My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011

[Bigshooter]

My dad, buddy and I drew antelope tags in Wyoming this year.  This is the first time any of us have ever hunted for antelope.  The unit we drew doesn't have a lot of antelope in it but was suppose to have some big ones in it.  After 5 days of hunting we saw one good antelope buck.  He was a solid 15+ inchs tall with a ton of mass and great prongs.  He was by far the best buck we saw. 

We arrived on monday after noon after a 16 hour drive.  We looked around the unit and it didn't take long for my buddy to want to put a stalk on a buck.  After a long stalk my buddy didn't feel comfortable taking a 330 yard shot with a heavy cross wind so he passed the buck up.

The next day found us in the same spot that my buddy had stalked the buck from the day before.  After a couple hours of glassing I found a nice looking 13 incher (all the bucks we saw were 13 inches tall or less except for one) that my buddy want to try for.  After a long stalk and and a missed shot.  We relocated the buck and after watching him fight with another buck for about ten minutes my buddy put him down with one shot.

[Bigshooter]

The next day right after first light I spotted a buck that my dad wanted to try for.  He needed the shot to be less than 200 yards because he was hunting with a marlin 38/55.  And this buck was in some broken terrain making a close stock a possibility.  After closing the distance to 300 yards he  crawled 70 yards before running out of cover.  He had a solid rest and hit the buck in the front shoulder.  One more finisher shot and the buck was down for good.

[Bigshooter]

Wednesday evening after taking care of my dad's buck.  We found the biggest buck we would see on this trip.  We named this buck stove pipes, because of how tall and heavy his horns were.  My first stalk on this buck was short.  After watching him feed over a little rise with 2 does and another buck I took off after him.  After walking about a hundred yards all of them were on the run.  I don't think I spooked them, but they ran about 5 miles before stopping.  After finding him again right before dark I tried another stalked but got busted by one of the does with him. 

The next day I glassed stove pipes up again but this time he was all alone.  There was no cover any where and he was a mile or more from me.  I decieded that I would walk striaght at him and see if I could get with in 400 yards.  That did not work and he ran off again.  After finding him again.  I dropped my buddy off and setup on the other side of stove pipes hoping my buddy would push him to me.  That didn't work either.  Thursday evening we tried to find stove pipes again but could not find him.  I think stove pipes still might be running right now.

[Bigshooter]

Friday morning found us in a new location in the unit on a HMA.  Right away I spotted a heavy horned buck running across a sage brush flat trying to cut off a couple does.  After watching the buck for an hour, him and the does feed over a small rise and I started my stalk.  After walking across the flat to the rise that they were behind I found the buck and does feeding straight away from me at about 200 yards.  I tried to take a knee and use the shooting sticks for a rest, but that put me to low and the rise was in the way.  So I stood back up and the buck turned and looked at me.  I went ahead and took the offhand shot and put the buck down.  He isn't very tall (around 13 inches) but he has a ton of mass.  His bases are just over 6 1/2 inches.  And his prong is just short of 5 inches.

[Bigshooter]

All in all it was a great hunt and I can't wait to go antelope hunting again.  If you have never been antelope hunting you are missing out.  Even in a unit that doesn't have a lot of antelope in it we still saw between 50 and 80 antelope per day, and around 8 or 10 of those were bucks.  Good luck to everyone else this year.

[Gringo31]

Very nice, thx for sharing!

[carpsniperg2]

Congrats!!! Man I am jacked up we leave the 8th for our hunt! Some fine lopes that you guys got

[jmx369]

Nice job. Those look like great bucks.

[cryfowl]

I leave in 3 days for my hunt and I would be thrilled with any of the Bucks your group took.  If I can find a 13" buck I will be thrilled, anything over that is a dream for my first Antelope. 

[sled]

  Looks good.  Hopefully tommorow I can post pics and my story of our trip.  Good job!

[firefighter4607]

Great looking bucks Congrats to all of you!!!!

[Michelle_Nelson]

Those are some good looking bucks!

[backcountrybow]

Hey those are good looking lope bucks! I think they're one of coolest looking critters! Good job again!

[Bob33]

I killed this 16" buck on public land.
[smg id=10747]

[MADMAX]

Way to pump me up I also am leaving the 8th
Great job to both of you guys 15 and a 16
nice
I hope for 14