uncle sage
Member
Some of you probably have read the antelope portion of our hunt, Wy 83 lopes, in the antelope Forum. So now the tale about the closely following 125 late season deer hunt. Basically it was more of the same only muleys this time, we sliced and diced the areas up and glassed them to death covering lots of ground cold morning to cold night with only a few sidetracks thrown in for helping out the local economy. My pard can still at 63, turn fly specs at far distance into such identification as to not only what critter they are but often even how big or what sex, just with his eyes!. I used to spot deer with the best and i cringe at this admission, but i don't believe my eyes were ever as sharp as his are now at our age. This came in handy when moving from one location to another warmly in his GMC Duramax. .We spent a lot of time in that truck, i give it kudos for fuel mileage, effortless power, not getting stuck, and it smoothing out the hundreds of miles of the rough two tracks we were allowed to use. I remember the last "ride" i did with another old Friend that i worked with and we often would fly-fish trout together a couple evenings a week. His 1971 3/4 ton long bed Ford had been gone thru, it was patena'd but in great running shape and he was very proud of it. But i smashed my head on his roof each and every slightest bump, it would try to push the button on top center of my ball cap, down into my skull and i thought sometimes, down into my neck. I was already a Chevy man but that rough ride before he passed, swore me off the older Fords even more. My Pards rig, not new, was awesome, a dream ride that well surpassed our needs at every test. I got a good seat, i'm the navagator with 4-5 different maps spread all over my side of the dash. Let's go find and then get a couple Dandies!
It didn't pan out. We saw bucks every day on public land that we could have taken, a few three's, smaller to a little better 4's, yet none like we were after. Early on it seemed that there were a lot of mature forkethorns, we saw 4 of them one day, each one different but obviously bigger or older than your average yearling bucks. My goals for this hunt were different than that the lope hunt. I really, really wanted and hoped to get a chance at a really big Antelope. Didn't happen for me but we looked them over for 10 incredibly wonderful days to finally get a great consolation prize i'm well satisfied with. My Pard had filled his buck lope tag earlier this year on a Casper area hunt with his wife. Now i wanted my buddy to have a great chance at a really big deer and i know from helping learn the boy 50 years ago, that the guy can Hunt bucks. He's a natural at hunting big blacktail and huge muley bucks, i gotta say probably the best i know. I wanted to turn him loose in that country and heaven help a monster buck if it could be found. Myself, not too particular. I needed to stay closer to the rig and hoped to get a big bodied mature buck but realized from reports that this could be a challenge. After passing those early forkies, i told my pard that i'd be happy taking one of them if it came to that, somebody needed to even if they create a fork only hunt, though we saw fewer of them after the first weekend so maybe some did get thinned.
On the fifth day of the deer hunt we were about half way up a two track in the bottom of a draw that went all the way to the top with access to good looking country that was cut off from the other side because of private. Though lots of deer on the irrigated private below, not near as many above on the sage and rock covered hills and we were talking to each other about how shitty it was, i was defending it mostly, when out my side i saw what i thought was a big ol racked buck standing broadside halfway up his body in sage a couple hundred yards away. Fire drill. After getting out, finding a rest, and being surprised that he was still there when i could see through my Burris and that those cross-hairs were right on him,.. i squeezed off. His does bounced up the side hill looking back but he stayed put.
My Pard beat me to the buck and said, "well he's a 4 point". What's that supposed to mean? "He's got a huge body" he said. I hollered back to him telling him to knock that crap off and tell me that i just shot a monster! He was quiet. Absolutely that Buck looked a good bit bigger racked to me on the hoof and what i saw of him in my scope. I haven't always been that way but i guess i am now. I'm a old fart, i should have taken more time, this was my last outa state trip, i got excuses! lol
It didn't pan out. We saw bucks every day on public land that we could have taken, a few three's, smaller to a little better 4's, yet none like we were after. Early on it seemed that there were a lot of mature forkethorns, we saw 4 of them one day, each one different but obviously bigger or older than your average yearling bucks. My goals for this hunt were different than that the lope hunt. I really, really wanted and hoped to get a chance at a really big Antelope. Didn't happen for me but we looked them over for 10 incredibly wonderful days to finally get a great consolation prize i'm well satisfied with. My Pard had filled his buck lope tag earlier this year on a Casper area hunt with his wife. Now i wanted my buddy to have a great chance at a really big deer and i know from helping learn the boy 50 years ago, that the guy can Hunt bucks. He's a natural at hunting big blacktail and huge muley bucks, i gotta say probably the best i know. I wanted to turn him loose in that country and heaven help a monster buck if it could be found. Myself, not too particular. I needed to stay closer to the rig and hoped to get a big bodied mature buck but realized from reports that this could be a challenge. After passing those early forkies, i told my pard that i'd be happy taking one of them if it came to that, somebody needed to even if they create a fork only hunt, though we saw fewer of them after the first weekend so maybe some did get thinned.
On the fifth day of the deer hunt we were about half way up a two track in the bottom of a draw that went all the way to the top with access to good looking country that was cut off from the other side because of private. Though lots of deer on the irrigated private below, not near as many above on the sage and rock covered hills and we were talking to each other about how shitty it was, i was defending it mostly, when out my side i saw what i thought was a big ol racked buck standing broadside halfway up his body in sage a couple hundred yards away. Fire drill. After getting out, finding a rest, and being surprised that he was still there when i could see through my Burris and that those cross-hairs were right on him,.. i squeezed off. His does bounced up the side hill looking back but he stayed put.
My Pard beat me to the buck and said, "well he's a 4 point". What's that supposed to mean? "He's got a huge body" he said. I hollered back to him telling him to knock that crap off and tell me that i just shot a monster! He was quiet. Absolutely that Buck looked a good bit bigger racked to me on the hoof and what i saw of him in my scope. I haven't always been that way but i guess i am now. I'm a old fart, i should have taken more time, this was my last outa state trip, i got excuses! lol
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