2024 - Season of Good Fortune and Financial Ruin

[Clarq]

For those of you who don't know me, you can refer to my two-part sheep hunting story last year if you want a flavor for my style, and what this thread might turn into.

https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/dear-missouri-breaks-im-ready-for-ewe.321001/
https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/oh-no-ewe-arent-humbled-by-the-breaks.321918/

In summary, I'm a fairly young, novice, and unskilled hunter whose ambition is sometimes enough to overpower his common sense. The good side to that is that I've gone on quite a few awesome adventures in my young big game hunting career. The bad side to that is that I can sometimes get in a little over my head.

I had a scare of sorts last year. I met a woman who I thought I might end up marrying. That ultimately didn't work out (and I can see now that's for the best), but it got me thinking a lot about what life is going to look like if/when the day comes that I tie the knot and start a family. Good, I hope, but obviously very different. It would probably be a lot harder to hunt like I've been hunting the past few years. With that on my mind as application season arrived, I applied very aggressively throughout the west in hopes of setting myself up for a few more adventures while I was in a time in life when it's a little easier to pull that off. I considered the odds of drawing too many tags, and they appeared acceptably low. I felt good about my strategy and waited anxiously for results to come back.

I used the guide draw in New Mexico to secure a hunt there in December for barbary sheep ewe. A fairly expensive ewe hunt, to be sure, but it still seemed reasonable compared to any other ranch hunt options I could find. I was happy to put that on the calendar.

As other results started to trickle in, though, I became rather impressed by the sheer magnitude of my bad luck. I wasn't seeing luck in any long-shot draws, as expected, but I was also in for multiple hunts with 40% - 60% odds, and wasn't having luck on any of those, either. The real kicker was my general archery deer tag in my home state. I had a 70% chance of success on that one, but didn't pull that off either. I ended up with a guaranteed second choice archery tag in a hard unit.

By the time early June came around, I had a bad Utah general archery deer tag and a New Mexico barbary sheep ewe hunt with a 2 day season. Certainly a lot to be grateful for, but not the outcome I had hoped for. I figured I was all set for a rough deer season and a lot of waterfowl hunting.

My oh my, it's funny how things can change...

 

[mtmuley]

For those of you who don't know me, you can refer to my two-part sheep hunting story last year if you want a flavor for my style, and what this thread might turn into.

https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/dear-missouri-breaks-im-ready-for-ewe.321001/
https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/oh-no-ewe-arent-humbled-by-the-breaks.321918/

In summary, I'm a fairly young, novice, and unskilled hunter whose ambition is sometimes enough to overpower his common sense. The good side to that is that I've gone on quite a few awesome adventures in my young big game hunting career. The bad side to that is that I can sometimes get in a little over my head.

I had a scare of sorts last year. I met a woman who I thought I might end up marrying. That ultimately didn't work out (and I can see now that's for the best), but it got me thinking a lot about what life is going to look like if/when the day comes that I tie the knot and start a family. Good, I hope, but obviously very different. It would probably be a lot harder to hunt like I've been hunting the past few years. With that on my mind as application season arrived, I applied very aggressively throughout the west in hopes of setting myself up for a few more adventures while I was in a time in life when it's a little easier to pull that off. I considered the odds of drawing too many tags, and they appeared acceptably low. I felt good about my strategy and waited anxiously for results to come back.

I used the guide draw in New Mexico to secure a hunt there in December for barbary sheep ewe. A fairly expensive ewe hunt, to be sure, but it still seemed reasonable compared to any other ranch hunt options I could find. I was happy to put that on the calendar.

As other results started to trickle in, though, I became rather impressed by the sheer magnitude of my bad luck. I wasn't seeing luck in any long-shot draws, as expected, but I was also in for multiple hunts with 40% - 60% odds, and wasn't having luck on any of those, either. The real kicker was my general archery deer tag in my home state. I had a 70% chance of success on that one, but didn't pull that off either. I ended up with a guaranteed second choice archery tag in a hard unit.

By the time early June came around, I had a bad Utah general archery deer tag and a New Mexico barbary sheep ewe hunt with a 2 day season. Certainly a lot to be grateful for, but not the outcome I had hoped for. I figured I was all set for a rough deer season and a lot of waterfowl hunting.

My oh my, it's funny how things can change...

You either got a great tag, or met a great woman. mtmuley

 

[Clarq]

I turned in my Utah antlerless application. I had a small chance at a cow elk tag and another small chance at a doe pronghorn tag.

Shortly after the Utah antlerless application period closed, I received an email informing me that I'd drawn an archery pronghorn tag in a pretty good unit in the Nevada second draw. I was floored. I'd kind of forgotten I'd even put in for that draw. I'd pretty much written it off as a loss right from the get-go. My season dates were August 1 - 21.

Uh-oh. The Utah doe pronghorn tag I applied for had a season of August 1 - 16. I might have a bit of a tight schedule if I drew that. Oh well! It's not like I'm going to, right? My odds were pretty low (turns out they were 23%). Yet, when my results came through, I was surprised to see that I had indeed drawn a doe pronghorn tag in Utah as well. It sure felt good to be on a little streak of luck.

If you want to hear how those hunts turned out, you'll have to read my thread chronicling those hunts:

https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/august-of-the-antelope.325405/

After drawing those two tags, I thought I had my fall schedule all figured out. Imagine my shock when I received this email from South Dakota on August 6th:



I had beaten roughly 6% odds to pull a bison tag. I had to stare at the email a few times before I actually started to believe it.

And we're not even done yet...

 

[NEWHunter]

I’ll be interested to hear the logistics of the bison hunt. How many points did you have?

 

[duckhunt]

I turned in my Utah antlerless application. I had a small chance at a cow elk tag and another small chance at a doe pronghorn tag.

Shortly after the Utah antlerless application period closed, I received an email informing me that I'd drawn an archery pronghorn tag in a pretty good unit in the Nevada second draw. I was floored. I'd kind of forgotten I'd even put in for that draw. I'd pretty much written it off as a loss right from the get-go. My season dates were August 1 - 21.

Uh-oh. The Utah doe pronghorn tag I applied for had a season of August 1 - 16. I might have a bit of a tight schedule if I drew that. Oh well! It's not like I'm going to, right? My odds were pretty low (turns out they were 23%). Yet, when my results came through, I was surprised to see that I had indeed drawn a doe pronghorn tag in Utah as well. It sure felt good to be on a little streak of luck.

If you want to hear how those hunts turned out, you'll have to read my thread chronicling those hunts:

https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/august-of-the-antelope.325405/

After drawing those two tags, I thought I had my fall schedule all figured out. Imagine my shock when I received this email from South Dakota on August 6th:

View attachment 339425

I had beaten roughly 6% odds to pull a bison tag. I had to stare at the email a few times before I actually started to believe it.

And we're not even done yet...

I got a few points but haven't applied yet for the bison. Hopefully get that tag in the next few years.

 

[Clarq]

I owe my love for hunting to my dad and my grandfather. I drafted some of this post this afternoon while Dad was sitting a few yards away from me, napping under our favorite dove hunting tree. I've been hooked ever since Dad took me hunting as a boy. Grandpa joined us for many adventures as well, and was always the first person wanting to hear how my latest trip went if he didn't come along. We had a great time chasing upland birds and waterfowl when I was a teen. On the other hand, our big game hunting was fairly limited. I got into it more as a young adult, and Dad rediscovered his enthusiasm for it as I dragged him around on some of my adventures.

He's old enough now that he's starting to slow down. This was the first year he didn't apply for deer since we picked it back up. He gave up on elk a few years ago - too big, too much work. His main interest at this point in life is antelope. We've had some good hunts over the years - many ending with him behind the camera as I pose with my "trophies."



My general strategy is to go for hunts I can draw fairly often. I'm not incredibly picky - my time has been limited much of the past decade due to being in school and then getting my career started. I'll give it a good few days on what limited public land exists in the units I hunt, and take what I can get.



Here's one of my most recent trophy bucks.



Delicious!

By contrast, most of Dad's tags have gone unfilled - not for lack of opportunity, but because his hunting style is different. He's content to take his time, be picky, and wait for a big one. He's not threatened by the thought of going home empty-handed.

One of the last items on Dad's hunting bucket list is a true trophy antelope hunt - the kind where you can believe you've got a realistic chance of laying eyes on a record book animal at some point in the hunt. He did his research, and we identified an area that meets his requirements. He's been applying for it for several years. In all probability, he'll never draw it before his hunting days are over. I'm not going to name this particular area, but suffice it to say, it's no secret. It's a place known for top-end pronghorn bucks.

A few weeks ago, I was over for Sunday dinner and talking hunting with my dad and grandfather. Grandpa is in his 90s now. He had a rough medical episode earlier this year, and we were told it was all but certain he wouldn't make it. He surprised everyone and recovered after being sent home on hospice. I'm beyond fortunate to have had as much time with him as I have, and even though I was well-prepared to wish him goodbye, that whole episode got me thinking even more about what really matters. In the end, I think that relationships and memories are what really count. I was grateful to have a long list of good experiences and shared memories to retell and laugh about with Grandpa during what I thought were his final days. Knowing that I'd spent some great times with him and tried to be a good grandson really made the pain of the whole ordeal more bearable.

All that being the case, I have even more of the "do it while you can" mentality now than I did when application season started. As we were talking together after a nice meal, I decided I was going to see what I could do about making Dad's dream hunt a reality.

 

[Clarq]

Earlier this week, I pulled it off. I secured buck pronghorn tags for both myself and my Dad in his preferred hunt area. For this year. It's an area where a hunt can be had for the right amount of money. However, it takes the right amount of money and a cancellation to book one on such short notice. I got lucky with the timing of a few things and was able to jump in line. Otherwise, we'd have had to add ourselves to a long waiting list. I can't help but wonder what happened to those who cancelled - hopefully nothing bad.

I'm not going to name the hunt area here. If you figure it out, I'd appreciate it if you keep your questions or conjecture to PM. I may try to get us back here one more time in the future.

My hunt schedule in mid-June:

• General archery deer - UT - mid August to mid September
• Barbary sheep ewe - NM - late December:

My hunt schedule now (including hunts that have already occurred - and a few bird permits I drew in July that I neglected to mention earlier):

• Doe pronghorn - UT - early August
• Archery buck pronghorn - NV - early/mid August
• General archery deer - UT - mid August to mid September
• Buck pronghorn for me and Dad - upcoming
• Sandhill crane - UT - September to October
• Bison - SD - late October
• Swan - UT - November
• Barbary sheep ewe - NM - late December

I went from wondering what I'd be doing all fall to wondering how on earth I'll pull everything off! Crazy how things changed, especially so late in the year.

A wise person once said, "Hunt while you can, because you'll run out of health before you run out of money." We're about to put that claim to the test!

 

[Clarq]

I’ll be interested to hear the logistics of the bison hunt. How many points did you have?

I drew with 8 points.

I'm in the thick of logistical planning as we speak. I was asked to send 3 preferred hunt dates to the manager, who then put the schedule together and sent me the date and time of my hunt (I was given my first choice). I'll meet up with a park representative and be escorted from there. He will provide instruction on which animal(s) meet the criteria for a non-trophy animal.

The Custer hunt is far simpler than most free-range bison hunting opportunities. They will help with field dressing and deliver the bison to my vehicle, at which point, everything else is on me. It will be a task to deal with an animal of that size. I'm in the market for a new freezer as we speak. I'll probably need to rent a utility trailer to transport it.

I thought a lot about how to handle meat processing. Dad and I typically tackle it ourselves with smaller game animals, but I determined that it didn't seem reasonable to ask Dad to help with a task of that size. I'm also not sure I will have the time to devote to it on top of everything else going on. I'm going to get some help this time.

Then, there's the question of how to preserve the memory. Shoulder mount, euro, rug? I'm still thinking that one through. Getting a bison hide tanned is not cheap...

 

[NEWHunter]

Thanks for the info on the bison. I’ll have 10 points going in to next year. Eventually I hope to draw both the trophy and non-trophy. Although the cubed points is making it a bit more problematic. If it all worked out and I get my turn, I was planning on trying to locate a processor in the area and spend some time in the hills while they work on it. Euro and tanned hide for me if all goes well. Good luck to you!

 

[Clarq]

This hasn't been quite as "live" as I envisioned, but here's a report of my and my dad's recent pronghorn trip. This trip would consist of two full days plus some travel time on either end.

I encountered this vehicle on the way out of town, hoping it was a good omen for the coming month.



We arrived at our motel after dark and set an early alarm for the coming morning. As per usual, I didn't sleep very well. I never sleep well my first night in a new place. Luckily, the excitement was enough to get me out of bed in the morning.

We started seeing antelope about 30 seconds after we drove into the hunt area. We spent the morning looking at bucks. I got what crappy cell phone pictures I could as we cruised around.



Many of them would have been shooters on any other unit I've ever hunted, but for this hunt, I resolved to take some time and see what the area has to offer.



Because I got us the tags, Dad insisted that I have first right of refusal for any buck we encountered. Honestly, though, I was way more interested in getting him his trophy first. I decided I'd just pass on everything, so he could take whichever animal he liked best. We kept looking, and I kept passing. Dad did, too.

This one looked pretty good, but was on the wrong side of a property line.



He had incredible balance. I never knew they could stand on one leg!



After a morning of looking, we finally found a next-level kind of buck. I really regret not getting a picture of him, but he didn't give us a long time to look at him before he and his herd got nervous and disappeared over the next hill. He was roughly 500 yards away. We had just enough time to give him a decent evaluation. Probably not a B&C record book buck, but he had to be close. He was the biggest buck Dad and I had ever seen in person, let alone with a tag in our pocket. Easily enough to meet our standards.

Dad got very excited when we saw this buck. I'd never seen him so impressed with a trophy animal. He asked me if I was going to go after him.

"Yeah, he's a good one. Super tempting, but I think I'm going to pass. He's yours if you want him," I said, hoping and fully expecting that Dad would decide to give chase right then and there.

"Mark him on your map. He's one I might want to come back to. Let's see what else is out there," Dad replied. With that, we put away the scope and got back in the truck. I resisted the urge to change my mind and tell him to stop the car so I could make a stalk, and we drove away from a bigger buck than I ever thought I'd have the chance to harvest.

I hoped that wasn't a decision we'd live to regret.

 

[Clarq]

We continued our buck watching tour after a lunch break and a brief nap.



We found plenty of good ones, but none coming close to the big one from the morning.



We had probably seen a couple hundred animals by the time the day was done.



It almost felt like sensory overload, but by the end of the day, I was starting to get a pretty good idea of what average, good, and excellent bucks were going to look like during the hunt.



Back at the motel room, we discussed what we'd seen that day and what we wanted to do in the morning. We both agreed that the big buck we'd seen in the morning was the clear winner and was worth going after. We agreed we'd head back to where we saw him yesterday.

"Just so I'm clear, you're going to try to shoot him tomorrow?" Dad asked.

"I think you should. I saw how much you liked him," I replied.

He tried to refuse, but I pushed back. For once in his life, I told him, we should make a hunt about him instead of me. He eventually relented, and agreed to carry the gun in the morning.

We looked at our maps and put our plan together. I just hoped we'd find our big buck a second time.

 

[Clarq]

We drove into the hunt area at dawn and hunted on the way back to where the big buck had been the day before. We saw several antelope along the way, but nothing that made us want to stop.

When we first spotted him, the buck and his herd were on a rolling hill that allowed them to drop down and out of sight from the road with ease. If we didn't spot him from the road, we intended to take a walk and explore the valley down below the crest of the hill.

As we arrived at the spot where we'd seen him yesterday, we saw two does run across the road and dip out of sight. We figured we could follow their path straight to the rest of the herd. We geared up and started walking. Pretty soon, we noticed a standing doe staring at us. And another. And another. A total of 6 does/fawns. Almost certainly the same herd we saw yesterday. But where was the buck? We had a long stare-off with the herd before deciding to back out and come in another way to see if the buck was further down in the valley. As soon as we started walking away, the herd took off running over the hill and out of sight. We figured we'd swing around to spot them again, in hopes that they had picked up the buck on their way out of town.

We eventually found the herd again and glassed them up once more. 6 does/fawns, no buck. Something was strange. In the middle of the rut, what was a big herd of does doing without a buck? Did someone shoot him yesterday after we passed him up? We started back to the truck and discussed our options. Maybe he was still nearby. Were there other places we should check?

As we returned to the truck, I would periodically look back at the herd and count them again. Always 6. Before they disappeared from our view, I decided to put my binoculars up and take one last look. Much to my surprise, I saw a black cheek patch and horns.

"Dad, there's a buck with them." It was a good one. "I think it might be the big one from yesterday." He put his binoculars up for a look and confirmed that I wasn't going crazy. There were now 7 animals in the herd, and one of them was a good buck. I still have no idea where he had been or where he came from, but he was there. He was far enough away that we couldn't tell if he was the same buck from yesterday, but we knew we wanted to put the spotting scope on him for a closer look. We headed back to the truck.

 

[Clarq]

With spotting scope in hand, we could tell pretty quickly that he was the same buck from yesterday. We put the scope away and commenced stalk #3 on this herd. We ended up about 250 yards away, but there was a problem. The herd was now right on top of a gentle, sloping hill, and they were skylined. Not a shot Dad was willing to take.

We also discovered another very unfortunate problem. The bipod on Dad's gun decided to break (at the worst possible time, of course). He was going to have to make do without it.

He sat down and set up for a shot in hopes that the buck would come closer and present a safe shot. We spent probably 5 to 10 minutes watching the herd, but a shot never presented itself. The animals eventually got nervous and ran about 500 yards away.

What else was there to do besides commence with stalk #4? The herd finally settled in a spot that allowed us to use the terrain in our favor. We dipped down into a small draw and quickly closed the distance to about 300 yards. We crawled up a gentle sloping hill to close a little more distance. The herd spotted us and began to grow nervous. They were probably pretty tired of us at this point, and it didn't seem likely that they would hang around long. Dad set up as best as he could without his bipod. The buck turned broadside and presented a clear shot.

BOOM! And... no sign of a hit. That was that. The herd headed for the next county. I watched the buck in my binoculars to see if there was any sign he'd been hit. There wasn't. He bolted out of there looking as good as ever.

We headed over to check for blood and found nothing. The sum total of the evidence has us feeling pretty confident it was a clean miss. Probably due to a combination of buck fever and less-than-ideal shooting conditions.

During the search for blood, I found what I think could have possibly been the site where his bullet impacted the ground. Thoughts? It seemed to be about the right size. It could also have been made by some small animal, I don't know. I dug around in the dirt and never found a slug.



I'll admit, it was a disappointing end to what could have been the perfect hunting story. As we walked back to the truck, though, we were thrilled to have gotten an opportunity at such a nice buck. It was a neat experience. We'll always remember that huge buck staring at us on the skyline.

 

[Clarq]

We headed back to the truck. I checked our track and found that we had put more than 4 miles on our boots between all the cat and mouse we were playing with the herd, and the searching for blood following the shot.

Dad told me it was my turn next. I decided I wanted a second look at the #2 buck we had seen the day before. He was tall and had good prongs, but didn't have the mass the other buck had. We drove to where we had seen him and soon located what we thought was his herd. I put the spotter on it to confirm whether he was the one I was after, but the heat waves in the scope made it impossible to confirm. The wind was also howling, and the herd was in a difficult spot. We would probably be able to get to within about 300 yards of them. I wasn't interested in a 300 yard shot in the heavy wind, so I talked myself out of trying to make a play on him at that time. We went back to town for lunch.

We saw a few more bucks that afternoon, but nothing that got us thinking too seriously about taking a shot.



Day 2 ended without an antelope in the back of the truck. We headed for home.

Maybe we were being too picky. At the same time, though, it sure was fun to take our sweet time and just see what was out there, without getting too wound up about shooting one. We felt like we were starting to get a feel for where the better bucks were hanging out, and knew what we wanted to do on our next trip.

If all goes according to plan, we'll be back for round #2 later this week.

 

[Clarq]

Trip #2 has come and gone. I don't have time to post a full recap now, but will try to do so in the next few days.

In the meantime, I'll pose a question to you that I had to ask myself a few days ago: would you put a tag on this buck? Not very big, but super unique...

 

[F250]

Who cares what anyone else thinks. If YOU like it… tag it !

 

[Jbotto]

Trip #2 has come and gone. I don't have time to post a full recap now, but will try to do so in the next few days.

In the meantime, I'll pose a question to you that I had to ask myself a few days ago: would you put a tag on this buck? Not very big, but super unique...

View attachment 343552

View attachment 343553

I had one in front of me that looked a lot like him last week. Passed on him in the morning as he was wide enough and swept forward that he looked smaller through my 10x’s. I went back to find him for a better look in the afternoon and he had moved to a different unit. If he had been where he was earlier that day, I would have shot him!

 

[Clarq]

Following trip #1, Dad and I both checked the zero on our guns. Both were on. There was nothing to blame last week's miss on except for us.

Trip #2 began first thing in the morning after some evening travel and an attempt at a good night's sleep. The goal was to turn up the big buck from last trip and see if we could redeem ourselves. At this point, we had settled into calling him "Al" for reasons which I won't go into here (Dad gives interesting nicknames to all sorts of things...). Dad told me he had his chance and that he wanted me to have my turn. I tried to talk him into carrying the gun if we found Al again, but he refused. Ok then. I prepared myself to be the main gun this trip.

We returned to the same general he had been last week and performed a fairly thorough search during the morning. We didn't find him. We then discussed some other bucks we'd seen last trip, and I decided I'd be happy with the #2 buck we saw last trip. He didn't have the mass Al had, but he was tall and had really nice prongs. We returned to his home turf, performed a fairly thorough search, and didn't turn him up either.

It was there that we found the interesting wide buck I shared a picture of in my last post. He sat there and started at us from about 40 yards, not acting very concerned. I hemmed and hawed for about two minutes while I took a few photos and gave him a look. He would make for a neat euro mount and capture a great memory of a great trip. He'd probably taste great, too, and the pack out would be a piece of cake.

In the end, I decided to let him walk. My hope is that a lucky hunter will find him in a future year, when he's a lot bigger. We bade him farewell and continued on.



Plan C was to return to an area where we had seen a lot of antelope last trip, including a few good bucks. We found the animals, but not the bigger bucks. We were wondering if some other hunters had come through since last trip and harvested some of the bucks we had our eyes on.

Nonetheless, we were having a blast, viewing and passing on plenty of bucks that would easily be shooters in any other unit I've ever hunted. Here's just a few that were nice enough to pose for a photo.





Evening came, and I was starting to wonder if any of last week's trophies would turn back up. Maybe I would need to adjust my standards. We headed toward another area where we'd seen good numbers of pronghorn, and found ourselves driving again through Al's territory along the way. As we were cruising along, I noticed a buck peeking up at us on the right, about 50 yards away. Dad put on the brakes, and I put my binoculars up.

"It's him," I said.

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure." Dad put his binoculars up and confirmed it. Al was still alive.

As we were processing the scene, he got uncomfortable and jumped down over a hill and out of sight. We immediately regretted stopping rather than just driving on through until we were out of sight, but he caught us off guard. We didn't think he was going to survive last week's hunting pressure.

We had no idea if he had run 50 yards or 500, so we grabbed our equipment and sneaked toward where we had last seen him. We looked down into the valley below and found him and his herd about 600 yards away. He was staring right at us, and considering the distance he'd just run after we stopped to look at him from the truck, I figured he wasn't about to let us close much distance. With darkness falling, we decided to back out and attempt to relocate him in the morning.

It felt good to see him alive and well and know that we might have a shot at redemption in the morning. We headed to bed in good spirits.

 

[Clarq]

We discussed our philosophy for the hunt that night. Our financial resources and available time were wearing thin, and it appeared likely that this would be our final trip. Do we harvest an average buck so we can fill a tag? Or do we hold out for a trophy until the bitter end, even if it means going home empty-handed?

I've never been much of a trophy hunter. I even looked down on the practice in my younger days. My mantra has always been to hunt for the adventure, for the food, and to play an active role in wildlife management. That being said, I'd have been done two minutes into this hunt if I went after the first buck I'd seen. I'm glad I didn't do that - holding out for awhile longer allowed me to encounter many more enjoyable experiences than I would have if I tagged out right away.

I was also looking at the prospect of bringing a young bull bison home in a few weeks, and there's really only so much meat a single guy can realistically eat. I wasn't going to be hurting for meat. I determined I was ok to go big or go home. Dad felt similarly. He told me he felt like he'd gotten everything he wanted out of the hunt, and continued to insist that I carry the gun.

On the way out to Al's territory the next morning, we encountered another shooter buck that Dad named "Hank the Tank." He wasn't as tall as Al, but his mass and prongs were incredible. He was on the wrong side of a property line and didn't seem very interested in moving. We filed his location away for future reference and carried on.

As we approached Al's territory, we spotted a herd feeding about 500 yards away down in a valley. We stopped for a minute to take a look, and soon glassed up Al and his herd running off to the next basin. Sheesh, he had gotten a lot smarter in a week's time. We were going to have to change our approach.

Long story short, the wind messed us up the next few days. It was absolutely howling, to the point that we didn't feel comfortable with a shot unless we got close. We did get close to a handful of decent bucks, but none we wanted to pull the trigger on. Here are a few more pictures.







After a few very enjoyable days, we headed home empty-handed and feeling very grateful for the opportunity we had to hunt this area. It was easily one of our favorite hunts of all time.

 

[OverlordBear]

It is funny how the attitude changes about trophy hunting if you have a full freezer.

Ten years ago I d shoot the first Muley buck I see every time. Now I am only looking for a 4x4 or better.