Magic of Hunting Pronghorn- Season 2: Episode 35
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- Welcome to the Ron Spomer Outdoors Podcast! In this episode, I read an article about an amazing pronghorn hunt I went on many years ago!
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Who is Ron Spomer
For 44 years I’ve had the good fortune to photograph and write about my passion - the outdoor life. Wild creatures and wild places have always stirred me - from the first flushing pheasant that frightened me out of my socks in grandpa’s cornfield to the last whitetail that dismissed me with a wag of its tail. In my attempts to connect with this natural wonder, to become an integral part of our ecosystem and capture a bit of its mystery, I’ve photographed, hiked, hunted, birded, and fished across much of this planet. I've seen the beauty that everyone should see, survived adventures that everyone should experience. I may not have climbed the highest mountains, canoed the wildest rivers, caught the largest fish or shot the biggest bucks, but I’ve tried. Perhaps you have, too. And that’s the essential thing. Being out there, an active participant in our outdoor world.
Produced by: Red 11 Media - www.red11media...
Disclaimer
All loading, handloading, gunsmithing, shooting and associated activities and demonstrations depicted in our videos are conducted by trained, certified, professional gun handlers, instructors, and shooters for instructional and entertainment purposes only with emphasis on safety and responsible gun handling. Always check at least 3 industry handloading manuals for handloading data, 2 or 3 online ballistic calculators for ballistic data. Do not modify any cartridge or firearm beyond what the manufacturer recommends. Do not attempt to duplicate, mimic, or replicate anything you see in our videos. Firearms, ammunition, and constituent parts can be extremely dangerous if not used safely.
No matter the hunt or adventure Ron has a way of telling his stories in a way that keeps my attention and paints a picture of it all in my mind. Even hunts I’ve never thought about doing, after hearing his story about it, leaves me with a new wonder and want to see the land and animals he tells of. Thanks again Sir, good hunting to you and your fans. 👍👍💯💪🏽
Agreed. I am continually impressed by his command of not only language, but cadence and expression. He is truly a master
The 6mm Remington and the.257 Roberts. Two back in the day cartridges, and I own them both. I have too many good memories with them to trade them in now.
My wife did an antelope in 2016. She won a scholarship through the Wyoming women's antelope hunt. Her only cost was new hunting clothes, gas, and, hotel costs on her way to the U Cross ranch in Wyoming. On the first day of the hunt she shot a medium sized non typical, 3horned, buck at 230 yards (longest shot that weekend) using her Tikka T3 in 30-06 and my hand loads. After shooting the buck she returned to the ranch to learn how to process it. After she processed her buck she took out her harp and played for the other hunters/guests at the ranch.
You say pronghorn and I think 25-06 shooting a 120 partition. Of course, a 270 shooting a 130 Accubond or a 280 shooting a 140 Accubond also fit the bill just nicely. Love these videos. Keep ‘em coming!
I've seen a few but I've never hunted them before and I've always wanted to... Them things stick out like a sore thumb and it's a sight to see when they're running at full speed them things can get it. LOL Great video as always keepem coming brother!!!
My first big game animal was a pronghorn. My dad got drawn for a tag in southern Alberta and put me on as a youth partner when I was 12. Dropped it where it stood with a .25-06 from about 175 yards
That’s a great story. You’ve touched on two of my favorite things; pronghorn and the 25-06. I’ve always wanted to visit Alberta and see the Oilers play the Flames as well as see the Calgary Stampede. Which team do you like?
Pronghorn are my favorite, it's been too long since I've hunted them, good boots and binoculars are more important than a big rifle, something in the 243 to 30-06 range that you can shoot is all you need. Shot placement is more important than power
I've taken a bunch of whitetails with my 243 and a few more with my son-in-laws 243. I've taken a few with 6.5 x 55. I'm in ur boat. I also currently love my lever 30/30. That all being said, I would consider 30-06 to be pretty much overkill. Just adding .02 cents
Pronghorn is one of my favorite animals to hunt DIY. So much fun! They are beautiful yet unique. Always hunted Texas and Colorado for them but building points in Oregon, Wyoming, Arizona, and maybe one day I will actually get drawn in New Mexico. 30-06, 7 mag, 257 Weatherby, and of course my fav, the 280 Ackley Improved have all been good medicine for speed goats.
Clocked a herd at 65 in sd running along a dirt road
Great episode. I haven't hunted pronghorn yet but I'm picturing doing it like you said, though with a 6mm ARC or a .243 Winchester.
“Pull cactus spines from your shins” 😂🤣 why does this happen EVERY season? Beautiful story Ron!
Yea cause big private ranches are HARD hunting! Lmao
GOD BLESS AMERICA!!! 👀💪🇺🇸💯😎
Great story and a great story teller. I'm happy you talked about not needing a cannon to hunt the pronghorn. I think the same about whitetail deer. Most hunters use too much rifle. However, if the hunter has only one good weapon regardless of it's caliber and he or she knows how to use it, more power to them. I think I read somewhere Native Americans were masters at using the decoys for hunting pronghorns.
A youngster that works with my bow shot his antelope this year!
Oh man you are talking about my FAVORITE animal to hunt. Most of my hunts have been in Wyoming near the Bighorn Mountains. I can still smell the sage, in my mind. It is truly the most rewarding hunt for a rifleman. My best buck came after knuckleheads had ruined the area. I spotted him, got on top of a Mesa and made a difficult shot at 350 yards with a crosswind blowing so hard you couldn’t keep your hat on. Too bad that Wyoming has gone to the $$$’s. Guides and ranchers have gotten too greedy for an average guys pockets. By the way, they are the best eating animal there is! Thank you Ron for bringing back great memories again.
Nice story Ron. I really enjoy Pronghorn hunting. A beautiful and fascinating animal. A great way to introduce newer hunters because of the shear numbers, action and knowing if you blow it on one there will be other chances (usually). If the Pronghorn occupied a different type of country, I feel more hunters would have a greater respect for these beautiful beasts. Fully with you on the disdain for the run and gun truck "hunters", but to each their own.
Cheers Jeff
That fellow is a hell of a writer!! 💪🇺🇸💯
Fall….. harvest time!!!! 👀🇺🇸💪💯😎
Well Mr. Spomer, I’ve spent some time on the prairie in Wyoming and New Mexico. I’ve heard the sounds and smelled the sagebrush and chamisa. I’ve even seen pronghorn so close you could throw a rock and hit one. But I’ve never had the opportunity to hunt them. And now that I ride a wheelchair, I doubt that I ever will.
Don't give up, Dr. Frog. There are many ranch owners and outfitters who accommodate hunters in wheelchairs. Pretty easy to set up a stand/blind near a feed field, waterhole, or crossing to waylay a pronghorn. If I had the property I'd take you myself!
I had the chance to go once and went with my bow. It was a great experience and if it wasn't for a truck driving on top of a plateau 1/2 mile away, I may have gotten a chance at a decent buck. Scouted for a couple days and on the 2nd day of my 4 day hunt, I had a water tank 200 yards to my east, another 150 yards to my west and a lot of trails intersecting 25 yards in front of me. I spotted a couple bucks and a few does 1/2 mile to the north and they went right to the water tank to my east. One of the does started heading down one of the trails right to me. They all get about 75 yards away, stop on a dime and seemed to look right past me. I couldn't even blink. All of a sudden, they all spun around and hit top speed directly away in no time and we're a mile away in no time. I had no idea what happened. I had perfect cover for a bow shot and I turned around. There was a truck driving on top of a plateau and that was enough to spook them. I was shocked seeing that this was the 2nd day of the season and didn't realize that they were that spooky. It got me hooked and can't wait to go again.
Nice article! This October will be my first Pronghorn hunt on a friend's ranch. A few weekends ago I saw more tracks there than i would've thought possible. Exciting stuff.
I love these hunting stories
Wow what an inspiring story/writing that is so amazing Ron love it mate! Cheers 🍻👍👍
Wow. Thanks Sanity! Glad you enjoyed it.
My grandfather brought a Mauser back from the war. Him and at least one of his brothers turned it into a beautiful hunting rifle in 338 win mag. He took it hunting out west once. As the story went. He shot a pronghorn at 900 yards. It took 4 shots. He walked the first 3 shots in onto the animal. The 3rd shot hit right between its feet. As it looked down to see why the dirt exploded he hit it in the neck with shot number 4. He destroyed 3 scopes in one week of hunting and so the rifle lived the rest of my grandfathers life in the gun cabinet. Being the only grandchild to have been in the military I fired the rifle as part of the rifle squad at his funeral. The rifle was his ghanima. It was fitting that it be part of his honor guard. I now own both the rifle and the horns of his pronghorn. The rifle sports a modern scope. I can’t wait until I can afford to take it out west and put a second set of horns on the wall.
Have my first hunt in Wyoming and for antelope coming up in October. Looking forward to it but lots to learn and prepare for still
Pronghorn is my favorite game to hunt. Hoping for 2 tags this year.
The other currently living animals the pronghorn is closest related to, are the giraffes and the okapi of Africa.
Also, once you shoot the hunt is over and work begins.
I was at Toole, UT. In 1997. They are EVERYWHERE !!
Thanks for the helpful video
Sorry to say Ron, but I've yet to experience the thrill of pronghorn hunting after calling Wyoming home for more than 15 years. I've tried to draw a tag but thanks to Game and Fish's point racket (they're worse than the mob), I've become disgusted and told them where to stick their tag. Perhaps one day I'll just go out and cut them out of the picture. They like to tell you that hunting is a privilege but that's not true. Humans have hunted from the beginning of time. The authority to regulate hunting is a privilege granted to THEM by the people... and they are abusing it with their money schemes and endless nit picking rules. One day I'll experience the joy of a pronghorn hunt... with or without them.
You can't draw a tag as a resident? Something's not right there. We nonresidents manage one about every 3rd year. I hate playing the tag draw game, but I've never seen it as any F&G agency trying to abuse hunters. I can understand your frustration, for sure, but the "hunting as privilege" thing doesn't reference our God-given rights as nature's children, but our societal responsibilities coupled with our desire/need to prevent the kind of overuse that nearly wiped out bison, elk, pronghorn, etc. during the free-for-all days. If we all just hunted when we wanted, game would be gone in a few years. Just too many of us, too few of them. But you are right. We the people do grant F&G agencies the power to manage our wildlife resources. They're biggest challenge isn't managing wildlife so much as the people who would and often do abuse it. There are some real jerks working for F&G, but also some wonderful ambassadors and defenders of wildlife and the public's rights to enjoy it. USMC, I suggest you dive into those complicated F&G regs or visit with an agency employee who can explain the system to you. You should be able to draw a tag in a year or two, although the drought is reducing opportunities.
@@RonSpomerOutdoors-Podcast I do agree, there are unethical people out there who would abuse our wild resources and that's why we grant F&G the authority to regulate hunting. But human nature, more specifically... greed, leads people who have been granted power to use that power to benefit themselves. That is what the point system is about, with each rejection they offer you the "opportunity" to buy additional preference points... and that's what they're called, preference points. Money = preference. I have not tried to draw every one of those 15 years. A couple of years after my 1 year eligibility period, I put in 2 years in a row and did not draw. I was rather unhappy about that since there are more antelope in Wyoming than people. Each time I have gone back to the website and thought about trying again, I see that "BUY PREFERENCE POINTS" link as a dollar sign dangled over preference points which to me reads, "Give us more money and we'll let you go hunting." That is as unethical as slaughtering a bison herd. To be honest and protect wildlife populations, any given hunter should be eligible for tag every X number of years for any given species based on population numbers. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying regulation isn't necessary, but turning it into a money making scheme is just another form of corruption in a government that has unfortunately run amok.
@@CplSkiUSMC There you go. I agree the charging for preference points stinks, but I think it's as much about weeding out the frivolous as lining F&G pockets. When it costs nothing to apply, everyone and his grandma put in for tags (everyone usually shooting for grandma, too.) And that makes it ever harder for the really serious hunters to draw. But you could also say it gives preference to those with more $ to spend. The idea behind PP systems was to reward the persistent, but too many became persistent and overwhelmed the system. The number of PP required for any particular unit keep going up. You never catch up. Probably time to get back to the standard "luck of the draw" and perhaps limiting competition by denying previous winners from entering again for x number of years. No easy answer, but knowing some of the wages paid F&G workers and the equipment they often limp along with... I can't accuse them of getting rich at our expense. But I think the flawed PP system has to go. I always try to keep in mind the F&G wardens, biologists, etc. work for me to maintain and enhance wildlife numbers. Most of them know that and do that, too.
Getting a tag as a resident shouldn’t be that difficult. Yeah your not gunna hunt Carbon county anytime soon but you should be able to get into the prairie and rolling hills within 2 years as a resident
@@jesse5442 I actually applied for Bighorn Basin, near home, which is not trophy territory. I wasn't looking for any trophies, just a half decent buck because in a former life in Michigan, there were no pronghorn to hunt so it was gonna be a first time for me. Well, I thought it would.
The pronghorn is a unique antelope species here in the north american continent and one of the most challenging game animals to hunt
Actually, pronghorns are not antelope, antelope are found only in both Africa and Asia and are part of the family Bovidae as a polyphyletic group, while the Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) is the only extant member of the family Antilocapridae, which is more closely related to giraffids than to bovids.
You should stick to the writing Ron, there may be a potential future in it for you.
You may be write…🤠
I'm considering it.
Me and my buddy hunted antelope in wyoming in 2007. We stayed at the Virginian Hotel where the TV show Rifleman was filmed. We both shot nice pronghorn bucks. Mine was trotting at 435 yards. It was my longest shot but I did much practice and I knew my .280 with handloaded Nosler ballistic tip 140's would strike 6 inches below the bottom post of the duplex scope when set on 9 power, at 400 yards.
SE Oregon Basin & Range
Almost gave me goosebumps listening to that story. My dream 💭 and goal is to hunt pronghorn in every state that I can DIY public land style no matter what weapon type gets me a tag 🏷 the quickest.
Why not a 243?
243 is excellent for pronghorn.
257 wby is my go-to
Great story!
Good story Ron truly enjoyed listen to you sharing your adventure.
Seems like shooting out in the west of nsw in Australia wide open plain
As always Ron tells another great hunting adventure story, I love the story and best of all the way he tells it. We're I hunted in my younger days we did not have wild 4 wheel driver, we had mush more dangerous hunters.
Very early in the morning hunting in the southern alps of New Zealand for Himalayan Thar. We started up the ridge from the DOC hut, climbing from in the moon light into Thar territory just below the snow line. We carefully climbed high on to a great spot to catch them sunning themselves in the early morning before moving on to fresh grass. Three hours of hard climbing and glassing, we found them quietly getting ready for the day. Moving into position at 350 yards away we took careful aim and over the ridge behind them appeared a helicopter with high paying clients, they shot 2 bulls, landed on a small flat spot and walked 200 yard to retrieve their prizes. Soo tempting it was to give them a piece of our minds but alas, it is a sign of the times and we just sat there shaking our heads. Another day of wasted time, tho the climb was a lot of fun. Two days later and the three of us had our own trophies to pack out.
Frustrating experiences when mechanized shooters interrupt any hunt. Glad you got your tahr later, Ralph.
Nice writing Ron,thanks
Thanks Dan. Glad you enjoyed it.
I would love to see you and Steven Rinella do a show together.
Great article Ron, thanks.
130 pounds is an ENORMOUS pronghorn!
Enrolled in Weight Watchers.
Good info ty👍🤩
Speed goat!!! 👀👀
The joys of being in the woods. The sounds and sights even smells. It's a drug, hunting season can't get here fast enough
Pronghorn are not in the woods...