Any guess on the score of this one
Snake River Marksman
9/10/07 8:20pm
I'll get around to typing up the whole story of todays hunt in a day or two.
But I can tell you this, the backstrap is delicious.
5,798
Did ya get that bad boy in Wyoming?
I've never even ATTEMPTED to score a Pronghorn before so I'll refrain. However, no matter what he scores I'm smart enough to know that he's a trophy none-the-less! You should be very proud.
Again, CONRATS!
He's at the taxidermist.
Thanks!
All kidding aside, that looks fun and like a great BUCK!
CONGRATS and thanks for sharing him with us! :thumb
Like many Western hunts, this one started in the spring with the tag application process and then the long wait to see if I would draw a tag. When the results came out in July, I found that I had draw my first choice on all three antelope tags, one buck and two doe/fawn tags. The buck season would come in first on the 10th of September and the doe/fawns would come open in October. The management area that I drew my buck tag for only had 250 tags allocated to it, and had a fair amount of public land within it, so I felt pretty good about the whole thing. With time being the precious commodity that it is, I didn’t get to scout as much as I would have liked, but I did manage to get out and at least acquaint myself with the roads and see enough antelope bucks to know what “average” was for the area.
I haven’t changed my rifle or load since my first antelope hunt in 2003: A 1970s vintage Ruger 77 in 250Savage launching a 100gr Nosler Ballistic Tip at about 2900fps. A Swift 3x9 provides guidance. Just a basic working mans rifle. I checked the zero on the scope the week before the season opened and didn’t find any surprises, so when the season opened on Monday morning, I was as ready as I would ever be.
My neighbor, Billy, had applied for the same tags as myself but he was not lucky enough to draw. He’s originally from Kalifornia and has never hunted big game before, but he intends to hunt deer and elk this year so I offered to take him along and if we were successful, I could show him how to field dress and animal. He accepted with enthusiasm.
I had my gear loaded the night before and had the coffee pot set to brew at 0400 so that I could just dress and go. At 0430 Billy walked over and we started the 2 hour drive. After stopping for ice, we headed off across the prairie, leaving the hard top road at the first turn off. We motored up to the top of the hill and shut down, climbed out, put on our jackets (the thermometer in the truck read 22°F) and began glassing. After 30min. I needed to move a bit so I grabbed my rifle and we walked ahead to see if we could see anything in the draw between “our” hilltop and the next one over. As soon as we crested the hill we spotted three antelope approx. 150yds away. We quickly glassed them and determined that it was three bucks but they had horns so small the only way that I knew them to be bucks was the black cheek patches. Billy asked if I was going to take one of them or wait for something bigger. I took a moment to consider. They were small, but I’m not generally a trophy hunter, I like the meat and small young ones taste better. However, it was just barely 0700 and I didn’t really want to end the day that quickly. I’d be happy to take an “average” goat but these didn’t even make that grade. “I’ll wait awhile” I told Billy and we backed up turned around and went back to the truck.
We drove about a mile further and spotted a lone antelope on the hill ahead. Glassing him showed him to be a good buck. One worthy of taking a try at. We bailed out, grabbed gear and headed off at a diagonal AWAY from the buck. The idea was, if he saw us going away, he might just hang out where he was and give us the opportunity to circle a hill between us, climb the backside of the hill and then have a decent 300yd shot or so at him. When we crested the hill, he was nowhere to be seen. We glassed that slope, and everything we could see for 20min with nothing to show for it. We went down our hill, around the backside of “his” hill, and still saw absolutely nothing of him. It was like the earth had just swallowed him up. We walked the quarter mile back to the truck. We drove a few miles out to the end of the ridge we were on, stopping and glassing each new vista and checking all the back angles and draws and folds that couldn’t be seen from the previous stopped. We spotted several different groups of antelope down in the valley below, WAY out there. We kept track of their movements in case we’d need to go after them if this ridge didn’t pan out. At the end of the ridge, I spotted that buck we had been chasing ( I assume it was that same one) way out in the valley below, still looking back up the ridge at us. So much for him. We turned around and headed back the way we had come.
When we came in view of the hillside where we had started the chase of that buck, we spotted a dozen or so goats on it. I backed the truck into a shallow draw, out of view of the antelope and we eased up to where we could glass them. The spotting scope showed two bucks in the crowd so we formulated a plan where we would drop off the side of the ridge and stay out of site of the antelope and try and close the distance from the mile away that we were currently at to shooting range, 300yds.. The plan was working well, we were side hilling along popping over the crest now and again, to glass the group, who had bedded down near the top of the hill, when I think the mistake was made. One of us kicked a rock loose and it went bouncing down the hill. When I next looked over the top, the antelope were still mostly bedded, but they were starting to look pretty “edgy”.
We were entering the “red zone” , still out of range, but getting real close to where I felt I could get a shot. Especially since the spot we were trying to reach would offer me a comfortable prone shot. So far none of the antelope was even looking our way. When we looked up over the ridge the next time, just 150yds from where I wanted to be, the antelope were all on their feet and looking back towards where we had come from. Suddenly an old doe started heading over the hill and all the rest just fell in line and Poof! they were gone. We circled the hill, we looked and looked and we never saw that group again. There’s something strange going on around that hill! It was a long mile back to the truck.
We left that ridge and headed into the valley from which that band of goats had come. I figured there were still some singles and a couple of other bands down there so we might as well go see what we could see. We headed in, crossed a few gates and spotted a three antelope, all does. We moved along and spotted a few more. Bucks! I backed the truck up and we used a small hillock for cover as we moved forward. 425yds away were 3 bucks. The sage was short, and the ground flat between us and the goats, and I didn’t hold much hope for closing the distance 50yds much less 100, but the goats gave us a brake and fed their way to the right which put another small hillock between us and them. We closed the distance by 200yds and I peeked over the top of the hill. There were not 3 antelope there but over a dozen. “This will complicate things” I thought to myself. It was at this point that I got my first good look at the bucks and found that they were actually pretty good bucks. I didn’t think they were great, but I thought they were “at least AVERAGE”. I studied the 3 bucks for a moment decided two were better than the 3rd and flipped a mental coin, picked one and told Billy I was going to shoot. He said “210”! I put the rifle on the cross sticks and the cross hair on the shoulder, attempting to compensate for a slight breeze. I put pressure on trigger and the shot broke. I worked the action as I was coming out of recoil and saw my buck running to the left. Billy was saying “great shot, you got him, he’s down” and I was getting back on the rifle and “my” goat. I said “I’m going to hit him again” and Billy says “He’s down, look at him kicking” I was confused for a moment and then realized that I had lost track of my goat in the recoil and thought one of the other bucks was the one I shot. Thank goodness for a spotter or I’d have had a heck of a mess on my hands.
I didn’t really realize I had shot anything more than an average antelope, even when I walked up to it and saw that it was pretty long in the prongs and pretty massive below the prongs. As far as I was concerned, it was a good goat but not really remarkable. We photo’d it gutted it and put it in the truck and headed home. A few miles up the road, I realized I had forgotten to tag it. I pulled over and completed that little chore. We stopped at the check station, and the game and fish guy said “Wow! That’s a nice goat” He aged it at 4 years old and taped it at 15.75 inches horn length. From their reaction, I guess he’s a little better than “average” In any case, the meat is good, and the hunt was fun, and that’s all the trophy I really need.
I signed up here back in May but this is my first post.
I love reading your posts as they are a great tool for me, as I am leaving in two weeks for my first ever goat hunt in Wyoming (areas A27 & A29)....
Again...super lope and good luck in the rest of your hunting escapades this year...
Randy
Marvin
MNBog Good luck on your hunt, I'm glad I could contribute in some small way.
If you want to try to score him yourself, here is a link to the official form. Just ask if you have any questions about trying to do it. You'll need a 1/8 inch wide steel tape measure to be accurate.
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