For me, 2021 was the year of the antelope. My ticket was punched in the draws for Nevada, Oregon, and Wyoming. The season started off with my Nevada hunt. Due to a lack of time to scout out of state and being in the middle of pear harvest, I elected to hire Jake Rosevear and Pine Peak Outfitters. I had also assisted a buddy in a different unit the year prior and we struggled to find a good buck, so I felt I would make the most of my 14 bonus points. Jake was a gracious and friendly host, allowing me to bunk at his home in Ely. Jake paired me up with Eric Quenzer as my guide. He and I made short work on opening morning in spite of limited visibility due to wildfire smoke. We took a good buck that we stalked in on under the cover of tall sagebrush. Eric was an enthusiastic guide, and I hope to be hunting mountain lions with him in the near future.
After a few days back home, I left my wife, Cassandra, once again managing pear and apple harvest as Ray Ishizaka and I headed off to Burns, Oregon to chase antelope on our own in our home state. We opted to hunt the last 5 days of a 16-day season in order have a bit of a break between hunts. This allowed me to catch up on what was going on in harvest. We opted to do more glassing in areas we had intel on and less driving as is typical with antelope hunting. We spotted a good buck our first day but passed in order to check out more areas. Being late in the hunt, there was no competition. We figured we could find him again. After not finding any better bucks among a lot of candidates, we felt the first buck we saw was the target one.
The next day, Ray and I traipsed several miles to get on the backside of a large valley the buck had been hanging out in with his does. Thankfully, his does decided to come our way and we ambushed them at 460 yards. I was grateful to have a good friend to help out with the long, hot pack out. A quality buck late in the season and on our own was a nice sense of accomplishment.
To finish the antelope triple play, I headed to Rawlins, Wyoming to hunt with Eli Grimmett of Pronghorn Guide Service. After cashing in max points and hunting one of the better units in the Red Desert, we were hopeful of a good buck. An interesting side note, we ran into Randy Newberg of Freshtracks TV in the motel parking lot who was hunting with a Nosler rep from Bend, Oregon. I had also run into Randy in the little Elko, Nevada airport as we were both getting rental cars. I guess I wasn’t the only one leaving my day job behind and chasing antelope in multiple states in 2021. Eli seemed to be a master at judging bucks. I would have pulled the trigger on several bucks had he not kept telling me to pass.
After several days, many miles traveled, and too many passed bucks to count, we retraced our steps to the best buck we had seen on a previous day. The morning of the fourth day found us 550 yards from him. Unfortunately, I missed and he and his does ran into an adjacent unit. Later that day, we found our number two buck in the middle of a giant valley. We came around the backside with the truck and took off hiking to close the distance. After closing the gap to 575 yards, we could go no further and the buck had us pegged. After a miss and a couple of follow-up shots, he was down. Long- range shooting is definitely the norm in this wide-open country.
Eli and I processed the buck in the field, loaded our packs, and worked our way back to the truck. If a person wants to get a lesson on field judging antelope, Eli and Pronghorn Guide Service is the outfit. Now if I can just draw New Mexico and Arizona in the future, I’ll hunt with him again.
I was very fortunate, although patient as well, in accumulating 14-18 points to draw these three tags. A big thanks to the guides and my buddy, Ray Ishizaka, on the hunts. I especially thank God that I have a trooper of a wife, Cassandra, who keeps the farm chugging along while I’m off playing.
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