Pronghorns with Wheels

                                                            By: Guerry Dalymple

Justin pointed out a small brown speck that was moving slightly about 1,000 to 1,200 yards off the small dirt road we were on.  With his spotting scope he identified it as a pronghorn doe feeding with 3 other does.  As I finally was able to pick them out of the grass and rocks with my binoculars, Justin said, ”There’s the buck.  He’s bedded on the hillside just ahead and above them.”   I picked him up and all I could see above his head was black horns, as he looked us over carefully.  

Justin Carroll was the guide I was paired up with from All American Outfitters out of Reserve, New Mexico.  I had been sponsored on this early season, disabled pronghorn hunt by Buckmaster’s Disabled Hunters program.   In February, David Sullivan the Director of the program had informed myself and two other disabled hunters that we had been selected for one of their all expenses paid hunts.  The hunt I had been chosen for took place during New Mexico’s special antelope hunt open only to mobility-impaired hunters.  I needed to obtain a Disabled Sportsman’s ID number from New Mexico Game and Fish and then put in by the April Deadline for one of the Special Hunt tags offered for pronghorn.  With the help of Brandon Gaudelli, owner of All American Outfitters, I submitted my paperwork and received the necessary permit and tags.

After speaking to Brandon it was clear to me that I needed to make a change in my hunting perspective.  Having been a bowhunter and muzzleloader for most of my adult life, I had only recently started hunting with a center fire rifle after a C6-7 spinal cord injury put me in a wheelchair.  I had not taken any big game beyond 75 yards in my life and was being told to expect 300 to possibly 500 yard shots.   I started working up loads I had confidence in for my Remington 700 .270 WCF.  I tried several powders and weights and different bullets.  Every weekend found me at the range checking groups and trajectories.  I finally settled on a 140 grn Hornady BTSP over 55 grains of IMR 4831.  I could only practice at 100 and 200 yards so had to guess on my 300 yard zero.  Not knowing for sure what to expect I decided to take along my camouflaged, 4 wheel, electric scooter in case I ended up hunting from a blind.  I had also learned that by covering myself, and the scooter, with camouflage netting I could actually put a slow stalk on game in fairly open areas.  Would this work on pronghorns?  Who knows.  I also brought along a window gun rest in case I was shooting from a vehicle.

Time for the hunt finally came and I drove to Reserve from Phoenix.  When I arrived on Thursday I found that where we were to stay the first couple of nights was pretty inaccessible to me.  Since there was no access to the bathroom I was glad we had brought my portable commode/shower chair.  With some help from Brandon, my portable equipment, and calling on some of my previous experience “roughing it” we made it work.  On Friday morning Brandon had myself and the other hunter in camp, who also had gotten in on Thursday from Indiana, go to the range to sight in.  The third hunter was due in later that day from California and would go straight to the range.  We shot at 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 yards.  Both of us managed to hit the targets then, feeling our oats, challenged the guides.  We won.

Prior to hunting all the hunters test fired their rifles at 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 yards. 

The white rectangle in the distance is the 500 yard target stop.

Well before daylight on Saturday all the hunters were picked up by their guides.  My guide, Justin Carroll, and I headed out with Brandon and his hunter Cameron Tribolet from Indiana, to an area where a big buck had been spotted for a couple of seasons.  The buck, with large horns that were more horizontal than vertical, was nicknamed “Flathead.”  We approached Flathead’s stomping grounds from opposite directions only to find no sign of him.  What we did find was some hunters camped in the middle of his bedding area.  Needless to say, Flathead had departed for parts unknown.  Maybe he’ll be back next year.

The remainder of the morning was spent moving and glassing for bucks.  We saw a few but none that were approachable by either of us giving our limitations.  Justin and Brandon decided we should take a look in a canyon that had proven productive in past seasons.  We covered quite a bit of territory with no luck.  Justin and I drove to the top of a ridge to see if we could spot anything below to direct the others to.  Later in the morning Brandon and Cameron decided to head to town and pick up Cameron’s car since we were all moving to the Apache Creek Youth and Deaf Ranch.  Lunch was scheduled there for around noon.  Justin and I worked our way off the ridge and were leaving the canyon when Justin spotted the does and the buck.

With all of us in the wide open watching each other, Justin and I decided to sit a while and see what happened.  After about a half an hour the buck seemed to accept the vehicle as no threat.  When he started moving with the does we decided we didn’t have any thing to loose by trying to get ahead of them and to cut down the distance.  A few hundred yards ahead of us was some power lines and a two track created by service vehicles.  We got to the two track well ahead of the pronghorns and started closing the gap.  Our moving perpendicular to their path of travel was making the buck nervous.  Justin started angling away from them in a large right turn giving the impression we were not heading for the group.  It worked and we were finally able to get the animals on my side of the vehicle.  We stopped and set up for them to get within range.  The closest the buck ever got was slightly over 400 yards according to the Bushnell Yardage Pro.  It was quite a struggle to get in position in the truck to get proper eye relief.  Finally I had a clear sight picture and was able to take a shot.  As the shot went off I lost the buck in the scope and felt I had shot low.  Justin said the buck had hunched a little and jumped on the shot.  He thought I had hit him.  I didn’t think so.  As we watched him run straight away from us it was obvious he was not hit. 

The buck ran ahead parallel to us, widening the gap quickly.  He soon slowed however then stopped and looked back.  He obviously had not associated us with what ever had hit the ground under his belly.  The does had started feeding again and he began feeding back our way.  We relocated a little farther up the hill and setup again.  The buck was quartering away at 345 yards when I was able to get him clear my scope.   The shot felt good and at the shot he ran about 75 yards and stopped, lowered his head then fell and rolled down the hill.  I had my first pronghorn.  I’m not sure who was thrilled more between Justin and I.  We hunters and guides had been good-naturedly challenged by Brandon to not spoil their perfect record with disabled hunters.  As Justin was helping me to get my wheelchair closer to the buck, he pointed out we had done our part.  The buck’s horns were just shy of 16 inches and I could already see him on my wall.  After the tagging, picture taking and field dressing we headed for the ranch to show off.

Buckmasters had sent a cameraman, Gene Bidlespacher to film the hunt but he had been with Brandon and Cameron.  Gene was bummed because he didn’t get any footage of my shot.  Not to worry though.  The next morning both Eric Surges, from California, and Cameron collected nice bucks.  Eric took his with a straight on shot at 100 yards.  Cameron had to make a ¼ mile stalk up hill on crutches followed by a 250 yard clean kill.  But, that’s another story that you hopefully will be able to see on Buckmasters’ TV show.  This was easily the most enjoyable and exciting hunt I’ve been on  since becoming disabled.  Maybe ever.  I have to give a special thanks to the state of New Mexico for caring about their wildlife programs and mobility impaired hunters to make such a quality hunt possible.  Then there is David Sullivan and the Buckmasters Disabled Hunter’s program.  Jackie Bushman and Buckmasters don’t have to do this program, they want to.  The fund raising, equipment scholarships, hunt planning and coordination, and all the other parts of the program are monumental tasks.   They all deserve a huge THANKS from all of us who have been and will be touched by this program.  This was truly a once in a lifetime hunt for me.

Gene getting some footage of Justin, my buck and me.

Gene with Cameron’s buck

From the left, Guerry Dalrymple, Justin Carroll, Cameron, Eric, Brandon Gaudelli (standing) and Steve Pecos with Eric’s buck

Editors Note: AZOD has developed and published a website for Guerry's Arizona Challenged Sportsmen (ACS) organization. You can access it here