Twisted Prong: Nine Years for One Tag

Some hunts are remembered because of how difficult they were. Some because of the animal. Some because of the people you shared them with.

This one had a little bit of everything but more than anything, it left me feeling incredibly grateful.

I had taken an entire week off work for this hunt. After nine years of applying, I finally drew a limited-entry pronghorn tag. This was also going to be my first big game hunt and, hopefully, my first big game animal.

And I was nervous.

I’m a waterfowl guy through and through. Give me ducks, geese, decoys, a dog and a shotgun, and I’m comfortable. Big game was completely new territory.

Getting Ready

I ended up buying a used .25-06 for $225. I pulled off the wood stock, put it into a Magpul stock, got it set up for a tripod, and topped it with a Leupold VX-3HD 4.5-14x50. Leupold confirms that 4.5-14x50 configuration as part of the VX-3HD line. 

But owning a rifle and knowing how to properly set one up are two completely different things.

That’s where Cody Long came in.

Cody took the time to help me get the rifle sighted in and teach me what I needed to know. I went into it knowing very little about long-range rifle shooting, and I walked away feeling confident in the gun and, more importantly, confident that I could make a responsible shot.

Scooter was tied up working on his movie, Adam was busy, and things around NOK were moving a hundred miles an hour. Having Cody step in and take the time to help me meant more than he probably realizes.

The rifle shot incredibly well.

Now we just needed an antelope.

Nine Years Came Down to One Morning

When the hunt finally arrived, I called Joe from Twisted J Photography.

“Dude, can you please come film this?”

Joe has become a huge part of what we’re building at NOK. We’ve brought him on to help with photo and video because there are simply too many stories happening for us to capture everything ourselves.

So Joe and I headed out.

And after waiting nine years for the tag, the actual hunt happened fast.

Almost too fast.

We got up on a ridge and decided to sit and glass rather than spend the day driving around looking for antelope. Eventually, we were getting ready to move when we looked over and saw something I’ll probably remember for the rest of my life.

There he was.

A mature pronghorn standing on top of a completely bare hill.

The sun was hitting him perfectly.

I don’t know how else to describe the moment other than it genuinely felt like God reached down and placed that buck on that hill for us.

He was rutting, looking for does, calling and completely focused on what he was doing.

Joe and I just happened to be there to see it.

The Shot

The buck worked his way out to around 400 yards.

I dialed the scope, got settled behind the rifle and waited.

I anticipated him taking another step forward as I broke the shot. Instead, the bullet caught him in the neck.

He ran roughly 50 yards.

Then he went down.

And suddenly, after nine years of waiting, it was over.

My first big game animal was on the ground.

From what we saw and heard that weekend, he was also the biggest buck we knew of taken in that unit during that opening stretch. But standing there looking at him, that honestly wasn’t what mattered to me.

I remember walking up to him and almost becoming emotional.

I said a prayer.

I thanked God for the animal. I thanked Him for the opportunity. I thanked Him for allowing everything to come together the way it did.

And then I just wanted to sit there.

I remember thinking I could have grabbed a lawn chair, sat next to that antelope and stared at him for hours.

Nine years of applying.

A $225 rifle.

My first big game hunt.

And somehow, in an incredibly short amount of time, I was standing over an animal I couldn’t believe I had been blessed enough to harvest.

Taking Care of What We Were Given

That part mattered to me too.

We took the hide off, and I decided the buck would get a European mount. We packed out every bit of usable meat we could. When we were finished, essentially all that remained were the parts we couldn’t use.

Back home, I was able to give some of the meat to a friend, and the rest went to the butcher to be processed and put into the freezer.

There’s something different about knowing exactly where that food came from.

Times aren’t cheap. Feeding families isn’t cheap. And I’m not going to pretend hunting is necessarily the cheaper way to put meat in a freezer once you add up tags, fuel, equipment and everything else.

But there’s value in it that can’t be measured strictly in dollars.

Genesis 9:3 says, “Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you.” 

For me, that verse is also a reminder that taking an animal isn’t something to treat casually. It’s provision, and that deserves gratitude and respect.

From what we could tell, this was an old, mature buck possibly around nine years old himself. There’s something pretty incredible about waiting nine years for a tag and potentially harvesting a buck that had spent roughly that same amount of time surviving on that landscape.

The People Made the Hunt

There’s one part of this story that still makes me laugh.

Cody was actually coming out to hunt with us and help me.

I shot the antelope before he even got there.

I genuinely felt bad.

But Cody still came out, and instead of packing up and calling the trip over, we spent another day together hanging out, talking about life and laughing.

I don’t remember the last time I laughed that hard for that long.

And looking back, that’s as important to this story as pulling the trigger.

The animal eventually becomes a mount. The meat eventually gets eaten. But those conversations, those laughs and those relationships are what stay with you.

That’s a huge part of why NOK exists.

We want to hunt. We want to meet new people. We want to experience new places. We want to bring cameras along and share those experiences with all of you.

Not every hunt has to become some massive production.

Sometimes it’s just good people standing around a dead antelope laughing until their stomachs hurt.

That’s hunting too.

From a Photograph to Twisted Prong

Joe took a photograph of my buck that day that he was especially proud of.

And when I saw it, I understood why.

It captured the animal and the landscape in a way that brought me straight back to that moment.

So we did something we’ve never done before.

We took an actual photograph from one of our hunts and turned it into an NOK design.

That’s how the Twisted Prong Tee was born.

“Twisted” comes from Twisted J Photography. “Prong” comes from the animal that gave us this story.

For Joe, it’s the first time one of his photographs has been turned into an apparel design.

For me, it’s my first big game animal.

For NOK, it’s another piece of our story that isn’t manufactured or dreamed up in a design room.

We actually lived it.

That’s what makes this shirt special to me.

Every time I look at that design, I don’t just see a pronghorn.

I see nine years of waiting.

I see Cody helping a waterfowl hunter figure out a rifle.

I see Joe behind the camera.

I see that bare hill.

I see the sun hitting that buck.

I remember walking up to my first big game animal and thanking God.

And I remember laughing with good friends afterward.

That’s Twisted Prong.

A real hunt. A real photograph. A real piece of NOK history.

Faith. Family. Pursuit.

Never Out Killed.