The Cook County herald., 1893-09-16
HUNTING ANTELOPE.
THE MOST DIFFICULT OF
FRONTIER SPORTS. T..
Keen Eyes and Delicate O1factories-
Curiosity That Often Proves Fatal
The Fleet and Graceful Animal Has
Great Tenacity OF Life.

To hunt the antelope successfully
requires more than ordinary skill.
With the exception of mountain sheep
antelope are the most difficult animals
OF approach on this continent. A
bear will stand up and actually seek
a fight; a buffalo bull will run: at
first, but once wounded, stand-up
fight to the bitter end is the probable
outcome; an elk car be approached
and slain without exercising extra
ordinary precautions, and a deer is
sometimes as dangerous and .belliger-
ant as & mountain lion, writes Lieu
tenant Partello in the San Francisco
Chronicle.
On the other hand the antelope
first, last and all the time depends
upon his legs for safety, and it is fair
to say they are the feetest as they are
the most graceful of quadrupeds.
There is no fun in store for the
greenhorn who attempts to hunt this
animal without understanding it's
ways and habits.
| have frequently seen an antelope
with one leg shot away and hanging
by the tendOns alone outrun and es-
cape from the fleetest plains ponies.
Their race is not long one (seldom
beyond six or seven miles), and it is
possible that an American horse of
good mettle might run them down,
but as a rule nothing on the prairies
can catch them, and the greyhound
is about the only four-footed beast in
existence that can be depended upon
to keep pace with and possibly out
run them. No animal in the world
possesses keeper sight, except the
giraffe.
In stalking antelope the principal
point is to keep out of sight and
next to keep out of smell. Do not
imagine because band is a couple
Of miles away, apparently feeding,
and all with heads down, that none
are on the lookout.
The chances are ten to one that
you are seen first, although they
may not move. Always hunt over
broken ground and undulating prai-
RE. # on horseback, dismonnt and
skirt the ridge ahead, as your horses
head always comes into view before
you yourself can see beyond. Do all
the crawling possible. Such is the
red mans method, and he generally
bags three times as much game as
any two white men, unless the latter
adopt the same tactics. Ninety per
cent of all the game secured by In
dians is shot within 800 yards. I
have watched and studied their
methods on the frontier for many
years. and know this to be a fact.
When a band scents or sees you
they run across the wind for 900 or
1000 yards. and then turn and run
straight up the wind.
, The species are victims of intense
curiosity, and at times have walked
straight into death traps, all the time
knowing and scenting danger, yet so
unbounded is their curiosity to in
vestigate strange and unusual OBJ
jects that they are unable to with
stand the temptation to look little
deeper and satisfy this truly femi-
nine instinct.
A hunter in full knowledge of this
failing either flags them or sticks
weeds into his hat while crawling.
So long as not seen, and particularly
not understood. they will not run,
but merely bound a few steps at a
time, then halt, or else run around
the strange object in circle.
Get to the leeward, between them
and the sun, when the latter is about
to drop behind the hills; then walk
slowly toward the game with as lit
tie motion, as possible. Unless
scented there is little danger of dis
turbance or of flight, for this partic-
ular animal, gifted with such keen
eyesight, cannot see anything that is
between it and the sun. I have
often approached to within 100 yards
of band by adopting the tactics
named, and yet they did not become
alarmed. Buffalo will also pass to
the windwtrd, like their cousins of
the antelope family, but they will
stand no such foolishness as sun
blindness. A red flannel shirt is ex-
tremely fascinating to antelope, elso
red handkerchief or anything else
VI O SAAASOA LUG. aS RUE Ul0S0
animals browse in small bands of
fifty Or sixty, and if in large num-
bers, among the foothills; on the
open prairie or elsewhere close ex-
animation will discover them to be
congregated in smaller groups of
four or five dozen, who, amid the
multitude, keep closely herded to
themselves.
h They are neat, clean cut, handsome
and as dainty as lady in their diet,
feeding as they do on the tenderest
stalks of grass and the delightful |
prairie clover. s z.sss.-...sss ~
! once made an important discovery
hunting which / have frequently tried
on antelope with marvellous success.
It is to load with two bullets instead
of one. A second bullet. well lubri-
Gated, can be driven down from the
muzzle after the breech is loaded, or
inserted in the breech beforehand.