Hunting Washington Forum

Big Game Hunting => Other Big Game => Topic started by: Bigshooter on September 24, 2011, 01:54:46 PM

Title: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: Bigshooter on September 24, 2011, 01:54:46 PM: 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.
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: Bigshooter on September 24, 2011, 01:59:42 PM: 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.
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: Bigshooter on September 24, 2011, 02:09:48 PM: 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.
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: Bigshooter on September 24, 2011, 02:18:30 PM: 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.
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: Bigshooter on September 24, 2011, 02:24:07 PM: 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.
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: Gringo31 on September 24, 2011, 02:42:18 PM: Very nice, thx for sharing!
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: carpsniperg2 on September 24, 2011, 03:02:04 PM: Congrats!!! Man I am jacked up we leave the 8th for our hunt! Some fine lopes that you guys got :IBCOOL:
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: jmx369 on September 24, 2011, 04:07:49 PM: Nice job. Those look like great bucks.
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: cryfowl on September 24, 2011, 06:40:14 PM: 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.
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: sled on September 24, 2011, 09:51:28 PM: Looks good. Hopefully tommorow I can post pics and my story of our trip. Good job!
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: firefighter4607 on September 24, 2011, 10:16:07 PM: Great looking bucks Congrats to all of you!!!!
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: Michelle_Nelson on September 24, 2011, 10:24:20 PM: Those are some good looking bucks! :tup:
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: backcountrybow on September 24, 2011, 10:37:40 PM: Hey those are good looking lope bucks! I think they're one of coolest looking critters! Good job again!
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: Bob33 on September 24, 2011, 10:39:10 PM: I killed this 16" buck on public land.
[smg id=10747]
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: MADMAX on September 26, 2011, 06:07:38 AM: 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
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: bearhunter99 on September 26, 2011, 09:04:40 AM: Congratulations on some nice speed goats. Those are definitely on my bucket list!
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: xxlx7 on September 26, 2011, 09:48:26 AM: Just curious due to the fact we leave wednesday for a week out there to get our lopes, what did you do with the carcasses?? I just don't want to be dumpin them and get in trouble for it or make it stink after we leave.. Wednesday can't come soon enough!!!!!!
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: Bigshooter on September 26, 2011, 12:16:09 PM: We left them in the sage flats a couple hundred yards from the nearest road.
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: firefighter4607 on September 26, 2011, 04:10:03 PM: Quote from: Bigshooter on September 26, 2011, 12:16:09 PM
We left them in the sage flats a couple hundred yards from the nearest road.

:yeah:
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: Widgeondeke on September 26, 2011, 07:19:42 PM: Quote from: xxlx7 on September 26, 2011, 09:48:26 AM
Just curious due to the fact we leave wednesday for a week out there to get our lopes, what did you do with the carcasses?? I just don't want to be dumpin them and get in trouble for it or make it stink after we leave.. Wednesday can't come soon enough!!!!!!

The Wardens will tell you to leave them in place or wherever you cut'em up. They don't want you transporting them to different areas. Can spread illness. All the criitters will take care of them. 75% of ours from last year were still in the gully we dropped them in; only very clean. The hides were about 50% gone.

Best of luck to ya.
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: sled on September 26, 2011, 08:17:38 PM: We left ours where they dropped.
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: 180-GRAIN on September 28, 2011, 10:58:21 AM: You guys got alot of nice goats on that trip, way to go!
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: buckmaster_wa on September 28, 2011, 04:13:45 PM: Congrats on the nice goats Bigshooter. Thanks for the updates on the cellphone as you guys were stacking them up. :tup:
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: seth30 on September 29, 2011, 06:41:08 AM: Great write up and great pics :tup:
Title: Re: My Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt 2011
Post by: JohnVH on October 02, 2011, 07:20:02 PM: Great job! We got drawn last year, but didnt this year.... by far the funnest hunting you can do I think. Cant wait to go again, plus the meat is sooo goooood!

All public land. I think including the does we came home with 14

(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fjohnvh.smugmug.com%2FOther%2FHunting%2F2010-10-10-Wyoming-Antelope%2F1000495%2F1043612024_uVQxz-L.jpg&hash=9a9cd7b7adef81a92b578ef0a736ca2ff113e203)