3 Days of Antelope Hunting

We decided that September 17,18,&19th would be set aside for Archery Antelope. Our good friend, Kit Bramblee came from Philip and Nathan worked 10 days in a row so that he could have 3 days off to hunt! So we started our hunt early Wednesday and Thursday morning around 4:30 both days. To say the least, we all had a great experience, but came away frustrated. I should have had my antelope that first morning but missed my shot by shooting over his back, which come to find out, is pretty common, but mine was at 26 yards. The excitement and experience of getting to shoot at a buck that close was worth it, but there were a few tears shed. We started to take turns with holding the decoy, so the picture added here is Nathan holding the decoy and Kit with his bow. I was laying on the ground, getting a few cat naps in here and there. After this particular picture was taken, we decided to head back to the pickup. I usually watch pretty closely in where I'm walking since I am clumsy and roll my ankles all the time, which come to find out is a good habit to get into, because it saved me from stepping right on a rattle snake! I sure did a nice little dance over top of him, and screamed! He didn't rattle until after I screamed, but I think he was pretty cold and was trying to warm himself in the sun, since he was all coiled up. Whatever he was doing, he sure scared me!

Thursday morning we sat our blind up just South of the house, and had another great experience. We had 3 kids just 20 yards from us, we could hear them chewing and watched them blink. We also had quite a few does come right up the blind also, and that's when I decided to take a doe. Well, we found out just how small our blind is, and while I was trying to get Nathan to scoot over, I scratched my broad head on the blind, and it was just loud enough to spook the does that were only a few yards away! Once again, tears!

Kit had a nice wide buck to shoot at, and shot at 34 yards and ended up doing the same thing that I did, shot right over his back! We ended up seeing the buck later in the day, and I know Kit just wanted to scream! Poor Nathan never did get to even pull his bow back to get a shot! We still have a couple weekends left to hunt, so we're hoping to get back out there!

On Friday, Kit took off to Philip. Grouse season opened on Saturday, and he is in grouse country, so he needed to get back home to work hunters too!

We don't clean up too bad now do we?! :)

On Friday night, Nathan and I got all cleaned up from a few days of being stinky and sweaty, and went to supper in at a friend of ours, Jamie Swan, who is a teacher in Buffalo. We had a wonderful time, and glad that we got to get together! We didn't stay too late, and it felt good to go to bed early, especially when we knew the alarm would be going off early again on Saturday!

On Saturday I went up to Bowman, ND which is 45 miles North of us, to go to Rural Woman in America convention with my friend Shawna from town. It was an all day event, and on top of early mornings for the past 4 days, I was beat Saturday night!

I can't believe we are already to September 21st! Next week we'll be down in the Hills for our 3rd Anniversary, watching the Buffalo Roundup at Custer State Park! In the meantime, there is a week full of work, and now that grouse season is open, more hunting!

Today, Nathan, Jade, and another friend, Jason are out grouse hunting! They left Libby home with me, so I'm hoping that the next post I will have some bird pictures to post! This is Jade's first time out in the field without Libby, and her first time with a shock collar! She is such a lover, and has been a natural at everything, so I'm hoping it's going great!