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On this particular morning, our guide, named Mark Williams, had told us that we were going to head to
the section of land known as Big Red and walk along the fence line on the North border, following it to the
West until we got close to a peak known as Cruz. It was during the walk along the fence line that my dad and I
realized just how high 6,000 feet was! Only halfway up the hill both of us were exhausted, however I would not
let exhaustion get in my way! After walking for approximately thirty minutes (and seeing a few pronghorn does
that were not on the Martinez ranch), we reached a valley that sat on the West side of Cruz, we found some
yucca plants and decided that we would stop and take cover because on the hill, at least 1,000 yards away, were
two pronghorns.
We could not identify if they were bucks or does, but we knew they could potentially come up in range
of us. After resting for a while and watching the pronghorn closely, we saw Josh, his dad and their guide
walking down the valley that ran right in front of us with the two pronghorn still in sight. We communicated
with the trio of hunters by two way radios and attempted to get them closer to the pronghorn, but they never got
close enough and the pronghorn disappeared from sight. During our beautiful morning hunt we heard several
other gunshots. Some hunters’ missions were already over. My spirits were not as high as they were when I had
first began, but they were not shot down yet! I still had the whole day to go!
We returned to the Martinez ranch around 9:00 A.M. to discuss where we wanted to hunt next and to
grab a quick snack if we needed it. Not long after my dad and I had rested our tired feet, the ranch owner, Mr.
Martinez, approached our guide and told us that there was a rather nick buck down in a section of land known
as Section 20 and he wanted to have both Josh and myself out there to possibly have a chance at it. So Josh, his
group and my group and I all loaded up in a truck and drove down the highway until we hit the field known as
Section 20. Sure enough, right smack in the center of that field was a rather splendid buck standing there. Mark
and Josh’s guide, Alan, came up with the idea to put a squeeze on the antelope.
We would leave Josh and his group at the Northwest corner of the section and we would go to the
opposite southeast corner. From there we would both walk to the same point to either push the antelope towards
us, or towards Josh. Our group remained in constant communication with Josh’s group. We paused frequently
to watch the antelope’s movements to see which way he was possibly moving. After we were half a mile into
the section, the buck began to slowly move off towards the North. We knew that if he kept on going, he’d be
out of sight eventually, but we did not change our pace because we didn’t want to potentially spook him. By
now the sun was high in the sky and the day was beginning to warm up, the near five miles I had walked that
morning were beginning to weigh down on me as well. I still had my hopes for getting that antelope. That was
until we got a call.
Alan called our guide Mark on the two way radios and told us that the buck had just bolted at nearly 50
MPH to the North. I now knew my chances with that buck were sunk, but our guide wasn’t done with Section
20 yet. There was what they call a “tank” in the Northwest corner of the field where it the grass was more green.
There was the potential that some antelope could be in that draw. Three-quarters of the way into Section 20 and
we finally reached a point where we could see the whole tank. Bone dry and not a single antelope in sight. Now
my spirits were beginning to sink about my chances of being able to see a pronghorn and get a chance to shoot,
and my dad could tell that whenever we were walking the grueling three-quarters of a mile back to the truck to
pick up Josh’s group.