About 1,100 archery hunters chasing pronghorns in South Dakota managed to apply their permit to an animal about 24 percent of the time. That success rate stays pretty much the same from year to year, reports John Wrede, regional wildlife manager for the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks.

South Dakota doesn't have a special muzzleloader season for pronghorns, but firearms permits do allow the use of a muzzleloader. "We issued about 7,400 licenses with a cumulative success rate of 70 percent," Wrede said.

The pronghorn permits in South Dakota are limited to one per person. A resident permit is $30, a non-resident permit $105. The chances of getting one depend on the area. "It's a drawing process," Wrede said. "Getting drawn depends on the management unit as to what the success drawing rate is. The best way to evaluate that is (to ask), 'Are there more opportunities than applicants?' And the answer to that is no -- there are a lot more applicants than there is opportunity in most units."

Season dates for pronghorns in South Dakota begin with the archery season, which opens the third Saturday in August and runs through the end of October. The firearms season opens the first Saturday in October and runs for nine consecutive days.

Most of the pronghorn hunting takes place on private land; Wrede didn't mention any specific public-land hunting opportunities. Anticipating no changes for the 2005 South Dakota pronghorn seasons, he offered this advice for those wanting to hunt antelope: "Prior familiarity with the area and land-ownership patterns are essential even before you apply for a license. It's not too difficult to find a place to hunt."

NEBRASKA
"Pronghorns are found in the western third of the state, primarily in the Panhandle," said Kit Hams, big-game program manager for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

The overall population of pronghorns in Nebraska is down, according to Hams. "I don't believe we have disease problems, but we certainly lose pronghorns to winterkill," he observed. "The population is down in general."

But the culprit this time isn't a severe winter, barring spring storms that could kill pronghorns. "Drought has been more of an issue the last five years, as in the rest of the West," Hams said. "Four or five years of drought hasn't done our pronghorns any favors."

There are no definitive studies to determine the problems associated with drought, but in Hams' view, common sense would suggest that it affects reproduction and survival. "If they're nutritionally stressed, I wouldn't expect for production to be all that great," he noted. "And then I wouldn't expect survival of adults or fawns to be all that great."

Nebraska's pronghorn population is estimated at 6,000 to 7,000. In 2003, there were 1,360 total pronghorn permits issued. The 2004 total was lower, 1,230, with 165 of these muzzleloader, 359 archery and 706 firearms permits. The success rates were 41 percent, 10 percent and 56 percent, respectively.

"The archery success rate is usually in that 10 to 15 percent range, and we haven't had muzzleloader permits all that long, although it dropped from 59 percent the year before," Hams said. "The firearms success is definitely down from what it used to be, due to a low population."

Nebraska pronghorn hunters can get one permit. "And you're darn lucky to get that one, unless you're an archer," said Hams.

The application process for resident firearm permits involves a drawing, and demand far exceeds supply. Hams says that preference points accrue, and that it usually takes two to three years to be successful in the drawing. Resident permit prices are $26. Non-residents can't buy a firearms tag, but can bowhunt and pay $130 for that permit.

The pronghorn firearms season is Oct. 8-23, archery season is Aug. 20 through the end of the year (but closed during the firearm deer and antelope season), and muzzleloader season is Sept. 17 through Oct. 2.

Hams reports that though most of the pronghorn hunting in Nebraska takes place on private land, opportunity is present on the Oglala National Grasslands in the northwest corner of the state.

Each year thousands of archery hunters try matching wits with the fastest land mammal in