I rolled in yesterday from my first hunt of the fall, albeit a short hunt.
DO IT YOURSELF ON PUBLIC LAND
Three friends and I traveled to central Wyoming for a three-day pronghorn hunt. I was invited by a good friend and a week prior we scouted the barren BLM land for possible pronghorn ambush sites. Half of us hunted from ground blinds and half stalked.
I’ll cut to the chase. We ended up with 50 percent success, but we could have pushed that to 100 percent with a couple more days. I passed up a couple of good shots hoping for a textbook shot on a jumpy buck that had an aversion to cattle and a slight dislike for my ground blind. He offered me a walking shot at 32 yards and I passed believing he was going to put his head down and water. He didn’t. My friend let a 45-yard shot get by him by taking a few extra seconds to re-range the yardage. The buck didn’t wait.
Am I bummed? No way! We had a great camp complete with a wall tent, coolers full of food and a view to die for with total public access in every direction you looked. At any time you could see antelope from camp and possibly mule deer. Every day at my water hold I watched sage grouse, shorebirds and songbirds while waiting for pronghorn to visit. Plus, the two guys who were successful shot their first pronghorns ever with a bow. Both were right at 14 inches.
There was one unfortunate event and that was the sudden intrusion of dozens of cows that showed up out of nowhere. They weren’t there when we scouted or on the first day of the hunt. Suddenly our little pronghorn hotspot was crowded with bovine and it did slow the action. Toward the end of the hunt my buddies scouted out another valley with even more pronghorn and considerably bigger bucks.
Every year we’ll learn a little more about the region and I can guarantee you the success will increase with each note of knowledge. Hunting season has arrived. Good hunting!
Mark Kayser
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