Well after a week of scouting and two weekends of hunting, I finally harvested my first pronghorn antelope.

I was drawn this year after five years of being rejected in the North Dakota license lottery, and it looked pretty bleak.  Last weekend was 80 degrees with 30-40mph winds.  All of the pronghorns were stationed on the sides of hills in the middle of sections, and hunting pressure was heavy.

This weekend blew in a fall storm, complete with 30 degree temps, rain and then snow.  The antelope went into hiding and we didn’t even see a herd in the “normal”areas until about mid-day, when we saw a really small buck running with about 15 does.

Out of desperation we went to a new area, where we thought we would at least fill our limit on pheasants since we only had two to go.  I missed that chance with a horrible couple of shots on semi-tough shots and we proceeded to drive around a while looking for the last herd of the day.

Out of jest I turned to my hunting partners, Tucker (a five year-old Britanny) and my father and asked where did all of the goats go?  Less than a minute later, I answered my own question with “Right there!” pointing out the windshield to 20 pronghorns running across the section line.

I turned the truck around and drove to a different corner of the section, but the antelope ran back behind again.  You know, turning a ‘94 Suburban on a country road is no easy thing.

I saw where the pronghorns were running, and I exited the vehicle, .270 ready to fire and ran up the field to cut them off before they got too far behind a rise.  Too late, I ran back down to the road and got a good look at them about 150 yards out.  They were running full bore and I picked out the buck, always last.  I led him about 4′ and squeezed off a shot.  I didn’t hear anything, the pronghorn didn’t jump or stumble, and he definately didn’t just fall down.

After about 50 yards he reached the road, heading off into posted land.  He seemed to stumble a bit, but I wrote it off as just mis-stepping at the road.   But about 100 yards into the posted field, the pronghorn reared up on its hind legs and fell over backwards.

Huh.   Guess I DID hit him.  At full speed running right to left.  Ta-da!

I put the gun in the vehicle and walked out into the field to retrieve the animal.  Perfect shot through the lungs.  Didn’t hit any guts, didn’t ruin any of the head or shoulders… just a lung-er that blew all the way through and he just took a while to know it.

Well, I’m hooked.  That was the most fun I’ve had hunting in years.  Only one thing went wrong the whole weekend.  When it came time to snap a photo, my camera malfunctioned and we had to rely on a screenshot from a video camera.

Oh well, a nice 12″ pronghorn (updated measurements – 13 1/2″ horns and 6 3/4″ base.  Much bigger once I got a tape on him!) for my first time out.  Not a huge trophy by any means, but I’m mounting him anyway.  Who knows how easy it will be to draw another license.  Here’s to pronghorn hunting!  Now, I can concentrate on ring-necks and my muley tag.  God I love the fall!

I saw two things today out pronghorn hunting that made me wonder how it is we have any land left to hunt.

First, I saw a skinned animal, minus a head, lying in a non-posted field. Some idiot had shot what I was guessing was a buck pronghorn, caped it out on the spot, and left the body to rot less than 200 yards from the road. This took place Friday night or early Saturday morning, as I was in the area around 5pm Friday night, and around 10am Saturday morning.

Less than an hour later, I saw a white pickup driving through a field with two hunters, I mean criminals, in it. They were too far away to get a license, and when they saw me stopped, they high-tailed it off the land and out of the area.

Both of these took place NW of Scranton, ND.  Click HERE for a map location of the crimes.

I know that whoever did either of these indiscretions won’t be affected by me posting them here because they can’t read (at least a proclamation) and probably don’t think they did anything wrong, but if I can ask the rest of you to take a few moments and think of the hunting community as a whole before you do something stupid.

The anti-hunters and some landowners are just looking for this type of behavior to give them a reason to reduce your sporting opportunities. The skinned pronghorn was lying on some property that is traditionally posted for deer season, but the landowner has always allowed my hunting party and others access. Things like this could significantly jeapordize access to this great piece of land.

Play by the rules, bag your game in a safe, sporting manner, and support the heritage and opportunity provided by the state of North Dakota and the generous landowners who allow us access, and all of us will be better off.

As for the guys who did this? I’m taking my video camera with from now on, and if I see it happen again, video evidence will be used in a court of law.

Sorry for the long rant, but I had to get this out. If anyone has more details on who may have committed these crimes, please report them to the proper authorities.

In North Dakota contact R.A.P. (Report All Poachers) at 1-800-472-2121.

Tomorrow afternoon at 12:00pm, the gun (pun intended) goes off on the 2008 North Dakota pronghorn rifle season. Approximately 5,000 hopeful hunters will enter the field in search for that trophy buck for which they’ve waited so long.

I’ll be in that group for the first time ever. After applying for years, I was finally drawn for my first “any pronghorn” tag in the states tight lottery.

And it’s the most excited I’ve been for a hunt in years. I still get anxious for the deer opener, and my dog Tucker and I shake uncontrollably on the morning of the pheasant opener, but this is different.

I’ve been doing more scouting, sighting in of the rifle, research on the internet, and dreaming of antelope hunting than I’ve ever done for deer or pheasant. I’m absolutely positive, at least in my mind, that I won’t shoot at anything short of a 13” pronghorn, even though I know “ground shrinkage” is very common with pronghorns.

So I’m making last-minute preperations for my gear and buying the food for tomorrow’s start. And I’m not expecting to get much sleep tonight as I dream about sneaking across the prairie towards that monster buck, still ½ mile across open grassland.

So stay tuned Blast & Casters. I plan on documenting as much of the hunt as possible on Twitter, in part to laugh at my thoughts as I look back, but also to provide some insight into an eager first-timer out seeking that trophy pronghorn.

Follow BlastAndCast on Twitter and keep up with the hunt!