A Wyoming Reunion

Six or so years ago my good friend Pat and I started planning our first antelope hunt by buying a preference point for WY. Neither knew at the time that life would take my good friend of 16 years from next door in Western TN, to just outside of DC. Pat is one of my two best friends in the world and his move left a hole in my life that is hard to fill. At 51, new best friends are slow to cultivate. Pat got me into turkey hunting and back into deer hunting. In turn I introduced him to real duck hunting, and saltwater fishing. He is the guy that jumped in on the Western thing and made two hard wilderness elk hunts with me. We went into country I would not have tackled alone, at first. In all we hunted TN, ND, CO, and fished locally as well as the AL and FL coasts inshore and off. Along the way we raised our kids together, coached soccer, enjoyed cookouts, suffered together through a terrible divorce and later celebrated a new love and marriage. All those little and big things that weave a good friendship together are hard to replace. We will make new memories but they will be fewer and different as time and distance add up. The good thing with men is that we seem to be able to fall in right where we left off and I hope that is the case here. It certainly was on our hunt.

So this year we spent our 5 points and drew pronghorn buck tags for our desired unit in WY. It took the leftover draw but we also drew two doe tags a piece. In all we had nine antelope tags spread over three units. Pat's son Austin was initially going but a last minute school conflict prevented his trip.We planned to camp out on BLM land and started the electronic scouting process from home. Our gear was generally set from the elk trips we had made. I continued to work up loads for my mountain rifle, a Tikka Superlite in .270. I made progress and found some really accurate loads but at the end of the day I couldn't get the velocity and accuracy to match up to my dead reliable Browning A-Bolt in .280. So once again my western rifle would be the Browning. It just plain shoots and hits like a freaking bolt of lightning. Not sure why I'm fussing over 1.5lbs of additional weight. I did upgrade my optics with a Leupold HD 60mm spotter. It seems to be really nice glass but showed me just how good the little Nikon ED 50 is. At the end of the day I am happy with both.

Here are a few pics of the prep.



Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

Hit the road Oct 6th aiming at Jeff City MO., Pat's hometown where we would meet up at his parents house then head on north.

WY Start by Hatchie, on Flickr

From Jeff City we headed up through the Sand Hills of NE, aiming for eastern, WY. It was all new country to me and I enjoyed the drive immensely.

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

I'll own up to a mistake here in that in the application process when we didn't draw our first choice doe tags I accidentally applied for private land only tags as a second choice in the leftover draw. As fate would have it I drew the first choice doe tags good for public while Pat and Austin drew the second choice "private land" tags. Didn't look good for the guy running our application procedures. I panicked a little when I realized the mistake and spent a good bit of time trying to find a land owner willing to let us doe hunt on his place. I had just about given up when a blind Facebook request was answered. Turns out the rancher and I had some common interests in local Boys and Girls Clubs as well hospital foundation work. Pat's doe hunt was secured. There are good people in WY.

Sunday the 7th of Oct we met the rancher, toured several sections of land and then were set loose to fill Pat's tags. The rancher was a really nice guy. He said it would not be hard to fill two doe tags and he was right.

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1st lope

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and the 2nd

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

After filling Pat's doe tags we headed west to Casper. Looking at the forecast of snow and rain for 4 days we decided discretion was the better part of valor and opted for the local Days Inn. It was cheap enough and clean. I've got to admit the hotel was a damn nice luxury.

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

Had some special attention at a local eatery.

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr


Monday the 8th we set about to fill my doe tags west of Casper.


Contd

Wet weather greeted us in the am. Working with onX we started scouting the unit.

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

As we went the rain changed over

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

After a few busted stalks I was able to get my first doe, at 212 yds. That's a long shot for me.

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr


The truck got sideways several times but Pat kept it going forward regardless. He was white knuckled at certain moments though.

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

Eventually got my second doe.


Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

For Tues the 9th we would turn to Pat's buck. I have a tendency to pick the furthest spot in a hunt area and think "it's got to be better way out there". This hunt was no different as we headed for the far corner of our unit. Checked by the WGF on the way out. She was very nice and helpful in directing us to likely areas. We ended up in the Red Wall area of the Southern Big Horns. It was beautiful and we saw a lot of goats.

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

A nod to Big Fin on the yellow mits. I guess even in my 50s I still have heroes

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

Spent a long day and missed some opportunities including two very nice bucks begging to be shot. We passed on those with some regret later.

Got up on this bird making a long stalk though a drainage. Never thought I would see one. Passed a good goat in the sage also.

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

So on the Weds 10th Oct

We headed back to the same area but on down a little to a Walk in Area. Right off the bat we saw a bedded buck that Pat wanted. He made a good stalk and a great shot that anchored the animal right there. The first buck was in the books.

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

Rest of the day was spent looking for another buck we wanted. I tried to find the shooters from the previous day and got a glimpse of one at distance but was unable to come up with a shot. I learned pressured antelope can be tough. They almost always saw me before I saw them. The day drew to a close and we headed out but with just enough time to take a side road on the edge of our unit. The Leupold spotter came in handy as I was able to pick out a buck right at dark that looked good to me. Dropped a point and made plans to be there before daylight Thursday. fatigue with the travel and long days in the field were starting to set in. I didn't want to let the hunt get into the last day and hoped for something good to happen.

contd

Cool! Glad you enjoyed our area. Interested to see the finale.

Daylight Thursday found us where we left the buck from the night before. With a little work we found him not too far from where he had been. I confirmed he was good enough for me and set off through another drainage that kinda angled out through the field. I was booking it out through the ditch and finally got to where I was hunched over, then finally crawling. I peeked over a couple of times but couldn't find the buck or any of the does he was with. Crawling up a shallow side ditch that took a better angle I looked up to see a doe staring right at me from about 200yds. She made that little alarm call they make and I froze in my tracks. Several minutes passed and my arms and neck began to ache trying to hold still. She finally walked off. I got on my belly and crawled further, determined to make something happen. I started to see the backs of animals, then through the sage I could see horns. I sat up, got a quick range, set the gun on the sticks and missed the buck at just over 200yds. As the herd bolted, I moved forward a few quick steps then settled again. The first shot was taken from my knees, so this time I got down on my butt, placed the gun in the sticks, and again tracked the herd. After putting some distance between us they stopped to look back. I didn't think I had time to range them and could just see the buck's back over the sage. Taking a breath I settled the crosshairs with a crack of daylight over his back and did my best to squeeze the trigger slowly. The shot rang out, followed by a loud crack and then the whine of a bullet tumbling. All I could think was,"crap I missed and hit a rock". I stood up at that point and glassed the herd through the scope. I couldn't find the buck but expected to see him any second cresting some rise or such. As I continued forward I saw a little white patch out on the prairie. Getting closer an closer I finally identified my buck. I think he dropped in his tracks on the second shot.














As he lay

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr


In looking at him, the bullet hit just behind the front side shoulder and punched straight through the offside shoulder. I guess that made the crack I heard. As for the whine I suspect when it excited the bullet must have been tumbling or was jagged enough to rip the air. Judging from the drop the buck was at just over 300yds. That's my longest shot on a game animal to date.





Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr



I have to say, getting late in the hunt I was quite relieved. Pat and I celebrated at a good restaurant that night and did a little fishing on the Miracle Mile the next day. Pat had a big one break off and I had a big one follow my plug to the bank but we really didn't catch much. I guess nobody's perfect. A highlight of that day was the local fly shop. We got some Wyoming beer and recounted the trip.



Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr


All in all a dang good week with a dang good friend. We filled 6 tags in 3 different units in 5 days. We saw eagles, ducks, geese, grouse, and muleys. We met some cool people and made new friends. I'll take that any time.

Untitled by Hatchie, on Flickr

HD

Great story so far. Looks like a great time. Can't wait to hear the rest.

thanks for the well told story. Congrats on the good trip

Damn, we need a like button!

One of the best reads and pics of the year!

Great report of your adventure and some great looking animals too. Thanks for sharing the hunt and the photos. Congrats!

Sounds like you a great time, congratulations. Sometimes the meeting of new people and making new friends is just as good as the hunting.

Great adventure. You are right about pressured antelope. They don't tolerate many mistakes.

I enjoyed the description of your as close-as-a-brother-friendship you've shared over the years. Close friends picking it up right where you left off, and having a fantastic greasy road adventure.

Great hunt and pics

Congrats on the hunt and adventure. Nice bucks and some neat weather to go with them,lol.
Great pic showing the gumbo mud we can get, how heavy were those boots of yours ?
Hope your travels were safe .

Great adventure and pics guys.Congratulations!

Awesome stuff. When you were in Jeff city you were only an hour from my house, I was in Wyoming at that time though. Congrats!!

Congrats, sounds like an amazing trip.

Thanks for sharing a great story. I get that others love to hunt alone, but if it weren't for close friends and family I doubt I would ever get out to the field(except for pheasants/grouse as the dog counts as family). Congrats!

Really awesome adventure man congratulations that’s super cool!

Great story and pics - congrats!