Volume IX. 



RECREATION. 



DECEMBER, J898. 

 G. 0. SHIELDS (C0Q.UINA), Editor and Manager. 



Number 6* 



FLAGGING ANTELOPE ON THE SAN LUIS. 



R. V. R. SCHUYLER. 



Ill the summer of 1886, I was in- 

 duced to invest in a small ranch on 

 the Rio Grande river, in Colorado. It 

 was located in the beautiful San Luis 

 valley, about half way between the 

 towns of Monte Vista and Del Norte. 

 I bought it really for the good trout 

 fishing which the river afforded at the 

 point where my land lay: and many 

 a string of fish have I taken almost in 

 front of my door. 



At that time there were a number of 

 small bands of antelope in the San 

 Luis. They ranged along the lower 

 part of the valley toward Taos, a small 

 Mexican town at its Southern end. 

 These bands had been hunted per- 

 sistently and were extremely wild. 

 The sight of a man would stampede 

 them in a moment. I had heard old 

 hunters say that antelope could be 

 decoyed by means of a small red rag 

 and made up my mind to try it the first 

 chance I got. As I had nothing to do 

 but fish and shoot, the opportunity 

 soon offered. My wife, who is as fond 

 of shooting and fishing as I, went with 

 me. We rode South from the ranch, 

 keeping a close watch ahead of us 

 with a pair of field glasses. After we 

 had ridden 20 miles. I spotted a band 

 of 9 antelope. They were fully a mile 

 away and had not noticed our ap- 

 proach. The wind was blowing from 

 their direction so there was no danger 

 of their scenting us. 



Dismounting and telling my wife to 

 take the horses around behind a bluff, ' 



I proceeded to put my scheme into 

 execution. I crawled along behind 

 big bunches of sage brush, keeping 

 well out of sight of the game. When 

 I reached a point about 500 yards dis- 

 tant from the band I saw I could go 

 no farther without being discovered, 

 as beyond that point the ground was 

 bare. I might, perhaps, have killed one 

 of the antelope at that distance, but 

 preferred trying to draw them nearer 

 with the flag. I lay down behind one 

 of the largest bunches of sage brush 

 and rigged up my decoy by tying a 

 large red silk handkerchief to the end 

 of a branch of sage. 



After getting myself into position, 

 with my .45-60 Winchester, cocked 

 and ready for action, across my knees, 

 I raised my flag over the brush and 

 w r aved it backward and forward 3 

 times, then suddenly dropped it out 

 of sight. When the band first discov- 

 ered the waving object, they whirled 

 in their tracks and started off with the 

 speed of the wind. I was prepared for 

 this move, however, and watching 

 from my cover I waited for them to 

 stop. After running about 200 yards 

 they stopped and again faced me. 

 The moment they halted I waved 

 twice, dropping my flag as before. 

 This time their curiosity overcame 

 their fear and the whole bunch, headed 

 by a big prong horn buck, came 

 toward me, making short zigzag runs 

 and stopping every few seconds. At 

 every pause I waved my flag, taking 



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