Wyoming Unit H

[johnnylaw]

Im still hunting, missed opportunity on a 180 class opening day, havnt seen a buck i want to shoot since day 2

 

[fiskeri1]

I'm expecting all you guys that drew region H tags to report back on how things went, whether you tagged out or not!

Looking forward to seeing some pics of good bucks!

I was planning on getting out there for the archery season but a little arthroscopic surgery 4 weeks ago forced a plan B.

So far the doc's are giving the green light for me to hobble after the deer by the end of the month so I'm hopeful that a few days of hunting at the end of the season will be enough for me to accommodate your request.

 

[back country]

I was planning on getting out there for the archery season but a little arthroscopic surgery 4 weeks ago forced a plan B.

So far the doc's are giving the green light for me to hobble after the deer by the end of the month so I'm hopeful that a few days of hunting at the end of the season will be enough for me to accommodate your request.

Good luck! I hope you have success and stay safe in the process! Make sure to post up a recap of your hunt with some pics...

 

[Clarktar]

Still watching this myself. Looking forward to pictures and wishing you a successful hunt!

 

[avluey]

We didn't see many mature bucks where we hunt in unit H. I ended up shooting a small 3x3 on Tuesday morning as that was my last full day to hunt. Of course Wednesday morning while giving it one last go with a bow for elk I finally saw 2 mature bucks in the timber that I could have made a shot at. They are out there though, so hoping the old man gets a good one down as he has the whole season. Here's my 2014 buck from Unit H, just shy of 187:
View attachment 40831

 

[fiskeri1]

Arrived last Saturday (10/1) late afternoon and stretched my legs a bit. If I'd had a doe tag I could have filled within 5 minutes (a foreshadowing of things to come).

Hunted my "plan A" area Sunday (10/2) and found two bucks in a likely spot, one small guy whose face you (hopefully) can see in the pic and another larger deer whose antlers are just to the right. He was a rather nice 3x3 with some trash on the sides who I was not about to pass up on my first solo/diy/high-country hunt.View attachment 41308

 

[Clarktar]

Arrived last Saturday (10/1) late afternoon and stretched my legs a bit. If I'd had a doe tag I could have filled within 5 minutes (a foreshadowing of things to come).

Hunted my "plan A" area Sunday (10/2) and found two bucks in a likely spot, one small guy whose face you (hopefully) can see in the pic and another larger deer whose antlers are just to the right. He was a rather nice 3x3 with some trash on the sides who I was not about to pass up on my first solo/diy/high-country hunt.View attachment 41308

Try to post the picture again, its not working!

 

[fiskeri1]

Made my way below them without spooking anything (small miracle) and set up to wait. The small buck got up and moved on and shortly after the big guy got up. Had him in my crosshairs at 293 yards, 32 degree angle. Wasn't sure on how to compensate this as I'm more of an archery guy but figured that right-on would be close enough with the rifle setup. The real problem was my rest/position was not the best, there was some grass to shoot through (there was a fold on the mountain slope above me) and yeah, I got a little excited that this was working out right to plan. This was just not turning into a shot I wanted to take so I waited for him to feed into a fold where he was out of sight and I moved up about 30 yards to a better location. I then waited.....and waited.....And he never came out. View attachment 41309

 

[fiskeri1]

Try to post the picture again, its not working!

Damn, sorry about that. Working now?

 

[fiskeri1]

It rained on and off all Sunday night and on Monday morning the fog was pretty dense. This cleared mid-morning and 30 minutes later the horizontal snow started. My spot-and-stalk hunt tactics were going to need to be modified for the remainder of the week. There was a bit of a reprieve on Wednesday but overall the conditions were challenging to put it mildly. Returned to the spot where I saw the two bucks but there were no signs until Wednesday when I went in for a closer look and saw their tracks heading down the mountain with the rest of the deer. Oh yeah, there were plenty of deer in the area. Don't know how many times I looked through the bino's and growled "doe and two fawns". But as avluey indicated, there seemed to be a general scarcity of mature bucks. Not a complete surprise given how late into the season this was but still a bit discouraging. Stuck with it and did my best to "enjoy" the weather by catching some snowflakes......

 

[fiskeri1]

Given my circumstances (relative novice to backcountry/solo hunting, recent knee injury) I was not coming into this hunt with great trophy expectations but my standards dropped rather precipitously during the week. I was somewhat regretting passing up the 3 or 4 opportunities on little bucks that I had on that first "bluebird day". So on the afternoon of the 5th day of my 6 day hunt I was not going to pass up the opportunity on what I will describe as the best-tasting deer that Wyoming law would allow me to take.
Overall this hunt was a great experience and I learned a lot from it.

 

[Clarktar]

Awesome. Congrats! Hope I draw this tag next year!

 

[back country]

Nice recap, and congrats on not coming out empty-handed!

I'm already looking forward to the Wyoming draw results next year. This year was a huge disappointment, I thought I would draw for sure since I did the special...odds for it last year with the points I had was 100%. It was a good reminder that nothing in life is guaranteed though. But man did I miss hunting the Wyoming high country this year!