Antelope

Like apple pie, baseball, and the TV commercial, the pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana) is strictly an American institution. It is the only pronghorn antelope in the world, and is found nowhere except in North America.

The pronghorn is one of the smallest North American big-game species. Exceptional bucks will sometimes weigh up to 130 pounds, but will average closer to 100 pounds. Does are approximately three fourths that size. Antelope are horned animals, and short nubbinlike horns often ap­pear on adult does. These horns are grown upon a permanent core, but the outer shell is shed annually. Despite being deciduous, the buck's horns increase in length with age.

At first glance, an antelope appears to be striped or semispotted. Its white belly changes abruptly into a tan-and-buff color halfway up its body line, gradually changing into a darker brown towards the back. The throat is banded with alternating brown and white bars. The underjaw is white, with the top of the face black. Under each ear is a jet-black spot, and the horns, likewise, are jet black.

The rump is white and looks like a puff of freshly exploded popcorn. The rump hairs are erectile and are used as a means of wilderness com­munication. When alerted by danger, the animals "flash" by erecting these rump hairs and warn others of the band both nearby and at great distances.

In the clear air of the West, where the pronghorn lives, it is possible to see this flashing with the naked eye for two miles or more. The antelope has eyesight comparable to that of a man using 8-power binoculars and can see the flashing of other antelope at far greater distances. This flashing is also used during the mating season as a means of keeping contact, one band with another, and one sex with the other.

Flashing across the western prairies at forty miles per hour, the eagle-eyed pronghorn makes a prized trophy—but it takes careful stalking and sharp shoot­ing to bag one. Each year the pronghorn sheds the outer hollow sheath of its horns and grows a new pair over a bony core. To score horns correctly, see page 446 of the appendix.

The flashing of startled antelope in full flight is deceptive for most hunters, as the great white rump is enlarged out of proportion to the rest of the animal. As one old-timer put it, "A running antelope looks like he was three-fourths hinder. You always shoot behind 'im."

RANGE

The range of the pronghorn once comprised just about the whole western half of the United States. The eastern limit of its range generally coincided with the western borders of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. In a north-south direction the range extended from deep into Old Mexico to Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada.

This range has currently been reduced at least one third in area, the shrinking generally being inward from the entire periphery. A map of the present antelope population and distribution, superimposed upon a map of the original distribution, would resemble a fried egg with the yolk broken.

As late as the nineteen-twenties, the pronghorn appeared slated for extinction. Wise conservation procedures and more stringent hunting laws, together with an awakening to the danger of losing the species, all combined to save the antelope. In a broad way, today's pronghorn popula­tion is now at an optimum state, with the animals now utilizing the full extent of their range capacity. This generally includes desert lands, sage­brush areas, arid flats, and dry foothills having sparse and short vegetation.

As an indication that the pronghorn has reached range capacity and must be stabilized at somewhere near its present population, most western states now manage the herds so as to harvest the entire approximate increase, except in spot regions where either a surplus or a deficiency exists. The total antelope population in 1946 was estimated to be 234,000. Today's official estimate is 237,000 animals.

Pronghorn populations in the various states are not as stable as the overall population and shift with such variables as severity of winters, hunter harvest, and periodic pressure from stockmen groups to reduce herds on lands where the antelope competes with domestic animals for food.

Currently, Wyoming has nearly one third of all the antelope, with over 100,000 head. Other states having large antelope herds are Montana, New Mexico, Texas, Idaho, Oregon, South Dakota, Nevada, Colorado, and Arizona.

In recent years there has been a widespread program of trapping and transplanting the animals into regions where they are thought to "take hold" and to rehabilitate spot regions where an antelope population once existed but has been depleted.

The pronghorn, like many other species, has felt the influence of man crowding into its range. Unlike other species, the antelope had to remain in its desert range. Its retreat has been more in the form of ranging higher within the peripheries of its own range and migrating back and forth into adjacent ranges, than in moving to a completely different area.

HABITS

Antelope have traits common to all game species, and several peculiar to their own. Like deer, they tend to drift lower at night for water. During the heat of midday, antelope will climb to the rolling plateaus, promontory points, and jutting bars overlooking the desert flats, to bed down. Like other game, they bed down in positions where they can see downward, and in virtually all directions.

Rainfall and deep puddles cause antelope to move into higher country. As with most other species, the largest animals are found at the highest periphery. This is particularly true of the wise old bucks. Under pressure, they have learned to range high—as far up as the mountain-mahogany belt and fringing pines. Pursued antelope will run higher and will stay up in mountainous, bluffy country normally regarded as deer habitat.

Startled antelope will run in a generally straight line, not on an erratic course like a deer. Bands will run single file, with the best and biggest bucks usually bringing up the rear. The fleetest of all American big game, pronghorns can run effortlessly at forty miles per hour for many miles without tiring or slowing down. In shorter bursts of speed, antelope can run sixty miles per hour.

The predominant characteristic of the pronghorn is its innate curiosity. The antelope is prone to stand and gape until its interest is fully satisfied, then take off if it detects danger. This trait was one of the causes of its near-extinction. The man-conditioned herds of today, however, have gradually learned that man usually means danger, and have become more wary.

The pronghorn's trait of circling back to an area after it has been startled is perhaps more useful to the hunter. Often animals have been frightened out of a basin only to drift back within a matter of hours.

HUNTING THE ANTELOPE

The best single piece of equipment for the antelope hunter is a pair of good binoculars of at least 8 power. An additional tool is the light spotting scope so useful in caribou hunting. This is best used in locating game, then left in the vehicle used to reach antelope country.

Jeeps, pickups, and similar desert-going buggies are used for hunting antelope. It is illegal to shoot from motorized vehicles, but they are most useful in getting deep into antelope ranges. Often such outfits are used to cover distances in rolling antelope country until the game is located

The procedure is to stop before each basin rim or long ridge and thoroughly glass the country ahead. Basin rims should be crept up to cautiously, and the whole region glassed without disclosing the hunter's presence. Often this entails crawling up the last few yards before looking over into lower country. Once game is spotted, it is then stalked on foot.
Many times, however, antelope will be located from the vehicle. An antelope's hearing is reasonably acute. Its vision is eight times as acute as man's. So it is safe to assume that any animal seen from a moving jeep has already spotted the vehicle.

Under such a circumstance, a productive way of stalking is for the hunter to slip unobserved out of the far side of the moving vehicle while the driver continues on. The hunter immediately drops low and out of sight. If conditions are such that he can remain concealed, he can circle the game, approach it from an opposite direction, and get a shot while the game still watches the "danger" of the vehicle.

This trick often works even if the game is mildly alerted and moves off a short distance as the vehicle comes in sight. If the driver continues on, completely out of sight, and if the concealed hunter will stay put for an hour or so, the animals will often circle back to within rifle range

In most instances, stalking to within range of spotted game will be done wholly on foot. One basic procedure, regardless of conditions, is to ma­neuver within the terrain so that all changes in elevation may be utilized and the hunter comes upon the game from an unsuspected direction. Often this entails circling for considerable distance in order to come upon the animals from behind the opposite basin rim.

Occasionally, antelope will be located in flat country or across a basin so large that to circle them entails too great an expenditure of time or effort. The animals probably will be watching the hunter as he comes into distant view. A hunting technique that often works is to pay no apparent attention whatever to the game, but continue walking slowly and casually at an oblique angle to the quarry. As the hunter walks leisurely forward, he also moves gradually sideways and in slow degrees cuts down some of the intervening distance between himself and the watching game. Often unpursued game sighted at around 500 yards may be approached to within 300 yards before it will bolt.

The entire trick here is for the hunter to give the illusion of not caring whether the game sees him or not, while moving sidewise imperceptibly along with the forward movement. Any stopping, looking towards the game (except out of the eye's corner), or similar sign of awareness of its presence will cause it to bolt immediately.

Often, in rolling, broken foothill country, antelope will be come upon within long rifle range, and will be spooked immediately by the hunter's presence. The cardinal rule in such a case is to drop immediately into the best possible concealment, assume a solid shooting position, and be ready for the animals' characteristic pause on the final crest before they disappear from sight.

This trick accomplishes several purposes. First, it ends any apparent intention-of-pursuit and shortens the distance the animals will likely move off. Again, it prevents a complete definition of the hunter by the game; and additional curiosity will be added to the pronghorn's innate inquisitive-ness, causing the animals to pause longer on that last crest until they have defined the danger. Lastly, but of equal importance, dropping to the earth gives the hunter time to get a solid shooting position, the sling tightened, his breath caught, and his aim already at that distant crest line. One good shot then, even at long range, will be worth all that he might have fired vainly as the game raced away earlier.

The best field position for shooting game is the sitting position. This posi­tion allows sighting above intervening brush and changes in elevation of terrain, is quickly assumed, and is nearly as solid as prone. However, the more solid prone position may often be assumed if the above technique is followed. If the game hasn't been completely spooked by shooting at it on the run, its course will be upward towards the basin rim. This eliminates intervening obstructions in the aim. Again, the best possible place to drop into concealment is behind the handiest available clump of sagebrush; and this same clump may be quickly broken off by the hunter to provide a rough but springy rest for the fore-end of his rifle. By resting the fore-end on such an un-solid support, digging both elbows into the ground, and placing the left hand under the rifle butt (for right-handed hunters) to hold it solidly against the shoulder, the shooter has a three-way support and his position is comparable to shooting from a good bench rest. A shot at a standing antelope at 300 yards and over becomes almost a cinch for a precision rifle and shooter.

Another usable technique is for two hunting partners to separate at the first sight of game. One continues until he is out of sight, then doubles back to the same general area and finds concealment. The other hunter circles to come behind the game, staying as much out of sight as possible.

If the hunter who circles makes it without detection, he is apt to get his chance. If the game is spooked into movement before, it is apt to circle back, or run towards the area from which it thought the other hunter had moved.

The actual "driving" of antelope in the big open country of the West is about as productive as trying to drive the Snake River up over Teton Pass. But antelope may be moved by the above technique, to the hunter's advantage.

In regions where the general routes of antelope are known, and especially if many hunters are expected to work the lower flat country, antelope may often be successfully hunted by the hunter posting himself at some high knoll, low saddle, or general "pass" along such an anticipated route, staying hidden in some form of concealment, then waiting in such ambush for game to move into range. The best time for such a technique is the morning of opening day of the hunting season. The best general area is relatively high. And the hunter should, naturally, be there and ready by daybreak.

Another successful technique for the lazy hunter is to drive into antelope country, then leave his jeep or pickup parked in some gully, arroyo, or broken area where its top will be visible, and from where the hunter can walk away in plain sight. The hunter walks out of the sight of the game, but then doubles back at an oblique angle to a position within rifle range between the game and the vehicle.

Many times, the antelopes' curiosity will be their undoing. Maybe it will take a couple of hours, perhaps a half day or longer. But unless antelope are molested by other hunters, they are apt to pick their way cautiously towards the vehicle to investigate.

RIFLES AND CARTRIDGES

Because of their keen vision and their open habitat, antelope generally are shot at long range. Shots at antelope at 200 yards are considered close shots. More will be at 300 yards, if the animal isn't running. Opportunities at 400 yards are more common.

This requires a precision rifle, with exceptionally flat-shooting bullets of reasonable weight and high performance. Pound for pound, antelope can run off with more severe bullet wounds than almost any North American big game. Also, an alerted antelope's erected rump hairs create a deceptive illusion of its size—especially when running. And the necessary lead to intercept him at extended ranges is beyond the belief of the hunter of other big game. These factors cause too many gut shots and even shots through the hams.

The best antelope cartridges are those shooting bullets of 100 grains and over, with the flattest trajectories, and the greatest accuracy. The best rifle for antelope should have a good fit and a light, crisp trigger-pull (more shots at extreme range are pulled off because of sloppy triggers than most hunters believe). It should be equipped with a good scope of 4 to 6 power. The new variable scopes in 2½ to 10 power do nicely, and often double as binoculars.

Excellent antelope cartridges are:
.257 Weatherby Magnum, using 100-grain bullets
.264 Winchester Magnum, using 125- or 140-grain bullets
.270 Winchester, using 130-grain bullets
.280 Remington, using 150-grain bullets
7 mm Mauser, using handloaded 130- and 139-grain bullets
.30/06 Springfield, using 150-grain bullets

The 7 mm and .270 Magnum cartridges such as the Weatherby, Mash-burn, Ackley, and 7x61 Sharpe & Hart are fine for hunting trophy antelope but have an excess of power. They are good one-rifle cartridges for doubling on antelope and larger game.

Much has been recently written of the hot 6 mm cartridges, such as the .243 Winchester and .244 Remington, for use on antelope. With 100-grain bullets, such calibers are fine for antelope up to 250 yards. For any range beyond an outside extreme range of 300 yards, and at which many a trophy antelope is taken, a more powerful cartridge is better.

Antelope habitat is open country and subject to winds. Often the hunter must allow for wind drift at the extreme ranges. The drift of a bullet varies with its velocity, its own constancy, and the angle at which it is shot into the wind. The best practical way to learn wind-doping is to practice shooting at long ranges on windy days, in advance of the hunt.
Here's how one old-timer put it: "Before I leave camp in the mornin', I tie an anvil onto a long log-chain, solid. If the wind comes up so the anvil stands straight out from the stake, she's too windy, for me at least, to hit antelope."

WOUNDED ANTELOPE

A wounded antelope is harder to recover than most game. It will carry off a lot of lead, even slightly misplaced; and the animal will head for the flattest country where visibility for it is the best, and will usually continue to move until it dies.

The best procedure for finishing off a wounded antelope is not to wound one. This often can be averted by using an adequate rifle and cartridge, and by passing up chancey shots, especially running shots at extended ranges.

If an antelope is wounded, the hunter's best technique is to get im­mediately onto the highest elevation nearby. From there the animal can be watched in its retreat to the lower flats. Also, from such an elevated position, prone shooting is possible with a clear view; and every effort should be made from this solid shooting position to finish off the animal before it gets completely out of range.

This, of course, means shooting at the beast's posterior. It means ham or gut shots. It means an abundance of fevered, musky fluid poured from the sebaceous glands all through the meat, tainting it, and creating an overall mess. It is the price the hunter often has to pay for an uncertain shot, and the cure is prevention.

Should the wounded animal get out of range completely before it is dispatched, the best course is to watch its retreat with the binoculars, to where it eventually lies down. Then it should be given an hour to stiffen up, and again stalked down.

BOW AND HANDGUN

Hunting antelope with either bow-and-arrow or handgun is a challenge to the stalking skill of any hunter, and the thrill of success is intense. Those who do accomplish it in the open antelope country of the West are rare, since ninety-nine per cent of the advantage lies with the quarry. Successful hunters with either weapon ordinarily hunt in the more broken dips, arroyos, slash canyons, off jutting promontories, and similar terrain where a close approach is possible. They also take advantage of camouflage cloth­ing, areas not hunted by competing hunters, and an innate patience com­parable to that of Biblical Job.

The taking of antelope legally by either handgun or bow-and-arrow oc­curs just often enough to make all the headlines, and inspires other archers and six-gunners to practice during the intervening months so that the next year they may go forth and do likewise.

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