mtfreezer

Has anyone tried hunting antelope without a blind. My extra cash will be spent on deer hunting gear as this will be my first bow season and I need several other important things before I buy a ground blind. Antelope season opens a month earlier then deer season and I have the hunting itch so bad now that I have decided to try antelope hunting. Mid August can't come soon enough.

Do you guys have any ideas on how to hunt antelope without a blind? Is spot and stalk even possible with a bow with antelope? It has to be extremely difficult to take an antelope like that.

Thanks for any help guys. HNI has taught me soo much already that I feel likeI have several years under my belt with just the knowledge you guys have passed on.

mez

Yes you can do it without a blind. Spot and stalk is possible, very, very difficult but possible. I've taken one that way and two hunting buddies have also. You will spend the majority of your time scaring them away but they forget that you are there as soon as they are out of sight. Use terrain changes to try to get close, be patient and wear knee and elbow pads! I learned that the hard way, there is cactus everywhere that they live! I have the hard plastic covered knee pads and wear them on knees and elbows, will go a long way in making your hunt comfortable.

The other option is to build a blind. You can do it very cheap, you don't need a Double Bull or other name brand. Get 4-6 steel fence posts, they cost about $1.50 each. Drive the posts in a rectangle shape by a water hole or a fence crossing. Then you can purchase a large roll of the camo/burlap type material and wire ittothe posts. Cut out a window to shoot through then wire some tall grass, tree branches, etc around it as well. If you put some branches so they come in at the top it will darken the inside a little and make a better blind, also provides shade. A nice thing in a blind in August. You can make it for about $20 and they are highly effective. I have taken several antelope from them.

HuntingEd

I would do everything you can to get a blind, either build one or get a cheap one. I killed my P&Y goat outta a cheap outhouse style blind thatI set up only hrs before... I think you get get a basic blind pretty cheap online these days or for walmart/dicksportinggoods...

You can try spot and stalk, but its like catching a fly in your hands... sometimes its works, but most of the time you spend a lot of energy and come up empty handed

liquidorange

if your in cattle country and its legal you can make a light weight cow cut out to stand behind and stalk right into them. i used wood but maybe black fence mesh would work. it worked for me. they dont know a cow cant walk side ways. they may have 8 power vision but there 3-d perception aint too good.

Howler

A probability of spot and stalk to work will heavily depend on the terrain that you're hunting. If the pastures are flat as far as the eye can see with 4" tall grass, then obvisouly you'll be up against a brick wall. But if there are some cuts/diches and some scatter sage brush and some descent hills around, then it's a descent possibility. I killed a doe last year and a buck the year before by spot and stalk. I simply glassed and tried to find animals that were by themselves, waited for them to bed dowm, and went after them. One thing you will quickly learn is how good they are arout laying with the wind coming from behind them so they can see what they can't smell, and smell what they can't see. Be preparred for longer shots than the average whitetail hunt ends up with. Carry lots of water. In my area, knee pads and forearm/elbow pads are a must.
Here's the buck that I got two years ago. You can see my arm/elbow pads and knee pads that I used. I made my arm pads out of some thick felt that I have. They worked awesome, and I used them again last year and I got a doe last year.

mtfreezer

Thanks for the advice guys. Never thought about the knee and elbow pads and I would love to try to make cow cut out. I will be hunting both cattle country and the Bad Lands in South Dakota, so all the ideas you guys gave me will halp alot.

Thanks

Bullhound

I thought me and my buddy were the only ones that did this. Our cow is big and has handles on it so both of us can walk behind it. You should see the looks we get from people whan we stop in town for supplies and that big ol cow cutout is strapped on the top of the gear in back of the truck!