How to Beat the Odds and Arrow an Antelope

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The 23-minute drive from the overflowing prairie stock tank to my driveway couldn’t go by quick enough. The dusty two-track road to and from the tank was littered with pronghorn prints and multiple scrapes. The water around the tank, caused by a damaged float, had swirls of milky mud and countless tracks. I already knew what the SD card from the trail camera would show, but I couldn’t wait to see it.

After sifting through thousands of photos accumulated over two weeks, I knew seven pronghorn bucks were hitting the water source—three were shooters. My blind had been set for a month and parched speed goats paid zero attention to it.

Then, two days before the archery opener, the sky over my little pronghorn oasis turned black and ominous. From a distance, I watched through my binoculars as the heavens dumped gallons of rain.

Irritated because I’d put so much time and planning into my prairie pronghorn ambush, I stuck to my guns. I didn’t care that two inches of rain fell and filled every pothole, coulee and dry creek on the plains. I sat for three days, from dawn to dark. Besides a coyote and a badger, my pronghorn refreshment stand didn’t get a single visitor.

On day four, I had enough. I vacated the ground fort. Two hours later, after a gnarly stalk through some rolling, shale-covered hills, I stood over a 76-inch Pope & Young pronghorn with a hole in its side where my arrow had passed through.

Today, no matter where I chase speed goats in the West, I stick to one primary tactic: Flexibility.

The beautiful thing about chasing pronghorn with a stick-and-string is there are numerous tactics you can use to stack the odds of success in your favor. However, if you’re unwilling to adjust tactics or aren’t prepared to unleash them, chances are good you’ll eat tag soup often.

Water Wins

The first archery pronghorn tactic I consider is hunting from a five-sided, hub-style blind over a waterhole. Why? Next to hunting black bears over bait, nothing in bowhunting is more straightforward and offers a greater chance of success than this time-proven tactic.

Specific waterhole criteria must be followed to ensure a just-right water dupe. First, you need to find the right water source. Pronghorn are creatures of habit and once they locate a water source that appeals to them, a pattern will develop.

When looking for pronghorn-positive waterholes, I use a combination of digital scouting and hands-on recon. I start by looking for short and narrow natural or artificial prairie ponds. Short and narrow keep pronghorn in bow range.

I want the pond to have shallow banks and sit in a location that allows pronghorn to drink and see vast expanses of open ground while they drink. Pronghorn rely on their eyes and speed to avoid danger. When speed goats must walk down steep banks and disappear into a hole, their eyes are compromised, and so is their ability to escape immediately. When the banks are shallow, and the terrain beyond is open, speed goats can slurp water while keeping their eyes up.

Another water win is a bubbling-over stock tank. During my waterhole hunting tenure, I’ve found numerous tanks that spill water over their edges on public and private ground. Pronghorn love leaky tanks. As with a pond, they can drink with their eyes up. For the bowhunter, these tanks simplify the shot process. When hunting a stock tank that isn’t spilling water, prairie goats can use the tank and never present a shot angle. When they drink from a tiny seep, you know exactly where to position the ground blind.

Standard stock tanks, especially when torrid temps have sucked ponds dry and there are no leaky tanks around, make top-tier water sources. I’ve done a lot of damage hunting over standard stock tanks.

Pay attention when driving or walking two-track roads to water sources. Pronghorn love to walk roads. Not only will you see tracks, but bucks scrape regularly throughout the summer and fall. When a buck scrapes, he paws the ground, urinates and defecates.

The more tracks around a tank or pond, the better. Note where most of the tracks are and position your ground blind accordingly. The ground around a stock tank is sometimes rock-hard or covered with cement. If tracks are difficult to find, walk cattle and game trails to and from the water tank.

When setting your ground blind, don’t crowd the water source. This will spook speed goats, especially if you plan to set the blind and hunt on the same day. I find any cover I can, even if it’s a single windmill blade, feed bunk, or old tractor part, and use it to break up my ground blind. I also never set my blind closer than 30 yards from the tank.

Go Get ‘Em

If you want the ultimate bowhunting challenge, try slipping close to a pronghorn. Aside from testing my bowhunting skills, I love spot-and-stalk because it works throughout the season regardless of weather conditions.

I was over-aggressive early in my pronghorn tenure, stalking every buck I glassed. Not anymore. Today, I spend countless hours behind quality binos and my spotting scope, looking for the right buck to stalk.

Gain a vantage point, which in some cases may be as simple as the bed of your truck, and spend time watching pronghorn. I’m constantly looking for a lone buck. If I find one, I stay on the buck until he beds or wanders into broken terrain.

I also pay attention to bachelor groups, which are common during the early part of the season, or a buck with does. Yes, more goats mean more high-powered eyes, but if the terrain is suitable, feel free to make your move. Most often, when stalking multiple goats, I try to get in front of them and then pull a sit-and-wait ambush rather than trying to creep up on so many eyes.

Once I find a buck or herd I want to move on, I pull out my iPhone and take pictures of the landscape. I photograph any trees, bushes, fence posts, rocks, etc., that I will pass during my stalk. Having a visual reference on your phone helps keep you on track.

I also always pull up my favorite digital mapping app and mark my glassing location and the location of my target animal. Doing this, along with landmark photos on the phone, will help you get bowhunting close without getting busted.

Stalk aggressively but be smart. I’ve watched pronghorn bed for hours at a time. Other times, I’ve seen them walk for miles in the scorching heat, bed, and less than five minutes later, stand and walk out of sight.

I’ve also seen traveling herds wander at a snail’s pace. Other times, I’ve hustled like crazy to get in front of a group, only to find they have already moved through the area.

When the terrain allows, move quickly. When you must slither like a snake, don’t hunch over or crawl. Take your time and do it right. Shortcuts won’t work. I also like to make risky stalking moves during periods of low light or when clouds cover the sun.

Also, don’t simulate the 1975 arcade game Whac-A-Mole on your stalk. The eyes of a pronghorn miss nothing. I only attempt to glass or locate the animal I’m stalking if the terrain allows it.

Find A Crossing

Pronghorn are particular. I’ve watched bucks and does walk a mile or more down a pasture fence to access a fence crossing. These crossings are easy to distinguish. Because pronghorn prefer to go under fences and not hurdle them, there will be hair on the bottom wire, and if the crossing is popular, the ground will be worn away and tunnel-like.

If you observe a quality buck using a crossing several times, build a make-shift natural ground blind with tumbleweeds, sagebrush, etc., 40 yards from the crossing. I’ve tried using a pop-up ground blind, and even if I place it on the crossing weeks before I plan to hunt, goats avoid the crossing like the plague.

Be a Cow or Use a Horse

If I find a pronghorn in a pasture with cattle, I don’t hesitate to use Montana Decoy’s Big Red Moo Cow Decoy or Ultimate Predator Gear’s Stalker Cow Decoy and make a move.

The key when using a cow fake is to take your time. I never make a beeline approach at the buck. Instead, I wander left, right, forward and backward. I even moo. The goal is to make the approach as natural as possible.

If you find a buck in a pasture with horses and you have access to live horses, the game is all but over. A few years ago, my buddy and local rancher, Keith Bender, and I used a pair of horses to walk into the middle of a herd of pronghorn.

When it was time to shoot, Keith moved the second horse forward, and before the buck realized what was going on, a SEVR-tipped Easton arrow blew through his lungs.

Like when using a cow decoy, move slow and methodically. Let the horses stop and graze and try not to walk the horses directly toward the goats. If you do it right, prairie goats will accept the horses and you can get very, very close.

Be A Buck!

The window is short, but if you hit the rut right, it’s intense. I’ve had my best luck decoying pronghorn with a bow from September 10-21, but this tactic can work well into October.

By mid-September, kingpin bucks have their harems, and satellite bucks are always hanging around trying to slip in.

I use my truck, UTV and horses to cover the country and look for dust trails. Dust trails on the prairie in mid-September and October mean one thing: the pronghorn rut is on and bucks are feeling frisky.

The optimal decoy situation is to find a buck running other bucks off at full tilt. Often, dominant bucks will run lesser bucks over a mile from their does. When I see a buck run another buck out of sight, I get my decoy and slip between the aggressor and his does. When he returns from running off the challenger and sees an imposter between him and his ladies, he will come on a run.

Another situation I love is when a buck is dogging a doe like a cutting horse across the prairie. Using the terrain, I slip in close to the buck’s does and wait for him to see me.

Rock Out With The Herd Out

A few years back, my bowhunting amigo, Danny Farris, and I threw the kitchen sink at a gagger buck. We couldn’t locate his water source. The terrain the buck lived in was ultra-flat, with a lone anthill as the only terrain break. We couldn’t locate a primary fence crossing and anytime a newbie buck wandered close, Mr. Big would gather the girls and run them to an adjacent pasture.

Our only option was to invade a lone path of sunflowers during the inky blackness of pre-dawn. We toted a full-body 3-D buck decoy, attached bow-mounted Stalker Antelope Doe Decoys from Ultimate Predator Gear to our vertical rigs, and put out three Montana Decoy Antelope Doe fakes. We wore white shirts, which I highly recommend anytime you’re decoying, and when the sun came up, we glassed the herd feeding in the distance.

It took time, but eventually, the curiosity of the does and buck overwhelmed them. Sadly, I botched a 53-yard bow shot. Flexibility and the willingness to utilize outside-the-box tactics will help you win.

Final Thoughts

Don’t quit. Having spooky pronghorn bound away from you at warp speed is part of the game. Four years ago, I made 27 stalks before I arrowed a buck. The year after that, I smashed a buck at 32 yards an hour after first light hunting over water. Two years ago, after multiple failed fence line sits and three busted decoy attempts using a cow decoy, I arrowed a brute of a buck at 39 yards using live horses.

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