Since this thread is mostly about bad experiences I figure I should tell you folks about a really great experience I had today with a landowner. Our day started off as a bird hunt. I needed to get out in a bad way. We were able to shoot two roosters and a bonus sharpie. Having had a good day of bird hunting we hopped in the truck and went to check out some public land and walk ins where I had a couple doe pronghorn tags I could fill.
I normally buy several doe tags a year for this area and 4 out of five years I don't even hunt them. Since my mom is in the hospital with covid and isn't doing well I knew my usual trip to hunt the black hills for WT wasn't going to happen this year. I had turned the rest of my ground elk from last year into jerky and was wanting to refill the ground meat stores. The pronghorn in this particular area (the same area Doug was hunting I'm sure) aren't doing great, but I know of a few walk ins where the pronghorn numbers are always strong. We found pronghorn right away on the one walk in, but they're never easy to kill there due to the topography. I got on a herd at approximately a hundred yards, but the pronghorn were stacked up like cordwood and I couldn't get a shot at a doe without hitting several animals. The only pronghorn I could've shot that cleared the group had no visible horns but I could see that he had a faint black cheek patch so he was a no go. Eventually I got a phone call I had no choice but to take so that ended that encounter. I knew it was going to be a chess match kind've day so towards evening we set up on a big herd 700 yds away and hoped that they would make a mistake and feed our way. With about 45 minutes of shooting light left the pronghorn finally got into a spot where I could make a stalk. I got on them at 285 and made a clean one shot kill on a doe.
I sent my buddy to grab the truck and reposition it for the pack out. Realizing we were close enough to gut and drag rather than quarter and pack I went ahead and gutted the doe. I haven't done that in years as I usually have to quarter and pack them out on my back. As I was finishing the job my wife saw a pickup driving towards us on the walk in area. I thought, excellent, this will make delivering the landowner coupon easy. As the truck got closer I saw my buddy riding shotgun with a huge grin on his face. I knew right away what was happening and I was thrilled!
As the landowner pulled right up to the pronghorn he said throw her in the back of the truck and hop in, I'll drive you guys back to the truck! I couldn't believe the luck! What a guy! He saved me a half mile drag/carry and we were back to the truck within 45 minutes of pulling the trigger. I got his name and despite the fact that he was insistent it was no big deal he'll be receiving a gift card and some jerky in the mail as a thank you. I've had a terrible week with my moms hospitalization, to be honest we were told to make sure her affairs are in order as her kidneys were failing even before the covid which makes treating the covid very difficult. It's been a tough tough year, we lost my great uncle who got me into to hunting, and we lost my grandmother in May. This guys kindness put a smile on my face for the first time in a long damn time. I really needed that. Funny how a simple thing at the right time can do that.
The doe that I killed had tiny little horns. Approx one inch long. This being my first horned doe, I didn't realize that the horns were, how do I say, jiggly? I can grab them and wiggle them around quite a bit side to side. It's as if they just grow out of the skin rather than being attached to a sheath like a buck would be. Pretty cool. Does anyone know if I could euro mount it with the horns still attached or will they come off when I cape the skull?