This blog post is going to finish up the our Wyoming hunt and I am going to try to get to the Idaho hunt we did the following year then talk about our upcoming hunt for the 2018/2019 season.

The last few days of our Wyoming hunt were as action packed as the first two days. The third day a cold front moved in with some precipitation. We awoke to wind gusts in the 30 to 40 mph range and moderate rain. Nothing could have prepared me for driving on that wet clay soil. The dirt turns to a slippery solid mud that seems to stick to everything it touches. We opted to drive around the area to find other parcels of public land that we had already identified by using the OnX hunt app. It seemed that everyone hunting in the county had the same idea. We passed truck after truck, loaded with hunters sitting on the sides of the roads waiting for antelope to cross from private to public so they could get an opportunity on an animal. The allure of it all was lost on us, we didn’t find any sport in that type of hunting and quickly got bored with the idea. After finding nothing but piles of trucks lining the public land we had driven to, we decided to head back to camp and glass around camp. That was the only day we weren’t successful in locating game.

On Day four Matt and I headed out in the truck to a different spot down the highway a little farther. The landscape looked rugged and steep, juniper trees dotted the hillsides. This country looked ideal for deer looking to tuck away somewhere and not be seen. We hiked to the first hilltop, it was steep but not tall. The other side opened up to a beautiful scene with a sunrise at our backs, the wind to our faces, an area not far from a highway but seemingly untouched wilderness. The first few hours were exciting, we saw a herd of a dozen Mule deer does file out of a coulee in the distance headed in the direction we were intending to move. At 500 yards we sat and watched a spike buck with two does feeding on the hillside. Moments like these are truly indescribable to someone who hasn’t experienced it first hand. I remember as a kid watching western hunts on TV, reading about them in magazines, or seeing highlight reels of outfitters at outdoor shows. Dreaming of the day I would be able to afford to go on a high dollar hunt just to experience the vast open terrain of unmolested land. This was it, this was the moment you knew you’d never forget, soaking it in one second at a time.

Matt and I knew we didn’t come the whole way to Wyoming to shoot a spike so we waiting until they slipped away into a ravine out of sight. We had a few hundred feet of climbing ahead of us into uncharted territory. Satellite and Topo maps are great tools, but there are no substitutes for laying eyes on a new piece of ground. We crested the hill  and saw a large open prairie gently sloping down to a creek bottom lined with juniper and cottonwood trees. There were a few does bedded down staring at us, their radar dish ears fully alert, wondering why humans have invaded their area. We sat down at the base of a small hillside glassing to see if any bucks made it in to their group. They jumped up and hopped of over a knoll. It felt as though we couldn’t move more than a couple hundred yards without running into deer, our hope was that we’d eventually glass up a nice buck.

We moved parallel with the road, hoping to get to higher ground to sit and glass for a while, when Matt spotted a buck. The deer was 150 yards down the hill from us, standing broadside. His antlers were wide and tall, bigger than anything I’ve ever killed before. It was a split second decision, shoot or not shoot. I pulled my rifle up, rested it on my trekking pole that has a rubber V mounted to the top of it. I could see the deer clearly in my scope, he only had 2 points on both sides. I decided to take the shot, I am not by any means a trophy hunter, and at the same rate, I am not going to shoot a spike. I decided I would be proud to shoot a deer of this size. I steadied the scope. Squeezed off a shot. He didn’t move, not an inch. He stood there staring at us. I looked at Matt as I was loading another round into the chamber. “Did I hit him?”. He replied “Nope. Clean miss high”. I couldn’t understand what happened I was lined up perfect, cross hairs dead on. Then it hit me, A rookie mistake many hunters have made in the past. I never set my scope back to zero when I took the shot on the antelope at 400 yards. I quickly turned the turret back to zero, at the same time Matt started yelling to look to our right. Two 3 point bucks jumped up at 60 yards from the tall grass, spooked by the shot they took off. I was hoping they’d come to a stop to get a better look on what was going on before taking off again. I took aim on the one to the right, Matt was full out yelling at this point that the buck on the right was the bigger deer. They paused for a moment at 100 yards. I knew it was the only opportunity I’d get on them and I was ready. I pulled the trigger they both took off. I made a clean double lung shot, but the deer was still running. I racked another round into the chamber, wanting to finish the deer as quick as possible. I put another round into him and he dropped only 40 yards from where he had initially stood. The excitement was exhilarating. I stood there shaking, processing what had just happened, the adrenaline still pumping through my body.

Matt and I had our few minutes of celebration, we took some pictures, and then got to work on caring for the meat. We packed the deer away in our packs and headed back to the truck. When we got cell phone service we got word from Nick and Todd that they took two mule deer bucks Then Justin and John had shot two antelope bucks, all before lunch time on the fourth day. This trip was shaping up to be a more fruitful hunt than any of us could have ever imagine.

With 5 out of 6 hunters in the group tagged out we had one last buck to get John before everyone had full buck tags. We set off to where I had shot my deer with intentions of heading farther back into public land to see what we could find. Three of us accompanied John on the trip. Myself, Matt, and Justin decided to go along to make the pack out easier and to have the opportunity to see more of the area. We made it to the same spot Matt and I were at the day before when two 3 point bucks were moving from left to right at around 300 yards in front of us. They stopped at a perfect spot on the hillside across from us, John lined up his sites on his trigger stick tripod. He squeezed off  a shot and dirt flew behind them. He loaded another round but it was too late, they were gone. Running across the hillside to about a half a mile away where they crossed a road. I shot a waypoint on where I thought they crossed so we could maybe find them again.

We took the dirt road over to where they had crossed, the landscape opened up and it felt as though you could see for miles. We saw no signs of the deer. Justin and John were to the right of the road glassing when they motioned for Matt and I to get down and stay still. We thought they spotted the bucks, they were moving into position to get a shot. Then they got down and crossed the road in front of us, moving to a hillside to the left of the road. John rested his gun on the trigger stick pointed downward from the hill. The gun roared with a crack. Justin jumped up and took off running down the hill. Matt and I clueless to what just unfolded took off to catch up. Unbeknownst to us, there was an active watering hole tucked below the hill with a buck laying dead in it. Justin waded out into hip deep water to retrieve his father’s deer. It wasn’t one of the two bucks we had seen. When Justin and John were glass for those deer they saw a group of does with a different 3 point buck following behind them. The does headed to the watering hole and when the buck followed John was able to get a perfect shot on the deer.

The following day we packed up camp, with a chest freezer full of frozen meat, deer and antelope heads stacked in the trailer, and headed back east. The hunt was a success and to all of us it was the start of an obsession that would bring us back to the west again.