RobertD
Well-known member
This forum needs some new content. I know the offseason gets flooded with politics and what-unit-should-I-apply-for-I-have-zero-points type posts, so I'm hoping maybe a decent hunting story will be well-received right now. If nothing else, it will help all of us pronghorn junkies waiting for the next hunt. (And to everyone waiting to hear back about their applications, I hope you all draw! Maybe my rookie pronghorn story will hold a few pointers for those who can use them.)
On to the story. Short set of details to frame it all: I really like pronghorn both to hunt and as an animal - they're pretty incredible. I have some western hunting experience, but it's limited and was even more so when I applied for this hunt. I did it on a whim; rifle antelope as an NR is a tough draw (worse now than then) so I was shocked when I drew. But draw I did so a-hunting I was going.
Also, my awesome hunting buddy/brother @CowboyLeroy was with me - truly one of the highlights of the trip. He is a great guy and a very good hunter but don't tell him I told you that. We drove it from Georgia to our unit in NE NM; worth the drive just for the fun we have/had and cool things we see on the road every time we take the trip. Hope we're headed back to the Land of Enchantment this fall.
On to the hunt. We hit our unit the day before the hunt and did some road-scouting. Most of the public skewed towards the north and east portions of the unit, with a couple of paved highways serving as its borders on those sides - this made it easy to cover lots of ground. We got out and mock-stalked some does in our street clothes the first afternoon. Felt good to be looking at pronghorn knowing my tag was valid starting the next day. I don't think we saw any bucks on our scout day, though we saw tons of does. Looking back, this was kind of a theme for the hunt - lots of does but not a terrible lot of bucks.
Opening morning we got out of our hotel room and hit the prairie. We didn't see many antelope on public, especially from the roads. It was apparent from the start the best hunting would have to take place away from the roads. We were already ready to walk and glass anyway - I'll not mince words, I think road hunting sucks. (A bit biased though, we once got burned on a previous semi-guided mule deer hunt after the "guide" advised us to strictly road hunt because "the deer are so used to Oil & Gas trucks, you can just hop out and arrow one." Bullchit. We didn't start having any fun or real chances at deer until after we parked the trucks and went hike/glass/stalk for the remainder of the trip. Much more fun, ethical and effective in that situation and in the pronghorn hunt I'm describing now.)
After hiking to a large outcropping overlooking several thousands of acres of prairie, we spotted our first buck of the trip. He was a bit of a dinker, hanging with two does. I think we wound up putting a pretty good move on him, dropping down into the prairie bowl below and maneuvering over to a big rockpile and hiding behind it. I know at one point I had a shot at the buck, but it was north of 300 yards and the buck really wasn't very enticing anyway. I knew I only wanted to shoot long at a buck if he was really nice. I think after this we broke for lunch and decided to hit the highway to dredge up some new ground further into the unit than we'd yet been. That's where the hunt got really interesting.
On to the story. Short set of details to frame it all: I really like pronghorn both to hunt and as an animal - they're pretty incredible. I have some western hunting experience, but it's limited and was even more so when I applied for this hunt. I did it on a whim; rifle antelope as an NR is a tough draw (worse now than then) so I was shocked when I drew. But draw I did so a-hunting I was going.
Also, my awesome hunting buddy/brother @CowboyLeroy was with me - truly one of the highlights of the trip. He is a great guy and a very good hunter but don't tell him I told you that. We drove it from Georgia to our unit in NE NM; worth the drive just for the fun we have/had and cool things we see on the road every time we take the trip. Hope we're headed back to the Land of Enchantment this fall.
On to the hunt. We hit our unit the day before the hunt and did some road-scouting. Most of the public skewed towards the north and east portions of the unit, with a couple of paved highways serving as its borders on those sides - this made it easy to cover lots of ground. We got out and mock-stalked some does in our street clothes the first afternoon. Felt good to be looking at pronghorn knowing my tag was valid starting the next day. I don't think we saw any bucks on our scout day, though we saw tons of does. Looking back, this was kind of a theme for the hunt - lots of does but not a terrible lot of bucks.
Opening morning we got out of our hotel room and hit the prairie. We didn't see many antelope on public, especially from the roads. It was apparent from the start the best hunting would have to take place away from the roads. We were already ready to walk and glass anyway - I'll not mince words, I think road hunting sucks. (A bit biased though, we once got burned on a previous semi-guided mule deer hunt after the "guide" advised us to strictly road hunt because "the deer are so used to Oil & Gas trucks, you can just hop out and arrow one." Bullchit. We didn't start having any fun or real chances at deer until after we parked the trucks and went hike/glass/stalk for the remainder of the trip. Much more fun, ethical and effective in that situation and in the pronghorn hunt I'm describing now.)
After hiking to a large outcropping overlooking several thousands of acres of prairie, we spotted our first buck of the trip. He was a bit of a dinker, hanging with two does. I think we wound up putting a pretty good move on him, dropping down into the prairie bowl below and maneuvering over to a big rockpile and hiding behind it. I know at one point I had a shot at the buck, but it was north of 300 yards and the buck really wasn't very enticing anyway. I knew I only wanted to shoot long at a buck if he was really nice. I think after this we broke for lunch and decided to hit the highway to dredge up some new ground further into the unit than we'd yet been. That's where the hunt got really interesting.