Ollin Magnetic Digiscoping System

WY with Dad

Jcour4

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Joined
Jul 18, 2016
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43
Location
Illinois
In 2016 my dad and I headed to Wyoming to hunt antelope and were successful. We decided to head back to Wyoming this year for a mule deer hunt and we had some bonus antelope doe tags as well. We headed out a few days before the deer opener to fill our antelope tags and scout for some deer.

After a 16 hour drive we pulled into our spot early in the morning to get after some antelope. We found a little walk in area and immediately spotted some antelope. The first group was a ways off but there was a hill between us and them. We stalked up to the little ledge and looked all the antelope over and wouldn't you know they were all bucks! After a little chuckle we headed for another group. This herd of antelope were bedded in a big flat spot and we couldn't get closer than 300 yds. I decided to try a shot as I was pretty confident in my rifle set up. I got set up and squeezed the trigger and I missed. It looked like the shot went over the antelopes back. I was kind of disappointed that I rushed the shot and didn't connect but there were more antelope to go after.
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Dad and I saw a small group bedded. We got close and tried to get dad set up for a shot. The wind was howling and the antelope knew something wasn't right and started to move off. Dad got a shot off but wasn't able to connect. After we had both missed we took a little break on a hill and talked through our issues. We decided to hunt our way back to the truck and check some bottoms for bedded antelope. We came over a little rise and dad spotted a group bedded on the far side only about 250 yds away. I got situatied and picked out the biggest doe I could find and took my time with the shot. The gun went off and the doe immediately went down and we had our first animal of the trip down.

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We took care of the doe and got the meat back to the truck. We decided we would drive through the antelope unit and head towards our deer unit. After a lot of gravel road time and only a few antelope seen we decided we would just got to our deer spot to scout around the next day. We arrived to our deer unit in the evening and saw some elk and deer on private land. We found our camping spot and set up our tent for the night.

The next morning we got up early to get to a glass of spot and scout for some deer. We woke up to a little bit of snow and a lot of fog. The fog would lift every now and then but we were able to glass up 3 bucks that we would have been very happy with and 4 big bull elk. We decided to check out some other spots but had a game plan for the morning. By the afternoon the roads were getting very busy with hunters and camps so I had lost a little confidence in our spot for the morning but we tried anyways.

We got up several hours before shooting time to get to our spot and we were the first people there but by the time shooting light came around the hills were alive with 4 wheelers and side by sides. The spot we saw the bucks was very tough to get to and no roads leading to it. The sun started to rise and we spotted the four bull elk from the previous morning but the bucks never showed. We continued to hunt this spot for serval mornings with not much luck but the elk were in there thick. We saw 9 different bulls from there and would have loved to run into somebody with an elk tag for the unit but we never found any elk hunters this low in the unit. When I'm elk hunting I see huge mule deer and when we were mule deer hunting we saw huge elk.

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After a couple of days of dealing with a lot of hunters and traffic I wanted to check out a spot that required quite a bit of hiking but there were no roads near it. My 61 year old dad agreed to the trek and was able to make it to our glassing spot after a lot of hard work. We got set up and started glassing a lot of does and small bucks. I looked down the hill we were on and there was a nice buck below us at 150 yds. It was the biggest rodeo you could imagine trying to get my dad set up for a shot while this deer was staring at us. My dad took a shot but missed the deer. He was so upset and felt like he let us down after all the hard work but I assured him it was ok. Now I have only seen my dad miss one other animal in my life before this trip so this was not a common occurrence for him to miss but we are new to rifle hunting and shooting at longer ranges even though we have been shooting at the range all year.

The next day we didn't have much luck seeing deer in our spots but did see the elk again. I was scouring OnX maps for some more roadless areas that would be so tough for my dad and it appeared that there weren't any roads below our camp so I walked down a ridge mid day and saw a buck on a large pinion juniper flat. Dad and I went down there for the evening hunt and saw some does and little bucks but nothing we wanted to shoot. The sun started to set and I looked to our right and saw a buck dropping off a ridge into our juniper flat. We waited for what seems like an eternity and the buck appeared at 280 yards. I got set up on the shooting sticks and was able to drop the buck in his tracks. We were both so excited hugging and high fiving. My dad never did see the buck in the juniper trees but I assured him he was down. We hiked down a big rock draw to the he other side to get to him. This was the first mule deer either of us had shot and our first trip targeting them. He wasn't a huge deer by mule deer standards but we were both very happy. I didn't realize mule deer were so much bigger than whitetails but this buck had the biggest body of any whitetail I had ever seen.

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We made a couple trips to pack him out and it was all uphill. We got him back to camp several hours after dark. We hung the meat and sat back with some Gatorades and enjoyed the experience. My dad decided that his body was super sore and wasn't sure if he could do a hike like that again so we decide the next morning we would load up and try to fill his antelope tag.

We got to our antelope unit the next day and set off for some does we had spotted from the truck. It was a long hike to the bottoms where they were feeding. We lost site of them and my dad thought they had left but I was confident they were still there. We kept hiking down and spotted the group at around 300 yds. I asked if my dad wanted to get closer for a shot but he felt confident he could make the shot. We got the sticks set up and I told my dad to take his time. He squeezed off a round and made a perfect shot on the doe. Again we were excited and my dad was so happy to avenge his misses. We took care of the meat and headed to the truck to make the trip back home.

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It was an amazing trip with my dad and I couldn't have been happier. My dad didn't grow up hunting, he didn't hunt until I was little all because I was interested in it. Without his support I don't know how I would have been able to get into hunting. I wouldn't have traded this trip for anything and my biggest goal for next year is to get my dad a nice mule deer buck.
 
Great write up! Congrats on a successful hunt. That mule deer definitely looks like a tank!
 
Great trip, being with your dad makes it even better.


Yes, That adventure, those memories hunting with Dad, priceless! That was a fine hunt re-cap, nice animals, well done and Congrats on that nice Muley!

Like many, my Dad was my early teacher, we hunted together about 20 years but he is long past. This year i'm hunting Wy for lopes and deer leaving tomorrow with a dear old friend, team-mate, and hunting pard from back in High School, some 45 years ago.
 
Well done team!! I had the same feeling walking up on my daughters first mule deer, huge animals compared to our whiteys!
 
Good job . You guys sound like your turning into good hunters keep it up . Great story
 
Thanks for sharing your hunt with us and congratulations on the deer & antelope. What got you interested in hunting as a young man?

Honestly I am not sure what got me interested as a young kid. I gravitated to hunting and fishing and my dad picked up on that. We lived in the country and there really wasn't anything else to do growing up except to run around with a gun or fishing pole. I'm thankful for what he has done for me and do as much as I can to repay him.
 
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