Educate an Antelope Rookie

[Gerald Martin]

Okay, I've been watching Eli's and Greenhorns scoring tests for pronghorn and I'm intrigued. I know next to nothing about how to field judge an antelope. My question has two parts.
1. How are antelope measured for score? ( I know I could look it up on the B&C website, but I haven't yet.)

2. What are some references to use in field judging an antelope. How long are ears? How big are the eyes. What do I look for to estimate horn length and circumfrance? What else do I need to know? ( Other than that if EliAGrimmett is posting a picture its going to be of an antelope I'd shoot and then check the score later.)

 

[EliAGrimmett]

The short answers:

1. Length, prong (from the tip to the center of the back of the horn), a circumference at the base, just below the prong, just above the prong, and about 4 inches from the tip - all times 2.

2. Ears range from 5 4/8 to 8 inches long, so you'll have to guess how long they are. Generally, the farther north or the colder the climate the shorter the ears will be and vice versa.

The eyes are about 2 inches across and we use that to look for mass on the bottom two measurements. Eyes are also a good guide for prong length.

Horn length is a tough one sometimes. We break it down into two parts - the length from the base to the prong and then the length past that. For the first one we use the ear as the gauge. For the second one we've just gotten really good at guessing.

If you really wanna get into the nitty gritty of scoring you should check out our DVD. It's designed to answer precisely the two questions you just asked as well as make you drool all over yourself watching a ton of 90 inch antelope.

 

[BuzzH]

Eli,

Just a thought on your DVD, which I think is great.

But, the concern I have is that about 95% of the antelope in your video are so big, its kind of a no-brainer you'd kill any of them. Really big antelope, just like most other critters...look really big.

What I would like to see, if you ever do another video, is show more antelope on the lower end of B&C and some that dont make the book. IMO, its pretty tough to see the detail in antelope between 78-82 inches. Showing what pushes antelope over the 80 inch mark would be very helpful to me at least.

Just a thought. I do think the video though, gives good guidelines for field judging...well done.

 

[Mingo]

Well, I went on my first Pronghorn hunt last year. I set an arbritrary goal of at least 13", with no real concern for overall score. I know that's not that big, but, true story, I was in a restaurant in NM once and saw a mount that looked really nice. I stood up in a chair and measured the length with a dollar bill and it came out right at 12", so says I, If it looks good, or would look good on my wall, I'll take it. Then I heard about the 2x the ear length etc. Anyhoo, I saw a couple of bucks that looked good enough to shoot, but were not "2 ears". Well I might have taken them if I had a shot, but ended up taking a 14" that I was pleased with. I took it to the taxidermist before I scored it, but I am guessing it will be average and anyway I am still going with the "looks good to me" rating. I guess thats a long-winded way of saying if you like it, take it.

 

[EliAGrimmett]

Eli,

Just a thought on your DVD, which I think is great.

But, the concern I have is that about 95% of the antelope in your video are so big, its kind of a no-brainer you'd kill any of them. Really big antelope, just like most other critters...look really big.

What I would like to see, if you ever do another video, is show more antelope on the lower end of B&C and some that dont make the book. IMO, its pretty tough to see the detail in antelope between 78-82 inches. Showing what pushes antelope over the 80 inch mark would be very helpful to me at least.

Just a thought. I do think the video though, gives good guidelines for field judging...well done.

I agree with you that it may have been helpful to show more 80 inch bucks in the video but the problem with that, and the reason that we didn't, is twofold:

1. Quite frankly, we just don't have very much good video of bucks in that range and...

2. The consensus from the hunting public that we talked to before putting out the video was that most hunters would rather see 90 inch pronghorn because these are the type of bucks most hunters will never get to see in their lifetime.

I have been considering writing a book for some time on "how to kill a 90 incher" (I actually have quite a few chapters written already) and I'll definitely consider adding a ton of photos of bucks in the 78+ range as well as the other giants.

One other thought on your post about "really big antelope looking really big"...I've said this before many times but a lot of the big antelope do not look really big. In fact, when you hunt Arizona and New Mexico, because there are so many antelope that are 15 inches long, a lot of times the biggest ones will be the bucks with more mass and they will get passed on by most trophy hunters early in the season.

In New Mexico the public hunter on one of our ranches passed on a buck over 90 inches to go after a buck that was about 80 inches. We took the 90 incher and the buck was barely 15 inches long.

This happens every year and it happens often. Now, most of the antelope in our video might look really big, but they're also mostly 19A bucks where the bucks heads are smaller than anywhere else in the world on average (except for maybe NE NM). Also, the bucks in our video aren't just 90 inchers, some of them are the biggest antelope to ever walk the planet so of course they're going to look BIG.

I'm glad you liked the video!

We do plan to eventually make another one, but the time schedule for getting it done has been interrupted many times for one reason or another.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Thanks Eli, for explaining it to me.
Anyone want to chime in on what size ears, heads, etc I can expect in eastern Montana?

 

[EliAGrimmett]

One thing to remember is that everyone is going to measure ears/eyes/faces differently because there really isn't a "standard" way of doing it so there may be a large discrepency between what hunters will tell you.

I attached a photo of how we measure the ears and the face.

Ears: We measure from the center of the ear butt to the tip of the ear. I've seen other hunters who only measure the ear opening. Not that either way is correct or incorrect, but it is something to look out for.

Face: We measure from the nose to the tear duct. Others I have seen measuring from the nose to the base of the horn.

Eye: We measure from black to black (basically this is what we "see" as the eye from a distance.

 

[Big Fin]

School is now in session boys. Listen up and take good notes.

Don't leave us hanging with just that Eli.

Here is where you can buy a video of what Eli is explaining. http://www.pronghornguideservice.com/

Go to Products, DVDs.

It is really good stuff to help you practice scoring antelope. My DVD was so good, that a hunting buddy borrowed it and tells me he cannot locate it now and I will have to buy a new one.