Just back from TX and NM - great hunts for Pronghorn and Elk

Posted on October 11th, 2007 by Tim Herald

I just returned from being on the road for 8 days hunting pronghorn in the Panhandle of TX and Elk on the Jicarilla Apache Res. in NM. We had a great trip and brought home some nice animals. For a full report and lots of photos, read the whole story…TH

OK - so I hope that teaser and those photos got you this far…

We got to Pampa TX and began hunting with my buddy Cal Ferguson of 4F Outfitters. My pal Gordy krahn from N Am Hunter got a monster 16 1/2” pronghorn during the forst hour! They got it all on film for their show. I looked over tons of bucks and found a really good one that afternoon, but we had a day left. We found a high goat with really high prongs the next morning at * Am, and I decided I wanted him. We played cat and mouse for 3 hours. I had him at 100 yards twice, but he was skylined (against Outdoor Channel rules and unsafe) and at 60 yards once (bad camera angle and too many does milling around him). Finally he broke from his 20 does, and we got in front of him. I crawled up in the high weeds and peeked over a small hill. He was coming straight up at me, so I settled in.

He topped the bank, I was above him and had a good back drop, so I hammered him at 147 yards with the new T/C Icon in .30 T/C. Straight down!!! He was 15” high, had very high prongs and that helped him score 79 B&C.

We went on to NM and it was one of the best and toughest hunts I have ever been on. My group took bulls of 300, 305, 309, 320 and 353. The bugle was short in the morning and afternoon. The 2nd day, I got on a monster 6×6 that was conservatively 330 - with huge mass. I had him dead with my muzzleloader twice at 60 yards, but again, the camera angle was bad, and I had to let him go. It almost killed me. I had an opportunity at a nice 5×7 at 80 yards and let him walk as well as many small 6×6’s. I got on a huge 5×5 that I figure was well over 300, and I wanted him. We had him at 350 yards, but that is too far for good footage in my opinion.

We got on his herd the last morning, and I could never get a shot at him in the timber. It was a big herd and more elk joined them. We saw a 320ish 6×6, but he never presented a shot. After 2.5 hours of walking straight up, I got a crack at a decent 300-inch 6×6 (turned out to have a briken brow tine).

We were in a terrential downpour, and I only had until lunch to hunt, so I hammered him at a bit over 200 yards, and he took 3 steps and was out. Think goodness I took the .300 mag that morning due to the forecast. He wasn’t the biggest, but after 5 hard days of hunting, and me being the only guy in camp for 2 1/2 days without a bull, I was sure glad to have him. The backstraps will be good too.