I was driving from Ohio to California last weekend and saw my first Texas antelope. He was alone and standing on the side of I-40 relieving himself. A medium heavy-bodied 14" class buck about 50 miles from the New Mexico border.

The Big Bend country around Marfa, Alpine, Ft. Davis, Valentine, Marathon, to Sanderson and on up into Midland, Odessa where you saw your buck have a heck of a lot of antelope...Also a number of Antelope in the panhandle area.....I book hunts where you saw yours and on into NM, and a 17 inch or better antelope is fairly doable. A 16 inch antelope is a pretty sure thing if you can shoot. And that lonesome ugly area has the worlds largest Mule Deer...We shoot about 3 every year that bust the heck out of 200 B&C..

Anyone ever see the small band of Antelope that live outside of Post Texas? I have net seen them in forever. I used to see them when driving from Lubbock to Dallas. Always on the East side of the road, always in the same spot.

Seeing an Antelope is not odd, seeing one in this area is. There are no Antelope anywhere near this ranch. I would bet the nearest Antelope to this area would have to be at least 150 miles. I think there were 4 or 5 Antelope that lived here.

I'm not surprised about the antelope near Post... my dad and grandad used to own a ranch in Borden county, south of Lubbock, near Gail... there was a pretty good sized herd that lived on that ranch.. we'd see 15 to 20 every time we were out there... there was no season on them, so shooting them was pretty much not do-able.
They are pretty little goats, though, aren't they? I've heard the meat is good, also...

Post's mascot is the Antelope. You still hear of/see antelope in that big ranch country of the north-western rolling plains around Snyder, Post, Jayton, Aspermont, etc.

Mostly, though, you have to go west of a line from Amarillo to San Angelo. I've hunted them in the Panhandle north of Dalhart and SW of San Angelo. The biggest 'Lopes in Texas, and maybe US are in far west Texas, though.

A friend of mine hunts 'em around Sierra Blanca, and they take several in the 85-90 range every year. Those are impressive!

Ray, where do ya'll hunt Mulies? Maybe you can send me a PM about it??

If you were on I-40, about 50 miles from New Mexico, then you were west of Amarillo, not in the Midland area. Ray's been gone too long.

I've taken both Panhandle and Trans Pecos antelope. I didn't find much difference in their sizes. Both of them stink like hell when you open them up.

The Rolling Plains antelope that Trademark mentioned are still around, but have suffered in recent years. They were at a peak in the late 50' and 60's. There were large numbers in Stonewall, Kent, Garza, and a few in Scurry and Fisher counties. Borden, and maybe a few other more western counties had some tags issued at one time.

They seemed to decline rapidly in the 60's, concurrent with the reintroduction and increase of whitetails. I don't think the two are related; rather I suspect that the proghorn die-off was a result of some pathogen that affects the sheep-goat family, which they are somewhat related to. (Maybe even anthrax, which is endimic and flares up from time to time. Back in the 50's and 60's, it sometimes went undiagnosed -- or at least unpublicized -- by the public health authorities.) Also, they seemed to thrive during the 7-year drought of the '50's and decline afterwards. Maybe a wetter climate is simply not to their liking. There are still pronghorns in the Rolling Plains, but nothing like their previous numbers.

BTW: The current severe drought of the Trans Pecos (Ray's old country) has diminished proghorn numbers there steadily over the last several years. I don't think they're in trouble, but it will take a few years of good rains (10 inches a year is good in that country) to bring them back.

Stone creek,
I'm thinking Kermit,Snyder, jal, Midland, Odessa on over to Lovington area...I have 5 ranches in that area that belong to Boyd Oil Company...Lots of huge deer and antelope. I go there every year, but I-40 got past me I guess its further North....

TrademarkTexan,
you got PM and photos.