Montana Pronghorn….that’s what she said.

[AT Hiker]

As mentioned in the Elk thread with @wjohnson1983, we drew MT pronghorn tags this year as well.

We decided to wait the first week of season out. Made sense, give the roads a break from our elk trip and let the opening crowds die down. We lucked up with this decision as that part of the state finally got drought relief in the form of a rain/snow weekend opener followed shortly after with as much as 12" of snow falling.
Usually this stuff melts and dries relatively soon, not this time as it stayed around and made the unimproved and 2-track roads impassable. We found out the hard way.
We had also planned on making this a hotel hunt. No other reason than because our elk hunt was 10 days of no running water, aka no shower. Lady luck at it again, all that snow was either drifted too deep for a tent or made the BLM Praire ground a swampy mess.
What we arrived to in Spearfish SD

Hard to tell but this drift Im standing in is knee deep. Not ideal for stalking these Praire ghost. It was either drifts, swampy ground or loud n crusty snow.

Same chunk of state ground just a few hundred yards apart. Mostly melted snow on fully saturated soil. Notice the antelope hoof in the pack

Bentonite soil is like quick Crete. Once it is dry it's there for a long while. Its not uncommon for us to bring home a couple tons of it.

 

[AT Hiker]

Long story short…MT game and fish has a landowner program that allows hunters on private property while paying the landowner. We secured a ranch close to our hotel, close as in within a hour, but we nearly got stuck going in. So, we were limited to public lands accessible via paved county roads.
The killing grounds, as we later named it, was discovered. It was a section of county road that had some state and BLM ground touching it. We also met a random rancher, that reminded me of strength coach Mark Rippetoe playing a character on Netflix's the Ranch. He graciously gave us permission to walk into his sections that butted up next to some public ground. This gave us a nice little chunk to catch these prairie ghost bouncing around the wide open sage.

Antelope #1 down. Celebration back at the room with some classic beer flavored water in a fitting blaze orange camo can.

I captioned this photo "camp chores". Antelope quarters drying in game bags. We discussed engineering some poles that attach to the roof rack to hang bags from.

This is the wide open "swamp" prairie. I've hunted in this part of the state for mule deer for over 6 years. Lots of October winter storms but never any that fully saturated the ground for so long. 2 weeks ago they were fighting wild fires, week later they were saturated and stuck to paved roads. The Wild West for sure.

"big Johnson" and his cousin to the giraffe, yes antelope are distant relatives to them…blows my mind. This loper is what I would consider average for MT. It's what you hope for in this unit and if it hadn't busted off his cutters he would have been a dang good one. I call him big Johnson, not because his wife nicknamed him that, but because I feel comfortable talking smack to people when he is around me.

 

[Deer Assassin]

love some speed goat

congrats

 

[JCDEERMAN]

Congrats AT!

 

[AT Hiker]

Now, I got stupid lucky. We had seen this antelope the day before around the "killing grounds". We both tried to make a play on him. Believe it or not a random ranch house was tucked in the creek bottom behind them when I had a shot, then as I tried to flank them they bolted. Next shot was toward the road, damn ethics, then they made their way toward big Johnson but he couldn't get a shot either.
He was tall and just stood out compared to the others.
Next morning he presented a random opportunity after I had a made a stalk on the lead group he was trailing. I couldn't get a shot at the first group because of distant cattle and the sun blinding me. Pure luck he trotted to my North, 280-300 yard bang flop. Admittedly, I thought I missed as he flopped into the tall sage. I didn't see him run off but then again the group he was with ran into the sun as well. I waded through the prairie swamp and seen him, he was bigger than I thought.

A lot of hunters judge their horns based on height. 16" being gold standard, this guy was knocking on 15". Roughed scored him at 76", just shy of B&C min of 80". 4" too short, story of my life…or "that's what she said".

I also like pairing alcohol with the critter, the hunt and the geographic region. This High West sorced blended bourbon not only paired well with this prairie lobster but the label must have been by intelligent design.

I sent a picture to my daughters tablet and she responded "nice, now you got us some meat!"
That made my day. She tagged along on a muzzleloader antelope hunt with me when she was 6 months, grew up in a taxidermy shop and was raised on wild meat. She is a legit meat eater and my rope to reality. She wasn't impressed with the exceptional horns I notched my tag on, it was the fact that I secured her another season of being vegan free.
Rest assured, this MT prairie ghost will go on my wall. He will be hanging there long after we eat that last steak of his.

 

[pockets]

That's awesome man. Congrats.

 

[PossumSlayer]

Awesome hunt!

 

[DoubleRidge]

Great Antelope...Good Read...Nice Pics... Thanks for sharing!

 

[Specializedjon]

Great story, great pics. Thanks for sharing. My favorite "beer flavored water in a blaze orange can" (Nailed it)

No I'm hungry and thirsty....thanks

 

[Bucket]

There is only one beer that is acceptable for that picture.

 

[AT Hiker]

Yes, I agree. Moose Drool is a must. Unfortunately we were on the backside of nowhere so we had to play the hand we were dealt.

 

[backyardtndeer]

Nice goat and good read. Congratulations and thanks for sharing.

 

[Antler Daddy]

I enjoy your adventures.

 

[Chiflyguy]

Awesome story!

 

[Tn Joe]

Congrats again bud!

 

[AT Hiker]

There is only one beer that is acceptable for that picture.

Just stumbled upon this pic. A slice of heaven in the high desert.

 

[megalomaniac]

Awesome trip! Congrats to you both! Some good eats (and drinks).

 

[tellico4x4]

Good job, congrats! Enjoyed the read & glad that area getting some much needed moisture.

 

[RUGER]

Very cool man.

 

[Crappieaddict]

I'm jealous! Well done!