gillettehunter
AH legend
I killed a deer with my crossbow this year so I hunted pronghorn on opening day, which was Oct 1st. I'm hunting with my 6.5 SS which is rather like the 6.5 SAUM and PRC. Its a Tikka action with a Christensen arms carbon fiber barrel on it. It shoots 156 gr Bergers at 3000 fps with sub 1/2 MOA accuracy. Its set up with a Arca plate so that it can be mounted quickly to a tripod. I have a Feisol tripod with ball head that weighs under 4 lbs, but is extremely stable that can be used with it. I'm liking that better than a bi-pod affixed to the front of the stock.
I was up early and reached the ranch that I have permission to hunt on around 6:40. Just as you could see what was happening. I pulled past the ranch house, got out and loaded my clip and got everything prepared. I drove perhaps a mile into the ranch and spotted my first pronghorn. He walked out of sight before I could get a good look, so I followed a road around to where I expected him to be . I found him and as I thought he was a young buck by himself. The rut is just winding down and the younger bucks have been kicked out of the herds and are off bi themselves. In another 2 weeks or so they'll rejoin the small herds.
I continued further into the ranch. I drove to a place where I had killed 2 good bucks on consecutive years previously. I found a small herd with 8-9 does and fawns with 2 bucks. Neither looked all of that mature. As I pondered whether or not to try for the larger of the 2, Shawn , the ranch hand drove up. We visited and the upshot was he had seen a non typical pronghorn buck a couple of times in the past week and agreed to show me where he had been hanging out.
As we drove the 3 or so miles we stopped to glass a couple of times. Saw another 3 bucks and 3 more does/fawns. Very few pronghorn compared to what I normally see there. We got near one of the property edges and then spotted our target buck perhaps 1/2 mile away in the direction we had just come from. So we drove back towards him because we were hidden by a hill most of the way.
We then walked perhaps 200 yards to the top of a small ridge overlooking the valley we had just seen him in. By carefully walking up I spotted him feeding before he saw us. He was less than 100 yds away. I already had the rifle on the tripod. I set the tripod and he caught some movement. He was quartering to me with only his head, neck and the very top of his shoulders exposed. I put the crosshairs on his neck and pulled the trigger. As he dropped I could hair blow out the other side.
Took a few pics and dragged him to the truck. Washed him out and headed for home. A few observations. I saw less than 20 pronghorn where 4 yrs ago I might of seen 150-200. Our lack of rain has had a big impact, but also this ranchers policy of letting doe hunters on without regards to his numbers of pronghorn has also hurt.The double whammy has really dropped the population on his ranch. Opening day pronghorn are far less spooky than later in the season. Lastly the ranch hand has a pretty good idea where to go on the ranch. Pics to follow.
Bruce
I was up early and reached the ranch that I have permission to hunt on around 6:40. Just as you could see what was happening. I pulled past the ranch house, got out and loaded my clip and got everything prepared. I drove perhaps a mile into the ranch and spotted my first pronghorn. He walked out of sight before I could get a good look, so I followed a road around to where I expected him to be . I found him and as I thought he was a young buck by himself. The rut is just winding down and the younger bucks have been kicked out of the herds and are off bi themselves. In another 2 weeks or so they'll rejoin the small herds.
I continued further into the ranch. I drove to a place where I had killed 2 good bucks on consecutive years previously. I found a small herd with 8-9 does and fawns with 2 bucks. Neither looked all of that mature. As I pondered whether or not to try for the larger of the 2, Shawn , the ranch hand drove up. We visited and the upshot was he had seen a non typical pronghorn buck a couple of times in the past week and agreed to show me where he had been hanging out.
As we drove the 3 or so miles we stopped to glass a couple of times. Saw another 3 bucks and 3 more does/fawns. Very few pronghorn compared to what I normally see there. We got near one of the property edges and then spotted our target buck perhaps 1/2 mile away in the direction we had just come from. So we drove back towards him because we were hidden by a hill most of the way.
We then walked perhaps 200 yards to the top of a small ridge overlooking the valley we had just seen him in. By carefully walking up I spotted him feeding before he saw us. He was less than 100 yds away. I already had the rifle on the tripod. I set the tripod and he caught some movement. He was quartering to me with only his head, neck and the very top of his shoulders exposed. I put the crosshairs on his neck and pulled the trigger. As he dropped I could hair blow out the other side.
Took a few pics and dragged him to the truck. Washed him out and headed for home. A few observations. I saw less than 20 pronghorn where 4 yrs ago I might of seen 150-200. Our lack of rain has had a big impact, but also this ranchers policy of letting doe hunters on without regards to his numbers of pronghorn has also hurt.The double whammy has really dropped the population on his ranch. Opening day pronghorn are far less spooky than later in the season. Lastly the ranch hand has a pretty good idea where to go on the ranch. Pics to follow.
Bruce
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