Shot my first pronghorn Saturday morning.

I did a trespass fee hunt just west of Cheyenne. Loads of fun. Worst part was that it was over too soon.

The lay of the land was broken hills. This made stalking the animals much easier than I expected. I was especially glad of this since I did not get to shoot as much as I wanted prior to leaving due to work and then the hurricane.

I managed to sneak up on one just after daylight. Managed to get within 150 yds. He was probably bigger and of a classical shape. I didn't shoot becasue I was unsure and it was only 1 hour into my hunt.

I then located thios one from about 600 yards off. I circled downwind and crawled up a hill to find him over 350 yards away still. Not feeling comfortable, I just watched them and noticed a general movement to the west. Luckily, there was a 300 yard wide draw they would pass through if they continued in that direction. So, I circled back and set up on a hill side at the narrowest point. Long story short, about 2 hours later (including a 45 minute bedding), he was standing perfectly broadside at 225 yards. A shot I can easily make.

About him - I didn't tape him. I would guess about 13-14 inches. He is certainly no 16 incher like in the magazines. His spread is slightly less, I would guess 11-12 inches. Very moderate mass. His horns are full of cracks, including one fairly wide crack at the base of his prongs. Almost looks like one could fall off. The tips curl more towards the inside rather than back. A strange configuration. Everyone that saw him guessed his age was the reason for the strange configuration. Looking at online pics of pronghorn teeth, he certainly seemed to have some age to him.

I saw some that were likely longer (hard for me to judge) and certainly some that had much better mass, but I think he is a very unique trophy. And I hope it was old age that made him so.

Due to my limited shooting prior to my trip, I took only my trusty 30-06. I was wanting to break in a new rifle on this trip, but I KNEW my go-to rifle would work. He made the 15th species of game taken with that rifle. I shot 168 winchester ballistic slivertips. My rifle loves them and I have had decent performance on deer-sized game. The bullet exited without much damage to the cape. And the pronghorn flopped over dead where he stood.

Sorry for the bad pic. I shot it myself off my spotting scope tripod. I never thought of the dark shirt and the black horns.

I don't get it how is he non typical?

Thx Mark

by the way am glad you had a good hunt!

Congrats on a nice goat and exciting hunt!! Hope you can come back this way to hunt another one!

MG

Atypical because of the spread and angle of the horns. I love that look. I'm always looking for the atypical horns or the horns with lots of mass.

Very nice, I like the wide spread also.

Heck, I wouldn't call it non-typical or a-typical... it's an antelope and that always means odd!

Nice first goat... congrat's!

I think he's neat looking! That's also a good job with the photo for a self portrait IMO.

I recently got my first Pronghorn, the hunting sure is a kick!

Congratulations--Don

Antelope hunting is a ton of FUN. Conglads on a nice goat ! CB