Somehow the stars aligned this year and I ended up with an NV "Horns Longer Than Ears/Any Legal Weapon" antelope tag in my Hail Mary unit. I've never drawn a desirable tag anywhere out west, so I was super stoked to clear my schedule and dedicate a week to finding a nice one. One of my buddies is getting into big game hunting and was also able to get off work, so this seemed like a great way for him to see what it's all about.
We got to our unit the day before the opener and ran out to do some scouting. We saw one buck that afternoon. Slow, but on the board. Opening morning, we took a two track the better part of an hour back into a large tract of public to be on a good X for sunrise. That morning I passed a decent mid 60s buck and we saw a herd of some does plus one juvenile buck. At this point we were feeling alright.
Then things got weird. We glassed and drove a ton of really excellent looking habitat and saw zero antelope of any kind that afternoon and evening. The next day, we switched it up from hunting higher to targeting a new area with creeks and cattle guzzlers on the flats. Nothing. That afternoon, we checked a conpletely different part of the unit. Nothing. We tried hiking to and glassing from ridgelines, driving two tracks, hunting areas near watering troughs and areas near creeks... not a single antelope to be found. At this point, we were half way through our hunt and hadn't even seen a live animal since the first morning despite hunting hard and putting in a bunch of miles and time behind the glass.
So we went back to the drawing board and found a spot that involved hiding in plain sight with a bonus hint of misery to access. As we were walking in, I snapped a sunrise picture to show to my buddies how great the habitat we were hunting looked, despite how much time we were spending glassing cows. About five minutes later, I saw a little speck out of the corner of my eye that had a very distinct gait to it. Even at 1200 yards, I knew he was a shooter as soon as I put my 10x binos on him.
One unique thing about Nevada is how unbelievably quickly dehydration happens. None of the three pumps I did to CENTCOM even comes close- the last thing I did as I shucked my pack to make the final stalk was take a big drink of water, and I will still never forget briefly debating going to get my water bottle first after breaking the shot and watching him go down. Long story short, he caught a 120 grain Hammer Hunter from about 240 yards, and went about another 25. What followed was one of the moments we all do this stuff for- a mix of the exact opposite of ground shrinkage and high fives with one of your closest buddies in a situation you were starting to think might end up being a bust.
Going forward, my big learning point from this hunt has to do with expectation management. I was absolutely stunned when I got the email saying I had drawn this tag, and allowed myself to really start building it up in my mind when I talked to some guys from nearby who had very good things to say about the unit. So, when we got to day three and had seen fewer antelope than I have in the medians of some parking lots... morale took a hit. It ended up being a really incredible experience, but drawing a tag that is tough to get does not by any means guarantee an easy hunt.
We got to our unit the day before the opener and ran out to do some scouting. We saw one buck that afternoon. Slow, but on the board. Opening morning, we took a two track the better part of an hour back into a large tract of public to be on a good X for sunrise. That morning I passed a decent mid 60s buck and we saw a herd of some does plus one juvenile buck. At this point we were feeling alright.
Then things got weird. We glassed and drove a ton of really excellent looking habitat and saw zero antelope of any kind that afternoon and evening. The next day, we switched it up from hunting higher to targeting a new area with creeks and cattle guzzlers on the flats. Nothing. That afternoon, we checked a conpletely different part of the unit. Nothing. We tried hiking to and glassing from ridgelines, driving two tracks, hunting areas near watering troughs and areas near creeks... not a single antelope to be found. At this point, we were half way through our hunt and hadn't even seen a live animal since the first morning despite hunting hard and putting in a bunch of miles and time behind the glass.
So we went back to the drawing board and found a spot that involved hiding in plain sight with a bonus hint of misery to access. As we were walking in, I snapped a sunrise picture to show to my buddies how great the habitat we were hunting looked, despite how much time we were spending glassing cows. About five minutes later, I saw a little speck out of the corner of my eye that had a very distinct gait to it. Even at 1200 yards, I knew he was a shooter as soon as I put my 10x binos on him.
One unique thing about Nevada is how unbelievably quickly dehydration happens. None of the three pumps I did to CENTCOM even comes close- the last thing I did as I shucked my pack to make the final stalk was take a big drink of water, and I will still never forget briefly debating going to get my water bottle first after breaking the shot and watching him go down. Long story short, he caught a 120 grain Hammer Hunter from about 240 yards, and went about another 25. What followed was one of the moments we all do this stuff for- a mix of the exact opposite of ground shrinkage and high fives with one of your closest buddies in a situation you were starting to think might end up being a bust.
Going forward, my big learning point from this hunt has to do with expectation management. I was absolutely stunned when I got the email saying I had drawn this tag, and allowed myself to really start building it up in my mind when I talked to some guys from nearby who had very good things to say about the unit. So, when we got to day three and had seen fewer antelope than I have in the medians of some parking lots... morale took a hit. It ended up being a really incredible experience, but drawing a tag that is tough to get does not by any means guarantee an easy hunt.
