Maybe hold out for something like him but with the Horns Curling in, that heart shape, that might give him maybe 14-15 and hope I don't regret it--------->
This is fun to do Paul, Thanks!
Good luck, Robb
That buck will still put on some more horn growth yet before the season. He looks to be about 14" now and may gain a little there but will mostly gain mass below the prong.
Definitely a P&Y buck. In most units, and unless you have shot a bunch of them with your bow and looking for a really big buck, this one's a shooter!
Should be good horn growth on the speed goats this year with all the moisture! Should be some great ones taken this year! Good luck to the guys with tags!
Tks
Also, Tavis touched on it, but I’ve read other places that some guys have said that horn growth is better during dry years vs wet years (which makes no sense to me). Has anyone seen any evidence of that?
There are a lot of theories out there around antelope horn growth in dry versus wet years. The one that makes the most sense to me is that bucks born on a wet year will typically be healthier and produce better horn growth throughout their life time. Most years in antelope country are dry so if you go look back 4 or 5 years from this year and it was wet, there is a better chance for more of those mature bucks to have bigger horns.
A new state record antelope (rifle) was shot in Colorado last year in a bad drought year in a unit not typically known to produce big antelope. Hard to say what circumstances allowed him to grow that big. Crazy thing was that the guy was from out of state and had never hunted the unit nor knew much about it. He even missed the opening weekend and had to take the "leavings". You just never know...
I'm one of those that believe the pronghorn have better horns in dry years, at least where I've hunted them. I think it's because their diet might be different in dry years. The plants that grow tall and thrive in wet years might not be as nutritious toward horn grown as the plants they must eat during dry years.
njbuck,
Mass is everything on antelope score. 10 of the 12 measurements have a mass component to them (even prong length since it's measured from the back of the horn), so that is far more important than horn length.
Watch for deep hooks....the classic heart shape from the front. A massy, lower cutter longer horn is also a very desirable animal. Similar to the OP pic.
Read pages 77-79. Maybe the dry years are not as cold, seems temp in winter may be a contributing factor with nutrition.
Awesome pics of some really nice antelope
Snow capped mountains and plains animal. Incredible pic
The circumference of the horn sheath of bucks born in a wet year are larger than if the same buck was born in a dry year. That same buck will have heavier horns for his lifetime. This is a refection of the doe that was healthier and the buck fawn developed and grew better in a wetter year. Obviously moisture plus winter conditions both contribute to healthier does/fawns.
I've kept tabs on current and historic weather conditions in Wyo the past 15+ years and have gotten to the point where I can pretty much predict if many B&C bucks will be produced in any given year in a particular area.
What's amazing about antelope is it's possible to produce B&C bucks at only 3 1/2 years of age. It may take 7+ years for muley bucks and 9+ for elk to grow B&C antlers! Obviously if there is severe drought or winterkill in back to back years there will likely be fewer booner bucks available for a few years.
As mentioned above, mass is the highest proportion of an antelope buck's score. In fact, when field judging the first thing I look at is mass. If a buck doesn't have mass all the way to the tips it likely won't score very well. Prongs and length add to the score.
I've never really gotten too terribly excited about P&Y, Just about any 12 to 13" buck will likely make P&Y. I certainly wish P&Y would raise their standards! With that said, if you harvest a B&C antelope in Colo you have really accomplished something special! If you take a look at the B&C books there are very few book bucks harvested in Colo. In fact, some Colo counties may not even have 1 listing!
I harvested my 2nd best scoring B&C buck in a year that had historic drought. 4 to 5 years prior to that time was perfect conditions. That particular buck was born in a year with excellent moisture. There was a stretch of around 4 years when B&C bucks in Wyo were almost non-existent. This was after 3 years of super drought. All of a sudden after several wet years B&C bucks started appearing once again in that part of Wyo. I burned a bunch of pts on a premium Wyo unit a year with incredible moisture but following 3 drought years. I thought with great spring moisture horns would be impressive....and was super disappointed. I harvested a nice buck but it took lots of time! That hunt raised a giant flag which raised my curiosity. That's when I asked a couple antelope geru's what exactly was going on! From that moment on I've kept tabs on drought plus moisture years in the areas I hunt.
Anyway, that may be WAY more than anyone cares to know...but I thought I would add a few comments. As you can tell I love hunting trophy antelope!
Less stress (weather, predators or human induced) helps game animals access favorable habitats for better grazing/browsing.
Here's a real good North Park buck pronghorn
Another interesting tidbit is mtn goat horns reach roughly 85% of their horn length the first 3 1/2 years of a billie's life. In fact, I know of an Alaska billy that was only 3 1/2 years old and easily made B&C. The guys at the AG&F office where it was checked in were amazed that such a young billy could score so well....and wondered what the billy would have scored if he was a year or 2 older! In Colo it's not uncommon for 3 1/2 year old billies to have 9" horns....and there aren't many older aged Colo billies harvested with horns much longer than 9 3/8" long. Most Colo billies reach close to peak body size at around 5 1/2 years age. There is often a large body size difference between 3 1/2 and 5 1/2 year old billies. I really haven't noticed a whole lot of body size differences between 3 1/2 year old and super old antelope bucks (can get a quick age estimate by teeth).
Another example of horn growth on another species is sheep. Bighorn and dall sheep horns take more years to reach close to peak growth than antelope or mtn goats. The distance between growth rings on rams are pretty substantial the first 6 years and the gap is smaller after 6 years of age. Genetics plays a major role in sheep because you'll likely see different horn confirmation in different herds. Colo is a great example of this. If you take a look at ram horns harvested in S9 they are totally different than horns harvested in S34. In Alaska, most dall sheep horns in the Chugach look totally different than horns in the Delta unit. One of the parameters in Alaska is 8 rings to be legal in most dall sheep units. Dall sheep ring gaps tend to get pretty tight after 8 years of age.
Anyway, this is an interesting post that usually isn't discussed much in detail.....but is fun stuff if you like learning about wild critters! You can tell I get pretty excited about horned game! Adventurewriter, I hope you have a great NM hunt and get a whopper!
You want to get a young hunter interested in hunting take him Pronghorn hunting and not a Nov. freezing elk death march!!!
Colorado buck
Snow shut down the Waterhole stuff but some great spot stalk terrain with legit sub 30 yd shots due to an old dries up irrigation ditch. Fun times gone by.
Antelope are like a box of Chocolates.
