Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 6.5 CM for pronghorn

I agree, better than venison, more like elk than deer.

DF

That looks great! We love antelope. My wife would give away elk, before antelope. I have never had any that was not tender. We had a roast a couple days ago. It went into the Instant Pot with a bit of boullion, onion and pepper. It was as good as it gets. By the way, ALL wild meat is venison, not just deer.

true on the venison I like antelope better than whitetail

Taking care of the meat is important, regardless of the animal. Like you, we get the goats on ice ASAP. Like you, we often have them on ice within half an hour of the shot. When we get elk or deer down we get them gutted and quartered as quickly as possible. I've had to leave the meat out overnight several times but cold night temps eliminated any issues with meat quality.

A few years back we were hunting antelope and saw an outfitter camp with about 7-8 animals on the ground. One guy was gutting and skinning and there was no help in sight. We think they may have been out shooting more. Another time we pulled into a CWD check station and the dually ahead of us had 3-4 elk stacked in the back. I assume they were gutted but the hides were still on. I wouldn't have wanted any part of those animals.

When it's hot, like NM in Sept, you don't get as much time as some obviously think..

Really cold is a lot more forgiving.

DF

Cooling animals after the kill, especially antelope, was one of the things I remember learning while taking a hunter safety course in WY. Lots of different things to be learned from different animals, to state to state hunting rules. I’m glad I attended the course out west. We don’t worry too much about grizzly and high altitude sickness in Alabama. Hunter safety is way more than wearing orange!

Good points.

I don't know it it's the hot weather or if those goats are more sensitive to spoil, but that combo is pure poison to those who don't pay attention to details.

Common sense and attention to details go a long way in life, hunting no exception...

DF

Looks tasty, but that rice needs some gravy.

This.

Seems to me a pronghorn carcass isn't as tough as WT, etc. IME, it doesn't take a lot to tear one up. So, less may be best. They're harder to hit than kill.

I ruined a cape with a 140 gr. SST out of my 6.5-284 at 385 yds.. Blew out a huge exit hole. Just another reason I shut down SST's, although I hear the newer ones aren't as bad.

DF

I would definitely recommend the 6.5 CM. I bought mine at the Wanenmacher's gun show in Tulsa about 7 or 8 years ago if I remember correctly. I went there looking for the best deal I could find on a Remington Mountain Rifle or a Kimber Montana, but couldn't pass up the Ruger M77 Hawkeye I found. Beautiful walnut stock, 26" factory blued barrel and a red butt pad. I've taken it on 2 different pronghorn hunts and sealed the deal both times using factory Hornady 120 grain GMX ammo.

Basically, what I'm saying is that I feel like he would love having his own hunting rifle in 6.5 CM. Of course, there are other chamberings that will kill as well, but it's hard to argue against it's effectiveness. Tons of factory ammo options and plenty of great bullets for reloading.

I have taken very good care of every antelope I killed...no hair on the meat, skinned out right away, cooled and straight to the meat locker in town. It is what I call "pretty meat"...good color, etc. I have tried to cook it several different ways, and it stinks, the more you chew it the bigger it gets ( like mutton) I just can't stand it. I get every one cut/wrapped and then I give it away to anyone brave enough to try it. One friend took some of the ground meat from one , made patties and cooked it in a crock pot. That was pretty good...no where near the same zip code as elk...to me. I have met a lot of hunters who like it...but I'm not sure if they wouldn't like coyotee either, ha.

I can think of a way that might not have come from bullet blowup if you really mean a singular hole.

We prefer outr antelope to elk by a good margin, and elk much more than deer.

SIL won a chili cook-off with antelope met from one of our hunts.

Antelope is good but pass me the Elk please. Sheep well only the luck or rich get that.

We have eaten lots of elk, deer and antelope. I will take a properly-handled doe antelope over anything else. Many antelope are ruined by people that do not understand that it is critical, to get antelope meat off of the carcass and cooling as fast as possible. It is just different, for some reason and care is more important, than even with deer and elk. I have never had a bite of antelope-buck, or doe-that was not tender.

Agree.

To me, pronghorn meat is more fragile, more sensitive to handling than other similar game.

With nilgai, it's sometimes what they're eating. I'm not that sure about pronghorn diet, if there are some things they eat than affects the meat. All the pronghorns I've killed have been handled right and they eat great.

DF

Jim Knight,

Over the years I've run into a few other people like you, who absolutely hate the taste of pronghorn meat even when everybody else eating it really likes it. A number of years ago I began to suspect that pronghorn meat contains some chemical that only a few people's taste buds react to--much like cilantro. To most people cilantro tastes fine, but to some people it tastes like soap.

One of the people I know who hates all antelope meat is Bob Nosler, who simply can't eat it, even from a relatively mild-tasting antelope like a well cared-for young doe.

Interesting...

DF

^^^this, practice out to 300 if you can but the cartridge will do just fine. I used the 140 ELDM bullet last fall and the buck just fell over at 385...1 shot.