Katherine made it happen! The pronghorn hunt of 2018 was a massive success. We spent a lot of time at the range and scouting. A special thanks goes out to Alan for assisting with pretty much everything. As I write this post, the meat is at the processor and the cape and head are at the taxidermist. Finally, some relief from the stress.
Katherine at the Clark County Shooting Complex. It's a very nice range 45 minutes north of our house with the option to shoot to 200 yards.
We worked on prone, sitting, kneeling, and standing with both tripod and bipod positions. You never know what shot you might need when it comes down to it.
Ely Shooting Range.
The hunt started with gear preparation a week out, with both of us continuously going over the checklist. We finished teaching school on Friday, August 31, and went right to the house. Everything was staged to be loaded into Alan's truck. All we had to do is load the freezer packets into the 150 quart cooler and pack our cold food and drinks. Our plan was to drive all the way to Ely and then set up the hunt camp. The drive is 5 hours roughly, and put us at camp around 11:00 pm after stopping to get some dinner.
The final gas station in Ely before we hit camp.
The load of gear.
Once at camp in the dark, we laid out the tents and organized gear for a somewhat early start. This camp area is one that we really like from the years past, and is just on the outskirt of Goshute Lake. It's a seasonal lake that only fills ofter long rains and proof that we are in the Great Basin area of central Nevada. Nothing drains out in rivers, it just pools and then evaporates!
Here we are getting ready to set out. The temps were in the mid to lower 40's and we were ready for the hunt!
Now this is how it all went down: We started out spotting some pronghorn on the north side of the irrigation pivots at Lages Junction about 5 minutes after leaving camp. We saw them in this same location on scouting trips, and just like that we were on the hunt. Luckily, they were outside of private property and roaming around in the low sagebrush scrub. It was a group of ten or so with a dominant male and a few young males surrounded by females. Katherine and I jumped out at the fence line from the truck and Alan kept driving to hopefully keep their attention on the truck. Sometimes, they care about the presence of vehicles, and sometimes not. Katherine and I started the stalk and creep.
I had the range finding binocs and the Bog Pod tripod with a larger pack of supplies while Katherine carried a small camelback and of course, the rifle. We tried to move in on the herd and position ourselves for a shot. The big buck looked impressive and we slowly crept towards them, trying to stay as concealed as possible behind patches of sage brush. The terrain has very gradual undulations and at some points the animals are visually lost, but since they were not focused on us yet, they didn't move. Trying to get closer we were spotted, but they didn't move. We set up the tripod with the rifle on it, and I had a range of 250 yards. This was past our acceptable range this early in the hunt, but I used the call in hopes of bringing them closer. While calling, the animals mostly stood there looking our way and but did not move from their feeding position. They never really came closer to the call and we got moved in a bit closer to about 230 yards. Katherine had a possible shot on the buck, but I called "no go" as I thought it was too risky at that distance without a stable position like prone, and knew we could get even closer. These pronghorn are smaller that mule deer and elk, so shot placement is a must since it can run faster and farther than anything imaginable. The last thing we want to do is have a bad shot, and either lose the animal, or ruin some of the meat. We have way too much respect for these beautiful creatures.
Moments after the "No Go" call, they ran. "Oh well," we thought and stood up and radioed Alan for a pick up.
As quick as these guys ran away, we spotted another herd to the west of the pivots. Our second pursuit now began. As we started at the group, crawling low and slow we realized something strange. We were in the exact place I got an elk several years ago. I mean we were almost on the exact GPS waypoint! And then, upon glassing the pronghorn from about 800 yards away I saw in the distance a herd of elk. Wowza! In the same frame of the binocular glass I was able to see and entire herd of pronghorn AND elk. "Unbelievable," I thought, and radioed Alan to be sure he was seeing all of this from the truck.
Katherine and I kept up our slow creep towards the pronghorn in hopes that the elk would draw their attention and we could get within the 200 yard range. Well, we didn't. The elk didn't really freak them out and they saw us, and took off. At this point we had been hunting about 2 hours and I called for a change of plans. My pants were hot.
The low 40's were gone and the sun was beating down on us. Dumb me didn't pack my thin pants, so a trip to the camp was in store. We arrived and I quickly changed, checked gear and food, and prepared to head out again. The three of us we back in the Power Wagon pulling out of camp when Katherine suddenly yelled, "Pronghorn! Right there in camp!"
There was a beautiful buck pronghorn 150 yards from camp. Yes, the same camp that years ago I had elk run right through while we were getting ready in the early morning after a rainstorm. We jumped out of the truck and quickly set up the bog pod 20 feet from the truck. I ranged him at 180 yards and Katherine held on target. He was big enough to take but was shielded by lots of scrub. If she had a clear shot, I told her to take it. Unfortunately, he never really presented a clear view. He stood still broadside many times over a 5 minute period, but always completely behind cover. He even crossed the trail we drove in on, but Katherine did not have a clear shot. He then passed to the west and over a berm. Our foot pursuit began.
We headed to the southwest from camp dodging between sage and scrub bushes. The dry lake area was pretty much flat and we could easily travel at times, but the buck kept his eyes on us the entire time. He was 400 yards out at this time and we stopped a few times to re-range him to check out progress. Then I noticed Katherine grab me by the back of the pants and hunch over. We had read some accounts and seen some videos on YouTube of people looking like they were 4 legged creatures in thought of confusing the animal. We gave it a whirl and kept gaining ground on him in our new "animal position." We closed our distance to 160 yards.
I set up the bog pod, which was already attached to the rail on the rifle, and Katherine took over. I kept behind her with the binocs and the call. Katherine had a clear shot, but he was not quite broadside. I blew it once and he turned straight at us. Not good. We waited a minute and he moved a little. Still not good. I blew it once more and he looked to our left and it was clear. I said, "Take it when ready." POW!
This is where I made some errors. I was not looking through the glass as he was so close and bounced up. I said, "We've got a runner!" In hopes of not losing site of him, I ran to what I thought was the impact zone. Radioing to Alan to bring gear, he was already in route on foot. Now, we gotta find this guy. I failed to log a GPS waypoint of the shot location and a compass heading. But, I did not see him running in the distance like Katherine had whiffed him and he ran off. He was here, and somewhere close. We searched for a while looking for our boot tracks hopefully back to the shot location. Once we were in the area, we headed to the possible kill site again.
This is where I began to worry. Did Katherine just wing it and he's on the loose? Did K miss totally? Did the buck jump over a berm and take off? How far did he actually run? Is the hunt over? Katherine said said was sure she got a clean shot, and saw him bound a couple times before he went down. However, as minutes ticked away doubt began to set in.
Alan and Jäger were upon us and Alan noticed Jäger acting weird. He said, "he's on it!" Jäeger found blood and a LOT of it! 200 feet away we found him. What a relief. Now the work started.
We set up the shade structure and Alan drove the truck up real close. This was a little different than the elk hunt in the steep mountains for sure. We were in the flats and had a much smaller animal. The beautiful pronghorn was gutted, quartered, and caped in roughly an hour and a half and on ice.
The impact location. The white hardpan sure contrasts the blood trail. Kinda creepy.
The blood trail to judge all other blood trails. I think we got him!
Katherine with her pronghorn.
K & G
Sorry for the nasty exit pic, but at least it was a great shot. K had a perfect shot placement, through both lungs and the heart. Thank goodness he did not have to suffer for more than a few seconds.
The shade structure kept the beating sun off of him as we worked.
The cleaning went quicker than I expected. We decided to run back into Ely and drop the meat off at Anderson's Food Town. We met the owner, Lee, an older gentleman that took care of us. He and his brother bought this place in 1977, and Lee is still working hard 7 days a week 41 years later. We hooked the meat inside a chilled container and Lee said he would start on it this Tuesday. Yay!
After the successful meat drop, we headed back to camp. We decided to spend another evening in the desert and really take it all in. We warmed up some elk pasta that Tammy made and retold the days stories. Wow! This was for real.
View from camp with some fires to the west.
Katherine happy that we will have about 50 pounds of meat to eat. We usually only eat meat that our party has hunted ourselves, and we were down to 2 pounds of ground elk.
That's me digging a splinter out of my hand.
Me and Alan
Jäger loving the sunset.
Me taking an awkward selfie.
Sunrise just before we broke camp to head home.
Gassing up.
The Power Wagon is pretty swanky inside for sure.
We didn't go straight home. We had to stop at Werner Family Taxidermy in Henderson, Nevada. Alan helped me do a proper cape cut for a possible mount. We have only had tanning done with them and now we were interested in a shoulder mount. Below is a pic of Thomas that came in for the drop off, even though they were closed on Sunday. He agreed that this was a uniform and symmetrical rack and a true beauty! We don't have to decide on anything just yet as they have to strip the rest of the hide and properly flesh it. Then it is tanned and put back over a mold. This will take 2 years, I am sure, for the entire process. Remember, K's elk hide took almost 2 years!
I love the coloring on his snout!
The hairs on the hide are quite strange. They are hollow! Pronghorn can efficiently regulate heat in the hottest summers and coldest winters. And, run super fast. They are the fastest animal in North America, reaching speeds of 55 for over a half mile.
In closing, I just have to say that this was hunt number 1 of 5 for this season. Garth and Alan both have pronghorn tags for horns shorter than ears. I have a mule deer tag in this same area, AND Michael, from D.C. has a mule deer tag in the Mesquite area just north of town.
Good times!
