The difficulty in hunting pronghorns results primarily from the animals’ amazing eyesight. One way to neutralize that: Watch a buck bed down and then slip around to approach it from above and behind. A lone pronghorn buck will usually be a good specimen. Photo by Mike Blair.

Let me tell you right off that 2008 is going to see a good pronghorn season from south to north all across the Great Plains. And if you’re a bowhunter, to call it just “good” might be understatement.

Make no mistake: Kansas, for example, is home to legendary white-tailed deer hunting; it’s no pronghorn hotspot. Nebraska has big whitetails too -- but it’s not known as a pronghorn destination, either. However, while ring-necked pheasants are kings of the Dakotas, South Dakota has an amazing pronghorn resource, and its neighbor to the north isn’t too awfully far behind.

The one thing all of them have in common is unlimited archery tags, and access to undisturbed animals for those willing to work at finding landowners agreeable to granting access.

No matter which state you choose to hunt, focus your efforts on the western regions, where the Great Plains’ pronghorns live and, in some cases, thrive. Not every state will have firearms permits available as you read this, but all will definitely have archery tags.

General facts about the Great Plains’ pronghorn resources heading into the 2008 season (you’ll find more details in the state-by-state reports below): Antelope population numbers vary considerably -- from a low of 2,000 in Kansas to more than 60,000 in South Dakota. And all four states enjoyed solid 2007 hunting seasons that fell during and/or were followed by another mild winter. Animals didn’t suffer the effects of a bitter year’s end, so they’re in good shape throughout their range as 2008 hunts unfold.

Believe it or not, one state -- South Dakota -- finds itself in the quandary of maybe having too many pronghorns, at least in some areas. Below you’ll read a biologist’s call for more hunters willing to take bucks and does -- South Dakota issues double permits for firearms hunters.

Moving from south to north, here’s a look at prospects for the 2008 pronghorn season.

KANSAS
The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks’ Matt Peek, who works with the Sunflower State’s pronghorn resource, described the 2007 season as a “very standard year” -- better news than you might think, actually, given the ferocious storm that the state endured the winter before.

Kansas’ pronghorn population is stable, remaining at about 2,000 animals -- the lowest number in all of the Great Plains -- but hunting opportunities are to be found here, and last year’s hunter success numbers prove it.

“Our archery success rate typically runs 10 to 15 percent,” Peek said, “and it was 13 percent in 2007. Our firearms success rate was 65 percent, combined, for muzzleloaders and modern firearms. We were up a bit in muzzleloader success, and down a bit in modern firearms success.”

The lack of effect from that winter storm I mentioned might surprise some, but, Peek explained, many pronghorns in the hardest-hit areas of the state simply adapted: They moved.

“They didn’t move terribly far, probably about 15 miles at most,” he said. “The pronghorns in central Logan and Thomas counties relocated to the Oakley vicinity, and the pronghorns in Hamilton and Greeley counties moved to the southern part of Hamilton County. Not all of them moved to escape the worst of the storm, but many did.”

That willingness to hit the trail unquestionably played a role in the storm’s lack of impact on Kansas’ pronghorns. And in the storm’s aftermath, those antelope returned to their “homes.”