Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Wyoming Pronghorn

After waiting for a couple years I drew a pronghorn license for the unit around my families ranch. The area is known for some larger pronghorn, and my dad and I always see some nice ones while we are deer hunting, so we put a lot of effort into looking at lots of different bucks while hunting. I have no idea how to judge for the record book but we were just looking for a nice buck, something larger than what we had been getting in NE Wyoming. The first weekend I put a stalk on a tall but very straight one. We were 300 yards away and only to have him disappear suddenly. I am still not really sure how that happened as the wind was in out favor and we were in a draw, but I don't think he was as great as we thought he was. The second weekend we put a stalk on a good buck only to get busted when we were trying to circle downwind. After they spooked and ran off a bit we tried to circle around them before they joined a group of fifty other pronghorn. They went some other direction, however, and I think we bumped them at the end of legal light when we were hiking back to the truck. Later that weekend we had numerous bucks well within 25-35 range, let alone a scoped 308, but none were larger than the average buck we had already passed up.

Heading into the third weekend our standards had lowered a little bit. We just weren't seeing the quality of bucks that we usually see, and a fresh snow was going to make travel in the Badlands a little difficult. Friday afternoon we headed to the area where we saw the bigger buck the weekend before and all we found where tracks headed towards areas with little or no snow. There was no lolly gaggling as it had snowed just the night before. The next day we headed closer to the snowline and started seeing antelope. I think my dad and I both wanted to fill this tag, get some meat and get in a couple days of deer hunting, so while I was going to try and get something larger than a dink I also wasn't going to be super picky. The day certainly didn't go as planned as we got the truck stuck in a rut for a bit and we had two blown stalks due to bad timing (a barking dog in the back of a ranch truck and a herd of does feeding over a ridge).

Hiking back to the truck my dad started talking about maybe just shooting a doe. I really like pronghorn and I didn't want to shoot a small buck, so I was definitely considering it. When we hit the snowline we found a couple more groups, and a look through the spotting scope showed a mature buck in a group about a mile or two away. We had a really fun stalk into 175 yards and I shot him.





There was no ground shrinkage on this guy. He is easily my largest pronghorn to date, and his location and taking him with my dad makes him a special buck to me. I can't wait till my dad draws the tag in a couple years so we can do this again.

Nice goat!

Very nice! Congratulations!

Good for you and your dad. Beautiful buck!

Great buck and story. Congratulations.

Congrats to you - that is a fine looking buck!!

Very nice!

Fine looking buck taken on a fun hunt with family. That's GREAT!

Nice job. I love antelope hunting - lots of fun trying to match wits with them.

Tom

That is a beautiful goat. Congrats on punching your tag well.


ddj

Stand up and take a bow. Nice one!

Good job!! Wish I was able to get one!!!

Oh yeah! That's a beauty!

Well done!

What kind of mount are you going to do?

Congrats on a fine Pronghorn!

Thanks for all of the compliments!



I think we are just going to do a skull or a european mount. I think they are pretty attractive and hunting elk in Montana during my last fall before graduate school is more important to me than a shoulder mount. I think I could make a nice base for it with a picture frame this winter break.

That is a pretty buck and a darling cape. Congrats !!!

Nice buck! Congrats!