Plateau Antelope 2010

[fourtycal]

A few years back, my son Derek (ride on), 15 at the time decided to apply for limited entry antelope. It took until this year to draw that tag and the hunt started Saturday morning September 18th.
Friday afternoon, after work we headed south toward Loa Utah and the Aquarius Plateau. We followed dirt roads turning toward Antelope Spring and found a spot to park and camp.
Saturday morning brought an amazing sunrise and as I stood next to the truck scanning our surroundings, I spotted several small groups of antelope. We stalked a couple of herds but they were on the move and hard to catch up to.

After a short time we decided the bigger groups were headed west so we drove that direction and found a cove to park the truck and hike uphill. As we crested the hill we spotted a decent herd with two bucks, as we moved forward on one ridge the herd headed the same direction on another ridge. They were 650 yards away, a little too long for Dereks .223, the doe's had made us and were moving away but the bucks decided to grapple, while they were fighting we took the chance to head their direction and made some good ground before they split up. DJ set up and made a great shot on the buck that ran closer to our location.

In short time we had it cleaned and dragged to the truck.
As warm as it was we decided to field dress it and head for home where we could cool and process the meat.

Great hunt, though a little short for my liking. A pat on the back for Derek harvesting his first antelope!

Picture 1 is DJ and his harvest
Picture 2 is the butcher shop with DJ and his friend Chase (my wife loved us taking over her kitchen)
picture 3 is a batch of jerky already marinating

[accadacca]

Very cool. Congrats!

[ilanimaka]

What a beautiful animal! Great job!

[denaliguide]

very nice!!

[oldno7]

Well cared for antelope meat is one of the best in my book. Congrats..............

[middlefork]

Great job! Nothing better than Antelope meat

[MY T PIMP]

Nice job!

[REDFOX]

Nice job on filling the tag. I have heard that antelope meat is the terrible, it stinks even while you are gutting the animal. It has been said that if the animal has been running it makes the meat even worse. Looks like your good marinade might make it palatible.

[fourtycal]

I have heard that antelope meat is the terrible, it stinks even while you are gutting the animal. It has been said that if the animal has been running it makes the meat even worse. Looks like your good marinade might make it palatible

The gut pile didn't smell that great the fur seems to have a strong musk but we seperated that from the meat very quickly. The meat looked and smelled good/normal while processing it, most went into jerky strips (they taste great) and a few steaks and roasts. I will have some steak this weekend and let you know.

[Don]

Nice.

[ilanimaka]

I've heard that if you process the meat right away, then you'll get some fantastic meat from it. Otherwise, it tends to be pretty gamey.

[fourtycal]

I've heard that if you process the meat right away, then you'll get some fantastic meat from it. Otherwise, it tends to be pretty gamey.

I heard the same thing, "separate that smelly hide from the meat right away" and as warm as it was we couldn't wait to process it even if we wanted. So far I am impressed, the Jerky is Excellent We tenderized, breaded and fried some steaks that were great too. Way better than I had expected given all of the rumors.