00:00:07 Speaker 1: As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days in the field. This show is about translating my hard won experiences into tips and tactics they'll get you closer to your ultimate goal success in the field. I'm Remy Warren. This is cutting the Distance. Welcome back to the podcast everyone. This week, we're gonna focus on tactics for one of the first hunts to kick off out West, and in my opinion, probably the funniest hunt around is the prong horn antelope. Now, prong horn hunting is really fun because you see a lot of animals and you get a lot of opportunities. This is a great first Western big game hunt, but it's just one of my favorite hunts to just go out and have a good time. I think prong horn, though, can be very difficult because they're the fastest land mammal and they have such incredible eyesight. But that open country they even makes getting close tricky. So I'm gonna break down my top spot and stock tactics by first understanding pronghorn behavior and then turning that into how to trick their defenses. Before we go there, I want to share a story of one speed goat that just didn't see me coming. Now, when it comes to pronghorn hunting, I think that if you trick their eyes, you've pretty much got it in the bag. They use their eyes as a main defense and they can see for a very, very very long ways. So a few years back, I just had this idea. I was actually doing this show called Apex Predator. Maybe you've seen it, maybe you haven't, but I'll just kind of give you the synopsis of this particular episode because it ties in really well with pronghorn hunting. So on the show, it kind of like saw the way the animals specialized in something. This one's particular episode was about the octopus, the way it can camouflage itself and change its shape, and then I translate that into like a hunting tactic or the way that we could exploit that that skill set. And so by doing that kind of came to the conclusion, Okay, we're gonna build a gilly suit and then I'm gonna stock an animal that has the best ice snate. The purpose of a gilly suit it's one to camouflage you, but also to break up your outline and then used in combination with stocking real slow moving real slow. You kind of go under this level of perception where whatever is out there doesn't see you because you look like a bush. You're blending in perfectly, and you aren't making big movements. You're moving slow and just melding into the surrounding habitat. So I decided to test this out and go to Wyoming with this gilli suit. So I had a friend mine there was an army sniper that actually borrowed his gilly suit and then you know, brushed up with local herbage from wherever I was hunting. So I went to Wyoming and started brushing up, tying things into the suit and just really making it look like the surrounding habitat. And while I was out there, kind of part of the hunt, but I just really wanted to see how close I could get to some antelope. So there was some prong horn laying out in a cut alfalfa field like sweet, so I brushed up with just like putting alfalfa, tying in on it, getting really green looking, and then just crawling up to this dough in this spawn. Actually left my bow behind because I knew I wasn't gonna shoot one. I had a buck tag, but I just wanted to kind of give it, give it a run, see if I could trade it, how close I could get. And in this open field on these antelope, I literally crawled within feet of these two antelope. Why I hadn't hunted with a gilly suit before, I don't know, and actually haven't hunted with one since. But we go out and we start hunting, We're seeing a lot of antelope. But I needed that right scenario where I wanted to test the suit. I didn't want to just go shoot an antelope like if it's broken train or whatever. I wanted to use the suit to lend in to kind of test that aspect of it. So I finally got a good scenario where there was a prong horn out on this bench that came up and started crawling in. And needed it to be stationary long enough to actually give it a good try. So crawled in, ended up getting within range. The buck started feeding, drew back anchored, put my pen ory need to do release the arrow, boom, perfect shot. Buck ran down in the bottom and quickly expired. And it really uh, I mean, I thought it was pretty cool because there have been so many times before where I chased antelope and been blown out or they see me within range or something like that getting that shot. But it was really cool to be able to trick their eyes kind of in plain sight, kind of in the open, and kind of hunt those antelope that previously seemed very, very unhuntable. I think one of the things that makes hunting pronghorns so cool, aside from just how unique they look, it's just how different they are and kind of their habits from many of the other animals that we chase. Now, a lot of animals use a lot of cover, whereas the prong horn is kind of the exact opposite. Its main defense is its eyes. Its eyesight is so good. I mean, I've heard it referred to like looking through a pair of eight or ten power binoculars. Now, when you think about that, you can be miles off and really see some stuff pretty well through pair ten power binoculars. So if you think about these prong horn have that kind of capability, that kind of eye sight, then it kind of lets you understand why they choose that open country, that open terrain, because they can see so far and it makes it very difficult for things to sneak up on them. And if you've never spot in stock archery hunted antelope, you can learn and really fast how hard it is to sneak up on them and how good their eyesight really is. Now, that doesn't mean that some pronghorn, whether they're if they're spooked up or on edge, they'll see you a mile or whatever away and they just start running other ones. Maybe they haven't been chased, maybe they've been hunted. You know, they have a certain range where they don't want things, predators, anything to get within that range. So they might not care about that person walking a mile out, But when you get within four or five hundred yards, that's when they're real keyed in and really spook off and run. Another defense of the pronghorn is their speed. I mean, they're the fastest land mammal outside of a cheetah. Uh So, I guess they're the fastest non predatory land mammal. I mean, I don't know. I've been driving through the desert and you can they love to raise your vehicles sometimes and you can. You can get up to some pretty high speeds and they're they're just booking it across the desert, across the flats. I've even seen little young antelope just hauling across the desert, so they move really fast. They use their eyes, and they love that open country. Another thing is their eyes are kind of positioned on their head where they're pretty high up on their head where you think about a deer whatever. They're a little bit more forward than a prong horn. They can almost see. They technically can see behind their head. They just there's a small area behind their head that they can't see. So they've got a very good field of view and they've got really good eyes sight and they're really fast. So that makes them extremely tricky to sneak up on because they prefer that open country, that open habitat. So the nice thing about it is it makes them very predictable and easy to find. You can look for if if you've never hunted prong horn, you go, well, how do I find prong horn? You just say, look for the most open, flat country you can find, and that's probably where you're gonna find the majority of the antelope. It's because that's the best habitat, the preferred habitat where they can use those defenses to protect themselves. Now, they aren't particularly sensitive to wind as much as other animals like if the wind swirls or something like that, they don't like to smell predators. If they smell you, they will run away. But you can get away with a little bit more because they're using their eyesight more than anything, and sound not necessarily too keen in on sound if you if you break a stick or whatever a long ways off. It's not like a mule deer where their ears perk up and they whip their head over and they're really worried about it. They're mainly using their eyes as a defense. That's not to say that they won't use the other ears and smell, because you can definitely get winded by a prong horn. You have to keep the wind right. But I think that they're just a little bit less sensitive than something like an elk or meal deer, where if that wind swirls for a quick second, they might just snort, blow their nose and look around. So if you factor in how a prong horn uses site as its defense, then you can say, okay, well, the logical way to harvest one is to trick its eyes. Hence the me doing trying and hunting with a gilly suit or you know a lot of guys hunt water holes and blinds because they can't instarily see through the blind, So you're if you can trick in antelope's eyes. I always say this every time I go out. It is like, if I can trick their eyes, if I can figure out a way to trick their eyes, get past that major defense, I'm going to be successful. And over the years, I've actually found a lot of success spot and stock antalope hunting. Last year was I was talking with some friends about it and I was like, man, over the last five years, I've antalope hunted spot and stock one day for each tag and been successful. My thing was like, I'll give myself one day to go out. I chase every antalope buck I can see and on just like over the counter general area antalope tags and I'm successful. I'm like, that's pretty good for something that seems pretty difficult. And then last year, I mean I said that, and do they just gave the school And I've been schooled many years, but I was just on like a hot streak five years in a row, um just kind of fitting it in between some other hunts. But last year, you know, it's just it went to prove man, I kept having to say, over it over. If I can just trick their eyes, I'll be successful. And that's really the key. So what I like to do is I like to break down successful antelope pronghorn hunting, especially spot stock hunting on ways that I can trick the eyes. So I have five main ways that I like to think about tricking their eyes. So the first is topography. Then we've got crawling, we've got obstructions, and then we've got a decoy or a silhouette. So let's start with topography. You might see a billion antelope out in really open country, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you can get close enough to shoot one with a boat or even with a rife. Sometimes, oftentimes if I am having trouble let's say, closing the gap, closing the distance on a prong horn, and I'm seeing a lot of them, I will generally go and kind of switch up my tactics and look for better country with less animals, but that better broken country where I can get some topography, maybe up in the hills a little bit, maybe somewhere where there's a little bit more brush or a little bit more cover. I know I won't see as many antelope, but I kind of have this idea of if I do see some prong horn, then I have a higher likelihood of getting close and making a shot, whether it's with a rifle, whether it's with a bow. I try to hunt for the country as much as I am the animals. Now, it's really hard to get away from those areas where you're seeing prong horn all the time, you're seeing lots of big bucks. Those definitely draw me in like a magnet as well. So if I can, or if I'm having trouble where I'm seeing a lot of antelopes like this just is not conducive to getting close, then I try to focus on finding areas with more broken topography where the antelope are gonna make a mistake and I can capitalize on that mistake. They're gonna drop down into a little creek, they're gonna go over a rise, They're gonna be behind a bush or near a tree, and that's when I can capitalize. I can move in quick, make my stock, make my play, and get a shot. But that's not the only way. So there's other ways. Even in that flat, open country, you just have to think about tricking their eyes well, one of the easiest ways to trick their eyes is by going slow, by getting low, and by crawling where you're kind of below that threshold of oh, that's not a predator. That might be some movement, but they might not actually see the movement. You can move slow, you can crawl, and you can get below that plane of oh, there's a big predator coming at me. I have made crawls and successful stocks on antelope that are bedded out in the flat open. Maybe I wouldn't even say three or four inches of grass. I cammed up actually like a gilly suit. One thing that I did learn is just the idea of breaking up that outline really works. So I think that, especially if I'm crawling, I don't necessarily have to be fully brushed up. But sometimes I will take some grass and some other things and stick it in my hat to kind of my head that's going to be up trying to break up that outline of that round head. You know, maybe even a different kind of hat will flip my hat one way and all stuff some stuff in there. I've actually had like this hat that's it's it's like the dorkiest kind of hat you could ever have. You know, it's like a round brimmed hat, but it's got some like spots in the top where I could stuff grass and other things. And I found that that actually works really well, especially for crawling, because it breaks up that outline of just this head popping up looking all the time. Then I start from long ways away. I don't want them to see me at any point of the stock. It doesn't matter how far out. I know that they can see a long ways, so I like to get out of their sight for as long as possible. If I see an antelope one or two miles away, my whole thought is I'm not going to get within sight of it. So if it's a long well, I mean, if it's really flat whatever, I'll go to that point where okay, I can get out of sight, or I know that's I'm coming in from behind it. It's not going to be looking. Then I'll get down and I'll make that crawl. I've made some really really long crawls. But as long as that analope has stayed bedded there, I can generally get in, crawl in and get a shot. It's just going really slow, barely moving, and you know, being under that level of perception. Now the next thing is looking for obstruction. I was thinking of, you know, well, last year one of the best antelope books that I got to stock and this is just heartbreak here. But he was bedded out in the open, but there was this like willow bush out in the middle, and it was it was just because there I didn't there's is like the only antelope I saw. This is a giant block by himself, like sweet, and they're just having to be like this cluster of willows. Now, I wish I would have planned a little bit different route because there was actually a creek that ran past them that I could have used that I didn't know about until later on. But having those obstructions, having something to block their eyesight makes it really easy now when I do have an obstruction when I'm moving in on an antelope. I kind of think of antelope hunting as like two speeds. It's that super slow crawling or just flat out running. There's very little in between. And the reason is because when they're in an area that gives you an advantage when their eyes are blocked when they go over that rise, when they're behind that bush, I like to cover ground. I don't want to get caught out in the open, So when they give me an advantageous chance, I want to be as close as I can, as fast as I can. So a lot of times, once they've dropped over that rise, once they've gone out of sight, I just haul, I just start moving. And that's a really good way to close the gap, close in. And then as soon as things start to change, boom, the game changes and it might go back to that crawling or using that topography, going really slow, getting low and being out of their eyesight. Now the fourth method, it's just kind of tricking their eyes by not necessarily being hidden but being seen. I've done this a couple of different ways. One way is using an analope decoy. Another way is using some other form of silhouette, like a cow decoy and elk decoy. I guess it's not a decoy, but like a cow silhouette, like a beef cow um in elk decoy or something else. I've had varying successes with the decoy tactics. So during the rut it seems to work the best I know that they can run in they see that decoy, they get all fired up a lot of the areas I hunt, they're just so pressured that it doesn't really work that well. I think that they know something's up, Like I haven't had a lot of success in certain areas with it, and then other areas where maybe they don't get as much pressure. It's like, man, you can't you can't shake them off of it. So the reason that I use the d I still carry the decoys or the silhouettes a couple of reasons. The first is mainly for me to be able to trick their eyes. So if I have to cross out in the open, or I've got to close the distance between me and a prong horn that's out, and it's like the only way to get to a spot where I can get out of sight is to cross this open and I don't have the time to crawl and be real slow, or you know, I've just been crawling all day and my neck and body is just aching, and I just need to get into a place where I can then take my time and crawl in. I'll use that decoy or that silhouette to just break up my outline where it's like they see it and it's it's actually like, hey, you can notice me but I'm not a threat, and so the way that use them. Um. I've also used like a cow silhouette where it's like a beef cow, especially in areas where there's a lot of cattle. One thing I found with those is more often than not, you'll get like the whole hurt. If you're actually in a paddock with cattle, you might get the whole herd of cows like running towards you, and it creates a big scene that the antelope kind of don't really like, so they might move them off. But if you don't have cattle right in your vicinity, it can be a really good way to get close. Now what I don't do with the silhouettes. I've tried this, you know. I haven't had good success with like just putting it up and walking toward him. But I have had a little bit of success where if they're moving one way, I kind of angled toward them in that general direction, but never go directly toward them, like I'm I'm like this idea that I'm going to walk past them. I've never been able to hold a silhouette and get within range or get a shot. Maybe there's people that have it just hasn't worked like that for me, but I have used successfully to get into a place out of site where I can make a stock. Now, I had a buddy of mine that borrowed my cow silhouette. Him and his wife were walking across this open just so they could get to a place where they can sneak. The bucks saw the cow silhouette and just charged in and ran, and she shot at like point blank. It was actually a rifle hunt, and I think she shot it with about twenty yards something like that. I can't remember, but uh, that buck just ran from about a mile or a half a mile away straight to them. So it does happen like that. But for the most part, I use those decoys and silhouettes to trick their eyes to get into a place where I can either use another obstruction crawl or use the topography to get close to make my shot. I definitely would suggest if you were to go on your first Western big game hunt, or you're just looking for a really fun hunt spawn stock pronghorn antelope hunting with a bow is a lot of fun. Prong weren't hunting with any with a rifle, with a muzzler whatever. It's all a lot of fun. And it's a lot of fun because there's a lot of action. You see a lot of animals. Where deer hunting, you know, they hide in the middle of the day. Prong worm hunting is from sun up until dark. You're in the action. They're moving around all day, even on hot days. There's always something to do, there's always something to chase, and it makes it really fun. And I think it's probably one of the hunts where there's a higher chance of success, especially if you've got a rifle. Now, when you've got a bow, it's kind of the great equalizer because they can see so well it's hard to get really close to them. But I would say that there's a lot of opportunities, so you get a lot of stocks in, you get a lot of practice, and hey, if you bloat on one, go find another. That's what makes it so great. But while spotting, stock, bow hunting, or even just rifle hunting can be a lot of fun, there's a lot of other tactics that are really effective for prong horn and hunting over water can be probably the most efficient way to target a certain buck or a big buck, or even just to get close and have a higher percentage chance of success. Now, water hole hunting can also be effective for a lot of different species, from mule deer, white tails, elk, I mean sheep, pretty much any Western big game animal you can find ways to effectively hunt water. So next week I'm going to cover some water hole strategies for successful pronghorn hunting as well as other species. So until next week, stay sealthy.

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