For son-in-law, Matt - experiencing his first mule deer and pronghorn hunt - bumping around in the cozy pick-up cab was not a viable option . . . but, to look over enough goats to have a fair chance of locating a BIG one, one must cover a LOT of territory – and ogle a LOT of animals! I had the feeling that Matt thought that, as opposed to ‘hunting’, we were wasting our precious time. So, despite the cold, Joe and I practiced regressive thinking – most days, despite the frigid temperatures, we had agreed to straddle the ‘four-wheelers’, which afford a more comfortable ride and quicker travel . . .
Despite his [probable] impatience with us duffers, Matt proved capable of passing many opportunities to uncase his .257 Idiot Mag, and loose a 110 Gr. BT, at 3500+ FPS, on a hapless goat – he proved a good sport: and more importantly, a very good game-shot! J On this adventure, Matt fired three shots at ‘game’: he went three-for-three, bagging a nice mule deer buck (168 Yd.), a coyote (278 Yd.) ; and a mature pronghorn, of which, we are about to learn.
On Oct. 14, we departed the motel and drove to the local diner in the rain – it was going to be yet another blustery, wet day – our fifth day of searching for that one BIG goat. We lingered in the café, downing some ‘extra’ caffeine, hoping for a let-up . . . . but, THAT was dreaming. So, we decided to hunt the Alkali Pasture, where, on our first perusal, a few days earlier, we’d seen only a few goats – very unusual for that piece of real estate! And, I forgot, this pasture features very sandy soil - even in the rain, it's possible to 'get around' . . .
The plan was to drive down the county road and enter the Alkali from the south, which we did . . . all the way down, and especially, as we gained altitude, the rain thickened and the clouds settled closer to our elevation – the ATVs would be staying on the trailer! Strangely, the dash-board ‘outdoor’ thermometer read 28 deg. F – what happened to the snow!!?? ;)
Since it was my ‘plan’, Joe rained a constant string of admonishments regarding my inability to, "read the weather", put us on pronghorns, etc. ! ;) His tirades kept us from going back to the motel – or, worse, falling to sleep! ;) Once we began descending into the lower pasture, from the high-point on the county road, we quickly dropped out of the clouds and were able to see for at least 3/4Ths of a mile. The rain let up a little, and we located a herd of about 100 pronghorns, most of them bedded, facing into the now, lessening wind.
A couple of the critters had seen the rigs pull up and stop, and became a little spooky, which made the entire multitude anxious - they all got to their feet and headed East, toward a large basin – about 3/4 mile across, which is surrounded by a relatively steep rim, of sand-blows and rock outcroppings - this could work in our favor. With over two dozen bucks, none stood out as obviously ‘bigger’ – the, now, usual 12.5" – 13.5 " limit seemed to be in full force. Still, for about an hour, we watched them and they watched us - then, they decided that feeding on the new sprouts would be the order of the day - today, they weren't feeling excessively pressured.The thermometer climbed to 32!
Once they hit the basin, the goats spread out and began feeding toward the East ridge-line. Matt decided that he wanted out –even with the drizzle, he’d attempt a stalk, and see what happened – he was ready to fill his tag, and the better of these goats were about as good as most we’d seen. Joe and I dropped a rain-gear clad Matt off, a couple of hundred yards fN/NW of a nice ‘scab’ , telling him that once he reached the rock-pile, we’d drive around to the East rim and expose ourselves – hopefully, if nothing was within range following Matt’s sneak, some of the goats would head back his way . . .
The plan worked almost perfectly - when Joe and I reached the east rim, some of the goats were about to crest it, and head on furtehr east, into the next basin - we simply put the rig in park and watched - the pronghorns began drifting back toward the waiting Matt - a mere 3/4 mile to our west. Once all of the goats were beyond our range ( Joe still had his tag), we decided to return to the wind-mill and see how many of the large band would filter out to the north. We stopped just south of the wind-mill, and, from our eleveted perspective, began trying to locate Matt. Finally, I caught a glimpse of his hunter-orange beany, in the far SW end of the rock-pile where we'd hope he'd be! Also, about two dozen goats were grazing in the saddle between us and Matt - they had to be within 300 yards of him! We caught several glimpses of matt's head, but couldn't tell what he was doing - we never heard the shot . . the goats in the saddle began moving our direction. Eventually, they grazed to within two hundred yards of our location, never paying us the slightest notice! None of them would make over 12" and all had poor cutters - Joe passed.
About then, we saw Matt heading back to Joe's rig, so we fired up the horses and let the Chevy hustle us down to see what was up - Matt advised us that he'd shot a goat! :) With that news, we drove over to the critter, and began snapping the pictures! Mat had taken one of the better bucks in the band - the longer horn measured right at 13"; the other was 12 & 5/8Ths" - the cutters were in excess of 5" - a pretty decent fist pronghorn! The shot, a slightly quartering away affair, was made from 213 yards - once again, the 110 Gr. BT, at 3530 FPS, had resulted in instant death - major interior damage, with minimal blood-shotting of the muscle tissue, and a quarter sized exit-hole. Matt did well - an hour later, the sun was shining! :) RG
