smell pretty bad to any
of them. When hunting antelope in flat counry you can pretty
well forget about wind direction because they depend mostly
on their sight to locate danger,and on their speep to keep it at
a safe distance. Most antelope country isflat or rolling, and
they've aleady seen you before you're ready to shoot,so their
winding you is of little consequence. This is especially true if
the hunting is done from a car. Game laws notwithstanding,
most pronghornsare killed from a vehicle or with the hunter
no more than a few feet from it.

I believe that many antelope hunters are much more worried

about how far the wind will drift their bullet than in whether

the buck smells them or not. This attitude can easily get you

into trouble in rough country.

On the last anteloope hunt I made the wind gave me a bad

time on the only buck I saw that might have been worth shooting.

I'd drawn my ticket for a unit that was all very rough country. In

fact, bighorn sheep lived in some of the canyons that ran off into

the river brakes. Higher up the ridges were open, dry and rocky,

with big basins filled with sage and clumps of aspen. I'd been

hunting in this country for nearly a week, looking for one of the

trophy bucks that the Fish and Game boys had told me were there.

I'd done it on my own hind feet, too, wearing my boots thin in 10to15

miles of up-and-down hunting every day. Up to then I'd seen a grand

total of three antelope. two does and a lonesome little fawn. Then,

late one afternoon, I found where a small band had come down off

the mountain, going into the rough brakes at the edge of the sheep

country.

I snooped around over the sharp little ridges until, finally, I

stuck my head over a sagebrush and saw several does. They were

about 175 yards below me on a hat-sized flat spot on the steep

sidehill. Working up until I was sitting behind the sagebrush, I

waited to see if there was a buck around. Suddenly one came

prancing up the hill from where several other does were feeding.

Bucks were in the rut and this one's attention was divided

between two girl friends, one in each bunch. He gave me little

chance for a shot as he dashed from one doe to the other, and he

wasn't very good anyway. At last I decided maybe I'd better

take him, for this might be the last day I'd have to hunt.

On his next visit to the does he stopped, facing me, a doe tight

on both sides of him. I put the crosshair of the 240 weatherby

scope at the base of his neck, a perfect shot at the range.

Then I saw a bunch of rabbitbrush twigs waving in the

magnifiedfield of the scope, right over the buck's neck

and chest. I knew that the 95-gr. Nosler, traveling at

just under 3400 foot seconds, might be deflected by that

brush, anout halfway out, and I might hit one of the does

instead. They didn't know I was there so I'd just wait him out.

Then, as I watched, a little puff of wind came from behind me.

An old doe that had been acting as lookout threw her head in

the air, blew a warning blast, and took off. The whole bunch went

over the lip of the bench in a cloud of dust, and that was that.

I lost that round of rough country antelope hunting by a tiny gust

of wind from the wrong direction at the right time, but that is what

makes stalking all worthwhile. The moral is, the wind is there, so

keep it in mind because antelope have pretty good noses and they

pay strict attention to what they smell and can't see.