Well, I did not find out until Fri. night that I actually had the permit. I arrived at the ranch at 2am and slept in the back of my truck. I awoke to the sun pinking in the east, the smell of the west Texas desert and a hot cup of coffee from my thermos. It really was one of the most beautiful mornings I can remember. I was hunting with one of my best friends, Kevin Reed, who lives in El Paso Texas and he arrived shortly after shooting light and we headed out to glass some flats. The first place we stopped we found this buck running a bunch of does. I believe there were 4 bucks and 20 or so does in the group. I could see the prongs and the classic heartshape and decided he would do for a first goat especially considering I only had a half day to hunt. Well, truth be known I missed my first shot at 335 yards and again missed high at 225 yards. I had shot a coyote with my gun 3 weeks ago but had no time to shoot at the ranch that morning for fear of spooking the antelope. Somehow my gun had been knocked off zero in the previous weeks. I grabbed my friends gun and we again headed out. We got on the antelope heading out across a ravine to another flat and I was able to take him at just shy of 200 yards. When we got to the antelope it was obvious that we had misjudged him. He was taller than expected, we had originally guesses him to be 14" but he is actually 15 3/8". His prongs really make him look shorter than he really is. He is also fairly heavy, his first 2 mass measurements are over 6". and his right prong is over 7". His total gross is 81 6/8" and his right horn is almost 2" larger than his left. If he were to match he would have grossed a 83 5/8". The pisser to the story is that 45 min after taking this goat we found one better! He looked just like my antelope with a better left horn, a definate "book" buck. Maybe next year. Anyway, thats the specifics. It was a BLAST and thanks guys for all of the positive responses, I hope I can translate my success with this antelope into a HUGE mule deer this year.
I do have one question, how should I have him mounted, I am thinking about a wall pedastal, right shoulder on the wall with a slight left turn to show off his right horn.
Drummond