Orygun Pronghorn

[Orygun]

Spent last 4 days looking for yotes and jacks in SE Oregon. Yotes were around and jacks were in decent numbers. biggest problem we had was the darn antelope. Kept bumping into them.

This guy and a pal came in from out of nowhere. Something had pushed them to us. They stopped at 100 yards and then boogied. Getting pics was an exercise in futility. By the time I could get the camera out and pointed they were way far away. This guy was the smaller of the two. His buddies horns were much, much longer but with less mass at the base.

 

[DEERSLAM]

Wish I could draw a tag up there.
They should still have some growing to do I would think.

 

[OR186]

Orygun, how does the range look down there this Spring?

 

[Orygun]

Range is ok. There was grass available but it seemed to be kinda sparse. On the valley floors it was pretty browned out. when you get over 3500 feet things are real green. Steens has a tons of snow on it. The Pueblos had a fair amount of it on the peaks. Most of the ranches with springs & pastures still had plenty of green. Most all the stock ponds had water but none of the playas did. Out on Malheur and Honey Lakes are at decent levels and some of the fields out in Burns had standing water. There should be decent water for this summer and I would expect decent growth out of the plants (sage, rabbitbrush, bitterbrush, wild rose, etc). Some of the wildflowers were out and more were poking through the ground.

Just seemed like there should have been more water out there based on what the Cascades have been getting. It may have been that there was plenty of water but with the low rainfall from the past few years it is hard to see it.

The deer and antelope we saw looked real healthy and carried over from last winter in great shape. Saw a nice bachelor herd with one buck with huge buds of velvet on him. Think a 6 ounce can covered in velvet.

All in all better than the last few years but nowhere near as good as it can get.

 

[OR186]

Thanks. Glad to hear it's in better shape than the last few years. I'm sittin on 12 points for antelope and just may use them this year.

 

[Orygun]

I'm not that far behind on points. Figured I'd just hold out for Hart Mtn. Just cause.

My own guesses aren't that far off from the NRCS folks. Here's lots of data on snowpack and waterflow for the state as of April:

http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/cgibin/bor2.p...amp;format=text