Hunter’s Journal

Hunting with Atkinson Expeditions in Northern Colorado again. Had such a great time hunting with them last year and taking my First Mule Deer I decided that hunting antelope looked like a lot of fun. And being still so new to hunting I am fortunate to be on many of my ‘first hunts’. So I booked a three day Antelope Hunt with Wes.

Wes and his lovely wife Rachelle run Atkinson Expeditions in northern Colorado out of Wellington. I arrived Friday mid day. Staying at the appropriately named ‘Comfort Inn’ which is new and very nice. In three weeks I will be on a business trip in the UK paying four times as much to stay in a $#@! whole which, unlike the $59 a night Comfort Inn, does not have free internet.

I’m a little behind on my postings and have already had a great season taking two blacktail deer in B zone, Humboldt County California. Those hunts were great fun and I shot both deer flawlessly with one shot at 100 and 200 yards from my old trusty Remington .270 win. Everyone was telling my how fun antelope hunting would be, that it’s easy and relaxed…. but for some reason I just went a little nuts on this one. Or seemed to be extremely ‘amped’ as Wes charitably described it.

Wes and I met at the motel and did some scouting friday night. We went out to some of the ranches he had seen good bucks. At one point we found about four does and he said a good buck should be with them. Sure enough out from behind the rolling hill emerges my ideal of what an antelope should be. He looks great to me although as a fairly new hunter I’m often eager to shoot many lesser specimens, however I seem to get that this is a good one. Wes points out his better qualities to me. I tell him I’ll shoot this guy tomorrow which is opening day in the season. We are in unit 87. We see some other does and smaller bucks. As the sun has set one lone buck makes a black silhouette against a ribbon of red and orange light just above the horizon. This is beautiful country.

We’re hunting with another guy from Georgia. Terry Eby who is national sales manager from BPI Products. He’s brought a new Electra muzzle loading rifle. It’s pretty cool using only a 9v battery to provide an arc to ignite the powder directly and with a trigger that functions with practically immediate effect. I get to try it after he shoots his buck.

Terry and I meet Wes the next morning at 6am and we’re off to the ranch. Wes says that we’re going to try and get me the buck I scouted last night and Terry agrees. Thank you Terry! We drive around a bit before finally locating him again and he’s still with his four does. We’re able to drive our truck through a grassy pasture and watch them across some rolling hills. This land first appears flat but actually holds a great deal of contour for making stalks.

The buck and four does are about five or six hundred yards away. There is a little dry creek to our right with a small hill above it. While we’re sitting watching Wes notices a lone smaller buck approaching far in the distance to our right. Our buck has noticed him too and stares intently at the interloper. Wes says he looks pissed and he does. Then unbelievably to me our buck sprints straight for the new buck closing the distance to us on his way. Halfway there he’s at about 300 yards. Wes suggests I might want to get out of the truck and shoot him. So I step out, have my stix ready, plant them about the right width and then promptly sit down right into a bunch of little barrel cactus! Was not expecting that. Now I’m trying to steady without putting my full weight into the cactus. The buck has stopped but I still miss him. He starts running left and for no reason I can think of now I try and hit him running. I hold a length ahead and shoot but don’t even see an impact, which Wes showed me on video later was perhaps two lengths behind him.

This is the first time Wes suggests perhaps I need to relax a little. The buck has run back to his does but doesn’t seem particularly spooked by my attempts at his life. Lucky for me it’s opening day and he’s still interested in his does. We decide to drive off and let them settle down a little bit and perhaps let me settle down a bit too. We drive around, talk to the landowner who has drove by in a pick-up. Very nice guy, we recount the story. Take our time. Finally we drive up a different road a ways and decide to walk up on them. We hike in for a ways until we get to a small rise where Wes is pretty sure they are just beyond us. He has me come up next to him. Terry has lent me his knee pads so now I can at least kneel down without fear of any painful distractions. Wes is setting up his video camera on a tripod to the left of me and tells me to get ready. The antelope are now in an open field looking right at us from about 450 so we decide to back off and try another approach later.

After we cool down a bit and I relax a little I’m more determined than ever to shoot this buck. We decide another stalk towards where they are with the wind better and some rolling hills that give us cover up to them. We sneak back up staying very low until Wes finally has them in sight. I’m on the sticks now sitting, get the buck in my sights, squeezing, and boom, another miss. They run right and then come back a little left again. They are a little over 300 now. I’m back on the buck standing broadside in some low grass. I try to hold right inside his back, squeezing again and hear this shot impact the buck. He hunches at the shot but isn’t down. We watch for a few seconds until Wes tells me to shoot again. At this shot he’s down. I can’t believe it. After all this we finally got him. We wait for a while now we me periodically asking Wes if I should be ready to shoot him again and him telling me to just relax. I realize hunting with me is probably like hunting with a ten year old. I’m pretty sure I’m having as much fun as one.

We finally are able to walk up to him and he’s a great old buck. Really nice cutters and pretty old with some extra points on him and little loose horns behind each of his. I am so happy to have shot this buck. If you want a great experience hunting Elk, Mule Deer, or Antelope in Colorado or Whitetail in Kansas, you really need to look into hunting with Wes Atkinson! They put on a great hunt and are just super people to spend some time with. ( Go Rockies! )

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