Fatcamp goes to Wyoming

Savage99

WKR
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Jan 26, 2017
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435
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CO
Cool buck, just got back from antelope and saw muley does, but no bucks. Pretty cool still in velvet. Congrats!


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Fatcamp

Fatcamp

WKR
Joined
May 31, 2017
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Sodak
The most intense day of hunting yet.

The Beginning

Woke at 315 on Friday and knew I wouldn't fall back asleep so just got up and started doing my thing. Wife woke up to keep me company and get my plan for the morning. First spot was a couple mile bike ride on a poorly maintained forest service road to an overlook where a couple thousand acres of high desert can be viewed.
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The ride was tougher than I thought but uneventful otherwise and I arrived well before sunrise and setup my tripod and 15x Meopta for what I hoped would be a good first morning. What a dud. I didn't see a single deer. Huge letdown. Word was that numbers were down and I was beginning to think it was true. After a couple hours of watching antelope and cattle I headed back just in time to meet a guy who told me the same tale of woe concerning deer numbers. Not a great morning overall.
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Made my way back to camp for food and consultation with the wife. Fell asleep in my chair for a bit, it was an absolutely beautiful day. Warm and sunny. Great day for a nap. I had three areas to check out, number one sucked, number two had people camped close, and number three was a long ways off. Still, number three got the vote and after switching out optics setups and filling up on food and water I took off on foot. If I had known how the night would end I would probably have waited until morning.
 
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Fatcamp

Fatcamp

WKR
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May 31, 2017
Messages
5,815
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Sodak
Into the abyss.
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The area I was headed into was new to me. Maps and lines drawn on computer screens do not do it justice. It is large, very rough, and has no good options for access other than putting one foot in front of the other. On our previous trip I had made it in a ways, but turned back before making it too far. Due to the current wind and forecast I wanted to loop around and come in from the back. Several miles in made it obvious just what a task this would be, on a positive note I started finding deer. Taking my time I got to the basin I was after and set up to glass.
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By this point it was getting late and I needed to head back but there was an even bigger basin I wanted to look at. I told myself that I may never make it back here so to not look at it would be a mistake. After years of wondering it was amazing. I have no doubt there are some big bucks in there, but I didn't have time for much other than a quick look. My plan was to loop around the front of the bluffs that make up the basin and head back along the ridge I had walked five years ago. I also told myself to stop glassing and get moving.
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Earlier in the day I thought I had spotted a rack bedded in the last draw before the ridge and as I came around the corner gave it a quick look. Right away I spotted a large buck and after a quick check with the spotting scope left everything behind and closed the distance. Started at 570 and closed it to 230. Once I got there I couldn't find the big buck. All in view was a giant forkhorn who was bedded at the top of the ridge. It was close to sunset so I settled in to wait. Sure enough not 1 but 2 big four points appeared. The one I had initially seen and the deer I ended up shooting. They knew something was up and were headed over the top and fence that was there.
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The big buck was facing away and actually scratching his back with his antlers. I was set up on him waiting for him to turn when the other buck turned sideways. It was a no brainer and I sent it. Rifle is a Savage model 110 in .300 WM shooting Browning 155gr bullets. No reason other than they were on sale when my wife bought the rifle and shoot MOA. When I got back on him he was bounding over the top with blood pumping out the right side. I hustled back to my stuff and got moving. Sunset was 630 and I shot him at 629. A storm was blowing in and it was getting dark fast and once on top I couldn't find blood. So worried. I walked to the off side and shined my light over. One blue eye stared back and a quick check with binoculars showed him dead 30 yards away.
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At his point my GPS showed I had covered 5 miles. I wasn't sure how far I was from camp, but it was a ways over very rough country. In the dark. With a storm starting to blow. And a huge deer to deal with.
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Fatcamp

Fatcamp

WKR
Joined
May 31, 2017
Messages
5,815
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Sodak
Mistakes keep us humble.
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I messaged my wife to let her know I had found him, took a couple pictures, and quickly posted one here before even laying hands on the buck. My wife wanted to know what she should do to help and I told her to get ready. In moving the deer around a bit I realized it was enormous. The game Warden who stopped by camp today identified him as a cryptoid, meaning no testicles and no testosterone to message the velvet to shed. Hence a full velvet deer in mid October. Also probably the reason he was so big, just like a big fat steer.
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At this point I was beginning to realize we would not be getting this deer out that night. I messaged my wife that I didn't think she should come to me, we should just wait until morning as the hike in would be way too rough in the dark. Then my phone died. It went from 15% to 0% In a matter of minutes. No big deal, I had a battery pack and cord which I dug out and hooked up. Nothing. Oh, crap. In my haste to leave camp I had packed the wrong cord. My phone is picky and I picked up the wrong black cord. That one little mistake would result in the spookiest night I have had while hunting.
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Immediately I realized that not only would I not be able to communicate with my wife, but I had just lost my GPS. It also occured to me that if she didn't hear back from me she would probably start walking in. That would be bad as she had no idea how rough it was and how difficult it would be to navigate. That turned out to be an accurate appraisal of the situation on my part. As quick as I could I gutted the deer and wedged his body cavity open with my tripod, then drug him away from the gut pile and covered him in Tyvek weighed down with some rocks. By now it was blowing Wyoming and I was sure no coyote in that area would tolerate a giant flapping sheet no matter the prize. I dug out my compass which long ago and far away my father had counseled my to always carry, and headed off. I just knew my wife was going to be out there and her last message made me realize she was not clear on how she should be traveling. I was a bit worried at this point but knew I was headed towards her so just kept moving. At this point it was pitch black, howling wind, and spitting rain.
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I knew if I headed north and west eventually I would hit a fence and a road. Wasn't worried about me or the deer but had some anxiety about my wife. About 45 minutes in I spotted a headlamp, there was no one else out there so I figured it had to be her. Problem was the location was off and moving in the wrong direction. It appeared for awhile and then was gone. I figured maybe she saw me coming back and turned around. Down the trail aways until I saw her light again, and again it didn't make sense where it was. This went on several more times until finally I left my ridge headed for the light. It disappeared before I could get there. Honestly, it made no sense. A small part of me started to wonder if other people were out there but I just knew they weren't. It was her but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what she was doing. Turns out what she was doing was being lost. Turns out her phone and OnX we're only communicating GPS location every 15 minutes. 15 minutes is an eternity in those conditions. After an eternity we met up. I have never been so relieved. She was near tears as her phone was almost dead and she had basically been going in circles for a couple hours. Once we were together we knew we would be fine we just had to get back to camp. We were very tired, but her phone showed our location to be fairly close to camp so off we went, getting back 15 minutes after the torrential down pour started that soaked us both, I had never been so relieved to see camp.
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That one little mistake of grabbing the wrong cord led to this whole problem. A bunch of other coincidences happened along the way, but if I had grabbed another cord it would have been a non event. I would have told her to go back to camp and followed the ridge back via Basemap. Instead, a bunch of wandering and fear which while a teachable moment, is not something I wish to repeat ever again.
 
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Fatcamp

Fatcamp

WKR
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Sodak
The next day.
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Once back at camp we dried off, fired up the heater and ate. It was good to be home but the mistakes of the night and the realization that she had a very near miss made sleep come slowly. Turns out she had taken a different road than I imagined and intended to cut across country once even with my position. While not a horrible idea in theory, in practice to try and cross that direction was a mistake. Even during daylight it would take forever and be very difficult. That is why her position didn't make sense. I assumed where she had gone rather than critically thinking about where she was. Even the next day in the light we could not figure out where we had been. I have a rough idea, but we will never know for sure. Under ideal conditions the next day it took us 1.5 hours to cross 2.6 miles from camp to where I shot my deer. The night before I shot him at 630 and we got back to camp at 1100 to give you an idea of how long it took us and how much we wandered off course.
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In the morning we ate warm food, hydrated, and drank a bunch of coffee before heading out. Other than the suck of carrying heavy packs it was uneventful. Our confidence nearly cost us. Not sure what but some little details we take for granted were not what they were supposed to be and made the night a lot harder than it should be. New GPS for us both, a new phone for me, clearer communication prior to travel, and a checklist for our backpack emergency equipment. We do this all the time. It's not like we just decided to go hunting on a whim. This is our lifestyle and to come this close to having a very real problem was a nice wakeup call for us. It also resulted in hurt feelings. We take ourselves pretty seriously when it come to our safety and well-being, and going through this was humbling for sure.
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Pretty happy with my buck. After our hunt 5 years ago when we had this tag I have always held that if I had one more day I could have killed a nice deer. Guess I was right. Not much of a live hunt this time. It happened so fast and with our problems updates were tough to post. Our area has bad reception as well. Hope it was interesting. It was by far the most intense day of hunting I have ever had.
 

woods89

WKR
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Sep 3, 2014
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1,835
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Southern MO Ozarks
I enjoyed this one a lot!

I have a nice whitetail that turned into quite an evening as well. It wasn't so much fun at the time but now I look at those antlers and remember that every time. I wouldn't change a thing, and I suspect you'll treasure the story behind the deer for a long time.

Good for you having a compass along. Phones and Onx are great but the potential is there to need a backup sometimes.

It's these kind of threads that make Rokslide a great place.
 
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Fatcamp

Fatcamp

WKR
Joined
May 31, 2017
Messages
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Location
Sodak
I enjoyed this one a lot!

I have a nice whitetail that turned into quite an evening as well. It wasn't so much fun at the time but now I look at those antlers and remember that every time. I wouldn't change a thing, and I suspect you'll treasure the story behind the deer for a long time.

Good for you having a compass along. Phones and Onx are great but the potential is there to need a backup sometimes.

It's these kind of threads that make Rokslide a great place.

Glad to hear you enjoyed it and I agree on all counts. One of the things that will really stick with me was how emotional I got when I pulled out that compass. My dad died when I was 18 and we never spent much time together due to divorce and parent conflict but that compass thing always stuck with me. Massive flood of emotion, almost to tears. Really strange. It was an intense night for sure.
 

FatCampzWife

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Mar 31, 2020
Messages
166
Location
The Plains
Bonus notes for thread followers:
We had heard coyotes from all directions the night before the hunt, so I was very concerned Fatcamp's hard-earned buck would be trashed if we didn't attempt to get it out. Honestly, if this was one of our nearly annual South Dakota hunts, I would have snuggled up with a book & requested travel updates instead of heading out in the dark with rain coming in.
A few slightly disturbing events occurred before I even got lost...
My topomap on OnX was non-existant. It looked to be gentle slopes with a few creeks before I hit the ridge I could walk down to meet up with Fatcamp & help haul meat (Actual landscape pic to follow).

Lost the stupid dog right off, as I was trying to message Fatcamp (not knowing his phone had just died), dog wandered off. Wind had picked up, so yelling didn't get me too far. He Finally showed back up, wet. The next day we would discover he found a stock dam not far from the road.

And, as a special bonus, I discovered the big, nocturnal, giant spiders with blue eyes that like to sit on the road waiting for... me? Bugs? Don't know, don't care, didn't like.

About an hour into the trek, dog & I crested a ridge & as I glanced around looking for the best way down, I saw eyes. Not cow eyes, canine eyes (farm girl, I know cow eyes in the dark). In a very large head. By this point, I'd seen my dog's eyes reflecting from various distances, so I knew this wasn't a 80 pound coyote looking at me. More like a 150+ pound something. Which didn't flinch or run when I yelled, clapped, hollered, or clapped my hiking sticks loudly. I knew if I shot at it, Fatcamp would hear & flip out (a correct assumption, I was assured of later).
So, we went the opposite direction, & kept my ears open. Still freaks me out. I may suck at directions in the dark (& in general), but I know I saw a very large, non-hoofed animal on that ridge.
The next treat was walking out into a horseshoe bend in the creek...and having to backtrack out of it. One of Many backtracks that night.

At some point, I see I'm much closer to Fatcamp's location, but can only literally see about 15 yards in front of me. I look south, & swear I see his headlamp on the ridge. I head southwest, go over many ridges, and find myself in a valley, & then see on his tracker he's moving back towards camp. Great. I send a slightly distressed text: "I NEED TO KNOW IF THAT'S YOUR HEADLIGHT ON THE RIDGE!"

No reply. My phone's down to 20% power, so I'm toggling airplane mode off & on to save power. Cursing Basemap AND OnX for the crappy tracking functions.

I send another text: "Heading back to road"

After 45 minutes of walking in what I think is the right direction, I look at my position & discover I'm closer to the ridge trail than the road, so I send another text update, & head up a valley. Of course, my phone was now at 15%, and I wasn't going UP the valley, I was going down...

It's at this point three things happen: my position now tells me I have NO IDEA what the hell direction North is, I start to contemplate what happens to me when my phone dies, & I see a light. Again.

At this point, I'm starting to think someone's screwing with me, but still hoping very much that it's Fatcamp. I head down the ridge towards the light, but it disappears. Again. More cursing, and a little closer to tears.

Up the next ridge & I hear someone yelling, & dog goes nutz. Thank god. I use the dog ("Go find Daddy! Where's Daddy?"), and finally pinpoint Fatcamp's location. The rest is cold, wet, & boring.

Oh, the lessons learned...

The landscape in the background is a sample of what I was trekking over...with trusty doggo.
 

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Learner

FNG
Joined
Dec 3, 2019
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Thanks for sharing this. I always learn a lot more from the things that go bad than from the times where everything works out perfectly.
 

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