This is Antelope Hunting

Step one: load the baby in the front, the dogs in the back, and head up to the ranch. Drop Scott off at a reservoir, and head to appointed meeting place. Feed baby.

Step two: dogs wait patiently in the truck until the baby's belly's full.

Step three: enjoy the scenery and the gorgeous morning while waiting for Scott. That's the ranch house in the distance, past the reservoir that went dry last spring.

Step four: get out and start playing around taking some photos, while the dogs run to welcome Scott back to the truck.

Step five: continue driving around areas of the ranch that are in Scott's hunting area. Follow obscure two-tracks. :-)

Step six: keep looking, but don't find the antelope that Scott wants, and dogs dutifully keep an eye out.

Step seven: give up on the antelope hunt for the day, and head over the 'mountain' to the north side, where the rest of the family members are hunting deer and elk in the timber.

That was our day last Saturday. :-) I hope yours was as enjoyable! Tomorrow we're headed up to the ranch to gather cows - Grandma Martinez is watching Levi while we're out riding.

writing the column

i don't like writing from the first person. i think the main problem is that i never do it. it's very easy to share other peoples' thoughts and words on paper in sentences, but i never know if my own thoughts put down in words are interesting....

.... all that to say, i wrote the staff column for the paper this week. since it's our hunting/wildlife feature edition, i figured i'd write about my recent hunting experiences, being new to the sport and all. i hope it stands up to the scrutiny. rather than put something out there and be told to change it, i'd really not rather put my thoughts out there at all. the blog is different, for some reason. maybe it's that the newspaper is in print and official and it's my job. more pressure!

this is what i just finished writing for this week. i hope the readers and publisher d approve and find it interesting.

On the Hunt

            This year my life has included a lot of firsts, and right there amongst “buying a house” and “getting married” is harvesting my first head of big game – a buck antelope in Area 63.

            I didn’t grow up in a hunting family, so last fall when my now-husband Scott asked if I wanted to go along antelope hunting, I left town in the early morning darkness with my precious hot coffee to trudge around with a group of hunters in the cold and snow looking for antelope – my first hunting experience.

            Although not thoroughly impressed, I was intrigued. Not long after, I found myself with a general elk license, through the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Hunter Mentor Program, looking for elk northeast of Meeteetse. Upon sighting a group of elk, the others in my hunting party grabbed their stuff, set up and had three in short order. Amidst the excitement and stress, and being urged to shoot, Christy, shoot! I only managed to fire once. I never said I was the quickest on the draw.

            Another year went by, and as the 2010 hunting season approached I put in for and drew an antelope, figuring that might be easier quarry. For the first time, I found myself scrutinizing the bucks as I passed through my hunting area, after being told what makes an antelope “good.”

            It was then that I started to understand hunting.

            After the season opened, one sunny morning Scott and I went out looking for my antelope. We had several in mind, and spent several hours glassing antelope. After stalking, crawling and sneaking, we finally came upon a real pretty one, standing right at the water tank staring at us. He wasn’t really tall, but his horns curved over nice, and he stayed right there while I got out of the truck, leaned across the hood and took a shot.

            And I have no idea where that bullet went.

            Shortly after, while we were driving down a two-track trying to decide what to do next, Scott says, “Don’t be mad, but that was probably the easiest shot you could have taken.”

            I think he’s forgiven me, but I don’t think he’ll ever forget how I snipped at him for that comment! We did stop, and I did take a couple shots at a distant rock to make sure I wasn’t totally incapable of aiming.

            After regrouping we headed to another section of the area, and found a good-sized herd of antelope in a draw. After looking them over, I picked one out, and hit him with my first shot – one much farther than I’d taken at the water tank. However, he didn’t go down, and I really didn’t want to chase an injured antelope. In my haste I shot over him, shot under him and then jammed the rifle.

            All I hear from inside the truck cab is, “Calm down! Calm down! Don’t break my gun!”

            I loaded one more shell, took my time, and finally dropped him. Although he’s not the biggest antelope in the world at 14 inches, I’ve decided to mount him as a memento to my first successful hunt.

            And, thanks to the encouragement and help of my hunting friends and family, I will be back again next year.

            Christy

first hunting success

well, friday evening scott and i went out to look for an antelope, and found that one, and we went back out to look for him yesterday. we didn't really ever see him again for sure, but found another nice one after driving around looking at all the goats in the highway pasture for several hours. in the process of trying to get him, we crawled on hands and knees, bounced across sage brush, hopped out and took a shot, went careening down a two-track and bounced over more sagebrush. to no avail, and by that time all the antelope in that area were so stirred up we headed for the house.

after a quick snack we headed out again, this time north of the ranch house, in the north fish creek pasture. we saw one that was ok, but he and his does were pretty skittish and left the country, so then we drove back around by a place called eagle's gap, where there's a reservoir, and there was a whole herd back there, mostly does. (eagle's gap is the same area we went through the evening scott proposed to me out at the ranch several weeks ago).

so we got out our field glasses and looked them over, and this guy i've got here in the photo was the best of the lot, so i decided i might as well take a shot at him. after the blantant miss on the first one at 10 yards - practically - i had taken a few shots at a rock and hit it consistently, so i figured i'd try another shot at a buck.

i hit him with my first shot, but he didn't go down. the next went to high, and the third too low. :-) thankfully i had hit him well enough that he didn't run off in that process. and the process of a bullet getting jammed in the gun and scott saying from inside the pickup 'calm down. don't break my gun!' he came out and helped me get it straightened out, i loaded it again, and took my time with the last shot and he went down.

and, i might add, this was all from a lot farther away than the one at the water tank!

i shot him up on a side hill, so we put scott's new little white mazda 'snowflake' through is paces and got up to him for the cleaning process. it was pretty hot out, esp for the end of september, so scott was anxious to get him cleaned as soon as possible.

this is the side view of him. antelope are scored for their size based on how tall their horns are, and how long the cutters are - the smaller hooks that stick out the front. mine measures 13.5 inches tall, with four inch cutters, which is pretty average. what makes them pretty, i think, is if the horns curve clear out in a wide arc, and if they curl over a lot at the top. mine isn't very wide, but he does curl over pretty nicely.

back in the ranch yard bob and becky came out to look him over, and becky took this photo of me and my wonderful guide. the goat looks like he's not feeling too well, with his mouth hanging open and tongue out. foxy and lucy were very curious as to what we had brought back for them.

then we backed the truck in the shed so we could hanging him from the rafters to finish the cleaning process. i did save the head to be mounted as my first success in hunting, and we took the meat to friend jamie's, who has a friend that wants it. scott absolutely refuses to eat antelope. i've never tasted it, but judging from the smell of them, i don't really want to. a buck antelope smells worse than a buck barnyard goat.

so that was pretty much my sunday, now back to work as usual in the office today.

friday night

if i knew where my little red camera was right about now. i'd share the gorgeous autumn sunset that i shared with scott tonight up at the ranch. we were out hunting antelope, and found one just as it was too dark to shoot him. hopefully friend marvin from cody doesn't get him before i get back up there sunday! i told marvin i'd tied a red ribbon on him, so he was clearly market.

it has been very busy around here. too busy. i'm headed to greybull tomorrow - four hours' drive - with publisher dennis for jody's mother's funeral. it means a lot to be there, i just wish it wasn't so far. the day will be over by the time we get back to town. i told scott i might not make it back to the ranch tomorrow night. they're all gathering cattle and preconditioning calves tomorrow, and were sitting around visiting when i left to head back to town. i wish i could have stayed. the association is one of my favorite places to be these days. a good place to get out into the darkness and quiet and just relax.

i'm going to try to not to worry about working on any more fall cattlemen's edition until monday. it's hard for me to not worry about the paper, even on weekends. and there are several other dramas going on that i'm also concerned about. i've had a nagging headache for two days.

here's hoping for a little relaxation before hitting it hard again on monday. cattlemen's deadline coming up october 1!