Spot and Stalk Archery Antelope on Public Land

Written by: Paul Young

Being my first time archery hunting Antelope, I knew I was in for a challenge.  Escalating the challenge was bringing my pregnant wife to film and photograph.  Since hunting is such a pivotal part of our lives, we knew we had to make it work.  We left the house late Thursday evening and pulled into camp around 11:00 p.m.  We knew we had a long weekend ahead of us, so we headed straight to bed after setting up camp and eating a quick snack.

We launched our expedition from camp towards the public ground around 5:45 a.m.  We started the morning off seeing a really nice buck right off of the highway.  Unfortunately he was too close to the road to pursue.  In Colorado, you cannot be within 50ft of the centerline of the road when you take a shot.  We spent about 30 minutes determining if we could try and pursue this buck from a number of different directions.  After deliberation, the buck had progressed towards private property and we decided to move on to try our luck elsewhere. 

My first stalk was painful and set the pace for the remainder of the day.  In the frenzy of getting on the road Thursday night, I managed to forget my kneepads and gloves (big mistake); since I crawled through some small cactus during my first stalk. This made the entire day quite painful but I was determined to prove everyone wrong, that told me I couldn’t kill an antelope buck by spot and stalk with my bow.  Regardless of the pain, I was determined to close the distance on my first attempt.  I started about 300 yards away.  Slowly gaining ground, I ranged him about every 30 yards.  We played cat and mouse for about 20 minutes.  As I made more and more progress towards him, he continued to move away from me.  At this point, for every 30 yards I moved towards him, I was only closing the 300 yard gap in 15 yard increments.

The buck began to crest the small hill in front of us.  I knew he couldn’t see me if I couldn’t see him.  I picked up the pace and began to close the distance, as fast as one can crawl through cactus.  I made it to within 100 yards of the crest of the hill.  I sat behind a cactus and glassed to see if I could find where he went.  After about 10 seconds I spotted the buck.  He had me nailed.  He knew I was there and in pursuit.  I don’t know how he knew; all things were in my favor, wind direction, line of sight, etc…  He stood and looked for about a minute.  He began to graze again and I thought I could get away with my continued pursuit on my belly.  As soon as I got down, I saw the buck take a look at the does he was with.  Before I could even stand up they had trotted off. 

I made my way back to the truck to discuss tactics and develop a game plan with Katie.  We knew it was going to be hard to spot and stalk antelope.  It turned out that closing the last 40 yards from 100+ yards away would prove to be the hardest task to accomplish.  After another failed attempt at stalking a much smaller buck, we decided to take a ride and see some of the remaining areas that we had looked at on Google Earth.  I determined a few areas would be good spot and stalk locations due to potential cover and proximity to water.  After 45 minutes of glassing, we determined the area wasn’t as good as we had hoped.  We opted to head back to the 2 mile road we now referred to as Antelope Alley. 

Once we were on Antelope Alley, we were immediately back in the game.  We found a small group of four does and two bucks.  From the road they were about 350 yards away.  The biggest obstacle between the road and this group was a barbed wire fence.  I used the terrain to my advantage to get as close as I could before I endured the pain of crawling in the cactus again.  This took me to about 250 yards.  I was able to crawl to the fence and go under without detection.  Now only 200 yards away, I immediately noticed a major flaw, there was nothing for me to hide behind at this point.  I needed to crawl on my belly for 150 yards to this group if I wanted a shooting opportunity.  I made it about ten yards and caught movement to the west, a doe had me busted, likely before I even went under the fence.  She made quick work of dispersing the group I was in pursuit of.

At this point, the day was starting to heat up.  The morning cloud cover had burned off and temps were rising by the minute.  I had suspicions that due to how dry it had been the animals may hover within close proximity to water.  This was about half true.  Making our way to the west on Antelope Alley, we spotted two nice bucks about 200 yards away feeding.  I knew there were cattle grazing and good concealment to the west.  I kept driving about a half mile past the two bucks in an effort to not spook them with the truck.  I knew I could use the terrain to creep in on them and get a shot.

I jumped out of the truck and grabbed my cow decoy.  Katie made up about half the distance on the road in the truck so she had a vantage point to flag their direction.  To my advantage, one of the bucks had bedded down at this point, increasing my chances of not being seen.  It took me about 45 minutes to make the half mile trek using the rolling hills to close the distance.  Katie flagged that I should be able to see them at this point.  I was having no luck.  I used the decoy to move north and south to look behind the tall cactus.  I spotted the buck.  He knew I was coming but I had the cow decoy, with cows grazing nearby, I thought I was in the clear to continue my stalk.  What I didn’t realize is that there was a doe with the two bucks we didn’t see when we drove by.  I slowly encroached on the buck and at about 75 yards I saw the doe out of my peripheral vision.  She was moving right toward the buck.  At this point I had kept the cactus he was bedded behind between me and him for extra concealment. 

The doe continued to graze towards the buck so I continued to close the extra 15-20 yards I needed in order to be comfortable with my shot.  I kept the cactus between the buck and I to keep him as calm as possible.  I closed the distance to 60 yards and prepared for my shot, the doe got increasingly nervous and got the buck out of his bed.  At first, they only went a few yards and began to graze.  I thought I was going to have a shot at this buck until I was busted from behind.  The second buck, at this point I had forgotten about, busted me and forced the two bucks and doe to prance off gracefully.

Keeping my head held high and proud of the fact that I was actually able to close the half mile gap to 60 yards, I made the hike to the truck to regroup with Katie and get some lunch.  We got in late the night before so we decided to take an hour long power nap after lunch.  When we woke up, the day was in the mid 90’s and very hot! 

We spent the majority of the afternoon glassing from atop the bluffs to the North of Antelope Alley.  We glassed a big herd of about 20 antelope making their way towards Antelope Alley from the south.  We watched their movements as we put together a game plan to intercept the goats.  We packed up quick and decided to implement the plan of attack.  We would drive around to Antelope Alley and hold about a half mile from where they were headed.  The remainder of the pursuit would be on foot.  To my expectations, immediately after I got into position I noticed the goats making their way towards me.  Unfortunately, what I didn’t realize was that the group was larger than I had originally thought.  There was a nice buck and a few does to the North West of where Katie had dropped me off.  They immediately took off and alerted the goats that were headed in my direction.  The goats we had glassed from the top of the bluff were not moving in high gear yet, although I could tell they were on alert.  None of them were grazing and they were all moving their heads as if they were on a swivel.  Katie took the truck up the road and that appeared to calm them.  What I didn’t realize was they were still on high alert.  As I continued my approach I crunched on a small patch of dead grass and it was over, the entire group began to trot off to the North, directly in line with where I anticipated they were headed. 

Come to find out, there was a small watering hole the goats were hovering around before they crossed the road.  I proceeded to hang out in that one spot for about an hour hoping they would double back, more typical of deer and elk habits.  Although this strategy has worked in the past, I was quite wrong as I sat in the heat and sweat out every drop of water I had in my body.  I watched as the goats continued to move further and further from my position.  Knowing that my plan was likely set up for failure, I flagged Katie to bring the truck around for some much needed hydration and recovery. 

As we sat in the truck, daylight was beginning to fade.  I knew I didn’t have much light left.  It was about an hour before sunset and I had light for one, maybe two stalks.  We began making our way back towards the highway on Antelope Alley in hopes of spotting a buck on our way back to camp.  As we made our way down the road, I spotted a doe in the distance.  There were a lot of cattle in the vicinity, so I put up the spotting scope to see if there was a buck around too.  We didn’t see anything at first, so we moved the truck about 50 feet to get a different angle around the cattle.  I saw a buck!  My gears immediately changed from observing to pursuing. 

I had about an hour of light left.  I knew the fastest method to close the 500 yards of distance would be the cow decoy.  I would walk straight towards the buck with the decoy between me and him.  I was hesitant to take this approach based on my experience earlier in the day with cattle spooking as I approached with the cow decoy.  I had to give it a shot.  I made my way towards the buck, slowly closing the distance.  The buck was by himself at this point as the doe and fawn had moved off to the north.  My descent towards the buck was slow and steady.  I lost site of the buck for about 200 yards due to the terrain.  I picked up the pace to the crest of the hill where I knew he was feeding.  As I crested the hill with the cow decoy between me and the buck, I was within 100 yards.  My strategy shifted again, and I was preparing to close the final 30 yards to make my shot. 

As I closed the final 30 yards, I noticed the buck begin to urinate.  As some hunters may know, when an animal begins to urinate, there is one of two possibilities that will play out.  The animal will become aggressive or they’re in fear.  I didn’t even have a chance to think about taking a shot and he was gone.  In my head, my day was over.  I had put in a lot of time and effort stalking these animals and my hands and knees were throbbing in pain.

I made the hike back to the truck where Katie was observing.  From her perspective she thought I was right on top of the buck.  Although it seemed that way, I was still outside of my comfortable shooting range.  We spoke of the day and decided to pack it up and head back to camp.  We discussed the exciting and adrenaline filled day with each other as we headed down Antelope Alley towards the highway. 

The sun had set and there was maybe ten minutes left of shooting light when the unthinkable happened.  Katie spotted some does about 150 yards from Antelope Alley.  Not thinking much of it, I slowed down and spotted a buck.  He was 100 yards from the road and didn’t care much of our presence as I brought the truck to a stop.  In my mind, the day was done as I sat in pain from the cactus I had protruding into my hands and knees.  Katie encouraged me to make one last pursuit and give it a try.  I grabbed my bow out of the back seat and hoped out of the truck.  I knew I would have to close the 40 yard distance in a hurry.  The buck was moving away from me which would make my pursuit that much harder.  This stalk was unfolding like the first stalk of the day. 

In the scramble to grab my bow I didn’t realize I forgot the rangefinder on the seat.  Fortunately I knew how far he was from the truck +/- 10 yards now.  Since I shoot so frequently, I kept checking my distance to the truck.  I knew I could use my judgment to get me 40 yards from the truck.  The biggest question was making sure I didn’t let the buck move too much further to the north to compromise my estimation.  I quickly made progress behind the buck as he moved towards the north.  I knew I was getting close and he began to swing to the left to present a broadside shot.  I drew, he was broadside, but the shot didn’t feel right.  I felt that I was still just outside of my 60 yard comfort zone.  The buck turned and began moving back to the north.  I knew I had to close about another 10 yards to feel good about my shot.  The question at this point was am I going to get another opportunity?  I thought for sure that I was busted when he turned broadside the first time. Luck was on my side, he turned back to the north and maintained his slow walk and graze.  Still thinking I missed my final opportunity for the day, I kept pushing to close the final 10 yards I needed to take my shot. 

I knew I was in the sweet zone now.  The buck was continuing to move slowly towards the north and I was keeping pace at this point.  Maintaining my 60 yard distance, as he made a step forward, so did I.  He began to swing to the west and I knew it was now or never.  I drew back, took aim, and released my arrow.  I had maybe, five minutes of legal shooting light left and I knew I hit the buck.  Due to the limited lighting, I had no idea where I hit the buck.  We reviewed the shot on camera and still couldn’t determine where I hit him.  Based on the moan he let out after I shot, I assumed I hit him back a little.  After replaying the shot in my head, I felt that the shot was slightly forward. 

We made the agonizing decision to leave the buck overnight.  It looked like the buck only went a few hundred yards in the video, but the uncertainty in shot placement was the determining factor.  Any hunter that has had this experience can empathize.  No hunter, whether rifle or archer, wants to leave an animal overnight.  The decision to do so can cost you your meat and potentially your trophy.  You don’t sleep much, you replay the shot over and over in your head, and your biggest fear if he is down, please don’t let something happen to the meat.  The worst part of the decision to leave the buck was watching a much needed storm rolling in off of the horizon.  Finding an animal that can cover a mile in less than a minute, with rain likely, and not knowing how bad he’s bleeding, just made the night that much worse.  On top of the anxiety of finding my buck, the amount of cactus I pulled out of my hands and knees was borderline unbearable.  I even found a piece in my knee before bed that had imbedded under the skin about a half inch.         

5:00 a.m. couldn’t roll around fast enough.  As soon as the alarm went off, I flew out of bed and scrambled to get dressed.  Katie took a little more convincing but she was just as nervous, excited, and anxious to determine the results of yesterday’s efforts.  The storm left the skies overcast.  This made what should have been a 5:45 a.m. first light, more of a 6:00 a.m. first light.  The wait had my stomach in knots.  To kill time, I went to where I made my shot to see if I could find any disturbed soil.  Unfortunately, the overnight storm had washed off any potential sign of a successful shot.  After about 10 minutes I found half of my arrow.  It was like nothing I had ever seen before.  The arrow looked like someone had taken a saw to it and cut it in half.  Typically if an arrow breaks off in an animal, it splinters and looks like a piece of wood has been broken over your leg. 

The arrow had me even more concerned.  I continued to search high and low for more potential sign of the animal and more of my arrow.  For some reason I happened to look off into the direction I thought he ran.  I immediately spotted an antelope.  From where I was at, I couldn’t tell whether it was a buck, doe, bedded, or deceased.   I ran back to the truck to take a peak with the spotting scope.  I knew it was a buck.  I was still hesitant to celebrate as I couldn’t tell if he was bedded or dead.  The way he was laying, it appeared he was dead but there was still a slight uncertainty. 

We developed a plan to go get him.  We carried the spotting scope about 100 yards to an area that had a better line of sight.  We immediately knew he was done.  After a celebratory moment, we proceeded to go get my first sot and stalk archery antelope buck.  Having no expectations of shooting a nice sized buck, as we drew closer, we quickly realized he was definitely a wall hanger.  I doubt he will make Pope and Young, but he will make my record book and sometimes that is all that matters. The shot was forward so the decision to leave him over night was essential to our success.

This adventure was special in many ways.  Not only did I harvest my first archery antelope, but I was able to share the experience with my pregnant and beautiful wife.  The story will likely be one of our son’s favorites.  His first big game hunting experience took place while he was in the womb.  We look forward to raising our child to hunt fair chase animals on public land.  In addition, we hope to make more memories for us to share as a family with future generations. 

My advice to anyone thinking of pursuing antelope with archery equipment is to not give up!  If something doesn’t work the first time, don’t hesitate to try the strategy again.  Additionally, spot and stalk can be successful.  Don’t let anyone tell you it’s not.  Use terrain and decoys to conceal yourself.  Persistence and perseverance are fundamental when it comes to hunting these animals on the ground.      

That’s all for this time, and remember, keep your tip up, shoot straight, and never forget to Salute the Outdoors on your way home!