Wyoming Pronghorn adventures

SO four dark 30 arrives and I spring into action, waking everyone up. Water is boiling, oatmeal ready, coffee is ready and we hit the ground running and out the door in time. So impressed that the boys got moving as quickly as they did. They are usually dragging there feet, complaining about how early it is, and how tired they are... and this is when they wake up to go to school. They totally got after it this morning with no complaints. Of course when its 32 degrees outside, you wake up fast...lol

Matt calls and says that he's running about 45 min's behind coming from Colorado. I told him I will try to hold off until he gets there, but no promises that it'll actually happen if there are tons of people out there. So I leave a trail of flagging tape along the route he'll need to follow to find us, kinda like a trail of bread crumbs. As we close in on the walk in area, light is slowly creeping on the horizon... a grey strip, turning to blue, then faint pink... and all of the sudden we see lights. They are heading towards the walk in area. Is it a hunter? an oil field worker? The lights drive out into the walk in area and continue to drive around. The lights are moving faster as we approach and light grows and suddenly the shut off. We stop on top of a hill with a view of the walk in area. There is now enough light that I can glass to see what is going on with the vehicle. I see the truck parked in a draw, far from any wells, and the faint glow of hunter orange inside. Busted... and they are trying to hide. I figured some idiot would pull this stunt I tell myself. I am thinking I should go get their license plate number and turn them in but I continue to the parking area in hopes that they don't go racing around chasing antelope off. As we pull to the parking area I see the vehicle start to move and leave the walk in area stealthily.

Disaster adverted... Or maybe not. I can't see a single antelope in the grasslands. Where there were hundreds a week ago, I now see none. A few minutes pass and I locate some antelope on the far fringes of the area. We wait.... shooting light is here, but no one has arrived at the walk in, so we continue to nervously wait for my friend Matt. We hear the roar of a truck running down the road at warp speed. I It takes several minutes for him to arrive. Its amazing how far sound travels out here in the silence. He arrives, everyone is orange on and the pumpkin patch is off to the races across the prairie, 3 adults, 3 kids, and an orange and reflective stripped dog on a leash...lol Unconventional to say the least. We see hardly any antelope on our way across and the few we see are running for their lives. I am fearing the worst has happened, but we continue to where I have see the antelope I am hoping to pursue. As we approach I see a herd, with several subordinate bucks surrounding, and in the middle its "Ric Flair" the flared big prong buck on my hit list.

So we sneak down to a water hole and hide the posse out of sight. They can safely observe the stalk from behind the dike where they wont be seen by the antelope, while Matt and I continue the stalk. The antelope herd is moving to the back corner where they always go at about 550 yards. I tell him I want to get close so we get good video. They continue to move up the draw heading towards a hole in the fence that they usually duck under. We continue to move quickly trying to cut the herd off, but keep running into antelope and subordinate bucks running around the herd. They are pulling away. I tell Matt, lets just make a move and hopefully they wont spook if we run other antelope into the herd, as it is pretty much happening anyways the are rutting so hard anyways. We find that our quick movement in orange is actually causing a number of antelope to be more curious than cautious. A few bucks almost walking to with in bow range, and stand there watching us pass. We creek to the top of the last hill before the fence and peek over. There stands "Ric Flair".....and to his right the other buck on my hit list "Heavy D".

Now here's a dilemma I hadn't thought about. If I had to pick between the two, which one would I shoot? Wyoming antelope are very tough to score. There is a certain gene in WY where some of the antelope have proportionally enormous heads compared to bucks in the state. Some have giant bobble heads other don't, so you often misjudge the size of some bucks here. New Mexico and Arizona typically have smaller bodies and heads, so they're horn size looks larger in comparison. These bobble heads often look small comparatively to their body. I Had looked at these bucks a number of times but never together, and here they stood both side by side. I knew both bucks had these giant melon heads, and was pretty sure I was close on approximating their scores. Seeing them both there, side by side reaffirmed my guess.

"Ric Flair" was a borderline B&C buck in my opinion but very pretty. As I was growing up I would always see pictures of big New Mexico bucks with enormous flared prongs and I always idealized this type as the classic B&C pronghorn. Over the years of hunting pronghorn, I learned that it wasn't all length and giant prongs that made a great buck, but actually mass and proportionately placed measurements relative to the length. Mass is incredibly hard to judge and is incredibly hard to judge especially with the bobble head antelope in Wyoming. "Heavy D" on the other hand was a little shorter but one of the heaviest bucks I had seen while bow hunting. What he lacked in length, he made up for in mass, a big ugly antelope. I figured he was in the 86-87 inch range a legitimate B&C buck. Decisions, decisions, I've got to choose..... BOOM.... its Over...
 
... I think to myself as a shot rings out from afar as the antelope nervously jump around. I've got to pick. Matt is sitting there, continuously commenting about how massive "Heavy D" is. Okay I've made up my mind. "Heavy D" is obviously the better scoring buck of the two and will definitely make all time book. He walks away from the herd, turn and stands there broad side at 180 yards. He looks at "Ric Flair" and turns and walks away... right over hill. Matt sits there, looks and says " I can't believe you let him walk". I SMILE, and I tell Matt... "Score isn't everything... I would have never entered him anyways."

"Ric Flair" is my guy. Something about those big crazy prongs and that classic pronghorn look that gets me. We stay positioned on the top of the hill, the wind is swirling the antelope can definitely smell us and they are nervous. I now have a marginal shot as he is surrounded by does. I know from previous failed stalks in this location that when they wind you, they don't run towards the hole in the fence, they run back to the giant grass flat and go around the knob we are sitting on. So we back down off the knob and circle around to the grass flat.

Here come the antelope, still extremely nervous and pacing, noses to the air. I can see the tips of the bucks prongs just over the crest of the hill, but no shot. We await patiently as I tell Matt we are not going to rush up and take a quick shot and risk spooking them, we let them make the first move. Eventually the wind shifts and the relax. Slowly a doe feeds out on the grass flat, and she lays down. Shortly after here comes the buck, feeding ever so slowly out to where I have an open shot. As He walk into full view and I settle the crosshair, Matt whispers "Wait, I can't see him anymore." I pause and Matt move to a better location where he can see the buck. The buck turns head on at 190 yards. Matt tells me he's on him. I tell him, "I'm going to wait, I want him to turn broad side", mainly because the .257 I'm shooting is not a meat friendly gun. We wait... and wait... and wait... and finally he turns and walks and feeds and stops. Click.... Boom!

We celebrate... Heather and the Kids gather up stuff and come our way. Matt and I walk over, as we get closer... I smile... Matt Smiles... We both say at the same time... He grew a few inches as we walked up. The dog wasn't sure what to think... she growled when she came up. The kids we super stoked as was Heather. We took pictures, I showed the boys how to field dress, even though I most take the gutless method. We caped him out, quartered him, scavenged every last bit of meat we could and threw him on the frame packs. The boys got their first taste of a "packout". They grabbed the packs and went, half of an antelope each for the two older boys all the way out. We had a conversation prior to that if they want to hunt, the fun stops when you pull the trigger. This is about as small as you can get when it comes to big game hunting. An antelope weighs 100 pounds, a deer is 250, an elk is 700, you get the idea. If you want to hunt, remember that no matter how hard it gets, you have a responsibility to get it out... all of it no matter how tiring it gets. Its fun... but its work too. They did a great job and pushed through it... very proud of them.

Anyways.... the long awaited pictures...
 
The boys packout complete...
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"Ric Flair" Still a B&C antelope at 83 4/8 :D
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Very nice. I see that Mr. Flair scored a little higher than I guessed after seeing him in that first round of pictures. Beautiful buck. Congratulations!
 
Very nice. I see that Mr. Flair scored a little higher than I guessed after seeing him in that first round of pictures. Beautiful buck. Congratulations!

Different buck in the first post.... we called him "Average Joe"... and I concur that he was high 70's. Almost confused the two once and brought "Average Joe" home with the bow. Similar looking from the side.. a little shorter on prong and length, prong lower on the horn. There's a real grainy picture of flair in post 47...
 
Awesome hunt and buck, thanks for taking us along. Great name choice as well, did you celebration include a shout of WOOO!!!?
 
Sneak, awesome pronghorn. Great to hear successful hunter stories from people that put in the time.
 
Great buck. Enjoyed following the thread. Glad it ended well for you and all involved kids look like they had fun. Hope October in wyoming is just as kind to me.
 
Congrats on a great buck! I really enjoyed the story and the great photos, thanks for taking the time to include the rest of us on your hunt in a small way.
 
Thanks, for posting the blow by blow scouting leading up to the actual hunt. Certainly worked out well for you taking a terrific buck. Great pictures!
 
Nice specimen and well played thread Sir Sneakem. Thanks for taking the time to keep it interesting for we passengers.
 
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