Hike Hard for Pronghorns

It was midmorning, and I had already hiked several miles along a high ridge. The vast Wyoming prairie stretched to the horizon — an undulating, nearly treeless grassland punctuated by strips of sagebrush and upthrusts of rock. It was ideal pronghorn habitat, but I had seen only two “goats” in three hours of searching.

My home state is usually swarming with antelope, including large bucks, but two years of bad news had decimated the population. In 2021, hemorrhagic fever, commonly known as “blue tongue,” killed at least half the pronghorns in the area I prefer to bowhunt. Festering carcasses littered the landscape. I managed to scrape out a decent buck anyway, but hunting was tough.

Then, the severe winter of 2022-2023 hit antelope again like an icy fist, just as populations were beginning to rebound. State game officials reported that pronghorn populations had plummeted due to severe cold and deep snow. It was one of the worst years experts had ever seen. Tag quotas were reduced, and pronghorn hunters were worried — for good reason.

As usual, the antelope rut was going full blast in September — if you could call one tiny buck chasing one doe “full blast.” As the day progressed and I logged more miles, I did see a few additional animals. But normal harem sizes of eight to 12 does seemed a thing of the past…so did bucks with decent headgear. The largest herd I saw was six — five females and one buck with horns barely above his ears.

The most common way to bowhunt pronghorns is waiting in a covered pit or pop-up blind near water. In dry areas, rutting bucks often visit established ponds or stock tanks every day to rehydrate. In bright sunlight, their eyes cannot adjust well enough to spot hunters sitting in the darkened interiors of a good ground blind. Shots tend to be short, and success rates high.

The area where I hunt antelope has too much water for sitting in a blind. Local ranchers there have developed dozens of sites with dams or spring-holes, and most ravines also contain standing/trickling water. Pronghorns living there have many thirst-quenching options as a result, which means that stalking is the only viable bowhunting strategy.

That suits me fine. I have shot quite a few pronghorns from waterhole blinds, but this process tends to be boring — like watching TV with the power turned off.

I much prefer to bowhunt antelope on foot. This is never easy, but the challenge is exciting, and with enough effort in the right area, a sneaky hunter can find and bag a specific trophy buck.

By “right area,” I mean broken terrain with plenty of ups and downs to help an archer hide. Many antelope areas are too flat or gently rolling to allow spot-and-stalk hunting with a bow. But others are ideal. I always seek out places that let me glass from high points and slip behind ridges or cutbanks to avoid an antelope’s ultra-keen eyes.

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Two days of hiking slowly passed, and I had still not seen an antelope that would score the relatively low P&Y minimum of 67 inches. Most bucks had horns barely above their ears. By contrast, a record-book pronghorn has prongs above the ears, and beams that extend well above that. The best horns usually hook dramatically in the upper half. This means extra length that contributes to a higher score.

I was not interested in stalking young, short-horned bucks. The thrill of bowhunting antelope for me is finding a standout critter to hunt. On the morning of Day Three, I located just such a buck.

The buck strolled into view about 400 yards away. Unlike most mature September males, this guy was all alone. A more aggressive buck had probably run him away from females. September antelope can be downright vicious as they vie for harems — grunting and fighting hard.

Finding a lone buck with good horns was a blessing, because two eyeballs are always easier to fool than a dozen or more. Pronghorns can certainly smell you if the wind is wrong, and their ears are reasonably keen. But their number-one defense is their peepers.

The buck in front of me had long, heavy horns that hooked dramatically at the top. I figured his prongs to be at least five inches long, and I was betting his horn length was 15 inches. That’s a good antelope, and one that will score well above 70 P&Y points.

I watched the pronghorn through a bush with my 10X binoculars. Only my head was above the ridge. You can never be too careful with antelope eyes, even a quarter-mile away.

The buck vanished in a small ravine fringed by low, green shrubs. I was hoping he’d stop to feed on the succulent growth. I trotted down a gully, eased across a ridge, and then dropped into a draw that meandered toward the antelope. Minutes later, I figured I was less than 50 yards from where he had disappeared.

Horns suddenly rose above a brushy knob 40 yards in front of me. I crouched, nocked an arrow, and lifted my rangefinding binoculars to confirm the distance. An instant later, the buck strolled into full view. He stopped at 35 yards and looked directly away.

I drew my Bear Alaskan compound bow in a flash, planted my 40-yard pin below his brisket, and squeezed off the shot. My Easton FMJ shaft hit home with a hollow plunk, and I knew the buck was mine.

My September 2023 Wyoming antelope was one of my best, with 15-inch horns, bases nearly seven inches around, and five-inch prongs. The beautiful black headgear green-scored just under 78 inches.

Despite a poor pronghorn year caused by bad weather, hard hiking had turned up a prize!