2021 Wyoming Deer/Antelope Doe hunt

[bpitt]

We rolled into Wyoming this past Sunday and spent a couple of days visiting the Tetons and Yellowstone. We arrived in Sheridan late last night. I got 2 doe antelope tags, and my youngest daughter has one doe antelope tag and two doe deer tags, one of which allows her to take a doe mule deer on private land.

We've spent this morning driving around getting a feel of what this season is like. This will be our 3rd year hunting this area. Last season was bad, very dry, this season is similar, however, we are seeing more deer than before, and we've already seen a couple of nice mule deer bucks! Too bad we don't have a tag for that! We tried to get on some antelope this morning, to no avail. I've reached out to a private landowner who has agreed to allow my daughter to fill her doe deer tags, so the plan is to head over there in about another hour.

Tomorrow we plan to be at a hunter walk-in area bright and early, and try to get on some antelope.

We'll keep y'all posted.

 

[cahunter805]

Good luck!

 

[TOGIE]

damnit. you just reminded me i have two doe antelope tags for up by sheridan that i actually wasn't planning on going out for. at this point i forgot i had em.

this might be hard to watch.... may have to consider burning more vacation time around thanksgiving...

 

[220yotekiller]

We rolled into Wyoming this past Sunday and spent a couple of days visiting the Tetons and Yellowstone. We arrived in Sheridan late last night. I got 2 doe antelope tags, and my youngest daughter has one doe antelope tag and two doe deer tags, one of which allows her to take a doe mule deer on private land.

We've spent this morning driving around getting a feel of what this season is like. This will be our 3rd year hunting this area. Last season was bad, very dry, this season is similar, however, we are seeing more deer than before, and we've already seen a couple of nice mule deer bucks! Too bad we don't have a tag for that! We tried to get on some antelope this morning, to no avail. I've reached out to a private landowner who has agreed to allow my daughter to fill her doe deer tags, so the plan is to head over there in about another hour.

Tomorrow we plan to be at a hunter walk-in area bright and early, and try to get on some antelope.

We'll keep y'all posted.

Good luck! Hope you can get on them!

 

[bpitt]

Update! We reached out to a private landowner who encouraged us to come this evening. He literally told us there were deer in his pasture right at the moment. So we quickly headed over to his place and the daughter was able to punch one her doe whitetail tag! One down! More to come! Shout out to private landowners who open up their places to hunters!

 

[bpitt]

Today was another good day! We drove straight to a Hunter Walk-In Area west of town. Got there and no one else was around. Yesterday we attempted to go there, but there was a truck there, so we left. I wasn't raised to go hunting on top of other people, and I'm teaching my kid to do the same.

So we got there and it was still dark. We had hunted this area the last two years, and had seen several deer in the area. We hiked in as the sunrise occurred and it was nice and cool. Having e-scouted the area over the summer, I had 3 pins on OnX at some promising looking spots.

We went to the first spot and saw 3 mule deer and one lone antelope! Rangefinder put them at about 635 yards for the mule deer and about 425 for the antelope. The antelope was a buck, but we got doe tags. We talked about it for a minute and figured there had to be some doe antelope around that we weren't seeing. My daughter suggested we ease up and around the little hill we were on and see if there were more antelope on the other side.

We crawled about 100 yards to peek over. Take note, there are little cactus in Wyoming, even this far north. Had to stop and pull some out of my daughters leg, lol. Anyways, we crawled on and just as we peeked over the edge there were several doe antelope just laying there.

I told my daughter to get ready to shoot. She and I both are holding a doe antelope tag for this unit. She suggested I shoot first, I said lady's first. Just as she got ready to shoot, they spooked and ran. Some went to the other hillside, looked around, and went back to feeding. Some ran around the hill out of sight.

So we snuck a little closer until the rangefinder shown the closest doe at 202 yards. I told my daughter to take the closest doe, she looked around for something to prop/rest on, but there was nothing. She ended up in a sitting position with elbows resting on her knees, if that makes sense. She had to turn her scope down from 10 to about 6. She was nervous and shaking. She told me to take the shot. I said, "No, you got this. Remember, breath easy, relax, focus just behind her shoulder, and squeeze easy but steady....you got this."

Literally, as I finished saying that, the rifle fired. She nailed it!

We celebrated, quartered it, filled the tag out, and eased out. Celebratory trip to Cowboy Cafe coming up this evening!

....and we'll be back at it in the morning!

 

[bpitt]

Well, today was our last day to hunt. We rolled up to the place my daughter bagged her antelope yesterday, as I still hold an antelope tag. However, someone beat us to the spot! So we headed to a couple of other places and didn't see anything at those locations. It's really dry, like really...if you're headed this way soon, go ahead and ice your coolers down ahead of time, and bring plenty of water! We did see a porcupine though, which was kinda weird. I never pictured them living out in the open, rolling hills, but I guess they do! Anyways, it's been a great 3rd trip to Wyoming, and we're already discussing applying for buck tags next year (we got some points building) and possibly apply for an elk tag, as we spotted a few in a nearby unit.

 

[MarvB]

Congrats to you both, great seeing the kids involved!!

 

[406LIFE]

I applaud your willingness to talk with landowners. I get access for more often than I get told no. I punched one of mntelope buck tags in Wyoming yesterday took the rancher and his wife out to the steakhouse afterwards. The effort put to maintain this relationship isn't really much but the security of knowing I have a ranch to chase goats if we fall means it's priceless to me.

 

[CPAjeff]

Congrats on a very successful trip - thanks for sharing!

 

[bpitt]

I applaud your willingness to talk with landowners. I get access for more often than I get told no. I punched one of mntelope buck tags in Wyoming yesterday took the rancher and his wife out to the steakhouse afterwards. The effort put to maintain this relationship isn't really much but the security of knowing I have a ranch to chase goats if we fall means it's priceless to me.

I offered to pay this guy, he refused when I told him it was for my daughter. I then offered to bring him a bottle of his favorite 'beverage' of his choice, he then laughed and said he couldn't charge or take anything for having a kid shoot a doe. I thought that was very gracious of him. We're back home now, and the daughter is writing him a 'thank you' note to mail to him.

 

[Duck-Slayer]

Very successful trip, congratulations for raising your kids in the outdoors and proper Etiquette!
Matt

 

[Wallydeuce]

A hand written thank you note will probably get your daughter a lifetime invitation. Well done!

 

[Shortbowshot]

Good work! Love hunting with the kids!

 

[williaada]

Happy for you and your daughter.

 

[Cotten]

Awesome hunt. I love taking my daughters to fill tags. I've applied for WY doe antelope tags for my family the past 3 years with no luck. Someone want to share the secret to drawing them? My youngest daughter will be 12 next year, so it would be a good year to finally draw tags.