Pronghorn season has been rough this year, the last several years of drought has pushed them out of our hunting area. We had some good rain this year so they are starting to move back in. My buddy and I both had a buck tag, and he hunted opening weekend but unfortunately I couldn't be there as I had a commitment to the Army Reserves.
He spent all weekend in our normal hunting spots and passed on a buck on Saturday and was regretting not taking the shot as he didn't see anything on Sunday. I spent Monday with my daughter but couldn't seal the deal on a small buck. So my daughter and I spent the rest of the day shooting prairie dogs, which she really enjoyed and wants to spend more time doing. I just really enjoyed hanging with.
Anyway, my buddy called me Monday night and asked if I was going to hunt yesterday. I told him I'd have to see as I was on call but if I could make it I wouldn't be there until late morning. Anyway I met up with him at 10 a.m. on my dad's property and there wasn't anything there to look at. I said it was time to change our plan up and just drive around until we found some pronghorn and then we'd go talk to the landowners and get permission to hunt.
We usually don't have to seek permission from other people to hunt as between what my family owns and leases we have about 15-20,000 acres to hunt any given year. Since it was middle of the season and goats were so scarce most of the hunters didn't last past the weekend so getting permission wasn't hard. A lot of the landowners around where I grew up have multi generational hunters on their property, so it's very difficult to get permission for opening weekend. However, after things die down and hunters head back home, they are usually very open to letting anyone hunts who asks.
We were driving around and found a herd of about 15 goats grazing a wheat field. We tracked down the owner got permission and went back to try and figure out an approach. Well as luck would have it the pronghorns weren't on that field but they had moved over to a volunteer patch of wheat just off where we had permission. So we went and knocked on the door of that landowner and he wasn't home so we had to wait until his son came home from his teaching job as the FFA instructor.
While we were waiting we found a small herd of animals on one of my dad's wheat fields so we put a stalk on them. That half dozen turned out to be all does so we backed out and left them there in case a buck turned up later. By that time school had let out and we could go talk to the ranchers son. After getting the approval to go after the goats we drove back to the fields and parked and planned our stalk.
It actually worked in our benefit to have the goats move off of that field where we had originally found them. Because the rains came in so late last year it made a bunch of tumble weeds, which were stuck in a fence line that we were able to keep in between us and the pronghorn. The whole stalk took less than 15 minutes from start to shot with a little discussion about who would shoot what. There were too bucks in the herd the one my buddy shot and one that the horns barely stuck up past the ears. I told my buddy I'd take the dink he should go after the bigger one.
Well as it would turn out I never had a good shot. I let my buddy take the shot first as he was too far away to do a countdown to shoot at the same time. When the shot broke my dink took off and never settled down to where I could get a decent shot on him. However I was happy that my buddy made a good shot at 250 yards with his .243 Win on his buck and it went down like a ton of bricks.
So without further rambling here is the pictures of my buddies buck:
So pictures were taken and about the time we were going to start field dressing the rancher showed up with his pickup and offered to haul us out of the field to my pickup so we didn't have to carry the animal out. So we profusely thanked him for the help and opportunity to hunt his property and took the buck to my parents house to cape him out by headlight as my buddy is considering a shoulder mount.
He spent all weekend in our normal hunting spots and passed on a buck on Saturday and was regretting not taking the shot as he didn't see anything on Sunday. I spent Monday with my daughter but couldn't seal the deal on a small buck. So my daughter and I spent the rest of the day shooting prairie dogs, which she really enjoyed and wants to spend more time doing. I just really enjoyed hanging with.
Anyway, my buddy called me Monday night and asked if I was going to hunt yesterday. I told him I'd have to see as I was on call but if I could make it I wouldn't be there until late morning. Anyway I met up with him at 10 a.m. on my dad's property and there wasn't anything there to look at. I said it was time to change our plan up and just drive around until we found some pronghorn and then we'd go talk to the landowners and get permission to hunt.
We usually don't have to seek permission from other people to hunt as between what my family owns and leases we have about 15-20,000 acres to hunt any given year. Since it was middle of the season and goats were so scarce most of the hunters didn't last past the weekend so getting permission wasn't hard. A lot of the landowners around where I grew up have multi generational hunters on their property, so it's very difficult to get permission for opening weekend. However, after things die down and hunters head back home, they are usually very open to letting anyone hunts who asks.
We were driving around and found a herd of about 15 goats grazing a wheat field. We tracked down the owner got permission and went back to try and figure out an approach. Well as luck would have it the pronghorns weren't on that field but they had moved over to a volunteer patch of wheat just off where we had permission. So we went and knocked on the door of that landowner and he wasn't home so we had to wait until his son came home from his teaching job as the FFA instructor.
While we were waiting we found a small herd of animals on one of my dad's wheat fields so we put a stalk on them. That half dozen turned out to be all does so we backed out and left them there in case a buck turned up later. By that time school had let out and we could go talk to the ranchers son. After getting the approval to go after the goats we drove back to the fields and parked and planned our stalk.
It actually worked in our benefit to have the goats move off of that field where we had originally found them. Because the rains came in so late last year it made a bunch of tumble weeds, which were stuck in a fence line that we were able to keep in between us and the pronghorn. The whole stalk took less than 15 minutes from start to shot with a little discussion about who would shoot what. There were too bucks in the herd the one my buddy shot and one that the horns barely stuck up past the ears. I told my buddy I'd take the dink he should go after the bigger one.
Well as it would turn out I never had a good shot. I let my buddy take the shot first as he was too far away to do a countdown to shoot at the same time. When the shot broke my dink took off and never settled down to where I could get a decent shot on him. However I was happy that my buddy made a good shot at 250 yards with his .243 Win on his buck and it went down like a ton of bricks.
So without further rambling here is the pictures of my buddies buck:
So pictures were taken and about the time we were going to start field dressing the rancher showed up with his pickup and offered to haul us out of the field to my pickup so we didn't have to carry the animal out. So we profusely thanked him for the help and opportunity to hunt his property and took the buck to my parents house to cape him out by headlight as my buddy is considering a shoulder mount.
