Got back the other day from a three day hunt for Antelope in New Mexico. I was playing the role of cameraman as my buddy Rick (Drury pro-staff) had the tag. We arrived at the ranch Thurs. and took a tour, as a matter of fact it was a 6 hour tour to see most of the ranch! (27000 acres is alot of ground!)
We saw alot of Goats and this guy at one of the waterholes:
The first day of the hunt we found our way towards a waterhole we had scouted the previous day, as we crested a butte two bucks appeared to our right and the stalk was on! We closed the distance to 120 yards but not close enough for the string and stick. After a few tense moments the bucks fled and we set up our ground blind over the water.
Hours passed without a single antelope coming to water and it became clear we would have to burn some shoe leather if we were going to make it happen. We set out and stalked a good buck (about 13") and got to within 70 yards but Rick was not sure about the yardage (his rangefinder was in the blind!). So we let the goat circle us until he caught our wind then bolted.........After watching numerous bucks in the distance but with no cover for stalking we decided to check one of the other spots we had scouted. We got to the main ranch and spied a good buck in a pasture just off the road. We bailed out and got our equipment ready for another stalk. Now as we crossed the fence I coulda swore I saw what I thought was the buck about 300 yards off, so we planned our route accordingly.....But no more than 150 yards into our stalk we quickly realized what we thought was the buck was a rock corner post of the fence and our target had been watching us for the last 50 yards or so! As soon as we noticed the buck he was gone...............So we proceeded deeper into the ranch and found a huge herd of about 25 does and fawns with one nice buck herding them towards the hills. We made our way to the pasture we figured they would cross into and on our way happened upon a nice little buck that hadn't noticed we had gotten to within 35 yards! I was urging Rick to consider taking him as he was a decent buck (but no monster), Rick decided for the first day he would pass on him (hoping he would not regret it later). We messed with this buck for almost an hour, letting him move off to 75-100 yards then stalking back to within bow range more than 3 times! We got some cool stalking footage but no blood on the arrow and the day ended.......
Day two brought 5 bucks within 40 yards of our decoy, but I was on the wrong side and when I got the camera into position to video the shot the opportunity slipped away.............So we spent the day driving and glassing trying to get on bucks to no avail.....
Up at 4am on day three for our last try to get Rick his first pronghorn, we had a plan to ambush a group of 5 that we had seen the previous two days (the same group that was in range the day before), but the wind was wrong so we went to plan B. After sitting 6 hours in the blazing sun waiting for the goats to get up and move, we decided we needed to make something happen. Oh, did I forget to mention he gave up the string and stick for the long range pipebomb the last day?! We planned our route of attack and after 2 hours we were 600 yards from our quarry (we had watched them from over a mile away all morning). We had run out of dry creekbed and were now on our bellys crawling the final couple hundred yards to get within range of the 300 winmag. After slithering through grass no taller than my shoelaces and rocks the size of softballs, we closed the distance to 450 yards. We were out of cover and contemplating our next move when it decided to rain.........I quickly covered the camera and Rick and I talked over the shot and what the footage would look like at that distance, after a brief discussion we decided it was time to shoot or get off the pot...........................And the rest of the story will be available this spring on the Pursuit Channel on one of Pronghorn Productions TV's spring episodes! :smt003
I will however show you some pix of Rick's hard earned trophy!
The complete story of the new mexico speedgoat w/pix
- lungbuster
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Re: The complete story of the new mexico speedgoat w/pix
Congrads to the hunter.
Nice goat.
marty
Nice goat.
marty
"Forged in fire lit long ago. Stand next to me and you will never stand alone".
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- magicman54494
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Re: The complete story of the new mexico speedgoat w/pix
Congrats guys! I look forward to your show.
Don't forget to remind us when it's on. Things get busy and I forget to watch.
Don't forget to remind us when it's on. Things get busy and I forget to watch.
Misty River Trackers base camp : https://www.facebook.com/groups/307702256717984/
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- Black Squirrel
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Re: The complete story of the new mexico speedgoat w/pix
magicman54494 wrote:Congrats guys! I look forward to your show.
Don't forget to remind us when it's on. Things get busy and I forget to watch.
X2
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Re: The complete story of the new mexico speedgoat w/pix
congrats, those are some cool pics, that background is awesome.
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Re: The complete story of the new mexico speedgoat w/pix
Great hunt for great hunters! Congratulation to you both!
"Huntingly",
L-H
GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!
L-H
GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!
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Re: The complete story of the new mexico speedgoat w/pix
Congrats, sounds like it was a fun hunt
The Healthy Herd Pro Staff
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Re: The complete story of the new mexico speedgoat w/pix
Black Squirrel wrote:magicman54494 wrote:Congrats guys! I look forward to your show.
Don't forget to remind us when it's on. Things get busy and I forget to watch.
X2
X3
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Re: The complete story of the new mexico speedgoat w/pix
Nice! Tell Rick congratulations...glad to hear you had success!
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Re: The complete story of the new mexico speedgoat w/pix
Congrats! Looks like a fun hunt.
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Re: The complete story of the new mexico speedgoat w/pix
Good stuff Chris, congrats to both of you!
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