Hunting

So for those of you who may not know I love hunting. From the months of September to the end of the year that is what I'm usually doing. I love hunting anything I can. I'm the redneck surfer boy as my mom calls me. lol. Even if I dont get anything, I still love just being out and about in the mountains, most of the time in places people dont really know about, Or would want to hike to. The hunt I'm gonna talk about today was my first Antelope hunt. It was about a year before I left on my mission. The hunt itself is up in Wyoming, and before we started just drawing out for them, we had to drive up to Wyoming at 3 in the morning to get in line to buy the tags. And the hunt isnt for a few months after that. So we get our tags head up to Wyoming on the day of the hunt and we get ready, now hunting of the Antelope is rather interesting. They are really quick, have great eyesight and are most of the time pretty smart. So it takes a lot of skill to bag one of these critters. But its also one of the funnest hunts I ever go on. We set out in our trucks and started looking for them. The reason we go after them in cars and trucks instead of hiking for them is as soon as they see you(now this could be hundreds of yards away) they run. So the purpose of the trucks is to get close enough to get out and chase them down on foot to get a shot. So most of the time they are also running at full speed which is around 40 miles when you get to them. So you have to lead them by about 8 feet before you shoot. Which is also challenging. So we get out there start driving and looking. We spent a lot of the day shooting and missing and getting animals. There was 12 people with us and they all had tags. Well I get up to take a shot at one and as soon as I shoot my scope shifts to the left side....Well crap thats bad I said...I took it off all the way and I was basically shooting without a sight for the rest of the day..Which needles to say landed me with leaving empty handed for the day. It sucked. Well that was the last time I was able to go before my mission and I didnt get to go again till last year. We get set up head out there and first we went to a different area to go after the 6 buck tags that we had. And boy did we have fun. We had one buck that my bosses son shot and missed turn and walk within maybe 10-15 feet of us. I call those kinds, animals that God wants dead. Mainly because they are like stupid people...We ended not being able to fill all the doe tags for the day, I think out of again 12 tags total we filled all but like 4. So we went out again about 2 weeks later and had a blast. This time it was just me, my boss, and our buddy Steve. Well we get there, and there is a doe just standing there looking at us. So I get out get a bead on her, and squeeze the trigger. Well I shot about 6 inches below her. Suck! So we kept moving along and moving along whinging shots at does far away just for fun. I was starting to lose confidence in my self and my shooting. Mainly because i shot like 5 times and missed all 5 lol. My boss and Steve were starting to worry as well lol...Well we come around a corner at a place were 2 weeks before we saw about oh 250 antelope maybe more. It was a place where we almost hit a group of about 8 as well with our car. They were running down the moutain and cut right in front of us, it was so cool to see! We came around the corner and in the field there was around 15 o so running around. They were all does and were running around so much becuase they were being hearded by a buck. So we try and get close enough and me and my boss had to take one of the harderst shots for me that I've ever taken. 250 yards at a probably 35 mile an hour dead run.

Well I was basically crapping my pants because I couldnt even hit a doe standing up looking at me picking her nose at 100 yards. So i get out of the car try to find a place to set up my gun for the shot, well I have no time whatsoever for that because they are just about ready to run past us. So I just hold the gun up to my shoulder, aim at the first doe, aim in front of her and shoot, Bang! well my boss shot at the same time and dropped one, and my first shot missed. So I racked in another round aimed in front of the doe at what I thought was 8 feet, turned out to only be like 4 and shoot! Well I didnt see her fall so I put in another round and get ready to shoot again when I hear you got her! I look back and I ended up hitting the 3rd doe back..which was good because the 4th one back was a buck and that would of been bad haha. So I lucked out on that part. haha

I ran over to her had to put one more shot in her because the first one want the best shot in the world and it was done. I learned some valubale lessons that day. How to shoot at a running Antelope and also learned how to bone out an animal. Honestly it was like the coolest thing in the world!

En finn Hunting has helped me become a better person and have more respect for the enviroment and the animals that our Heavenly Father has put on the earth for us. Now my friends that are against hunting and dont believe me, well too bad for you because it truely is incredible and through hunting I've seen more things and learned to appreciate our earth more then anyone I know that doesnt hunt. Have a good day and until tomorrow!