duckhunt
Well-known member
Any advice for a new pronghorn hunter? Guess im a little nervous about my first hunt.
Need advice
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LCH
Well-known member
Have fun, take lots of pics, and don't rush it.
Are you camping or staying at a hotel?
Are you camping or staying at a hotel?
duckhunt
Well-known member
Hotel. I wanted to camp but the other guys voted against it.
This. One of the great things about hunting pronghorns is that if you mess up (miss, get busted, etc) a bit more of the same work will yield another opportunity. I am guilty of trying to hard to make things happen than just letting them develop. Good luck!
I'm heading out this weekend for pronghorn and I still get nervous. Its probably more excitement than nervousness but its hard to tell. The one thing I can say is try to be patient. You'll probably see a lot of animals and be tempted to go rushing into a stalk. Be sure to plan a stalk and use the terrain to your advantage. The animals have absurd eyesight and will see you coming from far off if you don't make a good attempt to hide yourself. Other than that, have fun and shoot straight!
JohnCushman
Well-known member
My first tip is to have fun! Antelope are pretty territorial, so if you find a herd, chances are you can find them again in the same general area. Don't rush yourself and think you have to shoot the first one you see due to opportunity. Use your optics. Save yourself a bunch of walking and glass a lot and help yourself not to encroach on a herd you might be interested in. Watch where they go when they get bumped and get a general pattern on them. Put your bullets in your pocket and spend a day or two just looking around to see the general quality of bucks in the area, then make a choice and go after the one you want. If you blow a stalk and bust a herd out, don't freak out. Look around a while and chances are you'll find another herd and can go back to the previous herd after a while. I'm assuming you have a gps with an onXmap chip, and that will come in handy seeing the public and private boundries. Lots of time you can set up near the borders and catch them crossing over between public and private. Find the water. Water is essential to them, so if you can find water, you can find them. Take lots of pictures and have cigars and beers ready for successful hunters.
Great advice above! I will second the eyesight thing, as Iowa whitetail hunters I think we worry too much about their nose. I don't worry about that much anymore. Eyesight is first, you will be shocked at how far they will bust you from. As you are driving to your hunt area from Iowa stop and look at almost every buck you see with binos and spotter. I saw a lot last week driving home from CO. After you look at 20+ bucks you will start to see what a small, average and bigger buck look like. In my opinion that's all a "first 5 years" antelope hunter needs to know. Don't get hung up on he has to be 15" tall or X amount of inches Bonne and Crocket. If you like him, that's all that matters. If you have doe tags be sure of your target and make sure the animal doesn't have a black cheek patch = young buck. Take leather gloves and knee pads, and a butt pad if you plan to sit and observe for a while=cactus everywhere! and Ditto on OnX maps chip in your GPS, I can't even imagine hunting without one. Also get out of the truck and go look into all the small sections of public land that you can't see all of from the road. Have coolers of frozen milk jugs in the truck at all times, bone the meat out where he falls, and get it on ice ASAP and it will be delicious. If you want a shoulder mount beware that their hair falls out easily and you can't drag them around like a whitetail. Have fun! I'm super jealous!
