dgr - i am right in the middle of it all. if you ever need anything, PM or email me.

also, check this out>>


hunting pronghorn in montana

glad you enjoyed it here!

ron

Here is what I have learned over the years in the care of antelope. Following this recipe of in field care has never failed to produce the best game meat I have ever eaten:

Cape and quarter asap. Hide off within thirty minutes of the kill. I carry a large cooler with ice. Ice the quarters immediately.

We don't take the guts out, we just take the quarters off, backstraps and tenderloins. You can get to the tenders just under the transverse processes in the flank area by pushing the guts down. You can take neck meat off for your grind.

Most people make the mistake of gutting the antelope, throwing it in the back of the truck and leaving like that for a day. Just as well flush it down the toilet at that point because the dogs won't even eat it!

If you do gut it, get the hide off pronto, quarter it and get it in the cooler.

Best of luck with your next goat!

I also agree pronghorn hunting in MT is a lot of fun. I went in early Oct at the invitation of Rod Rogers and Larry Tahler the head guys at Serengeti Rifles and stocks and soon to be Adventures. Rod and Larry picked me up at the Great Falls airport along with Don Browning from GA. We drove 4 hours NE and based out of Malta, MT. Our guide was Jim Weigard. Don and I each had a buck and a doe tag and Rod and Larry had a doe tag. We filled all our tags. I got my doe the first hour of the first day and my buck the last hour of the third and final day. Both shots were 300 yards. Don filled both of his tags on the second day with two 400 yard shots. Both our bucks were about 14". It was really fun trying to get within range for a shot.Low crawling that last 50 yards in the sage brush, lying there for an hour or more waiting for the pronghorn herd with a good buck to come close enough for the ambush, took me back to thoughts of my days of OCS at Fort Benning. Rod and Larry are great fun to be with and I hope to hunt with them again. I hope we can do Africa in 2006 with some of their customers. They really have some great rifles and their stocks are beautiful. I am really looking forward to my 376 Steyr they are building. As for Jim Weigard operation; I like it. He butchers your animals, de-bones them ,vaccum packs and freezes them for your flight home. You can read more about Seregenti and Jim Weigard in the current issue of Rifle Magazine. As for my pronghorn,we smoked a rump roast and it was great. When I go again, I want to add a day of prarie dog shooting.

I finally got to go pronghorn hunting in Montana .They had anterless tags so I got two it was a blast.The meat is the tenderest wild meat I have ever had and very good.I used my 264 win mag Ruger to take two about 375 yards.It was the funnest hunt I have had in years.

I agree. Hunting antelope is enjoyable and not physically taxing.

sssssshhhhhhh!

don't tell anyone that we have antelope in montana, and that they taste good!

everyone thinks that they are in wyoming and that they taste like sagebrush!

jeff -

i am not discounting your experience because there are many factors that come into play regarding how the final product tastes. i am assuming you know all of the basics: quick cooling of the carcas, hanigng for a few days in a locker or cold, dark area, good trimming, boneless, airless, airtight packaging, quick freezing, yadda yadda yadda.

with antelope, i think that what it has been eating has the biggest effect on taste that we hunters cannot control. all the antelope i killed have been within grain or alfalfa country, and subsequently have tasted marveloous, from a very mature buck to a yearling to a mature doe. the one time that the meat taasted "funny," it was when i buthcered a doe on the same day that i shot her. even in this case, the meat did not taste bad, just different.

As a buddy in Montana once told me .. (and I agree !!!) antelope is either the best meat that you'll ever eat .. or the worst !!!