As promised- here is the recap of our recent New Mexico Pronghorn showdown.
TLDR: I took my Dad and Brother-In-Law down to NM for some speedgoat hunting. We killed 3 great goats before 10:30 the 2nd day, and one is a Booner!
We arrived in Corona, NM Sunday evening and checked in to our hotel. Monday was spent scouting. A little bit of the front of the ranch is BML land, and public draw hunters can legally access it to a point. We watched a red F150 with a camper slowly creeping down the highway, and then they turned and checked the gate to our place. As they were opening the gate, they saw us on the hill, and closed the gate and hauled *** down the highway out of sight. We thought that was very odd.
But we immediately found a good buck. Watching those critters pop up out of the grass after sunrise is always fun. This big goat had a longer right, but a broken prong on that same horn. He had plenty of mass, and would be the focus of our hunt the following morning. We placed 2 blinds on promising water holes, and watched a few goats watering from afar. We hooked up with our guide Wes, from Bull Valley Outfitters who had arranged access to the private part of this ranch for us. He was hanging with us, but we wanted to rock it our own way. We aren't the kind to let a guide stalk and clean our game for us. Wes is a fantastic guide and friend, and we always enjoy hunting together.
Hunt Day 1: A cold front blew through, and it was fairly chilly and wet this morning. As we closed the gate to our ranch, the red F150 with the camper again passed on the highway and heads somewhere. We don't think much of it. We parked our rig, and then slowly picked our way down a little crease, covered by a ridge, and dropped by Brother-In-Law off at the first water hole. Dad and I headed to the back of the property, and on the way we found this nice one we affectingly nicknamed the "Heart Buck".
Got my Dad settled into blind 2, and I eased to a lookout over the valley. No action for a couple hours for my BiL, but I could see a couple different groups converging about 1/2 mile behind his location. I knew there were a couple good ones in there, and was fairly certain one was the big buck we were after. They were rutting pretty hard, and I enjoyed watching them scrap and fight. I walked a LONG way around to not bump them, grabbed him from his blind and off we went. We snuck to about where I figured we could see them at, and they had mostly all disappeared. A little scouting turned them up in another little depression that had greener grass. I carefully picked an approach that would get us there unnoticed, and off we went again.
An hour later, I peered over the top of a little band of brush and saw a big goat below us. It is the big one with the broken prong. Got by BiL set up for the shot, 97 yards. This is a slam dunk, I though. BOOM - dirt flies - goat runs. Miss. That stupid goat ran about 150 yards and stopped and stared at us, quartering slightly away. He jacks another round in the chamber, BOOM, another miss. This is his first antelope hunt, and he is all keyed up. I put my hand on his shoulder and told him to breath, just stay on him and see if he stops. The goat is on a flat out run at 325 yards. He slows to a pretty good trot, and I see my BiL settling in. I'm trying to tell him to just wait for it to stop, and BOOM- he rolls the goat on the run. Better to be lucky than good, I guess! In any case, this is a WHOPPER of a first antelope. Measured a tough over 79, but was 76 with deductions. But, what an awesome pronghorn with impressive height.
Wes and my BiL got the goat and took it back to the ranch house to start quartering it. I went and gave my Dad a break in the blind, and sat the water for the rest of the day while he scouted around for more shooters. The cool temps of the am gave way to a brutal sub, and I was stripping down and very thankful for a portable fan we packed in.
A small buck visits me, and then the heart buck comes and gets a drink. I decide to let him walk, though he has some nice mass and deceptive curls.
A little later, 3 does and a HUGE buck go skirting by at 500+ yards. They have clearly been bumped, and I figured it was a coyote. I would later learn that Wes had hooked back up with my Dad and were watching that bruiser head right for my water hole (over a knoll I couldn't see). Suddenly, they saw the red F150 with the camper driving down the middle of our ranch. Well over a mile past the BLM line- trespassing. The does spotted this truck, and took off instead of coming to my water hole. Dad and Wes headed down to cut the guys off and tell them to turn around, thinking maybe they just didn't know where the line was. As soon as they saw Wes' truck, they busted a 180 and hauled ***. Wes tried to meet them at the gate, and rolled around the corner just as they were closing it. Instead of waiting to talk, they again tore off down the highway. Clearly these punks knew what they were in the wrong. We got some T-Posts and make big X's in the road with "No Trespassing" signs right at the BLM border.
Hunt Day 2: We were all piled in the truck together, and wanted to head to the back of the property and move the blind from the water hole to a corner with green grass all the goats seemed to really like hanging out in. On the way back, we spotted a big group with a bruiser of a buck. I tried everything to get my Dad to go after that buck, but he refused. He wanted me to shoot before him.
Reluctantly, I stalked down and got on the pronghorns. This pic is fuzzy, but you can see the caliber of this goat...
There were several other bucks, but only 1 monster. I was about 600 yards away, and trying to plan my final stalk. The wind was whipping, and I wanted to close the distance. The goats started feeding around the corner, and nestled into a little crevice with green grass. We were hidden from them.
I had a young 18yo kid with me, our guide had said he wanted to be a guide, and was looking for experience, so we let him tag along. He was a great asset. As we got up to start the final stalk, a pretty decent buck pops over the ridge behind us, about 1000 yards away. I looked at the kid and said "I bet we could slip over there, shoot that buck, and all those others will never hear a thing". He looked at me like I was out of my mind, and reluctantly said "Probably, but the big one is THAT way." I said "Exactly, let's go!"
He protested as we took off after the smaller buck, who was heading for a ceader break (which I thought was odd). We hoofed it as fast as we could, a LONG way. I tossed the kid my Sig rangefinder and told him to keep my Sig BDX ranged in. I really loved how the BDX performed, especially with a moving animal constantly changing ranges. I plopped down on my sticks, had the goat broadside at 425 yards. But with my breathing and the wind, I didn't feel 100% on the shot, so I waited. He started moving again, and we 1/2'ed the distance and set up again. As he entered the ceaders, I had him at 250 yards. He was going in and out from behind the trees, but I was tracking him pretty well. He hit an opening, as the kid said "This is it, no more shooting lanes." I felt good and solid on him, pulled just ahead of his shoulder, and BOOM - FLOOP. 6.5 Creedmoor Hornady ELD-X did its job tremendously well. After confirming he was down, we glasses behind us and didn't see any goats leaving that little green crease we left them in. "This might just work..." I thought.
Not the biggest, but I'm perfectly happy with this goat. Didn't put a tape on him, but I'm guessing he is just touching 70".
Wes and my Dad pull up in the truck, and we get him gutted and loaded ASAP. I told my Dad we got cut off and couldn't get to the big one without bumping it, so we left it for him. He gave me the stink eye, and I knew he had sat and watched watched what I had done. I said "Well, in any case, he's just over there!"
So we set off after him. I took the truck to a ridge to serve as spotter, and my Dad, Wes, and the kid took off after him. They skirted the ridge just above the goat, and finally got a shot. 350 yards, the crosswind got my Dad a little, and he hit it pretty far back. I watched in the spotter as all the goats poured out of that valley, but didn't see the big one. Finally, I saw a huge buck crawling under a fence. He was walking slowly and steadily, and looked like he had a red balloon tied between his legs. I couldn't believe it was walking with guts hanging out, but I got him in the big spotter and that's exactly what was happening. The goat wasn't running, but was walking fast enough it was tough for them to make up distance. They finally got another shot, but it was straight away. The goat rolled, and got up and kept waking. Dad hit him in the back of the neck, and the bullet exited his nose and that sucker got up and kept going like nothing ever happened. This thing was NOT going to stop and lay down . They finally caught up for another 300 yard shot, strongly quarrying away. Dad hit him and it exited his neck, taking quite a tremendous chunk of flesh and meat with it on the exit. Goat was finally down. Dad was shooting the same 6.5CM Hornady ELD-X as I was, but we saw dramatically different results in this one. One bullet went though like laser, and the other 2 looked like you shot it with a 338. Mine event in and dumped all its energy center mass, just like it was designed. Still can't figure that one out.
No matter the case, we had it down. Then it finally sunk in how big this thing was. It had a couple extra stickers and points. The mass was enormous, and the prongs were so high. He was deceptive, and looked smaller in the scope than on the ground. He ended up measuring out at 83", with 1" of deductions. But he got the 3rd mass under the swell of the prong. We will be submitting it to Boone & Crocket.
Got them cleaned and iced ASAP, and I caped mine out to give Dad my cape for him to mount the big one. His had a few holes in it...
Here are the final pics. You can really get perspective on how big his is next to mine. And mine isn't a little buck, it's just dwarfed by his toad!
TLDR: I took my Dad and Brother-In-Law down to NM for some speedgoat hunting. We killed 3 great goats before 10:30 the 2nd day, and one is a Booner!
We arrived in Corona, NM Sunday evening and checked in to our hotel. Monday was spent scouting. A little bit of the front of the ranch is BML land, and public draw hunters can legally access it to a point. We watched a red F150 with a camper slowly creeping down the highway, and then they turned and checked the gate to our place. As they were opening the gate, they saw us on the hill, and closed the gate and hauled *** down the highway out of sight. We thought that was very odd.
But we immediately found a good buck. Watching those critters pop up out of the grass after sunrise is always fun. This big goat had a longer right, but a broken prong on that same horn. He had plenty of mass, and would be the focus of our hunt the following morning. We placed 2 blinds on promising water holes, and watched a few goats watering from afar. We hooked up with our guide Wes, from Bull Valley Outfitters who had arranged access to the private part of this ranch for us. He was hanging with us, but we wanted to rock it our own way. We aren't the kind to let a guide stalk and clean our game for us. Wes is a fantastic guide and friend, and we always enjoy hunting together.
Hunt Day 1: A cold front blew through, and it was fairly chilly and wet this morning. As we closed the gate to our ranch, the red F150 with the camper again passed on the highway and heads somewhere. We don't think much of it. We parked our rig, and then slowly picked our way down a little crease, covered by a ridge, and dropped by Brother-In-Law off at the first water hole. Dad and I headed to the back of the property, and on the way we found this nice one we affectingly nicknamed the "Heart Buck".
Got my Dad settled into blind 2, and I eased to a lookout over the valley. No action for a couple hours for my BiL, but I could see a couple different groups converging about 1/2 mile behind his location. I knew there were a couple good ones in there, and was fairly certain one was the big buck we were after. They were rutting pretty hard, and I enjoyed watching them scrap and fight. I walked a LONG way around to not bump them, grabbed him from his blind and off we went. We snuck to about where I figured we could see them at, and they had mostly all disappeared. A little scouting turned them up in another little depression that had greener grass. I carefully picked an approach that would get us there unnoticed, and off we went again.
An hour later, I peered over the top of a little band of brush and saw a big goat below us. It is the big one with the broken prong. Got by BiL set up for the shot, 97 yards. This is a slam dunk, I though. BOOM - dirt flies - goat runs. Miss. That stupid goat ran about 150 yards and stopped and stared at us, quartering slightly away. He jacks another round in the chamber, BOOM, another miss. This is his first antelope hunt, and he is all keyed up. I put my hand on his shoulder and told him to breath, just stay on him and see if he stops. The goat is on a flat out run at 325 yards. He slows to a pretty good trot, and I see my BiL settling in. I'm trying to tell him to just wait for it to stop, and BOOM- he rolls the goat on the run. Better to be lucky than good, I guess! In any case, this is a WHOPPER of a first antelope. Measured a tough over 79, but was 76 with deductions. But, what an awesome pronghorn with impressive height.
Wes and my BiL got the goat and took it back to the ranch house to start quartering it. I went and gave my Dad a break in the blind, and sat the water for the rest of the day while he scouted around for more shooters. The cool temps of the am gave way to a brutal sub, and I was stripping down and very thankful for a portable fan we packed in.
A small buck visits me, and then the heart buck comes and gets a drink. I decide to let him walk, though he has some nice mass and deceptive curls.
A little later, 3 does and a HUGE buck go skirting by at 500+ yards. They have clearly been bumped, and I figured it was a coyote. I would later learn that Wes had hooked back up with my Dad and were watching that bruiser head right for my water hole (over a knoll I couldn't see). Suddenly, they saw the red F150 with the camper driving down the middle of our ranch. Well over a mile past the BLM line- trespassing. The does spotted this truck, and took off instead of coming to my water hole. Dad and Wes headed down to cut the guys off and tell them to turn around, thinking maybe they just didn't know where the line was. As soon as they saw Wes' truck, they busted a 180 and hauled ***. Wes tried to meet them at the gate, and rolled around the corner just as they were closing it. Instead of waiting to talk, they again tore off down the highway. Clearly these punks knew what they were in the wrong. We got some T-Posts and make big X's in the road with "No Trespassing" signs right at the BLM border.
Hunt Day 2: We were all piled in the truck together, and wanted to head to the back of the property and move the blind from the water hole to a corner with green grass all the goats seemed to really like hanging out in. On the way back, we spotted a big group with a bruiser of a buck. I tried everything to get my Dad to go after that buck, but he refused. He wanted me to shoot before him.
Reluctantly, I stalked down and got on the pronghorns. This pic is fuzzy, but you can see the caliber of this goat...
There were several other bucks, but only 1 monster. I was about 600 yards away, and trying to plan my final stalk. The wind was whipping, and I wanted to close the distance. The goats started feeding around the corner, and nestled into a little crevice with green grass. We were hidden from them.
I had a young 18yo kid with me, our guide had said he wanted to be a guide, and was looking for experience, so we let him tag along. He was a great asset. As we got up to start the final stalk, a pretty decent buck pops over the ridge behind us, about 1000 yards away. I looked at the kid and said "I bet we could slip over there, shoot that buck, and all those others will never hear a thing". He looked at me like I was out of my mind, and reluctantly said "Probably, but the big one is THAT way." I said "Exactly, let's go!"
He protested as we took off after the smaller buck, who was heading for a ceader break (which I thought was odd). We hoofed it as fast as we could, a LONG way. I tossed the kid my Sig rangefinder and told him to keep my Sig BDX ranged in. I really loved how the BDX performed, especially with a moving animal constantly changing ranges. I plopped down on my sticks, had the goat broadside at 425 yards. But with my breathing and the wind, I didn't feel 100% on the shot, so I waited. He started moving again, and we 1/2'ed the distance and set up again. As he entered the ceaders, I had him at 250 yards. He was going in and out from behind the trees, but I was tracking him pretty well. He hit an opening, as the kid said "This is it, no more shooting lanes." I felt good and solid on him, pulled just ahead of his shoulder, and BOOM - FLOOP. 6.5 Creedmoor Hornady ELD-X did its job tremendously well. After confirming he was down, we glasses behind us and didn't see any goats leaving that little green crease we left them in. "This might just work..." I thought.
Not the biggest, but I'm perfectly happy with this goat. Didn't put a tape on him, but I'm guessing he is just touching 70".
Wes and my Dad pull up in the truck, and we get him gutted and loaded ASAP. I told my Dad we got cut off and couldn't get to the big one without bumping it, so we left it for him. He gave me the stink eye, and I knew he had sat and watched watched what I had done. I said "Well, in any case, he's just over there!"
So we set off after him. I took the truck to a ridge to serve as spotter, and my Dad, Wes, and the kid took off after him. They skirted the ridge just above the goat, and finally got a shot. 350 yards, the crosswind got my Dad a little, and he hit it pretty far back. I watched in the spotter as all the goats poured out of that valley, but didn't see the big one. Finally, I saw a huge buck crawling under a fence. He was walking slowly and steadily, and looked like he had a red balloon tied between his legs. I couldn't believe it was walking with guts hanging out, but I got him in the big spotter and that's exactly what was happening. The goat wasn't running, but was walking fast enough it was tough for them to make up distance. They finally got another shot, but it was straight away. The goat rolled, and got up and kept waking. Dad hit him in the back of the neck, and the bullet exited his nose and that sucker got up and kept going like nothing ever happened. This thing was NOT going to stop and lay down . They finally caught up for another 300 yard shot, strongly quarrying away. Dad hit him and it exited his neck, taking quite a tremendous chunk of flesh and meat with it on the exit. Goat was finally down. Dad was shooting the same 6.5CM Hornady ELD-X as I was, but we saw dramatically different results in this one. One bullet went though like laser, and the other 2 looked like you shot it with a 338. Mine event in and dumped all its energy center mass, just like it was designed. Still can't figure that one out.
No matter the case, we had it down. Then it finally sunk in how big this thing was. It had a couple extra stickers and points. The mass was enormous, and the prongs were so high. He was deceptive, and looked smaller in the scope than on the ground. He ended up measuring out at 83", with 1" of deductions. But he got the 3rd mass under the swell of the prong. We will be submitting it to Boone & Crocket.
Got them cleaned and iced ASAP, and I caped mine out to give Dad my cape for him to mount the big one. His had a few holes in it...
Here are the final pics. You can really get perspective on how big his is next to mine. And mine isn't a little buck, it's just dwarfed by his toad!