A friend and neighbor, Andrew and I got lucky in the Antelope drawing this year and were assigned to the Porter Ranch in central NM.
I have been applying for this hunt every year since I moved to NM and this is the first time I have been drawn.
The ranch is about 4 miles by 6 miles or about 15,000 acres. This is a typical view, gently rolling sparse grassland with some junipers.
This old wooden windmill was near the Porter Ranch. The late evening sun is backlighting the spines on the Cholla cactus.
| We saw this buck in the late afternoon the day before the hunting season opened. |  |
Here is a nice buck taken with a 6x zoom lense. He looks nice and calm before the season opens.
The pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) is the only surviving member of the family Antilocapridae,
and the fastest land mammal in North America running at speeds of 60 mph and the second-fastest
land animal, second only to the cheetah. The pronghorn is also known as the pronghorn antelope,
but is not a true antelope. It is a unique animal with no close relatives. Both the males' and
the females' horns are made up of a hairlike substance that grows around a bony core; the outer
sheath is shed annually.
| The rut was starting and a couple of bucks are testing each other's strength. |  |
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Andrew scores with some fast off-hand shooting at about 200 yards to this running buck. Antelope rely on their speed to escape danger and do not hide in cover like deer. |
| I get lucky on the 4th shot at 330 paces using the hood of Andrew's truck as a rest. |  |
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We started at sunrise on opening day and the hunting was over about 9AM. Our state resident licenses were $59. The state also issues land owners a limited number of permits. Porter Ranch had 7 non-resident hunters at $1,500 each. Being lucky is nice! |