One of My Dreams Came True

One Of My Dreams Came True
Kameal Clark

I was standing in the middle of a quakie patch, shaking from head to toe, when Brian asked me, “Did you get him?” One look from me was enough to tell him that I flat out missed and I was not happy about it. A five-point bull elk standing at thirty yards, bugling his guts out right at me and I hit the base of a tree instead of him. I hate disappointment like that!

My husband Brian and I have hunted many places and animals in the thirteen years we’ve been together. We’ve shared a lot of experiences together, from our first vacation hunting moose in Canada, to our honeymoon hunting ten plains game animals in South Africa. We’ve stalked big muleys and called in plenty of turkeys, but one adventure we hadn’t been on was antelope hunting. When we sat down to fill out our tags in April of 2006, we had ten points. Ten points takes ten years to accumulate and, for me, that felt like forever. An antelope was an animal that I wanted to hunt pretty badly. Their grace and speed are just so beautiful to me. So, when the draw results came out in June and I found out that we were lucky enough to get tags I was ecstatic!

Since we had now waited so long for this hunt we needed to be as prepared as possible. Our friend Jimmy had also drawn a tag, so the three of us sat down to plan our first scouting trip. In looking at the calendar and our busy schedules, we decided to plan our scouting expedition for mid-July. When that time came, we packed up our Tahoe and headed to northern Colorado. Upon arriving into town, pretty late, we found every motel/hotel was booked. The town was so small that we didn’t think we’d need reservations, but little did we know it was their annual town celebration. I took this as a bad sign and held out little hope in seeing many antelope. My intuition was correct because we didn’t see much. We were told by the local game warden that we were plenty early and not to get down on ourselves. He said that the big ones were there, but it was a big unit and that we’d need time and patience. So, at the end of the weekend, we headed home fairly disappointed.

Since archery elk season ran the month before our antelope season, we didn’t have the chance to go scouting before our trip north. At this point I didn’t care. The anticipation of shooting an antelope was eating away at me. Since we didn’t see much on our early scouting trip, I wasn’t holding out for a huge one, but just a decent one. So we loaded up Jimmy’s camper trailer and went hunting.

As we neared our campsite the evening before the season started, our spirits were greatly uplifted. There were antelope all over the place! I’m sure you can imagine how much sleep we all got that night. The next morning, we were up and dressed way before daylight. We decided to head to a spot where we had seen quite a few bucks the night before. We were pretty excited to see that they were still there and bedded down; but, as shooting light neared, we didn’t see anything that really made our eyes pop. I know, I know, I said I’d settle for a decent one, but this was opening day and I had a week to hunt. I decided to wait. As the morning progressed, we drove around and scoped things out. We saw a lot of antelope but no real shooters. Noon was now upon us so we headed back to the camper for a snack and to re-evaluate our map.

We decided to try a different area. When we got there it seemed that a few other guys had the same idea but the area was big enough for all of us. We were only there for a few minutes when we spotted a herd moving slowly across a ridgeline. Brian threw up his Swavorski binoculars and said there was a shooter in the bunch. About that time, the herd took off running and then we heard the boom of a shot. Someone at the bottom of the ridge had taken a shot at one of the bucks in the group but missed. We decided that we would try to head the group off, but we would have to act fast. We drove a short way and then jumped out and ran out to where we thought the antelope would cross the road. We were right, but they were coming at us at a dead run. Now for an antelope a dead run is really fast and extremely hard to shoot. So, we just bent down and watched them run by us. I was pretty disappointed at this point, but not for long. I hadn’t noticed, but Brian was looking in the opposite direction of the herd. What Jimmy and I missed were two antelope - a buck and a doe, that had peeled off from the main group. In looking at them we knew that buck was the shooter of the bunch. We also knew that because he had a doe with him and the rut was on, we had little time. We figured that the doe was taking the buck straight away from us. The way they were going, Brian and I figured we could head back the way we came and head them off. Jim headed back to the truck to pick us up in case things didn’t work out. The area where we were hunting was flat and sparsely covered with small sagebrush. There was nowhere to hide. Brian and I began sneaking toward where we thought the two antelope would top out, but we didn’t realize that they had beat us there and were standing there watching us. We were busted. The pair took off back down the ridge and we watched as the doe headed over the next ridge. Interestingly, the buck didn’t follow. We had no idea where he went since antelope blend in so well.

When we made it back to the truck, Jim told us that he had seen the buck split off from the doe and lay down. That was good to know, but I didn’t think that it was likely that we would get another crack at him. How often does that happen? So, Jim pointed us in the direction of the buck and, with Brian in the lead, one in front of the other, we headed off for a second try at the buck. As we drew closer, we spotted one sage brush that was bigger than the rest and put it in between him and us. When we got to within 180 yards, we quietly sat down and set up my snipe pods. One minor detail, the sagebrush we had used as cover was now in the way and all I could see was horns. At this point, I was stuck, but I took my chances and slowly moved over. Now I just had to wait until he got up, right? I was like a little kid waiting to open Christmas packages. I looked at Brian and said, “I can see his back, I’ll just take him.” Of course Brian, being the level-headed one of us said, “No way.” However, Brian suddenly had and idea and said, “I’ll whistle and get him up, but you need to be ready.” Brian had no more gotten those words out of his mouth when the buck stood up on his own. Since I was already all set up and dialed onto him, all I had to do was look in my scope and pull the trigger. One shot with my 25.06 and 100-grain Barnes Triple Shot bullet and I had myself one dandy of an antelope - I just couldn’t believe it.

One of my dreams had just come true; I had finally gotten my antelope. He officially scored 80 6/8 Boone & Crockett and was absolutely a great accomplishment for me.

Brian and Jimmy went on to take exceptional antelope as well and we had a wonderful time out there together. My husband kept telling me how proud he was of me and I just couldn’t have done it without him. He never fails to come through for me and will always be my biggest fan, as I will be his. He made me the hunter I am today and for that I am grateful. Now on to the next adventure! Did someone say mountain goat hunting?

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