antelope - what to look for??

[jeff 300]

we just got 30,000ac in west texas and i don't know what to look for in a antelope to judge them right. i never hunted them before but i'm looking forward to it this year. we have a nice herd and was lucky and got five tags this year most of the ranches around us only got 1-2 after the big fire we had. i have some pic of some i took last week and will post them. so how do you judge them to see if there a good one or not. i don't want to go out and shoot a young one.

 

[IChaseCoues]

I always look for where bottom of the prong meets the main "beam" of the horn.
Look at the relation between the ear and this junction.
The bigger the antelope, the farther above the ear the junction will be.

Thats the first thing to look at, from there look for mass, and curl.
A couple inches can be gained if the horns have a good amount of curl.

A lot of time can be spent behind a spotting scope to correctly judge these critters.

If you dont mind, where is the ranch? Sounds like it's near Amarillo.

 

[MachV]

Size is one thing but sometimes ya gotta make a tuff choice.
Do you go for mass,style,funkie or pass and wait for something else

http://imageevent.com/cjnmn/antelope

 

[IChaseCoues]

There's definately some funk going on in that picture!
Someday I'll get to hunt a crazy one, just haven't found it yet.

The first hunt in NM starts this Saturday. We found some decent bucks while scouting last weekend, now trying to find them again when the clients are ready to shoot is a different story.

 

[yoter41]

Jeff 300, one of the first things that you look at is how far above the ears are the cutters or prongs, if you are looking for an antelope to score well the higher up the horn the cutter is the bettter it will score for mass measurements, also you want to look at an antelope that has a good curl on the tips this adds length quickly and last you want fairly good over all length, so mass, curl, cutter length and hight above ears, and over all length, but the truth of it is beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I have shot several that were very good looking either with a good heart shap or big prongs but was weak else where and found them scoring in the upper 70's but not a book buck, but still a very nice representative. Whehter you get a book buck or a garden variety it is a great sport with the speedster of the plains, good luck hunting.

Yoter41

 

[yoter41]

Jeff 300, one of the first things that you look at is how far above the ears are the cutters or prongs, if you are looking for an antelope to score well the higher up the horn the cutter is the bettter it will score for mass measurements, also you want to look at an antelope that has a good curl on the tips this adds length quickly and last you want fairly good over all length, so mass, curl, cutter length and hight above ears, and over all length, but the truth of it is beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I have shot several that were very good looking either with a good heart shap or big prongs but was weak else where and found them scoring in the upper 70's but not a book buck, but still a very nice representative. Whehter you get a book buck or a garden variety it is a great sport with the speedster of the plains, good luck hunting.

Yoter41

 

[yoter41]

SORRY About the double response, I have been trying to send some pictures but I am having no luck getting them sent, any help out there?

 

[jeff 300]

If you dont mind, where is the ranch? Sounds like it's near Amarillo.[/QUOTE]

The ranch is out by Marfa TX i just got a call from our real estate agent. he saw 24 bucks and said at least twice that many does today so there coming back in after the fire we had and get the water back up and working. wright after we got the ranch 90% of it burned. we found some dead lopes in a fence corner where they where trapped by the net fence. the good news is that it burned down all of the fences ( 48miles in all) that had net fence on it and we are rebuilding them with barbed wire no net. this should help out a lot. so will they eat corn? I'm looking forward to going back out and spend some time behind the spotter. thanks for all of the help i have a idea now what to look for. hope i can find a good one for my first lope.

 

[Rymart]

If you are looking for a high B&C scoring buck, then look for mass, mass, more mass, and then look at the length of the prongs. You will make most of your score on the four mass measurements that go up each horn. Height looks good, but is overrated. The difference between a 14 inch buck and a 16 inch buck is only 4 points. One extra inch of circumference (mass) that carries its way up is worth as much as 6 to 8 points.

That I can see, the location of the prong in relation to the ears has little, or nothing, to do with the overall B&C score (there will always be 2 mass measurements below the prong and two above it). I have seen many goats with low forks (even below the ears) that scored very well, including one a co-workers' wife shot that scored 91. Not saying that, as a general rule, a high prong junction isn't a good sign. It usually indicates a mature and a tall buck, but as far as being a mark of a high B&C score, there are better indicators.

I have a system that I use for judging the quality of pronghorn bucks, but I think I will post it as a separate post (coming soon). Ultimately, what matters is that you pick a buck that makes you happy. An exceptionally tall buck, one with really nice cutters, or one with some unique bumps or double prongs will look much more impressive than a 'typical book' buck.

Here's a tip... If in your minds eye you can straighten out an antelopes horn and compare it to it's face, the straight line length from the tip of the nose to the back of the head is consistently close to 15 inches.

Have fun.