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Carrizozo Buck by Arlette Hennessey
Carrizozo, New Mexico Land owner permit tag.
( ed. Note: As we all know, getting ‘drawn’ can be a challenge and sometimes Arizona hunters go to neighboring states as in this story.)
On Saturday morning dark and early, Bob and I set up in the back pasture of a 12 1/2 section of the ranch. We hid underneath a juniper near a place where the antelope cross under the fence. The sun had just cleared the mountain ridge when the antelope started to move around. A young buck and doe came within shooting range but since we had 2 days to hunt I opted to wait for an opportunity at a bigger buck. There were 6 other antelope hunters on the ranch. One was a father and son team. This was the son's first antelope hunt and he was successful late that first morning. The dad got his later in the day. Needless to say they were two happy hunters. It is a pleasure to see young people in the field. Towards the later part of the afternoon I worked my way over to a wide-open area where I saw a couple of bucks grazing with some does. I couldn’t get close enough for a shot so I just watched from a distance. What a sight! As the sun was setting we headed back to the barn to see if we could help with the antelope that had been taken. They didn’t need us but we all noticed that the antelope had stressed out horn growth just above the cutters. The rancher told us that this was caused by the dry summer and that he had seen it in past dry years. Sunday morning started off very windy so the antelope remained bedded down until after the sun came up. We saw a few does and a couple of bucks way off in the distance but that was about it. After driving and glassing the back of the ranch we worked our way towards the front pasture. The first antelope we saw that day were 3 very young bucks. We drove around the bend there stood my buck. He was not extremely tall but compared to the ones from yesterday we knew we had a good one. The cutters were nice and wide and he looked good. So I got out of the truck to begin my stalk. I worked my way to the first juniper with no problems. I crawled under the juniper to watch and see where they had moved. I saw about 6 does nibbling and milling around. I couldn't see the buck so I watched and waited a bit to see if he would come into a clearing but no such luck. I eased to the next juniper about 20 feet away and I still could not see him. I could not move any closer because of the does. I watched as they kept working their way down to the flat. I decided to take a chance on going back to the truck and that hopefully they would take off towards the open low area where we would be able to work them better. Well it worked....They saw me and took off. We worked our way around and glassed where we could. We didn't see any signs of them so we started over the hill to the second flat open area. In the back of the flat open area about a 1/2 mile away we found them bedded down. Bob and I got out and walked down the backside of a ridge. By now the wind had died down to a light breeze. We worked our way to the ridge and behind the junipers. Bob started to glass and found that the does had gotten up and were slowly moving into the junipers which this let us work our way our way closer. The antelope would get up, move 20-40 feet and then lay down again. We think that they were probably getting a scent of us swirling off the back part of the ridge. We continued to follow the herd. Working our way slowly until finally we got an opportunity. There was a small clearing between two junipers, about 150 yards away. The does started toward that direction and when they stopped to see if the coast was clear the buck stopped in a small opening. I was ready and with one squeeze of the trigger from my 6mm Ruger the 100 grains of Remington express soft point did its job. He was down.
Hunting has been much more enjoyable since I have a hunting partner/companion who is also my best friend. Thank you Bob! The Buck I shot measured out with a small hard tape at 14 1/4 inch tall horns with 5-inch wide cutters and over 11 1/4 inches wide from tip to tip... Not a record antelope but the thrill of the hunt and the memories are the true stories we all get to share.
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