Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Rookie Antelope Question????

So we're planning a hunt for late October to southeast Montana. What is the best method to hunt at that time of year, spot and stalk or should we be setting up ground blinds? Thanks for your advice.

spot and stalk if rifle hunting.....use the terrain.....if your hunting public ground and they have been shot at they tend to be quite spooky and will spook at a pick up stopping or a upright human form at a half mile or so....however though their eyesight is excellent they arent terribly bright, and are exceptionally curious critters.....if you dont look like a person and just look "odd" they will stand around trying to figure out what you are and even come towards you for a closer look.....

my wife and i often "play cow" to get closer to the goats.....basically one person walks half bent over and the second person bends over behind them and grabs the front persons belt and yah walk up to the goats......keep yourself parallel to the goats as much as possible keeping your side to them so yah dont look like a person....we zig zag to eat up ground.....generally you can walk up to with in 200 maybe 150 yards but yah need to be careful cause if yah turn at the wrong time and they get a look that makes them think your actually a person they spook.....they also have darn good noses and you do have to watch the wind....

was going to get video of us doing this this past year to prove to ppl that we actually walk up to them but my wife had a bone spur where her achelles tendon attaches and she wasnt up to walking much and due to the zig zagging course, you may walk quite over a mile to even gain 500 yards on them......but it does work....

crawling on your hands and knees works too but i recommend good knee pads and heavy leather gloves if your going to do it....the rocks and cactus spines are sharp and hurt like a SOB.....

I'm sure there are more experience goat hunters than me & it will be interested in hearing from them. I assume you are rifle hunting so the usual method is to drive around & look for goats. When we sight them we drive away until not seen or quickly let someone out. Then you stalk & hopefully have a shot. I have had shots from 125-400+ yards. My friends that bow hunt all use blinds near water sources. You could set up a blind on BLM land during gun season & wait a long time for a shot at a goat. I have also used an ATV on Block Management to hunt mulies & goats, but again if they see or hear you close expect to see a lot of butts.

You mean they don't chase them with pick-ups anymore?

Corn feeder...

BigGame: I have Hunted SE Montana virtually every year since (1969!) for Antelope. And fairly often for Deer as well.
I Hunted there again last season.
My first piece of advice for a new Antelope Hunter considering Hunting SE Montana in late October is to cancel those plans and be there in early October for the Antelope Season opener!
Late October for Antelope Hunting in SE Montana can be a rather difficult undertaking!
First off the better/best Antelope Bucks will mostly have been harvested by then!
Secondly the remaining better/best Antelope Bucks will be extremely wary and difficult to get close to (within 500 yards!)!
The best advice I can give to you would be to make every effort to be into Antelope country before the season and scout a couple of days prior to the season! Have a particular Buck Antelope spotted and on opening morning approach him (the area he was seen in the day before!) with the rising sun at your back!
Stalk slowly and remain out of sight as best you can and you should be able to get within 350 yards of that opening day Buck - I am guessing your success rate would be around 75 to 80% on the opening weekend - after some good scouting has been done.
Late in October I would estimate a 50% success rate - at best, for you.
I am basing this on friends and fellow Hunters success rates, who for what ever reasons are not able to Hunt the opener.
I am successful on Buck Antelope on the opening dayaround 95% of the time anymore - the other 5% of the time I tag out the next day or the next at latest.
The good thing about Antelope Hunting is you indeed can "spot and stalk" Antelope all day long. If at first you don't succeed, then re-try!
One blizzardy opening day many years ago, I made 9 unsuccessful spot and stalk attempts - finally on the tenth stalk I was successful. It was so late in the day though that I did not make it to the Miles City wild game processor before they closed for the day.
I slept in the back of my truck with that odiferous Buck that night!
I had been Hunting about 90 miles southeast of Miles City that year.
If you can't change your dates then I would rely on long range spotting especially LATE in each day - NO heading for the cafe or camp before full dark!
Then mark the spot, exactly, where you see Bucks and be into the exact area you saw the Buck Antelope the next morning BEFORE sunrise!
Await sunrise from a secreted position and hopefully after legal shooting time and a short stalk you will be within Rifle range of that previously spotted Buck.
Antelope normally do not move much at all after dark - unlike Mule Deer who frequent the same country!
Best of luck to you - you are going to have fun and see some lonesome and beautiful country!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Definite + 1 to what Varmint Guy said, from another one in SW Montana.Have fun at it, antelope are a ball to hunt if you get out on your hind legs and do it...
Ingwe

Naw, some of us old guys still chase'em in pickups! Well we have actually become somewhat subdued in our Antelope hunting since my mispent cowboy youth. Today we drive around and spot them then stalk them and shoot'em..That is the most common method used in Antelope hunting today, except perhaps on the internet.