Stalk and Spook day 1 Antelope hunting was successful today. My fellow stalk and spooker and I both drew Montana Antelope 900 tags this year, meaning we can stalk and spook antelope all over Montana during the archery season starting today... so we decided to do just that. We spotted a group of 4 antelope bucks on the side of a hill about a half mile from where we were and stalked up behind them. With the wind at our back and right in the faces of the antelope, we were at a disadvantage. We also tried our best spooking techniques by being as noisy as possible crossing a barb wire fence where I caught my crotch of my camo pants in it. Having a friend to unhook your crotch from a barb wire fence really tests the limits of friendship, but it ended up just fine. (We did agree to never speak of that incident ever again, but I figured no one reads this blog anyways!) So back to the hunt...we had a tough time remembering exactly where we saw them darned speed goats so we decided to stand up and peak over the hill, and boom...stalk was over. Spookin time! We ended up getting within 40 yards (try it, its hard as heck), pulled back to full draw...and bam...spookin was on! Couldn't get a shot off. They spotted us at full draw but they were facing directly at us and we had no shot. Although we aren't the most successful archers, we do not take pot shots at animals with potentially just wounding them. We waited for a broadside shot with no luck. Those speed goats are quick and were out of there before we could say stalk and spook. Definitely a good start to the season and hopefully next time, we'll be a little more stalky and a little less spooky! We will see...
_Comancho
Stalk and Spook Hunting
