My main partner-in-crime and hunting buddy Billy
Rhodes and I are in New Mexico winding down our second
day of what has been one helluva 3 day pronghorn trip.


We chose to spend this afternoon plinking prarie dogs
at 300-600 yards simply because there is nothing left
to do.  We have tagged out.  Matter of fact, our
entire hunting party of 7 has. 

Truly an incredible ranch here south of Raton, we must
have seen over 200 bucks in around a day and a half.
It's been a dry year, but we were still able to take 2
very nice representative trophies.

Our guide Cody put me on just a beast of a buck around
9:30 the first morning.  We stalked under a small
ridge and he soon appeared following his harem.  He
closed to within 250 yards by the time any of them
realized we were there and I was able to take him. 

Billy actually passed the buck he ended up taking, on
the first day, only because by then we had sensory
overload and neither one of us could determine just
how good he was...he was fantastic.  We actually have
live photos including him breeding a doe (I'd say he
had a great last day). 

Billy caught his buck this morning after he had run
off several would be competitors and was returning to
his ladies.  He never made it back.  One thump from
his new rifle and it was all over.

The average buck in the camp scored just under 80"
(B&C is 82 I believe), and we were fortunate to have
taken the two largest.  Billy's buck was 15 1/2"+ and
scored 81 4/8.  And while mine wasn't as tall at just
over 15", his mass got him to 82 4/8. 

To be able to hunt together and give each other crap
the entire time made this incredible experience all
the better.

Good Hunting.

Hardy

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