2009 Pronghorn Antelope - Day 1

Based on reports from family and friends as well as our own experience, we set out from McDermitt on the 2009 Antelope season at 5:00 am with the full expectation that we would have a buck in the truck by 8:00 am. Our first destination was the “Apple Orchard”. It is an old homestead at the mouth of National Canyon with a few apple trees, some cotton woods and a stone house that lost its roof probably a half-century ago. The stream there flows year-round, but in August its just a trickle and dries up as soon as it leaves the mouth of the canyon. Between the Apple Orchard and the canyon just to the north are where we’d seen and heard reports of a large herd. Before heading north, however we decided to press into National Canyon with plans on driving up to the old National Mine. We had seen a few Pronghorns up there as well as Bighorn Sheep so it was worth a peek. As we got about a mile into the canyon we came across a hunting camp and decided that we didn’t want to head up the canyon any further and disturb the hunters. Turning back around, we were determined to head north up to Eight-Mile Canyon and find “The Herd”.

After getting jostled around on a fence-line road for about 20 minutes, we crested the same hill we had the year before, fully expecting to see the same large herd sitting there waiting to be ‘thinned’. No such luck. Instead, we spied 3 hunters riding ATVs who apparently had the same expectations we had. We turned around and decided to head south to Indian Creek Canyon. Enroute we saw 3 more groups of hunters scouring the plains and hills for Antelope. The discussion in our truck was now focused on the idea of why everyone decides to hunt on opening weekend and why couldn’t they all just wait for us to get one first.

We decided to cross Indian Creek at the mouth of the canyon and take a couple shots at some structures of an abandoned mine. From across the valley Doug sighted in a metal plate. We guessed it was about 250 yards away. He took a shot and it hit right in the center. Feeling confident it was properly sighted-in we got back in the truck. This is where he made the grave mistake of placing the gun between the drivers seat and the center console of the truck. But more on this later...

The only thing we had seen moving all morning was hunters and cattle, so we decided to head south along US 95 to an area notorious for Antelope. Amongst all the locals, there was a consensus that Antelope were everywhere between Horse Canyon and NV 140. That is until Day One of Antelope season as we saw only hunters and cattle there as well.

At this point we decided to head up to the east side of the Santa Rosa range and look into finding another herd we’d seen there the previous year. It was an even split in distance to head back up north and shoot through Windy Gap or south and around to Paradise Valley. We decided on the Paradise Valley route as it was country we had not seen that day. We did not see anything in field or glen the whole trip around to Paradise and started heading up into the hills. More hunters were spotted as soon as we left paved road, but we took comfort in the fact that they had not seen anything either. Up over Hinkey Summit on NFD-084 (also known as NV 290) and down past Lye Creek were pretty, but devoid of all life except for cattle, which we started referring to as ‘cowalopes’.

We finally made it to the cut-off to the No. Fork of Cabin Creek and pushed a few cowalopes out of the way to get to an area we deemed good for glassing the vale. After 20 minutes of glassing cattle, cattle, and more cattle it was plain that the Antelopes were not here at present. Decision time… Do we head east to the flats of eastern Humboldt County or up over Windy Gap and back down into the area we started in? East it was. After a little back-tracking we jumped on NFD-531 with the ultimate destination of Calico Ranch. We paid scant attention to the ‘Road Close due to Construction’ sign at the start of NFD-531. After all, who closes a dirt road for construction? Scanning and glassing a mere 7 miles led us past more hunters and cowalopes but not our primary objective. We entered the No. Fork of the Little Humboldt River at Stocks Creek and found that the road was indeed under construction with a full crew digging up embankments and smoothing out the ford on both sides of the river. Frustration set in as it was now nearly noon and the location we desired to get to was the one place we couldn’t get to easily. Quinn River Rd was a mere 10 miles away but to get to it required some serious four-wheeling or an 80 mile detour. We opted for the latter, knowing it would be easily a 3 to 4 hour detour.

Back to NFD-084 and up over Windy Gap to US 95 we went. We made the first turn onto Fort McDermitt Paiute Indian Reservation and followed the Quinn River past Devils Gate onto the high desert of eastern Humboldt County. Along the way we stopped to take a few photos of the rattle snake that tried to bite the truck tires. Following Quinn River Rd around to Calico Ranch we saw more hunters and stopped to talk to a couple retired Navy folks out of Fallon who were coming up from Paradise Valley. They had been up and down the east side without sighting anything. This was discouraging and encouraging at the same time. Discouraging as our hopes of coming over to the high desert seemed like a mistake more than a good idea. Encouraging, as the saying goes, ‘misery loves company’. After 20 minutes of chatting we pressed south towards the cutoff towards Elko county, figuring no one would go to the extreme eastern edge of the hunt area. We were wrong as we saw no fewer than 3 groups of hunters towing campers and trailers laden with ATVs. The 7 mile detour was fruitless and we opted to head back to Quinn River Rd. There we made a decision to head south as far as the No. Fork of the Little Humboldt River, then turn around and head back home. We crossed the Little Owyhee River and shook our fists at the turn off to NFD-531 that we were on a mere 4 hours earlier. There was no road construction sign on this side of the mountains and we felt sorry for those souls that had tried the road from this side only to get turned around again like us.

Amazingly enough, we crested a hill that brought us in sight of Antelope Springs when my brother Doug hit the brakes. In the waning light he had gotten sight of 7 Pronghorns crossing the road about 300 yards below us. He grabbled his rifle and started walking obliquely towards the direction they were walking. I dropped a GPS mark on our location, got in the truck and continued to drive down towards where the Antelope had crossed the road, hoping to prevent them from running away from Doug and just maybe convincing them we were not interested in them. I got out of the truck and attempted to track them in the hard, dry soil with limited success. Doug was out of sight over the ridge but I had a general idea of where he was walking.

After about 500 yards of hiking, I had lost the trail, but Doug and I were now in sight. I was slightly south of his position and we were both looking up and down a shallow wash for any sign of our prey. We determined that we would have easily seen them if they had exited the vale upslope to the north so we headed into some low sage towards the south. Cresting a small ridge, we got sight of them about 300 yards to the south at the base of a small knoll. I immediately hit the dirt. My brother was frozen in place as they had been looking in my direction and not his. I shout-whispered if he had a shot? He shook his head in the negative. On all fours, I crawled over to his position where he was standing as still as Michaelangelo's David. I popped my head up to get a peek and, BAM! they took off running.

At this point I'd like to insert lesson #1 I learned about hunting Pronghorn Antelope. Their eyesight is touted as excellent in many references. I'd like to clarify. What they excel at is seeing movement, not actual contrasting shapes.

We took off walking at a brisk pace, hoping they would stop running when they got on the back-side of the small knoll. When we got down there however we caught sight of them in the distance trotting off at about 800 yards and opening. In the failing light we decided to give up the chase and return the truck, now about 3/4 mile away.

To finish off the night we stopped in the local bar in Paradise Valley where we ran into some old friends who were there. Some of them worked for the Forrest Service and reported seeing Antelope in various locations, but nothing definite. Over a beer we also learned that Rocky Mountain Elk had migrated into the Santa Rosa range the previous winter. While this may seem like a small factoid, I'll note that since time immemorial, Elk have NEVER been seen in the Santa Rosa range. This brought up a discussion of their possible pressure on Mule Deer habitat which invariable led to a discussion on Wolves that have been reported returning to the area as well.

We left there and proceeded back to McDermitt for the night. All told, we had driven more than 200 miles and had seen a total of 7 Antelopes. Very discouraging for an opening day.