Last winter I started planning my 1st western hunt, an archery elk hunt in Sept., 2013 with a buddy. Well, a week into it I was feeling guilty, so I then also started planning my 2nd western hunt, an antelope hunt with my fiancé and my daughters. Carlee (17) and I would get tags and Dawna nd Olivia would come along for the ride. My son is at college and opted not to skip classes, but my teenage daughters thought that was a great idea!
So, Friday, Oct. 4, (5 days after getting home from CO elk hunt), the 3 girls and I leave NW Iowa for SouthEast WY with our 5th wheel camper in tow. We make it about 80 miles and have to stop in a little town and take shelter from the tornadoes that are in areas all around us. It was a little spooky for the girls but the folks at the Hinton Fire and Police Dept. made us feel like part of the family as we hung out in their conference room for 1.5 hours.... so off we go, headed west in the dark. Sleep in the camper at a rest stop, and trudge on the next morning. It takes us all day to get to our "campground" in Medicine Bow, WY. The NW winds that followed the snow storm were nasty and made pulling a camper a real chore for me and the truck. 7 mpg is not fun on the pocket book at $3.89/gallon... but we see lots of antelope from the Hwy, so we are encouraged.
Sunday AM, we get up "early" by the girls standards and start glassing the little squres of BLM land one at a time from the truck and by making quick walks to the tops of hills to look in. We are totally new to this and we blow a few stalks by underestimating the eyesight of these animals. All 4 of us were stalking them with Carlee in the front with our new Rem. 260. About noon we decide to venture down a "road"... We were dragging the frame of my 3/4 ton chevy much of the time, but made it through. We watched a herd of antelope chase each other around for 15 minutes before they all split up and went different directions. This time just Carlee and I leave the truck and start hiking toward a hill where 2 bucks were harassing one doe. When they went over the rise we took off. We made it almost to the top of the hill to see if they were on the other side or not, when I see a buck's head appear above us on the horizon. We drop to our knees, and the buck stares at us for a few seconds and starts feeding. I slowly peel off my pack and stand it up in front of Carlee for her to rest the gun on. The buck then starts to walk down the hill and feed toward us. Carlee is steady on the pack and has the crosshairs on him when he turns broadside. He lifts his head for the last time and Carlee folds him up with one shot through both lungs. He was dead before he hit the ground! Hugs and excitement are plentiful as we both are in on our first successful hunt outside of Iowa. Here's her first antelope, one happy little lady!
We quartered it out using the gutless method that I learned here from Randy's video, and we headed for town and a meal at the camper. One per day was enough for us. Day 2 the snow was mostly gone and one road had been bladed off the day before, so we try a different part of the unit. What a mess! I spent more time trying to keep the truck on the road than I did looking for antelope. When we did find some animals we couldn't park the truck because the only place to stop was in the tracks in the middle of the road. So, we switched gears - we were now looking for prairie dogs for my youngest daughter to shoot. She had never shot an animal before and will be hunting deer at home this fall so we thought this would be some great practice. She practiced a few times before connecting, but when she did she was quite proud and couldn't wait to text her friends
Here's my youngest hunter, Olivia (14):
Next it was dad's turn, so we go back to hunting antelope on a better and from a less stressful road. We find a few antelope and one is a smaller buck, but we stalk in anyway. I was just about to shoot as all 4 of us are peering over the edge ( I really didn't care how big he was as long as everyone got to be in on the excitement), when they spotted us and took off... oh well, end of day 2.
Day 3 we have another buck just up and disappear on us, and then we start our 2nd stalk of the day. All 4 of us single file across the prairie. We spot a buck and 3 does and start the long crawl on the almost flat ground. We didn't get as close as I would have liked before they stood up. I guess 350 yards, and whiffed,,... a few times,... the last round I now guessed at 400 and put the bottom hash of my reticle on him and smacked him. He walked over a hill and layed down so I got to make another stalk to finish him off. Not as pretty as I would have liked it, but we now had our 2 tags filled. We boned this one completely out and packed it back to the truck, meat in my pack and head in Carlee's pack. Here's my last day buck, not a huge one but better than I thought he was going to be, so I was pleased. Both bucks measured 13.5" if I'm doing it right...
Now it was Dawn's turn!! We got engaged last August and will get married next Aug. She hunted deer with me last year but hasn't harvested an animal yet either, so she got to practice on a few prairie dogs as well. She was pleased to get to do some shooting also, and it helped her enjoy the hunt even more. I got to watch her prairie dog through the binocs as it turned from a dusty tan color to a brilliant red Now it was back to Carlee's turn behind the trigger and after talking to a rancher who asked us to shoot any prairie dog or jackrabbit we saw, we walked out onto his land and Carlee made quick work of his request on her first jackrabbit.
Obviously it was a great trip for all of us. I need to again thank all of the guys on this site that helped make it possible. I learned so much from all of you and I was amazed at how many guys stepped up and offered advise on all aspects of the hunt including unit choices, guns, equipment and hunting tactics. I got to chat with several of you on the phone and many others PM'd me advise. you all helped make this possible, so THANK YOU!! I was fortunate enough to meet Clay O. and his brother Neil from Utah, and Kevin W. from Iowa on this trip. A special thank you goes out to Clay for helping me with which roads I could use and teaching me more about these animals. I'm sure we will be back in WY again next year, with 2 more girls trying to shoot something bigger than prairie dogs
Happy Hunting and thanks again guys!!
Clayton Fletcher
oops, I almost forgot to include a pic of our family tradition: On every years vacation we spell out our last name and the year with whatever is available in the area. It started in Canada when the kids found 100+ clams and lined them up on the beach. This year we used pinecones. Obviously I don't know how to resize the pictures, but oh well, gotta get some work done now for a change.
So, Friday, Oct. 4, (5 days after getting home from CO elk hunt), the 3 girls and I leave NW Iowa for SouthEast WY with our 5th wheel camper in tow. We make it about 80 miles and have to stop in a little town and take shelter from the tornadoes that are in areas all around us. It was a little spooky for the girls but the folks at the Hinton Fire and Police Dept. made us feel like part of the family as we hung out in their conference room for 1.5 hours.... so off we go, headed west in the dark. Sleep in the camper at a rest stop, and trudge on the next morning. It takes us all day to get to our "campground" in Medicine Bow, WY. The NW winds that followed the snow storm were nasty and made pulling a camper a real chore for me and the truck. 7 mpg is not fun on the pocket book at $3.89/gallon... but we see lots of antelope from the Hwy, so we are encouraged.
Sunday AM, we get up "early" by the girls standards and start glassing the little squres of BLM land one at a time from the truck and by making quick walks to the tops of hills to look in. We are totally new to this and we blow a few stalks by underestimating the eyesight of these animals. All 4 of us were stalking them with Carlee in the front with our new Rem. 260. About noon we decide to venture down a "road"... We were dragging the frame of my 3/4 ton chevy much of the time, but made it through. We watched a herd of antelope chase each other around for 15 minutes before they all split up and went different directions. This time just Carlee and I leave the truck and start hiking toward a hill where 2 bucks were harassing one doe. When they went over the rise we took off. We made it almost to the top of the hill to see if they were on the other side or not, when I see a buck's head appear above us on the horizon. We drop to our knees, and the buck stares at us for a few seconds and starts feeding. I slowly peel off my pack and stand it up in front of Carlee for her to rest the gun on. The buck then starts to walk down the hill and feed toward us. Carlee is steady on the pack and has the crosshairs on him when he turns broadside. He lifts his head for the last time and Carlee folds him up with one shot through both lungs. He was dead before he hit the ground! Hugs and excitement are plentiful as we both are in on our first successful hunt outside of Iowa. Here's her first antelope, one happy little lady!
We quartered it out using the gutless method that I learned here from Randy's video, and we headed for town and a meal at the camper. One per day was enough for us. Day 2 the snow was mostly gone and one road had been bladed off the day before, so we try a different part of the unit. What a mess! I spent more time trying to keep the truck on the road than I did looking for antelope. When we did find some animals we couldn't park the truck because the only place to stop was in the tracks in the middle of the road. So, we switched gears - we were now looking for prairie dogs for my youngest daughter to shoot. She had never shot an animal before and will be hunting deer at home this fall so we thought this would be some great practice. She practiced a few times before connecting, but when she did she was quite proud and couldn't wait to text her friends
Here's my youngest hunter, Olivia (14):Next it was dad's turn, so we go back to hunting antelope on a better and from a less stressful road. We find a few antelope and one is a smaller buck, but we stalk in anyway. I was just about to shoot as all 4 of us are peering over the edge ( I really didn't care how big he was as long as everyone got to be in on the excitement), when they spotted us and took off... oh well, end of day 2.
Day 3 we have another buck just up and disappear on us, and then we start our 2nd stalk of the day. All 4 of us single file across the prairie. We spot a buck and 3 does and start the long crawl on the almost flat ground. We didn't get as close as I would have liked before they stood up. I guess 350 yards, and whiffed,,... a few times,... the last round I now guessed at 400 and put the bottom hash of my reticle on him and smacked him. He walked over a hill and layed down so I got to make another stalk to finish him off. Not as pretty as I would have liked it, but we now had our 2 tags filled. We boned this one completely out and packed it back to the truck, meat in my pack and head in Carlee's pack. Here's my last day buck, not a huge one but better than I thought he was going to be, so I was pleased. Both bucks measured 13.5" if I'm doing it right...
Now it was Dawn's turn!! We got engaged last August and will get married next Aug. She hunted deer with me last year but hasn't harvested an animal yet either, so she got to practice on a few prairie dogs as well. She was pleased to get to do some shooting also, and it helped her enjoy the hunt even more. I got to watch her prairie dog through the binocs as it turned from a dusty tan color to a brilliant red
Now it was back to Carlee's turn behind the trigger and after talking to a rancher who asked us to shoot any prairie dog or jackrabbit we saw, we walked out onto his land and Carlee made quick work of his request on her first jackrabbit.Obviously it was a great trip for all of us. I need to again thank all of the guys on this site that helped make it possible. I learned so much from all of you and I was amazed at how many guys stepped up and offered advise on all aspects of the hunt including unit choices, guns, equipment and hunting tactics. I got to chat with several of you on the phone and many others PM'd me advise. you all helped make this possible, so THANK YOU!! I was fortunate enough to meet Clay O. and his brother Neil from Utah, and Kevin W. from Iowa on this trip. A special thank you goes out to Clay for helping me with which roads I could use and teaching me more about these animals. I'm sure we will be back in WY again next year, with 2 more girls trying to shoot something bigger than prairie dogs
Happy Hunting and thanks again guys!!
Clayton Fletcher
oops, I almost forgot to include a pic of our family tradition: On every years vacation we spell out our last name and the year with whatever is available in the area. It started in Canada when the kids found 100+ clams and lined them up on the beach. This year we used pinecones. Obviously I don't know how to resize the pictures, but oh well, gotta get some work done now for a change.
