npaden
Well-known member
Make a quick trip up to Wyoming over the weekend to try to fill some pronghorn tags.
Got to my unit just before lunch on Friday, met up with my buddy who lives up that just after lunch and made a whirlwind scouting trip around the unit trying to turn something good up. Found a couple that I thought were pretty good and would be worth trying to turn up on opening morning.
I thought this one might get close to minimum:
Wyoming Pronghorn by naathan2, on Flickr
And this one looked pretty good to me as well:
Wyoming Pronghorn by naathan2, on Flickr
I decided if I could turn up the first buck I would try to close the deal on him. We got out in the dark and waited for shooting light and he was nowhere to be found. Hung around a bit and saw some does feeding out and then finally turned him up, but not in a very good spot for a stalk. I went after him anyway and after a few stops and starts he was slowly moving toward some private and I decided I better go ahead and take him at just over 280 yards. Not my best shooting exhibition as I spined him, but he was down and we weren't even an hour into the season. Walking up on him I didn't see any ground shrinkage and was very happy with him.
Wyoming Pronghorn by naathan2, on Flickr
We didn't have a tape measure so I didn't get a chance to tape him until I just got home and I taped him out at 78 3/4". 14 5/8" length, 5" prongs and 6 3/4" bases. He didn't have much mass above the prong so that hurt him and I thought he was a little longer than he ended up. That's 3/4" better than my last buck a few years ago in the same unit, but not a book buck for sure.
My buddy has lived in Wyoming since elementary school and he is 60 now and he has never killed a pronghorn buck. He's killed plenty of deer, elk, bear, pronghorn does, etc., but for some reason he has never even attempted to shoot a pronghorn buck so whatever he shot was going to be the biggest of his life.
He ended up on one stalk in the wind opening day in the afternoon and he could have hit any of 5 different bucks with a rock if he wanted too. But he had a 9" bi-pod and had belly crawled into them and he never could get lined up on them and figure out which was the buck he started the stalk going after and when it was all said and done he wasn't able to make it happen, but it was a pretty amazing stalk.
We had an experience with a Posted Private Property Trespassers will be prosecuted sign that was clearly BLM and State Land that had us second guessing ourselves even though I had an OnX chip that was a couple years old and he had a current OnX subscription on his phone and had just downloaded the maps last week. We thought we had a for sure B&C buck dead to rights but he just didn't feel comfortable with it and called it off.
Back at the camper that night we looked over everything with cell signal and were confident that the sign was not right so we headed back there the next morning. To be extra careful we walked into the state land but couldn't seem to turn up the buck from the day before. We saw several decent bucks on some private land but none that looked like the big one. We saw a pretty good buck on the state land and decided to attempt a stalk and see what happened. We got pinned down by a doe at one point and it seemed like 15 or 20 minutes as she walked by us. At one point she was probably 10 yards away as we just sat there hunkered down. I really thought she might come over and taste my hat or something. After she finally walked off we headed to where the buck had been and my buddy got him mixed up with another buck and passed on the other buck. I asked him why he hadn't gone after the buck we had headed after to start with and he thought that was the one he passed on. We are sitting there talking about it and a doe comes over the hill at about 75 yards with the buck we had started the stalk going after coming right behind her. She stops and he stops at 75 yards away and we talk back and forth on whether he should take this buck or not and neither of us were very sure how big he was and my buddy decided he was good enough and dropped him.
Wyoming Pronghorn by naathan2, on Flickr
He had zero ground shrinkage and actually grew a little on the walk over there. He wasn't the booner from the previous evening, but he was a little over 15" with good prongs and taped out at 78 3/8" by my measurements.
I filled one doe tag on opening day and one the next morning so we were tagged out with 2 pretty good bucks and 2 doe tags by noon on the second day of the season. We went back to the camper had a leisure afternoon and I went ahead and hooked everything up and headed for Texas and he headed back home.
One thing that was odd on my buck was he had a little horn behind his main horn. I could slip the tape in between the 2 so I didn't count it at all in my measurements. I don't get to count that in my base measurement do I?
Untitled by naathan2, on Flickr
Was really hoping to be able to find some really good bucks but really I can't complain at all for the amount of time we spent. We looked at a TON of bucks in the 70" range and quite a few in the 75" range but there just don't seem to be many bigger than that and I'm really not the best judge of pronghorns.
It was a fun hunt, SO different than most hunts because it never is a question of whether you are going to fill your tag or not, it is just a question about whether you can find a good buck to put your tag on or not.
Oh well, thought I would share.
Nathan
Got to my unit just before lunch on Friday, met up with my buddy who lives up that just after lunch and made a whirlwind scouting trip around the unit trying to turn something good up. Found a couple that I thought were pretty good and would be worth trying to turn up on opening morning.
I thought this one might get close to minimum:
Wyoming Pronghorn by naathan2, on FlickrAnd this one looked pretty good to me as well:
Wyoming Pronghorn by naathan2, on FlickrI decided if I could turn up the first buck I would try to close the deal on him. We got out in the dark and waited for shooting light and he was nowhere to be found. Hung around a bit and saw some does feeding out and then finally turned him up, but not in a very good spot for a stalk. I went after him anyway and after a few stops and starts he was slowly moving toward some private and I decided I better go ahead and take him at just over 280 yards. Not my best shooting exhibition as I spined him, but he was down and we weren't even an hour into the season. Walking up on him I didn't see any ground shrinkage and was very happy with him.
Wyoming Pronghorn by naathan2, on FlickrWe didn't have a tape measure so I didn't get a chance to tape him until I just got home and I taped him out at 78 3/4". 14 5/8" length, 5" prongs and 6 3/4" bases. He didn't have much mass above the prong so that hurt him and I thought he was a little longer than he ended up. That's 3/4" better than my last buck a few years ago in the same unit, but not a book buck for sure.
My buddy has lived in Wyoming since elementary school and he is 60 now and he has never killed a pronghorn buck. He's killed plenty of deer, elk, bear, pronghorn does, etc., but for some reason he has never even attempted to shoot a pronghorn buck so whatever he shot was going to be the biggest of his life.
He ended up on one stalk in the wind opening day in the afternoon and he could have hit any of 5 different bucks with a rock if he wanted too. But he had a 9" bi-pod and had belly crawled into them and he never could get lined up on them and figure out which was the buck he started the stalk going after and when it was all said and done he wasn't able to make it happen, but it was a pretty amazing stalk.
We had an experience with a Posted Private Property Trespassers will be prosecuted sign that was clearly BLM and State Land that had us second guessing ourselves even though I had an OnX chip that was a couple years old and he had a current OnX subscription on his phone and had just downloaded the maps last week. We thought we had a for sure B&C buck dead to rights but he just didn't feel comfortable with it and called it off.
Back at the camper that night we looked over everything with cell signal and were confident that the sign was not right so we headed back there the next morning. To be extra careful we walked into the state land but couldn't seem to turn up the buck from the day before. We saw several decent bucks on some private land but none that looked like the big one. We saw a pretty good buck on the state land and decided to attempt a stalk and see what happened. We got pinned down by a doe at one point and it seemed like 15 or 20 minutes as she walked by us. At one point she was probably 10 yards away as we just sat there hunkered down. I really thought she might come over and taste my hat or something. After she finally walked off we headed to where the buck had been and my buddy got him mixed up with another buck and passed on the other buck. I asked him why he hadn't gone after the buck we had headed after to start with and he thought that was the one he passed on. We are sitting there talking about it and a doe comes over the hill at about 75 yards with the buck we had started the stalk going after coming right behind her. She stops and he stops at 75 yards away and we talk back and forth on whether he should take this buck or not and neither of us were very sure how big he was and my buddy decided he was good enough and dropped him.
Wyoming Pronghorn by naathan2, on FlickrHe had zero ground shrinkage and actually grew a little on the walk over there. He wasn't the booner from the previous evening, but he was a little over 15" with good prongs and taped out at 78 3/8" by my measurements.
I filled one doe tag on opening day and one the next morning so we were tagged out with 2 pretty good bucks and 2 doe tags by noon on the second day of the season. We went back to the camper had a leisure afternoon and I went ahead and hooked everything up and headed for Texas and he headed back home.
One thing that was odd on my buck was he had a little horn behind his main horn. I could slip the tape in between the 2 so I didn't count it at all in my measurements. I don't get to count that in my base measurement do I?
Untitled by naathan2, on FlickrWas really hoping to be able to find some really good bucks but really I can't complain at all for the amount of time we spent. We looked at a TON of bucks in the 70" range and quite a few in the 75" range but there just don't seem to be many bigger than that and I'm really not the best judge of pronghorns.
It was a fun hunt, SO different than most hunts because it never is a question of whether you are going to fill your tag or not, it is just a question about whether you can find a good buck to put your tag on or not.
Oh well, thought I would share.
Nathan
