Do it yourself The Highest-Odds, Most Action-Packed Early ...

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The Highest-Odds, Most Action-Packed Early SeasonBowhunt In America

By Mark Kayser

After moving and glassing across open hay fields and sage-smothered rolling hills in southeast Montana, we spotted a pronghorn buck on the move. He was alone and big. The rut was on. He was definitely looking for does.

We crawled and scrambled closer by keeping a pile of round hay bales between us and him. We closed to within 400 yards of the

trotting buck. I positioned my two clients behind hay bales and moved back to where I'd left my favorite immature pronghorn antelope buck decoy. I knew the buck would respond to the decoy, as they usually do; I just wasn't sure whether I could get him to pass close enough to the two bowhunters hiding in the pile of hay bales. My clients gave me the "thumbs-up." I raised the decoy. The sharp-eyed goat saw the intruder instantly. His reaction was bold. The buck charged off a butte and streaked straight to the decoy. He ran past the stacked round bales. When he got within 30 yards of me, the buck paused to assess his antagonist, which is when I heard the whoosh of an arrow. A hollow plunk followed. The buck bolted, then crashed into the sage. I was grinning.

102 American Hunter September 2009

Photo: Russell A. Graves

Photos: Author

Bowhunting for pronghorns during the rut is one of the highest-success bowhunts. Whether you use a pronghorn decoy, wait at a waterhole, stalk or even use a cow silhouette to hide your stalking figure, it's high-intensity action. And you can hunt all day as you take advantage of the pronghorns' visible nature.

Do you need another reason to go? How about this: Acquiring a license doesn't require a 10-gallon hat full of preference points; also, pronghorns inhabit some of the West's largest tracts of public land. Start planning now.

Wyoming

Contact: Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Season: Mid-August through mid-September or longer; special archery seasons close when the earliest any-antelope season opens in individual units. License: Limited quota; nonresident cost is $272, plus $14 application fee and $30 for the archery license; residents pay $33, plus the $16 archery license.

You must apply for a Wyoming limited-quota pronghorn license and validate it with an archery license to hunt in the archery-only season. Most eastern and northeastern units have high-draw success rates with ample leftover opportunities, especially for doe/ fawn licenses. Unfortunately, the area is primarily privately owned with smatterings of BLM land. Great trophy potential exists in southern and southwest units with greater access to public land, but the odds of drawing a license decrease. The solution: pay a trespass fee in the east and

have access to private and public lands to extend your bowhunting opportunities. Use the state's Wyoming Hunting Guide to steer you in the right direction. Population: Wyoming has more pronghorns than any other state. The Cowboy State boasts of having more pronghorns than residents (prior to hunting season). That means archery hunters have first crack at more than 500,000 pronghorns. Tactic: Much of Wyoming's environment borders on desert. The Red Desert, for example, lies in the southwest part of the state. Because of the desert, focus on waterholes; however, in northeast Wyoming, where the byproduct of methane drilling has created more surface water in the past decade, pronghorns have ample opportunities to find a drink.

Montana

Contact: Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, fwp. Season: September 5 through October 10, 2009 License: Limited quota; nonresident cost is $205, residents pay $19.

Even though Montana has the nation's second-largest population of pronghorns, like Wyoming, the state requires you to apply for an archery pronghorn license. Applications must be postmarked by June 1 of each year. If you are not successful you will receive a bonus point for the following year. Don't worry, the majority of the pronghorns are found in regions 4, 5, 6 and 7. Last year, Region 4 was the only one to have a 50 percent success draw. You

can skip the unit draw and go for the multi-region license that 100 percent successfully drew last season. Population: The highest population of pronghorns can be found in the southeast corner of the state, specifically in Region 7. Approximately 95,000 pronghorns live in this region and you can find ample public land on BLM, national forest, state lands and the state's Block Management Program, which leases private lands and opens them up to the public. Region 5 has an estimated 39,684 in south-central Montana and Region 6, in the northeast, has approximately 33,811 pronghorns. Tactic: Montana's southeast is characteristically dry so scout waterholes for pronghorns bellying up to the bar. Foothill pronghorns may have more access to water, but the rolling terrain sets them up for stalking or decoying.

Colorado

Contact: Colorado Division of Wildlife, wildlife.state.co.us Season: Bucks-only season runs August 15 through 31, 2009; either-sex season September 1 through 20. License: Unlimited nonresident license is $326, plus $5 habitat stamp; limited nonresident licenses via a drawing are $329, plus the habitat stamp; residents pay $31, plus the habitat stamp. Population: Coming in third place may not sound glamorous, but for Colorado, third place in the pronghorn game makes for great bowhunting. Although many of the best units for trophy pronghorns in the west and northwest require several years or more of preference points to

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hunt, the state still sells unlimited licenses that are good for most of the units in the eastern half of the state. In 2008 Colorado estimated its herd at more than 70,000 with population pockets statewide except for the forested regions. Good densities in unlimited units can be found in the southeast corner by traveling northeast of Pueblo or southwest of La Junta. Despite having an unlimited archery pronghorn tag, you still have to find public land, and options are limited mainly to state lands and programs including the Big Game Access Program. For 2009, there are approximately 100,000 acres enrolled in the southeast. Ranching for Wildlife is another option to get on private land, but it requires a separate draw. In Unit 135 you can hunt portions of the 440,000-acre Comanche National Grasslands. Tactic: Colorado's varied terrain and climate means you have to research your hunting unit choice. Western locations are more arid. Spot-and-stalk opportunities can be undertaken everywhere thanks to Colorado's broken topography.

South Dakota

Contact: South Dakota Department of

Game, Fish and Parks, Season: August 15 through October 2, 2009 License: Unlimited quota; available online or over-the-counter at the Pierre licensing office; nonresident cost is $195; residents pay $35. Population: Most hunters think of ringnecks when they hear "South Dakota," but the state nearly ties Colorado for

third for the most pronghorns; in fact, the state publicly seeks more hunters to help with its estimated 60,000 pronghorns. Last year only 2,213 bowhunters partook in the season and attained a nearly 30 percent success rate. Pronghorns are basically confined to regions west of the Missouri River, particularly in the southwest and northwest corners of the state, which coincidentally border

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both Wyoming and Montana. More than half of the archery kill came from Harding County in the northwest part of the state. The majority of the Rushmore State is privately owned. For good pubic-land hunting, look for small BLM tracts, portions of the Custer National Forest, the area's three national grasslands and the state's Walk-In Program areas. Since South Dakota is largely rural, stop and talk to ranchers. Your efforts will open gates. Tactic: With its somewhat easterly position in the West, South Dakota can be wetter than other states, thus making waterhole hunting questionable. Try stalking, but embrace decoying in the state where the craze kicked off. Decoy innovator and South Dakotan Mel Dutton created the first commercially available pronghorn decoy and laid the groundwork to successfully decoy pronghorns. This helped spark the big-game decoying trend of today. The pronghorn rut typically runs the month of September with the peak in the middle of the month.

North Dakota

Contact: North Dakota Game and Fish Department, gf. Season: August 28 (noon) through October 4, 2009 License: Unlimited quota; nonresident fees, including all appropriate stamps, total about $215; residents pay $20. Population: North Dakota may not be busting at the seams with pronghorns, but even conservationist extraordinaire Teddy Roosevelt appreciated western North Dakota for its rich wildlife variety and simplicity. The state is home to approximately 14,000 pronghorns with most found in the southwest part

of the state and the greatest densities living along the borders of Montana and South Dakota. Public land is at a premium and the state doesn't make it any easier by restricting nonresident access to lands owned or leased by the North Dakota Game and Fish Department until mid-October, after the first week of pheasant season.

Don't fret. Scout the 1.2 million-acre Little Missouri National Grasslands in the southwest and look for hidden BLM parcels. Again, don't overlook the power of a good conversation and a handshake to open a private-land gate. Tactic: Waterhole hunting works in this region, but you're next door to South Dakota, so give decoying a try. Scattered densities of pronghorns looking for social interaction or pecking-order dominance provide opportunities to bowhunters willing to tote a decoy across the prairie.

Idaho

Contact: Idaho Fish and Game, fishandgame. Season: August 15 through September 15, 2009 License: There is no quota, but you need to apply for one of four different units to help spread hunting pressure; nonresident cost tallies $418.25 with all required licenses, whereas the resident tally is $62.25. Population: Idaho is by no means a pronghorn mecca, but guaranteed licenses and vast holdings of public land managed by the BLM make it perfect for a do-it-yourself hunt. Throughout the state, the agency manages nearly 12 million acres, much of it in prime pronghorn real estate. Unfortunately,

Hunting during the pronghorn's rut with an antelope-buck decoy originated in South Dakota, but spread quickly. Lone bucks can be aggressive when hormones drive them to look for does.

agricultural practices have altered the landscape and affected its capacity for increased pronghorn densities. Most pronghorn hunting takes place through the central and southern regions of the state with the greatest densities found in the southeast. Top units in the southwest include Unit 41 with archery success often topping 30 percent and Unit 45 with success topping 20 percent or more. Idaho doesn't release an estimate of its herd, but the annual take, firearm and archery combined, is approximately 1,300 animals. Overall, expect an average archery success of 22 to 24 percent. Tactic: In the desert-like environment of southern Idaho, waterhole hunting is definitely a high-percentage strategy. For the physically fit hunter, motorized-restricted areas on BLM property offer excellent escapes from the ATV crowd. Be sure to study rules and regulations concerning the construction of blinds and the restrictions of digging on federal property.

Arizona:

Contact: Arizona Game and Fish Department,

Arizona outnumbers other states in the amount of Boone and Crockett Club trophies listed. In fact, two Arizona pronghorns are tied for the world record; one is from Mohave County and the other from Coconino County, both scoring 95 points. Approximately 10,000 pronghorns call Arizona home and they live primarily in the north-central plains. Limited licenses mean there are no guarantees to securing a license. Put in for preference points and look further north for guaranteed hunts.

New Mexico

Contact: New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, wildlife.state.nm.us

It's not Arizona, but it's close for trophy quality. New Mexico also ranks high in Boone and Crockett Club scoring for trophy bucks with counties such as Socorro, Catron, Lincoln and Grant producing giants. Like Arizona, the chances are slim of securing a license unless you have landowner connections or go with

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an outfitter. Slightly more than 1,600 tags are issued to hunters for public land. Don't bet on acquiring preference points like you do in Arizona, as New Mexico doesn't offer them. Keep applying and maybe you'll be granted a license in the future.

Nevada

Contact: Nevada Department of Wildlife,

Nevada actually has a healthy pronghorn population, more than 20,000 statewide, but limited quota hunts and extreme odds for drawing a tag make your chances marginal at best. Most pronghorns live in the northeast and southeast corners of the state. Apply annually and keep your fingers crossed. You'll acquire bonus points to increase your future chances. If you draw, you'll have access to vast amounts of public land and a success rate close to the national average of 20 percent or more for archery.

Texas

Contact: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, tpwd.state.tx.us

Texas is another state that produces trophy pronghorns, but low densities

and limited licenses sour your chances. Pronghorns are primarily limited to the Panhandle and Trans-Pecos region of the Lone Star State. The state includes pronghorn hunts in its "Drawn Hunts" category where applicants can acquire preference points, but for approximately 10 tags you're up against more than 5,000 other applicants.

Utah

Contact: Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, wildlife.

Drought has been hard on Utah's pronghorns, but they have been holding their own at more than 12,000 animals. The highest numbers are found in the south-central portions of the state. Once again you're up against the odds to draw a tag since the game commission authorizes approximately 1,000 licenses per year. Acquire bonus points and hopefully you'll draw a tag.

Wait ... There's More Finally, you can also bowhunt

pronghorns in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, California and Oregon in limited seasons. These options and

Open The Barn Door

Forget lugging around a pronghorn decoy. The latest rage is farm animals. Who knows where it started? I know some bowhunters in South Dakota who made a large cutout of an Angus cow and used it to sneak within easy bow range of loafing pronghorns. Outfitter Fred Lamphere of Dakota Ranch Outfitters incorporates live horses into his hunts. Hiding behind these hay eaters allows bowhunters to creep within 30 yards or less of unsuspecting pronghorns. When you're within your shooting comfort range you simply lean from behind the horse and release the string. It's the perfect solution to justifying your annual allotment of horse chores and pasture rent.

those listed above create pronghorn hunting opportunities in nearly every niche of America's Western landscape. Gamble a little with your application budget and you're guaranteed to have an annual opportunity to pursue rutting pronghorns with a bow somewhere in the West. ah

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