About six years ago I began applying in Utah for a pronghorn tag along with my other big game permits. Within about 2 years, the Utah Division of Wildlife, in all of it's wisdom, decided it was going to restrict applicants to one species and not allow bonus points to be transferred to a different species if the hunter decided to apply for a different species after several years of trying for the first. Hence, once I had elected the speed goat, I was married to it until successful. Fortunately, that compelled quest ended in 2008.
Two years ago, Slim and I had helped Eric Johnson hunt the Southwest Desert River Bottom area northwest of Delta, Utah. We were so impressed by the number and quality of the goats that I determined to focus future application efforts on that area, exclusively.
The area is comprised of primarily classic-looking pronghorn territory interspersed with larger rolling hills and some thick pockets of pinon/junipers which surprisingly hold a fair amount of the normally prairie-loving goat.
Always willing to drive rather than run the risk of having to sit in the back seat, Mark Webster agreed to drive. The team was rounded out by Jack Topham, a retired DWR guy from Salt Lake, who Slim and I had met last year in east central Nevada, while helping his son elk hunt. Jack had scouted the area for us for a couple of weeks and reported that there was a very nice buck on Antelope Spring. Unfortunately, try as we may, we were never able to locate that buck.
Unbeknownst to me (though I’d shot it and it was accurate about two weeks prior), my .270 WSM was shooting about three feet left and caused (note to reader: always blame the rifle if you can) me to completely air mail 2 very nice goats, multiple times. One Slim and I had put a half mile stalk on, and the other Mark followed around in the truck giving me repeated chances. I finally connecting on this one - the result of a sneak by Slim and I up the blind side of a hill, and then catching him as he steadily moved back toward a pinon/juniper hillside. I held on the goat’s rump at 120 yards to hit him in the boiler room.
He made 14 and a half, and is incredibly heavy.
A special thanks goes out to Slim for helping me spot and stalk, to Jack for coming to spot, navigate and cape and to Mark for selflessly beating the begeezus out of his truck in pursuit of the elusive speed goat.
