Based on your votes the blind I would hunt for the first day was called the "Solar Well" which was on the far Northwest corner of the ranch. Frank Moore (owner of Spearhead Ranch) dropped Dale Thurman (Ohio) off first at a blind called Maggie's Snake pit. After Dale was set Frank dropped me off at the solar well and wished me good luck.

The blind is a metal tank partially buried in the ground. My shot distance to the waterhole is about 15 yards which is average at Spearhead. The blind is approximately 8' wide and 7' tall - plenty big enough for two people and with more than enough room for me to shoot my longbow. I watched some pronghorn out in the distance but did not have any action until later that morning.

At 9:00 AM this buck came in to water. He had good horns which were extremely wide (and I was tempted to shoot him) but I knew that there are plenty of P&Y bucks on this ranch - it just takes is a little patience. This buck was unique but I passed on him - opting to get some photos instead.

I watched more antelope in the distance (like the small group above) and passed on this buck as well shortly before noon. One of the problems with a setup like this is you could pass-through the buck and into another animal. So even if I had decided to shoot this buck I would have waited for a better opportunity. But I knew that a bigger buck would eventually show himself - and he did.

An hour after this group left the waterhole, I spotted another group of antelope heading in. From a distance the buck looked real good and as he got closer to the blind the blood started pumping - I wanted this pronghorn. While I don't claim to be the world's greatest trophy hunter - I was specifically looking for a book animal given the quality of game on this ranch. I looked him over and grabbed my bow. The buck did not present a shot at first but when he stopped watering he gave me a great shot angle at 15 yards. That was all I needed. A few moments later I was admiring this beautiful pronghorn buck. Not bad for the first half-day hunting here at Spearhead Ranch!!

Pat's pronghorn green-scored 71 PY inches (minimum is 67) and was shot with a 60 lb. Harrison El Lobo Longbow, Nitro Stinger Arrows, and a Wensel Woodsman broadhead.

Don't tune out yet, we have lots of other hunters who will be updating you tonight on their hunt. This is only day 1 on our 8 day Bowsite.com Y2K group hunt. Now I get to chase those big Spearhead mulies for the next 7 days!!

You helped me harvest this Pronghorn! For those of you who missed the contest this weekend, we asked our visitors to pick my antelope blind prior to the hunt. We gave them a map and set up a voting system. The deal was that I would hunt from the blind with the most votes and if I shot a PY buck - those people who chose this blind would be entered to win a free Bowsite.com T-Shirt. Here are the names we drew from that list. My thanks to everyone who voted. Dale Garrard Larry Yien Dwayne Sass Garry Schumacher Kurt Cassell IowaBow Larry Comer Jim Frank Glynn Sluder Wil Milam