My First Ever Antelope Hunt

In case you have been wondering if I dropped off of the earth, I kind of did. I haven't been posting regularly anyway, but last week my husband and I left to go on my antelope hunt that I drew out for. My husband started putting me in for it 4 years ago with my father-in-law. I always think I will never draw. That wasn't the case this year!

Me with my antelope

We have a neighbor that has hunted where we drew out and told us he would take us down on the hunt. From the stories we had heard of this hunt it was going to be go down Friday night and get up Saturday morning to hunt. You drive around and hunt and once you see an animal, you hop out of the car and shoot.

I was thinking we would be done by mid afternoon. Things did not work out quite that way. Our kids went with us and went out with us for part of the day. They had a great time.

I did have a shot first thing in the morning and was shaking so bad that I completely missed. The rest of the day we saw more antelope and I had a chance at one more animal but didn't shoot quick enough.

Most of the animals we saw the rest of the day we could not get in close enough to.

Sunday came around and still no animal. We took the kids up and met my mom so they could go to school on Monday.

We got rained on the whole entire day Monday except for maybe an hour. We hadn't planned on being there, so we did not plan on extra food. We had brought extra hot dogs so we got to eat hot dogs and the sandwich stuff for our meals the rest of the time.

My father-in-law got a shot first thing Monday morning and missed. That was the only thing we got close enough to the rest of the day.

By Tuesday morning I was ready to go home and didn't care if I had to shoot the tiniest buck on the mountain. We had a guy tell us about a different spot. We decided to drive down there. We found a buck standing on the side of a hill. He didn't even care we were there. We drove around the hill and snuck up the other side from him. We got up to the top of the hill from him and he was turned away from us. He was sitting there scratching at the ground. I looked through my scope and took the shot. Instead of hitting him where I should of I hit him in the back leg and broke it. He started walking toward us and my gun jammed and I couldn't reshoot. My father-in-law shot him the second time.

Mark,me and my antelope

He laid down and started to die. We had to shoot him a 3rd time since it wasn't quite dead. We never got the vitals. That was when I felt bad.

Cory, me and my antelope

My hubby cleaned it for me. I didn't have to do the gross stuff. I just had to help hold the legs. I have never smelled anything so gross in my entire life!!!! It is a beautiful animal. He isn't the biggest animal that we saw this weekend but I didn't care by then. He was the one that I could get a shot at.

My husband is making me get him mounted because it took so much work to get him.

There is one thing I have learned about hunting. I never tell men that when they go hunting, they are doing nothing. It is one of the most frustrating and challenging things that I have ever done. If your husband hunts and you have finished my story, you need to have respect for when he hunts. They are not our there playing. They are out there working there butts off.