I was out shooting at Pawnee National Grasslands on Saturday, at a popular area with dozens of other shooters. A pair of Pronghorns casually walked along a ridge over the embankment most people were shooting at, no more than 30 feet away from some of the targets.
Legal American gun owners are the most law abiding people on the planet, and of course everyone was very careful not to hurt the antelope.
Come hunting season, the antelope will disappear and be much harder to find. Actual humans and wildlife are smarter and much more decent than the politicians in Denver who took Bloomberg’s bribes.
I have read that Pronghorns are capable of bursts of speed where they can actually outpace a helicopter.
I wouldn’t doubt that at all. Some people call them “speed goats”. A couple years ago out at my friend’s ranch in northeastern Colorado, we watched one take off running several hundred yards from us. I couldn’t believe how fast it was going. Didn’t even appear to slow down when it when through (under, actually) a barb-wire fence. My friend had told me that they go *under* fences (rather than jumping them). It was amazing to see it actually happen, and at almost full speed too.
I love antelope. Yum!
I have gathered empirical evidence for 50 years, and I am convinced that game animals know when hunting season opens and closes.
I used to work as a wilderness ranger at 12,000 feet elevation in the Santa Fe National Forest.
During the summer, the Bighorn Sheep would steal a sandwich out of your hand while you were eating it. Come hunting season they were no where to be found.
that is so true!! they vanish every time i head out…yet while out in the summer….kick them out of the way!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G8Xlx7dfT8
I don’t doubt this.
I remember looking out the lunchroom window at the Kewanee Nuclear Power station east of Green Bay WI and seeing perhaps the largest deer I’ve ever personally laid eyes on. This was just a couple weeks in advance of deer season. One of the guys who was also a hunter said that in two weeks no one will lay eyes on him (the buck).
It was as if it knew when the season opened and was just standing there taunting us.
Same with the Whitetail Deer around Southern Ontario. The place is crawling with them. Come hunting week you would think it would be like shooting fish in a barrel. The reality is that we spend an entire week dawn to sunset in order to fill our tags and if the weather isn’t ideal for the hunt, some tags go unfilled. If you spent the same time driving the rural roads as hunting, you would probably have more of a chance smacking one with your car than bagging one with your firearm.
While in the Navy, one of the Sonar Techs, who was from central PA, would take leave during deer season. He came back one year a bit embarassed. Turns out his mom out did her husband and 3 sons in the deer bagging department. Came over a rise at night and ran smack into a herd, taking down something like a 1/2 dozen with the family station wagon.
I was riding my bicycle down a steep hill in Maryland a few years ago around midnight. Coming around a blind curve there was a Whitetail buck standing right in the middle of the trail. We both were terrified and he jumped out of the way about six inches before we collided.
I have a number of bird feeders and houses on my property, and we shoot from the back patio on my ATF weekends. That means shooting past my main bird feeder. We have to be careful not to blast tweeties out of the air, as they have no fear of the guns or the noise. Deer are a whole other story.