Huntinaz
Lil-Rokslider
- Joined
- May 12, 2020
- Messages
- 254
I finally let my thirst for new hunting adventures get the better of me this year and started applying in other states. My little brother and I both miraculously drew antelope tags in Wyoming this year on a whim. The plan was to draw doe tags and of course we applied for buck as a Hail Mary. As lottery luck would have it we both drew buck tags on separate apps and zero doe tags. The odds of this happening in this way were on the verge of impossible but we got them and we had no complaints. We spent the last week in alien country to us in search of animals we've never hunted and it was nothing short of fantastic
We hit the road last week with a loose plan; to keep a mobile camp for 2 nights searching for antelope, spend the next 2 nights sleeping in the town of Lander Wyoming in an AirBnB as our base camp, and then continue the mobile camping for a few more nights if necessary. Should we be done hunting early we would meet our buddy in Utah on our way home for a few nights
We made the edge of our hunting unit in Wyoming at around 0130. We were tired and excited and decided that instead of setting up camp we'd just sleep in the passenger seats. This was a terrible mistake. The low was around 36F that night and we slept like crap. Just cold, restless garbage of a sleep. Had to start the truck a couple times for the heater and by the time the glow of dawn was faint against the horizon we were stiff and sore and in foul moods. This was immediately compounded by our inability to get coffee going. We had planned on setting up a camp when we packed the truck and once we got the grill started we realized our kettle and coffee were in both in separate totes and buried near the front of the cab. Our options were to take the time to get coffee going or miss the first 30 min of hunting light. We cursed and decided Copenhagen, Levi Garrett and anger would have to suffice in place of coffee
We put on our camos and got our rifles and glass ready just as it was light enough to see. We pulled onto the dirt road and made it about 3 minutes down it when we spotted our first antelope. About 250 yards off the road there was a buck grazing and he could care less about our presence. We glassed him and were trying to judge his height and cutters and curl etc. He was an alright buck and we considered plugging him. Then I remembered the advice I had received; antelope can be hard to judge if you've never done it, make sure you look at all the features and don't shoot a little buck early as there will be more opportunities. Seemed like a reasonable enough thing to accomplish so we said it'd be stupid to shoot the first buck we saw and we could probably kill him again in an hour if we wanted. Crisis averted, and we headed down the road as we could see a small hill we could glass from
About 3 minutes later we were assessing two bucks that were rutting and chasing each other. One ran the other off. We looked around and spotted more antelope and more bucks. We spent the rest of the day in constant view of antelope. They were everywhere. The buck to doe ratio seemed to be 1:1. We saw bucks chasing each other and fighting and actively mating does. Bucks were literally everywhere. Most were about the same size, average. We spent the day cruising around and getting to know the area and assessing bucks and just exploring
I immediately found Wyoming to be completely beautiful. I was amazed at how you could look across a large sage prairie and think there was nothing in it. Then as you hiked your way to a vantage point you'd jump maybe 5 lone bucks along the way, all cruising for does. You can walk 100 yards and gain 2 feet in elevation and your view of the landscape completely changes and there are antelope everywhere. It was maybe the best day of hunting we've ever had
Country roads
Evidence of hunters and warriors past
Bucks errwhere
Camped at the top of a plateau
Sunset only got better after the picture
My brother and I are trying to be trophy hunters and day 2 perfectly illustrates the folly we constantly inflict upon ourselves that keeps us from attaining true trophy success. We were raised meat hunters by my dad. Success meant killing an animal and eating it. Success was always measured chiefly by a bird in the hand. This has been a hard lesson for us to harness and apply towards trophy success
The morning of day 2 I had no intention of shooting a buck that day at all. Why would I unless I could plainly see it was a beast? I'd never been in such a target rich environment in my life. The action was nothing short of constant to the point it was annoying to stop and take a leak. There was absolutely no question as to whether or not we were going to be successful. As confirmation we spent the first couple hours passing and passing and passing bucks (or billies as we called them, the natural name for a male speed goat)
Finally we spotted a buck that appeared to be of the quality we could handle but he was in a spot we couldn't sneak on him and he was chasing other bucks and does all across the exact middle of a huge, wide open, miles long flat with zero texture. We decided to leave him at it and keep looking. As luck would have it we spotted another maybe even a little better buck and we devised a sneak. We found a 2-track road that allowed us cover and parked and made a walk behind cover to the point of a little ridge. We crawled to the top of the ridge and sure enough the buck was there with his 15 does. I ranged him at 400 yards and my brother set up the shot. He stood proud watching us, the does were oblivious, and I watched as my brother sent one right over his back. My heart sank but they only ran 700-800 yards and we took a ravine to see if we could get another shot. We crept up to a spot that allowed a shot and the herd had broken into two groups and were very agitated, My brother got on the rifle and said "I've got a shot." I was on the binos and now the buck didn't look as big. I said "I guess that's him" indicating I wasn't so sure but my bro wasn't hearing it. He dialed up 467 yards and there was no stopping him. They were clearly about to run. I heard his breathing settle and he let it rip. The buck hunkered and shivered and flopped. The rest scattered. We got to him and my suspicion was confirmed... some other buck had come in and that's who got thumped. Complete amateur move. We had seen bucks cruising in literally every draw we'd been thru in that area and the herd had just crossed two of these. Excitement got the better of us. Still it was an exhilarating hunt and we resolved to be happy. He made a good shot
While we took pics and dressed this buck the action never slowed. While that herd had split and left, multiple other antelope charged in and ran by and grazed thru and cruised for does. Between the time we got to his dead buck and back to it with the truck we saw 7 other bucks. Could have probably killed them all. This hunt was just lousy with potential targets, everywhere, all the time
We hit the road last week with a loose plan; to keep a mobile camp for 2 nights searching for antelope, spend the next 2 nights sleeping in the town of Lander Wyoming in an AirBnB as our base camp, and then continue the mobile camping for a few more nights if necessary. Should we be done hunting early we would meet our buddy in Utah on our way home for a few nights
We made the edge of our hunting unit in Wyoming at around 0130. We were tired and excited and decided that instead of setting up camp we'd just sleep in the passenger seats. This was a terrible mistake. The low was around 36F that night and we slept like crap. Just cold, restless garbage of a sleep. Had to start the truck a couple times for the heater and by the time the glow of dawn was faint against the horizon we were stiff and sore and in foul moods. This was immediately compounded by our inability to get coffee going. We had planned on setting up a camp when we packed the truck and once we got the grill started we realized our kettle and coffee were in both in separate totes and buried near the front of the cab. Our options were to take the time to get coffee going or miss the first 30 min of hunting light. We cursed and decided Copenhagen, Levi Garrett and anger would have to suffice in place of coffee
We put on our camos and got our rifles and glass ready just as it was light enough to see. We pulled onto the dirt road and made it about 3 minutes down it when we spotted our first antelope. About 250 yards off the road there was a buck grazing and he could care less about our presence. We glassed him and were trying to judge his height and cutters and curl etc. He was an alright buck and we considered plugging him. Then I remembered the advice I had received; antelope can be hard to judge if you've never done it, make sure you look at all the features and don't shoot a little buck early as there will be more opportunities. Seemed like a reasonable enough thing to accomplish so we said it'd be stupid to shoot the first buck we saw and we could probably kill him again in an hour if we wanted. Crisis averted, and we headed down the road as we could see a small hill we could glass from
About 3 minutes later we were assessing two bucks that were rutting and chasing each other. One ran the other off. We looked around and spotted more antelope and more bucks. We spent the rest of the day in constant view of antelope. They were everywhere. The buck to doe ratio seemed to be 1:1. We saw bucks chasing each other and fighting and actively mating does. Bucks were literally everywhere. Most were about the same size, average. We spent the day cruising around and getting to know the area and assessing bucks and just exploring
I immediately found Wyoming to be completely beautiful. I was amazed at how you could look across a large sage prairie and think there was nothing in it. Then as you hiked your way to a vantage point you'd jump maybe 5 lone bucks along the way, all cruising for does. You can walk 100 yards and gain 2 feet in elevation and your view of the landscape completely changes and there are antelope everywhere. It was maybe the best day of hunting we've ever had
Country roads
Evidence of hunters and warriors past
Bucks errwhere
Camped at the top of a plateau
Sunset only got better after the picture
My brother and I are trying to be trophy hunters and day 2 perfectly illustrates the folly we constantly inflict upon ourselves that keeps us from attaining true trophy success. We were raised meat hunters by my dad. Success meant killing an animal and eating it. Success was always measured chiefly by a bird in the hand. This has been a hard lesson for us to harness and apply towards trophy success
The morning of day 2 I had no intention of shooting a buck that day at all. Why would I unless I could plainly see it was a beast? I'd never been in such a target rich environment in my life. The action was nothing short of constant to the point it was annoying to stop and take a leak. There was absolutely no question as to whether or not we were going to be successful. As confirmation we spent the first couple hours passing and passing and passing bucks (or billies as we called them, the natural name for a male speed goat)
Finally we spotted a buck that appeared to be of the quality we could handle but he was in a spot we couldn't sneak on him and he was chasing other bucks and does all across the exact middle of a huge, wide open, miles long flat with zero texture. We decided to leave him at it and keep looking. As luck would have it we spotted another maybe even a little better buck and we devised a sneak. We found a 2-track road that allowed us cover and parked and made a walk behind cover to the point of a little ridge. We crawled to the top of the ridge and sure enough the buck was there with his 15 does. I ranged him at 400 yards and my brother set up the shot. He stood proud watching us, the does were oblivious, and I watched as my brother sent one right over his back. My heart sank but they only ran 700-800 yards and we took a ravine to see if we could get another shot. We crept up to a spot that allowed a shot and the herd had broken into two groups and were very agitated, My brother got on the rifle and said "I've got a shot." I was on the binos and now the buck didn't look as big. I said "I guess that's him" indicating I wasn't so sure but my bro wasn't hearing it. He dialed up 467 yards and there was no stopping him. They were clearly about to run. I heard his breathing settle and he let it rip. The buck hunkered and shivered and flopped. The rest scattered. We got to him and my suspicion was confirmed... some other buck had come in and that's who got thumped. Complete amateur move. We had seen bucks cruising in literally every draw we'd been thru in that area and the herd had just crossed two of these. Excitement got the better of us. Still it was an exhilarating hunt and we resolved to be happy. He made a good shot
While we took pics and dressed this buck the action never slowed. While that herd had split and left, multiple other antelope charged in and ran by and grazed thru and cruised for does. Between the time we got to his dead buck and back to it with the truck we saw 7 other bucks. Could have probably killed them all. This hunt was just lousy with potential targets, everywhere, all the time
