By the end of day one the group was very satisfied with the hunt so far, we had spent the afternoon de-boning meat to put in the freezer we had brought along. The generator was running to charge the trailer batteries and keep the freezer running. We made a quick run into Buffalo Wyoming to a campground to get showers and grab a bite to eat. The next day we would be working closer to filling the rest of our tags.

The next day I set out on my own to walk some ridge lines, hoping to push a big mule deer buck from his bed in hopes of getting a shot. While I was away Justin and Matt were getting a late start on the day sitting at camp, getting their gear together. They noticed a lone antelope way off in the distance. They glassed him for a little while before deciding to go after him. They hiked over 2 miles to close the distance. He stayed right where he was at, grazing on the sage brush within the public land boundary. They were able to sneak to within 50 yards of him. After some conversation of who wanted and who didn’t want to tag out on the second day Matt decided to take the shot on the buck. With his tags full he transitioned to helping us other guys on our hunt.

That afternoon while sitting at camp Todd and I noticed a herd of antelope out on a small grassy pasture feeding, we counted 9 of them and could identify at least one buck. They were a little farther from where I had shot my antelope the day before. We had about 4 hours of daylight left and I asked Todd if he wanted to go after them. He didn’t want to walk all that distance just to have them not be there when we finally made it to where we saw them last. I assured him it would be a quick kill, we could unload everything out of our packs, move quickly through the cattle pasture. The plan was to get up to the ridge where Justin and I had camped the night before the opener. It overlooked the grassy pasture, with any luck we could make a couple hundred yard shot and be back before dark. He liked the plan. We unloaded everything out of our packs and moved quickly through the pasture. We got to the hill that Justin and I had climbed and reached the top of the ridge. My recollection of the distance between the ridge and the grass pasture was a little off, we were closer to 800 yards than a couple hundred. The antelope weren’t there.

Their was a dirt road leading to the pasture where a gas well had been put in. We decided to get over to the dirt road to get a better look at the area and see if they had decided to bed down on the other side of the pasture. As we made our way up to the road we decided to take the dirt road around to get a better view of the pasture. Just then Todd got my attention, I looked straight in front of us to see a herd of over 20 antelope staring back at 200 yards. We slowly walked backwards to where we could get off the edge of the road and get down behind some cover. The distance was too far for a good shot. They were getting skittish and beginning to move around. They didn’t take off right away so we decided to keep low using the road as cover and to back away from them. We dropped our packs there so we could keep a low profile while moving. We were able to cross the road at a low spot so that we could try to flank them. It took some time but we came up about 150 yards from where they were laying.

Todd moved in quietly with his rifle to get a better look. He pointed to the right of the herd. Two mule deer buck were bedded on the hillside beside the herd of antelope. He returned so we could come up with a game plan. The deer blended in so well with their surroundings it was hard to see them. We finally were able to see they were smaller deer, one was a spike, the other a two point. By the time Todd decided he wanted to go after the antelope instead of the buck the antelope had begun to move. They trotted off around the side of the hill away from us. I talked Todd into going after them, they didn’t seem to be really scared, just seemed like they were trotting off. We moved a few hundred yards up the dirt road and located them at the bottom of a hill. We had perfect cover where we were able to watch them for a little. Todd didn’t really have a shot where we were at so we decided we’d back up cross the road and move in to flank them again. Just then it started raining. The rain was enough to get the antelope up out of their beds and they moved again. This time just walking, they didn’t seem to be in a hurry at all.

At this point, we have maybe 30 minutes of daylight left, we’re probably about 3.5 to 4 miles from camp and it’s starting to lightning all around us. Todd was ready to get back to camp before it was too dark to see anything. I was starting to feel the same way, but I had this feeling the antelope were only a couple hundred yards away on the other side of this small hill and we could be leaving a great opportunity just because of the dark and some rain. I told Todd if we got to the top of the hill and they weren’t there that was it, we’d head back get our packs and get back to camp. He agreed, I walked up an old dirt path to the top of the hill. Their were two fence posts in the ground with 2×4’s at the bottom and top. It was located in an odd spot but it ended up being a perfect gun rest. The whole herd was 200 yards directly in front of us. I crept back about 20 feet and let Todd get a comfortable rest. We had plenty of time. He steadied himself for a few moment then let a shot out of his Tikka .260. I quickly moved up behind him, just in time to see what I thought was an antelope drop. He reloaded quickly getting ready to take another shot. The herd stood there for a minute staring at us. I told him I thought he put one down. They scattered across the countryside as we made our way down the hill. At this point the sun was beginning to set.

We got down to where he thought he shot his buck. As we approached we saw 2 legs sticking up in the air. We had the bare essentials with us (Knife, tags, binos) but all of our other stuff was back at the packs. He started on quartering the animal out while I headed back for the packs. I pulled out my GPS to see how far it would be to go get them. We had made it a mile from the packs without even realizing it. I moved quickly down the dirt road, retrieved the packs and started heading back to the kill site. When I returned he had most of the meat off the animal and hanging on the sage brush. At this point we were both pretty hungry, wet, and starting to get cold. I pulled a mountain house double meal out and cooked it up while he was finishing putting the meat in the bags and getting the loins out. We had a quick meal before heading back. I pulled my GPS out and saw my battery life was at 25%. He had a little over 50% so I shut mine off in case we needed it later. In the pitch black it was difficult to even get started back, we needed to find the road so it would lead us to the pasture. We got to a spot that we could drop down in to the cattle pasture. Before we would be out of cell service I called back to the camp to let the guys know we’d be a little late and to start their way toward us in case we got turned around.

After getting slightly lost due to the dark we finally found the main cattle trail we were using and headed in the right direction. At about the halfway mark we saw headlamps in the distance and met up with the rest of the guys. They spread loaded some of the meat and we rolled in to camp around 10:30 that evening. This hunt taught me a good lesson, never take the bare essentials out of your pack. Had we gotten stuck out there over night it would’ve been nice to have a sweatshirt, safety blanket, and extra batteries. Luckily it all worked out, but whenever you plan for a quick kill and quick return it will inevitably not go as planned.