Nevada Archery Pronghorn

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Last year, my wife got a new bow and received an Idaho mule deer tag. Participating with her in that hunt made me realize how much I missed archery. I had drifted away from archery hunting as my kids took on more activities and also because many archery seasons are very hot. Now, however, I was quickly reconsidering just how fun it was pursuing big game with my bow.

I had drawn an Idaho archery tag in 2018 that conflicted with my wife’s tag, so chose not to hunt it. My first real opportunity to get my bow back in action came in 2019 when I chose archery draw hunts in Nevada and Idaho for both mule deer and pronghorn. Lucky, me I drew an archery antelope tag in one of my favorite areas. My wife also drew a mule deer archery tag in 2019 which would potentially cross-over with my hunt and create a conflict. Oh well!

My Tag – Nevada Archery Pronghorn

With my tag running from August 1 to the 21^st, I had plenty of time to get this done; however, my wife’s deer tag opened August 10, so there was that to consider. Both were premium Nevada archery tags, and I seriously considered returning my tag to try again another day, deferring to my wife. A good friend of mine from the Nevada Department of Wildlife suggested maybe I was being too hasty and should try to hunt the tag.

My tag covered a large part of northeast Nevada and it is an area that has plenty of speed goats. My problem was my infatuation with a particularly remote section of the area that required hours of travel from home. Nevertheless, the area had been good to us and so I felt it would be again. With a little bit of pre-season scouting under my belt, I set about to make a plan.

Digital Scouting

My prior experience in the area had been dedicated to locating trophy animals to get within rifle range. This would be the first time I would attempt hunting antelope there with a bow, so I started where I usually do…at the computer. I use a combination of GoogleEarth Pro, Gaia GPS, ONX Maps, and ArcGIS to do my scouting. Usually I’m trying to find locations other folks wouldn’t hunt as a primary goal. Although I knew I had to pick some locations away from other hunters, I also knew there were plenty of bucks and limited archers to compete against. I focused completely on areas for spot-and-stalk setups and water ambush.

Since 2019 was a good water year, I was sure there would be ample opportunity for water ambush areas. I focused on water sources with rock outcrops or obviously large brush within 40 to 50 yards. I pinned those and loaded them into my iphone mapping software ready to go! I also knew that hunter density did decrease as we got further from highways, which is no big surprise, but I knew it would be important to keep in mind as I went into the field.

First Days

Since our scouting trips turned up about what I thought they would (lots of large bucks), it really isn’t that noteworthy. On day one, we arrived in the afternoon to find plenty of big bucks at easy rifle range, but no easy setups on our way in. As we neared camp, we saw two big bucks, one a Boone and Crockett candidate, trotting away in tall sagebrush very near the road. I figured they wouldn’t go very far and so we let them go, hatching a plan to hunt for them in the morning. A mile later driving into camp, we saw a nice 16 inch buck in a good location and I had my first opportunity to get out and stretch my legs. Although he eluded me, we had sighted at least two “Booners” and another half-dozen big bucks in just a couple of hours. This was going to be duck soup!

On day two, Tammy and I awoke and walked away from camp in the dark, angling over a ridge to inspect a very nice water trough located above where the two big bucks had been heading the previous evening. Although Tammy found one nice buck on her route to the top, I came up zeros on my part of the trip. After sitting around the water for a few hours and scoping for miles around, I admitted defeat and we headed back to the truck.

Evolving Strategy

I figured I could do spot-and-stalk hunts first thing in the morning and in the evening before dark, while allowing time for setting up on water from mid-morning through mid-afternoon. Seemed super sensible to me at the time. What I quickly found out were two key items I hadn’t properly considered: 1) antelope are really hard to stalk, and 2) there was so much water on the landscape this year, each group of antelope had multiple water sources to choose from within any given couple of square miles. They even had several long streams that were running in August this year!

We enjoyed seeing so many nice antelope, learning some new country, and seeing some huge mule deer bucks over the coming days. We found out our new el-cheapo tent (we bought it to save wear and tear on our nicer tent) wasn’t exactly wind- (or even breeze-) proof! The single most surprising turn of events for me was the complete unwillingness of any antelope to politely come into any of the water sources where I waiting in my ground blind. These were the most inconsiderate antelope I’d ever encountered.

A Great Stalk

I did execute what I thought was a perfect stalk. We’d located an antelope about a mile and a half away, in a very distinct sagebrush patch on a ridge with two good approaches. I spent two hours stalking in on him. Unfortunately some nasty little Hungarian partridge flushed (twice) on my way in and when I got to his bed he wasn’t in it. Forlorn, I began to slowly circle his bed, hoping to have some luck. I’ll be damned if I didn’t get lucky…there he was about 130 yards away from me foraging in the bottom of a draw.

I initially snuck toward him, but when he bedded politely on the upwind and shady side of a serviceberry bush, I quickly backed out and regrouped for a master stalk. You have to note, there are pockets of sarcasm in this article…you pick them out. I circled for the perfect stalk but a bunch of beef cows a ways off saw me and basically went bonkers exiting the country, making more noise than any cattle drive I’d ever been a part of. No matter, with them gone, it was just me and the unlucky antelope. As I neared the bush I started ranging. 50 yards. 40 yards. 30 yards. A noise and movement on the ridge 60 yards above me caught my attention as an antelope buck suspiciously similar in size to the one I was stalking snorted and ran off ad a dead run. The wind never shifted, so I think he played the cattle noise and patiently watched me stalking in on his former bed. I’ll never know for sure….

Of Decoys and Calls

Fast forward to my 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th days on the hunt and I’d learned a little from the internet about antelope calls and decoys. Oh boy, those suckers were in for some real hunter prowess now! Even with these tools in hand, it was more of the same….stalk, get busted. Wait at water (alone). Nothing seemed to work, and any math majors here might be catching on that I was hunting antelope during my wife’s now-running archery mule deer season, with her help. I was getting concerned.

Every day, we camped in the back of our truck or in a tent after hunting until dark. Every day, we got up in the dark and started our hunting day. This was much harder than I’d anticipated. I did get one chance to use the antelope decoy and it resulted in more panic and adrenaline than I’d experienced all season. The antelope didn’t get within range, but his speedy charge had me in a near panic attack trying to get all my junk together for a shot…luckily he didn’t get within range as I wouldn’t have had a prayer.

Headed Home

On seventh day, after a very tough morning which yielded no spot-and-stalk opportunities, I’d pretty much relegated my day to working with the decoy and call and hoping for the best. I might have been whining something to that effect as we motored along that morning when my wife said something like “yeah, ok, but what about that antelope there?” Unbelievably, there was a nice buck several hundred yards from our road and there was a bunch of good tall sagebrush very close to him. I had to try!

It all happened quite a bit faster than I expected. I thought I had the buck marked perfectly in my head. Turns out I thought he was about 40 yards further than he was. Movement of horn in the sagebrush caught my attention and I had time to range sagebrush at 30 yards near where he was. I quickly drew as he stood up and stared at me, a sagebrush about 20 yards away covering his vitals. I knew my arrow would arc over that brush and I focused and released my arrow.

Recovery

The antelope wheeled and ran out of site over the hill. I quickly sprinted to the top of the ridge only to see him walking away into deep brush at about 70 yards. Assuming I’d missed, I started looking for my arrow. It was in a perfect line right where it should be, but as I examined it, I realized it was covered in blood…and fat. I knew the fat wasn’t necessarily a good sign but I also knew that my tag was punched as I was determined to recover this antelope.

It was a mortal shot, but it was low and causing the animal to bleed out rather than taking the heart or lungs. I snuck within 20 yards of his bed to finish him and I learned something then: I should have taken the headshot at 20 yards. Instead I waited for him to rise and present his vitals, but when he rose, he simply stared at me for a split second and spun and ran off 60 yards or so. I quickly snuck in on him a second time and finished him. I learned some lessons on this trip. First, I mis-ranged the antelope as he was 7 to 10 yards beyond the bush I thought he was under. I must be more careful about ranging my target. Second, I will never again pass a decent shot on a wounded animal.

Epilogue

I don’t normally say much more after the hunt is over. We dressed and iced that animal as fast as we possibly could. We then also left meat on bone to dry age the meat in the refrigerator at home. My wife has since cooked the loins on three separate occasions, and I mean it when I say that is the best meat of any sort I’ve ever had in my life. Some people will tell you antelope isn’t good, but that antelope, properly iced and aged, was absolutely epic on the table. I’m now convinced that archery antelope tags are going to be a mainstay in our family going forward…but I’ll damned sure do a better job of ranging. In hindsight I should have passed on that shot, I just didn’t realize I’d misranged him.