Posted on: June 6th, 2010 Antelope Fever by Pete Gray

Antelope Fever

By Pete Gray

4:00 a.m. was a rude deal when my alarm went off on the third morning of my pronghorn hunt, but I knew instantly I felt a lot better and the flu that had been hounding me was finally relenting. I was ready to get into the blind!

My hunting partner, Chris White, and I packed up a ton of water and snacks and headed off. Just after sunrise, Chris hisses, “Antelope, and there’s a big one with them.”

“Yeah sure,” was my answer. Chris was quiet for a minute or so and then said “Dude, seriously, they are coming in and there is a big one with them. I think it is the one that hooks forward.” That got my attention. The one that hooked forward was a buck we had been seeing we thought was at least 15-inches high and had good prongs. I could only be so lucky!

“We have to switch spots in the blind. NOW!” Chris hissed. “They are gonna come in where my buck came in; we HAVE to move NOW!” Two grown men, two folding chairs and one blind is a tight deal! Twister had nothing on the contortions we were performing as quietly as we could. I ended up on my butt in the dirt leaning back into a chair so I could get a angle for the shot. Chris was standing, hunched over, looking out the mesh, giving the play-by-play of the animals I can’t see now because I am behind a closed shooting port trying to get my act together!

Chris says, “OK, there they are. They are drinking. I will give you the range and then drop the flap; go ahead and draw.” Oh sure, like it’s just gonna happen that easy! Now Chris has to lean back so I can draw and get situated. I manage to get things done and I tell him I am ready. He is whispering, “OK, the big one is at 38 yards. Thirty-eight yards, I am gonna drop the flap…OK, now!”

The flap drops and all I see is one antelope, and its head is down drinking. “I only see one. Is that it???” I whispered. “Yeah the big one is drinking. Just shoot! 38 yards.”

Screaming through my mind goes, “The big one?” My 30-yard pin settles on the top of the antelope’s back and I touch the release, and poof! The arrow is gone. The world now goes into slow motion. I see my white nock sail up over the buck’s back, then arc down into the exact spot I picked! Then POOF! It all comes into real speed, the buck dives toward us, wheels and spins away– a big, red splotch already showing on the far side!!!

Holy smokes, look at those horns! He runs 70 yards, and then in a big cloud of dust it is all over. As the wind blows the dust away, all I see is black horns and white belly!!!

As we make our way over to him, the horns keep getting bigger and bigger! Chris keeps saying, “Oh man, he’s huge, oh man, you don’t understand, he’s huge.” As I walked up to him, I couldn’t help but be in total disbelief of what was before me. Here was the biggest antelope I had ever seen; his body was HUGE! He was more like the size of a small mule deer then a pronghorn, and his horns were MUCH bigger than I thought. After reading how to judge trophy antelope from Mike’s book, I knew I had something special. Especially in Oregon, this was a great buck.

After the field care and photos were done, we hustled back to camp and got out the tape. We green scored him at 77” and you could have knocked me over with a feather! I was happy just to get a pronghorn–let alone with a bow–and to make Pope and Young was just more than I could imagine. I had a great hunt, with a guy who is now a lifelong hunting buddy, and got to see and experience a lot of new things and places. What better could I ask for?

My first pronghorn final scored 75” Pope and Young after the 60-day drying period. I hear of guys getting “sheep fever,” what about “antelope fever?” I can’t wait to go “speed goat” hunting again; I am totally hooked! I can do without the flu the next time though!

Oh, by the way, I shot my first pronghorn three days after my 31st birthday. I actually left to go on this hunt on my birthday! Some of the greatest birthday presents just can’t be bought with money!

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