Well its only a coincidence that I had a pronghorn hunt just after Slimjim posted his fun hunt.

I honestly wish I could say how we braved freezing rains and snow, stoically carried on searching day after day for the elusive quarry... but honestly, it was all rather anticlimactic.

I drew the tag earlier this year with 6 points, and was given 6-7 weeks to hunt my unit. Normally this hunt is considered a migration hunt, so the later into the year you hunt, the more animals show up. My wife has a late oct Deer tag we are going hunting for, so this weekend and maybe next were my best chances.

To boil it down, it sounds kindof boring. Left the house at 5:30am, drove up to my unit. We arrived on the hunting grounds at 8:00am, drove up to a high vantage point where you can see for miles, saw 3 measly pronghorn a long ways off. One appeared to be a smaller buck but I didnt get a good look at him before he dropped off behind a ridge... a ridge the road went over... so we drove closer. Saw him again, didnt get much of a look as he bolted again. We moved up further and I could see for MILES and not a critter in sight. Stumped, all I could figure is they were hiding behind a small knoll a few hundred yards away.

I decided to hike down and peek over the knoll... and there they were. I got a better look at the goat who was now in the full sun, while I was in a shadow east of the buck (so he was looking into the sun). He looked alot bigger now that I got a clear look at him, and he was wide! I had only gotten side views of him until now. I got the steadystix ready and carefully squeezed off a round from the 270. I immediately heard the *thwack* of the bullets impact, and watched as he went on a death run. I jacked in another shell (dad always said shooting is the fun part, shoot till they are down, I agree). The buck pulled up and stopped at 480 yards looking pretty wobbly, but I took another shot and hit him through the neck. It was now 8:20am.

Yep, 20 minutes of hunting... it was bright, sunny, an overall beautiful day (that started off at 24F temp lol). Wish I could say we had alot of blood equity invested in this, but well... sometimes things just go your way. Here are some pictures.

My boy got this picture as I was setting up the steadystix. The pronghorn are there between my hat and gun barrel, 340'ish yards away.



A frame from the video my boy tried to get. You can see from the one horn sticking up he looked pretty good



Here he is, I was surprised when I got up to him just how big his horns were. He went 15" on one side, 14 3/4" on the other, and nice thick mass. He is my biggest goat so far. Not bad considering he was the only buck in the entire valley that usually holds hundreds of pronghorn!



Because the "flags" point outward, from the side it gives the illusion he is pretty spindly. Pronghorn are sooo tough to field judge. That's all I really saw of him the first few times we got glimpses of him, from the side. I needed that full on view to realize he was pretty darn nice.



Pretty happy with him for sure. Got him all quartered and on ice in a short time. It was a bonus my boy was standing there with me and my wife was able to see the entire thing go down from the higher vantage point up at the road.

Really tired now... time for a nap!

PS: In case anyone wonders about hunter orange, Wyoming only requires a orange hat... I love Wyoming!


-DallanC

Dallan, congrats! That is a beautiful buck! Very nice! What unit were you in? I have 4 points in WY and need to start planning were I should go.

Great work Dallan, and well judged on their location mate.

Do you plan on calling for your brothers taxidermy services for this guy? He certainly looks worthy of hanging.

Very nice...Good job.

Vince wrote:

Great work Dallan, and well judged on their location mate. Do you plan on calling for your brothers taxidermy services for this guy? He certainly looks worthy of hanging.

Thanks,

No, no room for more mounts. Even the elk we are doing European as I dont have any room. If for whatever reason (like winning the lotto), we end up in a bigger house (or similar sized house with a vaulted ceiling), I can get some more things mounted later. But, I'll just cut of the skull cap and leave the horns that way (like most all of the other pronghorn I've gotten over the years).

I doubt I'll do much more in terms of big mounts... unless I ever got something that made the record book. I'm happy with the critters we did mount, but no plans to add to the "collection". My wife agrees... we'll see if she gets a monster buck in her trophy hunt in a couple weeks... might be funny if she changes her tune and wants something big mounted, LOL!

PS: I dunno why, but pronghorn antelope horns stink something fierce, its a very unique musky, oily scent too... that doesn't seem to ever go away. I've got a goat I had mounted 18 years back I can still get wiffs off him... lol!

-DallanC

Very nice pictures. Thanks for sharing. All the best...
Gil

Nice critter!!! I bet he will be very yummy.