Strange evening at the range

[jnyork]

At this evenings silhouette shoot, we are banging away when we see this doe pronghorn off to the right about 30 yards up the hill, slowly grazing her way downrange with THREE little fawns in tow. Pronghorns regularly have twins but three is a little bit unusual. Anyway, next thing she does is wander out into the line of fire at about the 50 yard line. I walked out there to shoo her off, she just stood there watching me until I got within about 30 feet of her three kids, then they all meandered back up the hill again. About 30 minutes later, back into the line of fire at about the 150 yard line, one of the guys drove out there and ran them off again, but they never did get really spooked, they are so used to gunfire and humans. Anyway, nice to get such a close view of the fawns. We had to run a buck out same way last week.

[awp101]

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...

[Old Savage]

Have had sheep do that.

[kimwcook]

I can understand sheep doing that as they don't have brains enough to get out of the sun, but pronghorns are usually pretty spooky.

[rjohns94]

strange behavior for sure. reminds me of the deer on the golf courses in Monterey Ca. Huge coastal mulelies letting you get within feet of them as you play your shot. I guess they get used to people, but shooting, not seen that.

[AJMD429]

For the first four or five years, I hunted deer from my range house, just sitting at the bench, reading a book, with my .44 Mag revolver or 12 gauge shotgun close at hand. I didn't have to wear camo, since the building was brown wood - I just wore my Carharts...

[Bogie35]

Then the season starts, and they disappear! That's what white-tails in Carolina do anyway.

bogie

[Travis Morgan]

Animals must know what a loaded rifle smells like. I can run around all day with a gun, but as soon as I decide to load and shoot, the animals disappear!

[Chuck 100 yd]

Not uncommon for deer to step out on our range as shooting is going on. One day during a trap shoot there was a doe and fawn out about 75 yd. and every once in a while a stray pellet would hit her and she would kick at it like a bee was after her.

We used to have to chase the Elk off the range before you could sight in your hunting rifle. Still see droppings and tracks on the range but no Elk for several years.