HunterJoe24
Senior Member
Leftover pronghorn tag for unit 16. The original plan for this hunt was to go solo, but my pops had some time in between jobs so he decided to tag along and join me. We left last Thursday and arrived about 10AM Saturday. That afternoon was mostly a scouting day and we very quickly found out that all the antelope had been pressured to private. Probably saw around 400-500 just that day all on private. The next day we woke up and got to a water hole about 1.5 miles into BLM land that was about 1/2 a mile from private. All last week and weekend the weather forecast had progressively been getting worse every day. The Monday before we left the forecast was in the mid 40s with a chance of rain, but by the time we had gotten out there it had changed to a winter storm that would arrive Sunday night. Boy were they wrong. Sunday morning we woke up to rainy weather and 34*. About an hour after sunrise the rain had changed to a thick snow which made glassing all but impossible. My plan was to just walk ridge to ridge and glass as far as we could see for areas that either could be feeding or shelter areas. In total we covered around 3-4 miles in borderline blizzard conditions, visibility at one point was less than 100 yds, but progressively got better. After several hours of doing this we decided to call it a morning and start heading to the afternoon plan. I've always heard about how bad Wyoming mud can be, but did not believe it until I saw it. If you haven't experienced it imagine the stickiest, most slippery mud you have ever been in and multiply by 100. On the way back we stopped by the water hole to see if anyone was thirsty. What took an hour walk in the morning turned into 2 on the way back. BUT, on the way back I happened to see some antelope stand up on private, but were surrounded by public. I knew they were aware of us and put myself in a position that no mater what direction the went I would have a shot at them on public, but some other hunters unknowingly bumped them into an ideal place. I did not have time to range them due to how quickly it happened, but the buck stopped at what I thought was 300. When I shot I watched him rock and start to limp off. Knowing I miss judged the distance I held for 500 and dumbly forgot to adjust for him trying to run. The second shot anchored him motionless. One more shot at 500 through the sweet spot and he was down. Turned out, he died 500 yds from the truck. God had a funny sense of humor that day, but I will not complain. Any advice to someone who reads this and wants to go out there: 1) Do not apply for 16, buy a leftover tag as it is a very difficult unit to pronghorn hunt, I highly doubt I will return to that unit for anything other than mule deer 2) If you do end up hunting 16 be there opening day as all the goats we saw other than the 2 were pushed onto private 3) Use the private/public borders and other hunters to your advantage. Thanks for reading and good luck to all this season. Other than November, I will be solely focused on bear the rest of this season
