Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game North Dakota antelope, with my two boys

Well, I drew one of only 250 tags in the state of N.Dakota this year. So we ventured forth to get a pronghorn. We drove all morning and started hunting after lunch.

Spied a small group with a nice buck holed up high on a ranch, but the owner wanted to fill their own tag, so....we kept moving and spied a small group from about 2 miles away in a cut wheat field.

Made a plan for a stalk of about a roundabout mile, in order to get below a little hill behind which they bedded down out in the open field. Left the boys behind on a lookout hill, then I belly crawled up through tall grass on a butte to get above the antelope. We only had two days so I already had decided to take the first clean shot presented.

This old dry doe volunteered at about 175 yards. I made a little commotion so that she would stand up, then shot her in the front shoulder as she quartered toward me. She ran a few yards, stood there, then fell over, but didn't act very "dead" so I shot her a second time on the ground. Rest of the herd stuck around watching for awhile.

223 Rem, Nosler Solid Base 60 grain, Varget reloads. The first shoulder shot broke the scapula basically in half, but did not penetrate very much into the lungs as I had expected. Second shot in the top of the back, through lungs, exit throat.

Good for you getting the boys out there. Great pictures.

Absolutely!!

I'm betting the boys were stoked! Good job getting them in on it.

They liked it a lot better than duck hunting, as they don't have to wade through the mud.

We had to drag the critter about a 1/2 mile to get to an edge--they didn't like that quite as well!

Trophies don't always wear big horns. Congrats to you guys!

Awesome work; what a great adventure with the boys! Thanks for sharing!

Congratulations. Looks like you had some good help on this hunt.

They love to go out with me. They wish they could get the shooting for themselves.

DakotaDeer;
Congratulations on the pronghorn sir, but most certainly doubly so for taking your boys out with you.

The photos are trophy quality and then some!

I'm fairly confident that they will remember these times with you for the rest of their lives and it's so good to see fathers taking their children afield with them. Well done sir.

Thanks again for sharing the cool family hunt with us, all the best to you and yours and good luck on your remaining hunts this fall.

Dwayne

Good job! Bet those young fellas had a great time... and are just waiting for their first time out with a rifle to join dad...

nothing more fulfilling than to take young men out in the field...

planting the seed for future generation of hunters...

Well done. Thats how I started myself. Tagging along behind my dad. About 60 years go....