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Old 10-19-2017, 03:56 AM
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Giant Nontypical
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 9,230
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Originally Posted by Champlain Islander
I haven't been speed goat hunting but have always heard they weren't good to eat.
Pronghorn are very good table fare. The problem is the way a lot of people hunt them and the way they handle them after the shot. Since they live in open country it isn't unusual to see people chasing them from one area to another in truck or ATVs until they get a shot and many of the shots are taken at pronghorns that have been running for some distance and have adrenaline flowing through their system. Then after they shoot one many hunters do a quick field dress and toss them in the back of the truck and go look for another. It is normally warm when pronghorn season is open and they have a hollow hair designed for insulation. Top that off with dirt roads and dust. Putting an unskinned pronghorn in the back of a truck, lying on a metal bed with a hot exhaust pipe under it when the temps are in the 80s and running pell mell on dusty dirt roads almost guarantees the meat won't be good. After all you couldn't treat Kobe beef that way and expect decent tablefare.

But, if you hunt pronghorn by stalking rather than chasing and make a clean shot on a relaxed animal and then immediately field dress, skin and get it on ice the meat is outstanding. We always have 2 big coolers with 3 or 4 bags of ice in each in the truck so we can get them on ice as soon as possible. Hides stay where they fell so the meat doesn't stay warm. I've never eaten a pronghorn, even good sized bucks, that were bad if they were handled right. many hunters simply do not properly handle the game after it is shot since they are more interested in getting another rather than caring for the one already down. We are done hunting until the first one is on ice, then we look for another.
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