Wyoming Time is here

[gillettehunter]

Stacking them up in a hurry. Always nice to have them located and get on them before the other hunters get them spooked. Good job. Bruce

 

[jduckhunter]

Yeah Bruce you have to get to the antelope quick, they live out in the open where everyone sees them. The places where we normally hunt deer not too many fellas are interested in going down in there. It's tough going and it's a bear to get a deer out of there. Just a side note, that's why it's always good to hunt with a few younger healthy guys.

 

[jduckhunter]

Ok so now it's noon on opening day and we have four of our six tags filled so now it's back to camp to hang our critters and have some lunch. It had gotten pretty warm so we decided that the best thing to do was to take a nap and head back out later that evening when the shadows were growing longer and the deer were starting to move.
We left camp about 4:30 and headed for the far end of the ranch, I figured that not too many other hunters would have ventured into that area just yet. We were heading into a particularly rough section when we spotted a lone deer moving through a draw. It turned out to be a pretty nice looking 3x4 muley buck and my son soon decided that he would try to take him. Soon after my son left the truck to start his stalk I started to get sick, I was soon hit with a very nasty case of vertigo. I couldn't even lift my head to watch my son take his buck. He did take him though with one well placed shot. The boys were trying to get me to continue hunting but there was no way, I couldn't even begin to focus on anything, let alone look through a scope and try to hit something. They loaded up my son's buck and we went back to camp. When we got there I went straight to bed and didn't move until the next morning.

 

[jduckhunter]

Day 2 of our hunt, I woke up feeling a lot better. Some dry toast and coffee and out the door we went to look for one more nice muley buck. The boys decided to try and put some pressure on me, seems that they just realized that the day before all of the critters were taken with just one shot. They started in on me saying that it would be a shame to mess up that record today and that I must really be feeling the pressure. I told them to go ahead and have their fun but remember who they were talking to and who taught them how to shoot. That shut them up for a while. I drove back into the spot where I wanted to hunt the evening before, got out, grabbed my pack, my rifle and told the boys that I was going for a walk because the day before we didn't even get a chance to stretch our legs. They soon geared up and followed me, saying something about having to keep an eye on the old man. We went for a nice walk up and down and through a lot of big ditches, the only thing we saw were a bunch of does with fawns and a small 3x3 buck. We got back to the truck and were headed to another spot where the terrain keeps most other hunters out, but just before reaching the stone road a nice buck comes running over the hill and into the large ditch ( or small canyon, depending on what part of the country you are from) beside us. I grabbed my gun and pack and headed for the rim, while hissing at my son to range him. I've only ever used a range finder once before out west and that was yesterday, but today with the boys applying pressure to me to make a good first shot, well I figured it couldn't hurt to be sure. I was prone with the gun resting on my pack, my son says 258 yards. That made things real easy since my 30-06 is sighted in for 250 yards. Long story short, the rifle cracked, the buck took a couple of leaps and our hunt was over. The boys are very proud of their first one shot, one kill hunt, and to tell you the truth I am very proud of them too. When I think about all of the trips to the range and the bullets I loaded for them over the last twenty some years, to see them this proud and happy it makes it all worth it and then some.
The next 2 days were spent skinning and cutting up the critters and hanging out with the ranch owner. After that we headed for Casper, got a motel room and some much needed showers. We went to the boys favorite steak house, had a wonderful meal and the boys had few beers. I made the mistake of telling them that I would pick up the tab, lol I won't make that mistake again. The next day we headed west toward Shoshoni with a quick stop at Hell's Half Acre, I wanted the boys to see that, and then north through Wind river canyon. We stopped in and checked out the Wyoming Dinosaur Museum in Thermopolis, that was really interesting and while in the area we visited the Hot Springs State Park. After that it was on to Kirby to take a tour of the Wyoming Whiskey Distillery. I don't know which I enjoy more the taste of bourbon or the smell, but I can tell you this much, when they unlocked the door to the keg storage shed and let us look around inside for a while, I didn't want to leave. The smell was incredible! After the tour we were given a free shot and I must say that the taste wasn't bad either. To finish off the day we headed east over the Big Horn Mountains with a stop in Buffalo for supper, then back to the ranch for the night.
When I started this report I mentioned that there were a few let downs with the trip, well the second big let down of the trip came when we got back to the ranch and found out that the freezer was not freezing anything. The temp in the freezer was a chilly 36 degrees, thank God it could have been worse. So before packing up and heading for home I had the boys go back up to Buffalo and buy dry ice for the coolers. It was late when they got back so we decided to go on down to Casper for the night and start the trip home the next morning from there. That night was when I discovered the next little glitch, I went out to the truck to get something and when I used the remote to unlock the doors only one headlight came on. My son had that truck to the dealer for headlight issues more times then he cares to remember, the last time was last fall before we went to Wyoming. The lights worked for a year and we figured the problem was resolved, wrong. We drove home with one headlight and the fog lights on, almost 2000 miles. I still can't believe what happened next though, as we were pulling into our driveway at about 9:00 PM the damn headlight came on and it has been working ever since. Go figure! My best advice to my son was to go and trade the darn thing in while the lights are working.
All in all it was a great trip, one that the boys and I will remember for a long time.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Great trip and report, congrats!

 

[jduckhunter]

Here's a few pics from the trip. I forgot to mention that we stopped off in Guernsey, WY on the way home and checked out some ruts that were left by the wagon trains of long ago.

 

[bluey]

a fast hunt jd, hats off to you and boys ,mate .....
them canyons have some pretty colours in em .
the fishing looks like it was a fun thing to ,bloke
thanks for the type up , enjoyed every word of it

 

[enysse]

Thanks for the hunt report, I will have to check if I have enough points and time to go next year to Wyoming.

 

[Mekaniks]

Congratulations on a great hunt J! Great animals and even better shooting. I just now got around to reading your report and not sure how I missed it a couple weeks ago. I think that Wind River and Thermopolis area of Wyoming is super cool in its own way. I also thought the same thing about the Wyoming Distillary, If they put in some cabins I might of just stayed there, Glad you all had a good trip. I hope to do it again one day also, and you got me thinking that I need to start building my preference points

 

[BRICKBURN]

Congrats to you all. Shooting straight is what all that practice is about.
Has to be a family hunt to be getting razzed about you next shot.
Lots of tasty steaks in the cooler all round.

Thanks for sharing the hunt.

 

[jduckhunter]

Thanks guys, yeah I hunt with a pretty tough crowd. If you screw up you'll never be able to forget it. Just to let you guys know, where I hunt in Wyoming there are no preference points required. I never was much for a point system, I always figured that was just a way for a Game and Fish agency to make some extra bucks.

 

[enysse]

I hate the whole preference point system too, it's just a way for the state to make more money off non-residents. I need to find a relative cheap option for first time hunters to hunt Wyoming for antelope.

 

[thi9elsp]

Jduckhunter and Enysse

Not to side track the postings, but I disagree with you on the prefer points from this perspective. If we, as hunters, are conservationists, is $45 for a preference point too much to invest? I haven't hunted in Florida in 5 years. But, I still buy the full hunting and fishing license each year. Guess it's just my way of putting a little more in the pot to protect the wildlife.

John

 

[jduckhunter]

Jduckhunter and Enysse

Not to side track the postings, but I disagree with you on the prefer points from this perspective. If we, as hunters, are conservationists, is $45 for a preference point too much to invest? I haven't hunted in Florida in 5 years. But, I still buy the full hunting and fishing license each year. Guess it's just my way of putting a little more in the pot to protect the wildlife.

John

I guess that's one way of looking at it, but the system is not doing what it was designed to do. Guys still aren't being able to draw the tags they want, because like them, everybody and his brother are buying all of the points they can get. I know guys that have like 14 points and still can't draw the tag they want.
I feel as though my contribution of $612 a year for two tags is enough of an investment toward the future of Wyoming wildlife. I understand your point and I'm not arguing just stating my point of view.