ABC's of field judging pronghorn.

[T Bone]

I wanna get a nice buck this year. My state of residency has lots of 'lopes, but few quality bucks. I havn't ever put much effort into antelope hunting and always killed the first decent buck I saw.

What do you look for in field judging in relation to the length of the ear, eyeball spacing etc.

Thanks.

 

[BuzzH]

T bone,

Get that dvd by the Grimmets, it explains in great detail how to judge antelope. I think its called size is everything.

The only down side to the video is that most of the bucks they use as reference are so damn big, anyone would see they're record book size. But, the scoring system they use is very good. I wish they had more bucks in the 78-82 range as thats when they get difficult to judge IMO.

Personally, what I look for is prong and mass first. I dont worry about length all that much. That being said, I've never killed anything that net scored over 78, but I have shot a few in that size class.

I think when bucks reach 78+ they get darn difficult to judge above that and even tougher to pass up. I think when you see a buck that has it all...mass, prong, and length you'll know it. The tough part is when a buck has say great mass, a good prong, but not much length or good length good prong, but not real massive.

Good luck judging them things...after a while they all start looking the same.

 

[IDHunters]

Get the video as suggested above. Also, Eastmans has a couple of antelope videos that are helpful and show more "average" antelopes.

Mass & digger length (the "prongs") are the key to a good score. In general, the horns should be at least as big or bigger than the eyes (side view). The diggers should start to come of the horn well above the ears. If you look at the measurements, most of the score comes from the mass. Usually a book antelope will have 15" horn length, 6-7" diggers and good mass.

 

[Tom]

Take Buzz with you, he got me one 78+ as I recall. It was my idea to go over the hill where he was though, plus, I shot him. Oak made me pass on several the few days before that, so that was important too.

I read the pronghorn book that's neat on judging them, but like you, you see a decent buck, you're ready to shoot it. Oak pointed out their weaknesses and I said, oh yeah.

There's 4 mass measurements, so they really add up, counting both sides, that's 8 of the measurements. I guess that's why Buzz says length doesn't matter much. Good luck!!

 

[The Hedgehog]

Grimmet's video is darn good to help you get really accurate on judging a lopes score. If you are looking for a high scoring lope, you need to have heavy mass. Nice prongs (5-6") and tall horns (15-16") are a bonus, but you need the mass first and foremost, otherwise forget a high score.