his movement as he closed the dis-
tance. When Matt was in position, I ap-
proached from the opposite direction
using the topography to my advantage.
When I located the herd, the antelope
were a long way off in the harvested
corn. I shimmied under the fence into
the field with them and proceeded for-
ward, using my decoy as a shield.
I stopped to glass after a short dis-
tance, but didn’t see the buck. When I
lowered my binoculars, a f lash out in
the pasture got my attention. The buck
waschargingupthefenceline!I franti-
cally stuck the decoy in the ground and
positioned myself for a shot. The buck
stopped less than 50 yards away but
on the other side of the fence I’d just
crawled under. He studied the decoy be-
fore turning back toward the herd. I hit
him with a challenge call and he came
under the fence, charging right at me!
He blew by the decoy at close range and
then stopped broadside and downwind
of the “intruder.” I quickly hit full draw,
judged the yardage to be 40, settled my
pin, and sent an arrow his way.
I watched my arrow disappear into
the buck, but my hit looked forward.
Luckily, he was slightly quartering to-
ward me, making the impact perfect. He
ran less than 100 yards and piled up! My
pronghorn season went from lackluster
to blockbuster in a matter of minutes.
Matt and Jordan witnessed most of the
action, and we were together in short or-
der to recover the heavy horned prong-
horn. It was a great hunt that we will re-
live for years to come.
If you are curious about the title of this
article, I will explain. I have highlighted
mostly “good” fortune to this point. Ari-
zona could be considered “bad,” since I
had few opportunities. As much as I hate
to relive the “ugly” part of my 2018 season,
I am going to in hopes that my failure can
help others avoid similar mistakes.
I felt very confident after tagging an
elk and a pronghorn in less than 10 days.
The Kansas deer season is long, running
from mid-September through Decem-
ber 31. I spend many hours throughout
the summer and into the early portions
of the season searching for the caliber of
buck I want to pursue, but I don’t get too
serious about hunting until closer to the
November rut.THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY
This is the view of my decoy setup and the
fence my Kansas antelope buck crawled under
shortly after I blew a challenge call at him.