Archery antelope hunting over water seemed like an easily notched tag as we planned our fall of 2021 hunts. Although it was something new to us, we thought – how hard could it be?
Excited and eager to start our hunting season in August we did our research, had plenty of guidance from some buddies, built a 6x6’ box blind, picked a trough that had antelope sign and sat it. Then, we sat it some more. Sixteen hour days in a dark box didn’t seem so bad until we found ourselves on day six without seeing a single antelope drink in front of us. Being able to see antelope hundreds of yards away and not being able to do a single thing about it was tough.
Something had to change – so we took matters into our own hands and Steven quickly failed two stalks back to back.

As we drove around the desert lands searching for hope and antelope, we stumbled upon a vacant string of water troughs littered with real live antelope surrounding it and tons of sign. With no other blind in sight, we decided to call an audible. Leading to a night ops mission on the other side of the desert, we tore our blind down and relocated it. After clanking around in the headlights that night setting up our blind, we had low expectations for the next day.
To our surprise – doe and fawn pairs came barreling in mid-morning. Finally, on day seven we saw antelope drink in front of us. We celebrated our mini victory and had some relief, but reality set in – we were getting awfully close to elk season and zero out of two antelope on the ground.

What we learned in the blind was – things happen fast, and antelope love to catch you completely off guard, especially the nice bucks. Steven was able to notch his tag first and Jess had to rally back later in the season, solo, to get it done.