2010 Pronghorn pics

[van franke]

With the death of HellBoy this afternoon here in CO, I have some time to get started on our WY hunt.

Well lets get started, first off WY was a blast a pronghorn hunters paradise.

Grace and I took off on Sat the 25th around 8 and after a long 320 miles of pulling the camper we arrived at our hunting spot at 230. We meet my brother in law (Rob) and a new friend from the area Wayne. He was full of great info and was a blast to hang out with for the afternoon. We ate a quick lunch set camp and then was greeted but the local authorities. He checked licenses and gave us some tips on where he had seen some nice bucks. We took off scouting to see what we were in store for. I didnt take very many pics but saw some nice goats. Nothing died on Saturday

Sun Sept 26
Rob took off and watched a waterhole and Grace and I went to check out a WIA the game warden had told us about. We were treated to a little buck pushing match to start the day.

nikon

nikon

nikon

I was impressed with some of the bucks we found, but it was too early to end graces hunt. Here are a few of the bucks.

dcm

nikon

nikon

nikon

nikon

nikon

nikon


Not a buck but still a trophy. I couldnt talk Grace into it though.

nikon


We meet Rob at noon for lunch and figure out the afternoon. Rob decided he wanted to check out a buck we saw on Sat so thats what we did. Here he is on the dcm

dcm

Rob decided that was the buck he wanted so we devised a plan to put him on the ground and it failed badly. The does busted us and they all went over the hill. We skirted the hill top to try and save the stalk. There was so many antelope on the other side by the time we had picked him out he was out of gun range and moving away. We made on last effort to salvage it but couldnt find him. Night was approaching so we headed to the pickup. When we got there we noticed a buck and does feeding 100yards away and knew instantly it was a good buck and Rob took him.
(continued)

 

[van franke]

After checking him out we realized it was the buck we were after all along. He had circled around us. One down, one to go.

An awesome ending to the day.

nikon

dcm

Not quite the end, we got him back to camp skinned, deboned, ground and put in packages. All processed and ready for the next one.

continued

 

[Big Fin]

Great buck, great story, and great pics Van. Congrats.

 

[van franke]

Mon Sept 27
Greeted by a nice sunrise.

With Robs buck taken care of we decided to watch water holes since it was so dry. On the way in we ran into a neat little buck and try as I might grace wouldnt pull the trigger on him.

The first waterhole we sat was acitve until about 9. We saw some pretty good bucks,

We moved waterholes before noon and found a very active one. This was the way to hunt. We set up 100yards off the hole and could easily glass them with no heat wave issues.

continued

 

[van franke]

About 3 0clock we had a high pronged buck come in, looked like he had exceptional mass.

Grace liked him but he got spooked from the hole. We grabed the gun and went after him. It didnt take long to close the distance under 300 yards but there was so many antelope around they alerted him and he took off. He vanished into the sage brush.
As night closed in we drove back to camp and decided to sit the water hole all day on Tuesday.

Later

 

[Oak]

Great photos.

Don't stop now...I need some inspiration...

 

[Big Slick]

Why are you doing this to Oak and I??

 

[van franke]

Sorry guys it was getting late, but here we go.

Tues Aug 28

Sunrise found us sitting at the same waterhole. It was an amazing day with hundreds of antelope coming into water. At one point around ten we looked out over the valley and antelope were coming from everywhere, it was truly amazing. Here’s some of the pics.

 

[van franke]

Right at 3pm just like the day before, the same buck came in. He was very jumpy though, very cautious to come up and get a drink. When he finally did, he used the cattle as a shield so Grace couldn’t get a shot. Then he headed back out. As soon as he topped the hill we took off at a run to catch him. He stopped to leave his scent on the sage, allowing us to sneak to within 100. That was all it took and Grace put him down.

This buck has the largest head I have ever seen, maybe that is what through me off in judging him, not sure.
The mass is unbelievable with 7 4/8 at the base and carrying it out. He also has four horns you can see the one in the pic. We didn’t notice it until looking through pics the next day, but there is a line that runs along the cheek patch over the top of his head and down the other side. Its actually a roll of skin, not sure what happened, hopefully the taxi can tell us more. He is a very cool buck though. She did an amazing job.

That was all for that unit after Grace and I got him butchered, We picked up camp and moved to the next unit, it was my turn to hunt.

 

[The Hedgehog]

Wow!! Nice buck!

 

[AZ402]

Stud buck!!!

 

[van franke]

I should be able to finish wy up now.
Wed sept 29
We got packed up and moved to another unit where my buddy Joe meet us. Our unit was an over the counter tag with very tough access. Not because of lack of BLM but because they almost land locked it and haven’t provided roads to the parts that aren’t landlocked. I must thank this site and WT_in_MT for advise on GPS’s it made this possible. I bought the Garmin Oregon and with a download from gpsfiledepot.com had all the blm on it. I also borrowed a delorme pn60 with the blm on it to verify. They are both awesome units.

We mainly hunted a 1200 acre ridge of state ground that had a quarter mile wide access route. This land owner would prosecute his brother for trespassing. I spent 4 hours talking to him weds afternoon and he did help with a lot of info but I knew he would be watching.
Thurs Sept 30 was spent scouting in the morning. A lot of DCM pics.

 

[van franke]

We went back to camp thurs for lunch and sat and watched all the blm across the valley we couldn’t get to; when Joe picked up some elk. Its pretty neat to see elk in the sandhills and they were rutting hard. With a big 320 plus bull chasing the herd. That evening they dropped just below camp and we could hear them bugling.
Fri Oct 1
Up early and into our spot, Right away we found one of the long pronged bucks Joe had taken a fancy to. Unfortuately he shot right over its back.
Not 10 minutes later we ran into a good buck and I put him down at 200 yards.

After a long drag and pics we got him back to camp.
That afternoon didn’t produce anymore bucks and people started rolling in.
Fri oct 2
We laid claim to our spot early and it was pretty uneventful till 1130 when we saw a buck wandering toward the state ground from private. As soon as I felt he was on public using the Oregon I told Joe to shoot.
He dropped like a rock thank god.

After dragging him out we started gutting and then the landowner showed up and told us we were legal but only by about 30 yards. The GPS saved this trip for sure allowing us to hunt areas others were scared to go into.
That’s the end of WY 2010 It was an awesome time and very successful. Joe and I went into a very tough to hunt unit and came out with good bucks cant beat that.

THE END

 

[AZ402]

Very nice bucks! Any stats on them?

 

[van franke]

Robs buck scored 77 6/8

Im going to tape mine and graces again because I set down the paper and it must of got thrown. Mine was roughly 79 and some change. Graces the 3rd mass measurement falls where the swell for the prong is starting so im sure they will take the measurement above the prong. That would puts it at just over 82 gross. I will tape them again tomorrow.

Joes buck we havent scored I figured around 70 but still was a great hunt.

 

[van franke]

That's awesome, can't wait to see pictures.
I liked your write up in Eastman's too, well done.

Thanks Randy I put a lot of early mornings into writing and rewriting it and decided I would rather of posted on it here. That’s what I have tried to do with this thread. Hope you guys enjoy it.

Back to the hunt. We got back late Saturday so I didn’t get out until after noon on Sunday. It was pretty uneventful only saw a hand full of doe's and bucks.

Monday the 4th was more of the same a few small bucks and some doe’s. This was defiantly getting me worried I wuoldnt find anything.

Tuesday the 5th
On my way out to a new area I spotted some does right at light, I decided to turn around and check them out. I didnt expect to see much but there he was. My first thought when I saw him was he reminded me of HellBoy. So that is what I call him. It took about ten calls and four hours before I caught up with the landowners. Who told me the grass was so dry they werent letting anyone hunt. My immediate response was I can walk in and if I get him I will pack him out. They agreed to let me on. By this time HellBoy had moved into the sandhills out of sight. The oregon gps came in very handy I ran up the road and marked where I first saw him along with some other points and the spot on the road where I last saw him. I then had a grid to know where to head. I packed up my camera, backpack and gun and headed in. I traveled along a fence and just past 1/2 a mile as I was coming around a hill I noticed a buck at about 500. I put my binos up and knew it was him. He must of saw me too, and thought he was going to run me out of his territory, because he was steam rolling toward me. He disappeared below the crest of the hill and I quickly sat down, readying for the shot. As I watched the horns and the face followed by his chest appear I slowly squeezed the trigger, then thwack, HellBoy fell to the ground a mere 70 yards away, out for the count. Ok I wont keep you any longer I didnt expect to come close to topping last years buck and I dont think I ever will but he is an amazing buck in his own way, here is HellBoy.

The hard work just started after taking pics by myself, alot of running back and fourth to the camera setting the timer, I had to get him the 6 tenths of a mile out. I got him gutted and tied his feet together with rope. I wish I had pictures of me carrying him out like a duffel bag but I dont. I was a bloody mess by the time I got out and exausted but happy as hell.
Colorado 2010 The End
On to Nebraska

 

[AZ402]

Wow, what a year you've had!

 

[Carl]

Stellar lopes all around, but I think I'm "jealousest" of Grace's. Those horns look like midevil weapons!

 

[IdahoBugler]

That is simply amazing, pics and trophies. It's obvious they were well earned trophies. Big time congrats.

 

[hardscrabble]

Awesome van franke! Thanks for sharing all your pictures and congrats on an amazing season.