Well, the Juniper antelope hunt was definitely the toughest antelope hunt I have ever been on, one would think an antelope hunt that took 17 points to draw would have more critters and easier hunting. It was a fun but grueling hunt, and doing it solo made it even more difficult than I had anticipated. I wasn't used to ranging and evaluating my own antelope. As I found out they don't always give you enough time to evaluate, range and make the shot. I Was camped in Narrows Oregon at the RV Park / store / restaurant / saloon. I would get up at 3:30 am to start the rough 2 hour drive across the Oregon dessert to the antelope hunting grounds. If you hunt all day that puts you back at camp after 10:00 pm, 3:30 comes real early the next day. It was so dry most of the water holes were dry concentrating the antelope near the few remaining water sources and that concentrated the hunters making the hunting pressure a huge factor. I had a couple stalks blown by other hunters, the antelope were very skittish, if a truck got within a half mile to a mile of the antelope they were changing zip codes. I tried every trick in the book before getting it done at 8:30 am on day 5. I found a couple bucks in a remote area with very little hunting pressure and after a couple days of busted stalks, close calls and antelope basically making me look and feel stupid I found where they had been watering and set up at 9:30 am on day 4 and put out the Montana decoy. I stayed until dark and only had 4 does and a very small buck come in, every one had to very closely check out the decoy, it was hilarious to watch. The two bucks I had seen earlier that morning both had been headed away from that water hole when I saw them so I figured they must be watering early. I was there the next morning at first light and set up again. I had a doe come in then a decent buck but the rising sun and glare prevented me from getting a shot before he sensed something was wrong and beat a hasty retreat. About 8:00 I saw the big buck in the distance, I ranged him at 330 yards and got him in the scope but he went behind a little ridge where I could only see his head peeking over, then he was gone. He obviously wanted to water and I was hoping he was circling around to approach. Then at 8:30 this buck came racing in from the opposite direction all the other antelope had come and came to a screeching halt right in front of me just over 100 yards out. I knew he wasn't the big one but "a bird in hand", I was tired of the long hours in the hot, dusty desert. One shot with the Savage 30-06 and it was over. I did a super quick gut job, loaded him up, shoved a couple bags of ice in the chest cavity and raced for camp. I got him skinned, chunked up and on ice and broke camp. I made it home by 9:00 pm and immediately started butchering, with a little help, (ok a lot of help, I never claimed to be a butcher) he was in the freezer by midnight. I probably should have held out for the big one but It was still a fun hunt, I saw a lot of antelope, wild horses, sage grouse, a badger, coyotes, a ton of jack rabbits and a whole lot of sage brush & dust. All in all a good hunt.
