Alberta Draws

[sheephunterab]

That's way too many for some zones. There were around 140 last year...that seemed about perfect...lots of room for everyone and no cranky landowners.

[Springer]

Ya it was pretty darn Busy out there TJ and the race to get ahead of everyone was on bright and early. Like when I get up to start coffee and trucks are full of guys that already had theirs and ate breakfast...
The wind was a Pain in the Butt to deal with to.
My boys had very limited time because of work schedules. they arrived Sunday night in the dark and I had us in our spot Monday Morning in the dark.
As the sun came up we just sat in the truck on the bald ass prairie and waited for the Pronghorn to come out of the Coulees. they started arriving and as we sat outside the truck for a wind block we waited for a decent Buck.. Younger not as experienced shooter son shot twice and missed and oldest son Layed out that same Goat when he stopped running.

Younger son continued to miss Goats the next day and we continued to laugh at him and his colourful language.
Oldest son went home with his Goat Tuesday morning and we continued looking , and missing lol it was 2:00 in the afternoon Tuesday when he finally connected on his Young Buck in that Awful high wind.
We tagged him and took him to an Old farmstead we found 5 minutes away and got out of the wind. Hung the Goat up and skinned and quartered him.. he actually fit in the Trailer fridge and the head in the freezer with some extra Duct tape help to keep the door mostly closed.

I saw some really good ones in and out of our zone during the hunt and piles of Mule deer as well.

I seasoned 2 backstraps up that were cut into thick steaks and wrapped with bacon. 3 days later in Archery Camp in Eastern Alberta we ate those unbelievably delicious steaks ....Myself and 2 BC hunters I hosted. Man I love eating Antelope , my favourite Big Game meat from Alberta.

It was fun keeping up with Rackmaster through texts...I actually knew lots of guys down there but was anti social I guess and we hung out in the trailer in the evenings.

[Rackmastr]

Was great meeting you Springer and keeping in touch with you through the week. We ran into several people we knew over the course of the couple days and it was good to catch up with some, tell some stories, and keep in touch about what guys were seeing. It was great to get back into that country a bit and enjoyed almost the entire hunt though till Friday.

We had found a really cool buck we nicknamed 'Victor' on the Sunday morning and tried to re-locate him on Sun evening to no avail, but we had an idea of where he was at. Monday morning found us pounding some of that country and really picking it apart to find him, as my buddy Cody was 'up'. After a couple stalks on smaller herds and average bucks, we headed back to the truck to re-group. We were 500 yards from the truck when a herd went past us, and low-and-behold Victor was in the group. We grabbed some gear, swapped out a jacket and tried to make a play, but the herd was spooky and unsettled. At about 1 in the afternoon, we decided it was time to move on and see some new country. We only had 2 trucks in the general area we were in for opening morning but everyone was on different herds so it worked out pretty well.

I ended up shooting my buck at about 2PM on Opening day after driving a couple new roads we hadn't driven. Earlier we decided that we would 'alternate' who was the shooter for every decent buck we saw. We found my buck with a small herd right off a small dirt trail/road and went and gained permission. I loved the mass the buck had (pretty much a sucker for good mass on any game) and permission was gained in about 10 minutes. We made a quick stalk and I made an 80 yard frontal shot to end my 12 year tag. Wasn't planning on shooting one opening day but that's how it worked out! We had another truck drive up and chat with us, he said that they had passed the buck up 2 times earlier that day and had came back a 3rd time (my guess was to shoot him this time). Well, we had him hanging on the rack by then and I think he was a bit disappointed that he had passed on him 2 times.

The next day we hunted some of the strongest winds I have ever experienced, even living in Southern Alberta and hunting a lot of time around Magrath/Pincher/etc this wind was insane. It reminded me of the giant gusts that Mt Allan or Cadomin can experience, and the dust storms it kicked up were pretty wicked. What a day that was....

We hunted the rest of the week trying to get on the 'right' buck for Cody. We passed a TON of 'decent' bucks and likely passed one or two that were even a touch better than decent. We had a couple great hikes in some awesome country and put the miles on. I did find that some areas that traditionally have a ton of antelope during this week were void of antelope. A lot of eastern 118 and even South-eastern 102 were very quiet for antelope. In the past I've seen some of these areas filled up with them, so I think some of the storm that hit likely moved them around a bunch, and some areas seemed a bit affected by the fire right down south. All anecdotal and just guessing but it was interesting to see the numbers and pockets of areas that used to have good herds in them pretty quiet.

On day 5 Cody and I found a good buck and did a perfect stalk on 3 bedded bucks. We had a truck pull in behind us and realize we were on our bellies in the field and promptly turned around which was nice as it allowed us time to finish up our stalk. Cody made a great 220 yard shot at a waterhole to end the hunt by noon on Friday.

By Wednesday afternoon the crowds were pretty minimal (as expected) and each day it got less and less. Mon and Tues were obviously the busiest days, and yep on Sun/Mon things were pretty comical with how many vehicles were all over the place. I was happy to say that we only heard about 3-4 gun shots through the hunt (being in the right places I guess) and never once got buggered up or got into a 'bad' situation with other hunters, vehicles, etc. I've hunted the zone with 450 tags in the past and it does make things pretty interesting with pressure, landowner relationships, competition, etc. Having 262 tags made things busy for sure, but we were lucky to have a really enjoyable hunt the entire week.

I had a great hunt in country that I spent a lot of time in and was good to connect with landowners I haven't seen in a while and spend some time with great friends down there. Likely will be my last Alberta pronghorn tag (obviously some conversation points with priority system, allocation, etc) but I'll remain hopeful that I can continue to get 'back home' to chase mulies with friends and some WT every once in a while.

[fuzzybiscuit]

Sounds like you guys had a great hunt. Congrats.

But I gotta ask, where are all the pictures? Lol.

I’m at a priority 4, so only another 15-20 years and I’ll get my shot. Can’t wait!

[Rackmastr]

Sounds like you guys had a great hunt. Congrats.

But I gotta ask, where are all the pictures? Lol.

I’m at a priority 4, so only another 15-20 years and I’ll get my shot. Can’t wait!

Tried to add some last night from work but wouldn't upload. When I'm home and can sign into Imgur or a hosting site I'll add them up.

[Walking Buffalo]

Tried to add some last night from work but wouldn't upload. When I'm home and can sign into Imgur or a hosting site I'll add them up.

That's a cool buck Rack, wicked mass and extras. Glad you had another fun hunt in Alberta.

[Rackmastr]

Haha here ya go!

[Rackmastr]

Couple field pics from some bucks as well....mine is the first.

[Rackmastr]

And here are the two bucks that my father and Kim killed back in September in a different zone. Overall a pretty amazing year for antelope.

[Rackmastr]