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My father and I waited two years two draw a pronghorn tag in a specific
unit in NW South Dakota. Our patience paid off and we were on our way. A day
and a half's drive from SW Missouri and we reached Faith, South Dakota. We
arrived on the 9th of Oct. and immediately set up camp and hopped on the four
wheelers to get some scouting in. While we were scouting, I spotted what I
thought was a white rear-end in the bottom of a valley, and sure enough it
was an awesome pronghorn buck! I made it to 220 yards before anchoring my
rifle. I took a couple deep breaths and let the Ruger 7mm mag howl. I heard
the bullet smack the goat and he plunged straight to the dirt (all this time
it was raining and sleeting).
I walked up to my goat and it was extremely
nice. It ended up having a little over 15 in. horns with 4 in. cutters and
good mass. I decided day two I would do everything in my power to get my dad
on a goat so we went back to the scene of the crime, and off to the NW
around 900 yards we spotted what looked like 40 head of goats, and sure
enough it was the same herd! We belly-crawled 200 yards to an old cattle
watering tank and my dad got his gun up and rested. There were so many nice
bucks it was hard to tell which one to take. He finally picked out what he
thought was a good buck and let his Remington 25-06 bark. One shot, One
kill, at exactly 275 yards with it raining and having a 30 mph crosswind.
As
we approached his buck we knew it was a good one but didn't realize quite
how good until I put my hands on it. The first words out of my mouth were "This is what this is all about"
and "you shot a booner." This antelope had
16" horns and 5 in.+ cutters, and the mass was just stupid. It's def a
booner candidate once we get the chance to score it. Besides the four
days of constant rain/sleet/snow, we made out like bandits, especially for
being our first goats ever! All the other guys in camp got their bucks too,
also harvesting a couple does.
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