my "amelope" hunt

this year, don put me in for the antlope hunt up in the three corners area, and i was the only "lucky"one, who drew a tag. i don't know who was more excited... don or chet.
friday morning we headed out bright and early (actually, it wasn't too bright, yet), (after not even going to bed, because i didn't want to come home to a messy house). we picked chet and ryker up at 4:20 a.m. then headed up to pick up one of don's working buddies -brian, and his brother, steve, up in salt lake. we stopped at the little america to have breakfast, then headed up to 'brown's park', where brian and steve have some property. we arrived there at about noon, unpacked our gear, then went out scouting the area for "amelope" (per ryker). ryker asked me if brian was his uncle. i told him i guess he could be if he wanted him to be. so... brian was dibbed as "uncle brian" the rest of the trip. as we were out scouting, everything was "uncle brian" this and "uncle brian" that. at one time ryker out of the clear blue asked, "uncle brian, do you have a wiener?, my dad says that all boys have wieners... do you?" i don't think brian knew what to say, but i can tell you that by the time we got back to camp, brian had ear plugs in both ears.

we found a couple of herds with some ok bucks that night, so the next morning - the opening of the hunt, we got up early and headed out so that we could be where we needed to be before the antelope showed up.

so much for that thought!

yup!! flat tire! here is ryker helping chet tighten the last lug nuts, so we could get on our way.

we ended up going into flaming gorge to get the tire fixed. had a little lunch, then headed back.

my little scout!

about 5:oo p.m. i finally hit one! it acted like it was going down, so we watched him for a while. finally, we (don and i) decided to try to sneak up on him and see if he was dead or not. just about the time we got up to him, chet called us on the walkie talkie and told us that the antelope had winded us and was coming towards the road. so we turned around and hurried back to the truck. some guys who were bow hunting watched it come across the road and was just about to take it, when they seen that it had been wounded. so they watched it go up over the ridge. so once again, don and i started up over the ridge after it. all of the sudden these same two hunters came back and said that they had seen him down the road in a canyon, to follow them and they would show us where he went. when we got to the canyon, they went on top and we went around to the bottom of the draw. and sure enough... about 182 yards out, was the one (i know it was 182 yards, because donnie bought me a range finder at cabellas before we went hunting - like i was ever going to use it, but don got his use out of it). don got the shooting sticks set up for me and told me to "just take my time and be surprized". well i pulled the trigger and NOTHING! i still had the safety on. don wasn't very happy with me, because when i did pull the trigger, i jerked. so once again, i was told to be surprized when i pulled the trigger. so i eyed him in the scope and BANG! he went down. and that was that! ryker started whooping and hollering (right along with don and chet) and ryker started yelling, "WE got him gramma, WE got him!"

my fan fare!

twinners!

ryker decided he wanted to be a "hunter" and not a ballerina!

this is "uncle brian's" place in 'browns park'

yep... the bathroom!

(and... it was on the next lot over)

"uncle brian, steve and nick"

packed up and ready to go home.

clay basin is where we hunted

browns park is where we camped

it was a long ride home!