Gastro Gnome - Eat Better Wherever

Judging pronghorn is hard!

shootbrownelk said:
Mass is the #1 thing to look for. The BIG ones look BIG, you'll know right away. Nice goat you have there. Congrats.
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Their ears are about 5 inches or a tad longer so when they are standing with their ears up you can get an idea of horn length. As mentioned earlier the big ones look BIG.
 
antelopedundee said:
Their ears are about 5 inches or a tad longer so when they are standing with their ears up you can get an idea of horn length. As mentioned earlier the big ones look BIG.
Click to expand...
I have to disagree.

My advice is to look at as many as you can, get as close as you can, never rush into shooting one. Look carefully at the bucks that have the XL head and body as often times their horns don't look real special and they will surprise you. Absolutely look real hard at the ones that look to have heavy mass all the way up. The ones that do not have heavy looking horns are NEVER as big as they look on the hoof. And usually the real heavy ones are WAY BIGGER than they look. They are not easy to judge, in my opinion and often times the real big ones don't look that great, and some pretty average ones look real impressive.
 
Greenhorn said:
I have to disagree.

My advice is to look at as many as you can, get as close as you can, never rush into shooting one. Look carefully at the bucks that have the XL head and body as often times their horns don't look real special and they will surprise you. Absolutely look real hard at the ones that look to have heavy mass all the way up. The ones that do not have heavy looking horns are NEVER as big as they look on the hoof. And usually the real heavy ones are WAY BIGGER than they look. They are not easy to judge, in my opinion and often times the real big ones don't look that great, and some pretty average ones look real impressive.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advise. I think I passed on a really good buck thinking everything through retrospectively. Maybe a couple of good ones.

I don't know why I talked myself into shooting the one I did. I had seen a pretty good buck that I headed after and was trying to track down on foot. He was chasing a doe and had 6 other bucks trailing behind him and he was clearly the dominant buck. I didn't take a shot when I should have and then they all took off. I found the one I ended up shooting and actually passed on him when he was by himself twice thinking he was one of the other bucks that was trailing behind because he was by himself. Then I saw him with some does and thought he was the dominant buck and shot him.

He looked decent when I shot him and looked good when I walked up to him but not near as good when I put a tape on him. 14" length, 6" bases, 4 1/2" prongs = 73" buck. Oh well. I guess I will keep applying for tags, maybe eventually I will trip over a big one like I did with my elk! LOL.

Thanks, Nathan
 
That's a nice buck and those are pretty good measurements. All really depends on where you're at and how many you have a chance to look at. In WY, the problem is there is no shortage of just hundred and hundreds of tiny ones. After a few days of looking, they all start to look the same.
 
Greenhorn said:
I have to disagree.

My advice is to look at as many as you can, get as close as you can, never rush into shooting one. Look carefully at the bucks that have the XL head and body as often times their horns don't look real special and they will surprise you. Absolutely look real hard at the ones that look to have heavy mass all the way up. The ones that do not have heavy looking horns are NEVER as big as they look on the hoof. And usually the real heavy ones are WAY BIGGER than they look. They are not easy to judge, in my opinion and often times the real big ones don't look that great, and some pretty average ones look real impressive.
Click to expand...

That's just one criterion. Wasn't intended to be the only one, but it's something to judge length by. If the horns are tall, but spindly then he's a pass. Obviously there's more than length and you'll probably get to see some other angles as well.
 
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pretty new to this game, but I will guess that the first one is not all that big. He has great mass low, but is thin up top. Not that long. The second one is smaller than the first.

Now I will sit back and be corrected I am sure!
 
Greenhorn,

I'm going to guess that both of those are bigger than they look. That first one is built like a tank, a lot like the buck I shot last year except his upper mass looks really good. Really good prongs too. On the bottom buck, at some angles he doesn't look like much, but his upper mass looks really good to me anyway.

I've thought about trying to see if a guide service would just let me ride around with them during the summer sometime when they are out scouting. I think it would be a VERY useful experience. Maybe offer to pay for their gas and food to let me hang out with them. LOL.
 
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