mnygren:

I hunted unit 23 immediately south of Gillette the third week of October. A drought is currently underway in that portion of Wyoming -- maybe all of Wyoming -- and you aren't likely to have rain. At that time of year, I read, weather can change quickly and it could get cold and snow. This is something to be prepared for, but it is most likely to be sunny, dry, temperatures in the upper60s lower 70sduring the days and getting down to mid 40s overnight. Therefore, you could probably wear tennis shoes and do fine. The only hazard I know is cactus spines or tumbleweed thorns which might be a reason for wearing leather shoes. It looks like unit 32 is just east of Casper, and I think this territory is similar to unit 23.

I was told by the landowner whose land I hunted on -- and he had been a guide for a number of years earlier in his life -- that there is no particular point in trying to be out in the hunting field before sun up. All you are going to accomplish by being out early is running off the pronghorns that you stumble on during the dark. They are going to be standing out or laying out in the open when you get there about 7:30 AM or 9 AM, there isn't any particular reason to hurry to get out there. It isn't like whitetail hunting where if you don't get out early you are liable to miss the movement cycle and the whitetails are all going to be holed up in their beds chewing their cud if you are late.

I have read that the success rate for pronghorn hunters in Wyoming is about 90%. Pretty good success rate. Bagging a pronghorn is not difficult at all. If you get busted on one stalk and the animals run away, you can just locate another herd and start another stalk on them.

Take water to drink during the day. If you are far from town, you might go out each day with ice in an ice chest and get the pronghorn meat on ice quickly after you kill it. Don't put the meat directly on the ice -- which will keep the meat wet and make it more susceptible to bacterial growth -- put it in a plastic bag such as a garbage bag and make sure the melting ice doesn't get inside the plastic bag. There are probably various ways to accomplish this. For example, you could lay the field dressed animal on a tarp, skin one side of the animal, take off the backstrap on that side, the ham on that side, and the front shoulder on that side and put it in ice. Turn the animal over, skin that side of the animal, take off the backstrap on that second side, the ham on the second side, and the front shoulder on that side. That gets most of the big chunks of meat. You could do all that and have those pieces on ice in about 30 minutes if you were quick, 45 minutes if you were slow. This may be useful if you are 3 hours away from town and the weather was warm. Then again, you may have a cool place out of the sun you can hang your carcass up where you can let the animal cool off and then take it to a meat processor. In any case, think through how you will treat the meat after you have the animal down. I think pronghorn meat is especially susceptible to spoilage and tainting, but I don't know why.

Speaking of pronghorn meat, I fed pronghorn backstrap to my family last night and they all loved it. My wife and oldest daughter like it better than venison. I like both about equally, though I tend to agree about the backstraps being better than venison backstraps. There is a little extra spicey dimension in the pronghorn meat that is intriguing and attractive.