My son took a buck and I took a doe pronghorn antelope about a week ago just south of Gillette, Wyoming, on a small ranch where we paid a trespass fee. My son's buck had about 13.25" horns. this was our first pronghorn hunt, hopefully not our last. My son "stalked" his buck in plain view, sitting on his butt and leaning back on his elbows, scooting slowly down a hill. The herd does were bedded down and complacently observed my son. When the buck that my son was stalking was brousing on what I guess was sage brush, my son inched forwards. When the buck looked up, my son would stop. He got to about 150 yards away from the buck and took him with a single shot from a .25-06. The shot was a little back and pierced the stomach, but only about 6" back from what I would think was an optimal shot position. Small animals!
I stalked through a zig-zag dry creek bed. Initially I had set after some bucks, but I realized I wasn't getting closer to them very quickly -- I found it difficult to judge distances out there -- so I switched to stalking some does. I had to cross to a second dry creek bed over about 40 yards of open ground and belly crawled across this, not daring to lift my head to look at the does. They stayed in place, and I took my doe from 240 yards with a .243. My shot, also, was about 6" back from what would be optimal and pierced the stomach.
There were lots of pronghorn -- a surprising number, in fact -- around Gillette. I could have gotten a buck if I had waited until later in the day or the next day. I had made some plans to meet someone in SW Wyoming the following day to do some fishing, however, and felt pressed to take an animal quickly. Next time I won't divide my priorities in this manner but focus on the hunting.
This was our first pronghorn antelope hunt. Boy, they sure smell bad! I skinned, cut-up, and processed the meat myself. We ate a leg roast from my doe last night, and it was very good. My wife and oldest daughter said they thought it was better than deer and tasted different from deer. I thought it was quite similar to deer, but I sort of thought I detected an extra zing or spiciness to the antelope. At any rate, it was good and tasty. I think the rear leg roasts, shoulder roasts, and backstraps will be free from any taint from the punctured stomachs. I'm not so confident that meat cut off from the ribs and meat from the neck which I mixed with the rib meat during the initial quartering of the animals will be free from tainting. I washed the meat later and hope this helped.
This was a fun trip and we hope to hunt these animals again. I found I was pretty tired from my stalk and felt this made it difficult for me to shoot. I should have taken an additional 10 minutes to rest before shooting. The antelope had stayed in place during the 30-45 minutes stalk: they probably would have stayed in place another 10 minutes.
I stalked through a zig-zag dry creek bed. Initially I had set after some bucks, but I realized I wasn't getting closer to them very quickly -- I found it difficult to judge distances out there -- so I switched to stalking some does. I had to cross to a second dry creek bed over about 40 yards of open ground and belly crawled across this, not daring to lift my head to look at the does. They stayed in place, and I took my doe from 240 yards with a .243. My shot, also, was about 6" back from what would be optimal and pierced the stomach.
There were lots of pronghorn -- a surprising number, in fact -- around Gillette. I could have gotten a buck if I had waited until later in the day or the next day. I had made some plans to meet someone in SW Wyoming the following day to do some fishing, however, and felt pressed to take an animal quickly. Next time I won't divide my priorities in this manner but focus on the hunting.
This was our first pronghorn antelope hunt. Boy, they sure smell bad! I skinned, cut-up, and processed the meat myself. We ate a leg roast from my doe last night, and it was very good. My wife and oldest daughter said they thought it was better than deer and tasted different from deer. I thought it was quite similar to deer, but I sort of thought I detected an extra zing or spiciness to the antelope. At any rate, it was good and tasty. I think the rear leg roasts, shoulder roasts, and backstraps will be free from any taint from the punctured stomachs. I'm not so confident that meat cut off from the ribs and meat from the neck which I mixed with the rib meat during the initial quartering of the animals will be free from tainting. I washed the meat later and hope this helped.
This was a fun trip and we hope to hunt these animals again. I found I was pretty tired from my stalk and felt this made it difficult for me to shoot. I should have taken an additional 10 minutes to rest before shooting. The antelope had stayed in place during the 30-45 minutes stalk: they probably would have stayed in place another 10 minutes.
