My dad and I hunted unit 7 in Wyoming this year. It was the first time either of us had hunted antelope and my first trip out west. He's been on a handful of trips and has killed elk, moose and caribou. We went into this planning to fill our tags at the first available opportunity. I did a ton of research all summer, talked to the warden, the biologist, got the grassland travel maps, county road map and had so many way-points in OnX that it was ridiculous.
It was a fairly eventful trip, had a run-in with a local outfitter/rancher, had someone in camp night before opener, filled our tags, and helped a fellow HT'er out with some coordinates that worked out on a muley buck.
We made a mini vacation out of the trip from Michigan. My dad wanted to see the Badlands and Mount Rushmore. We decided we'd see Rushmore on the way out, and swing through the Badlands on the way home. We ended up taking my Subaru. Hard to beat 26mpg with it stuffed to the gills.
We got into Newcastle midday two days before the opener after visiting Mount Rushmore. We wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to figure out the lay of the land. We spent most of the day just driving roads glassing, and figuring out where and where not we could hunt. Had an interesting interaction with a badger, saw some goats, and never found a good spot to camp so we ended up grabbing a motel in Newcastle for the night.
Day before the opener was more of the same. Driving and glassing with a priority of finding someplace to camp. Around noon we finally found the only tree on public ground in the entire unit to camp under. It was settled down in a break out of the wind. Made camp and went out to find some antelope to sit on until sunset.
Opening morning....what a gong show. We had kind of expected it, we didn't set any super early alarms, took our time with breakfast and piled in the Scoob about 45 minutes prior to shooting light. A couple of the herds we had been keeping tabs on from camp already had 3 or 4 trucks parked near them and headlights in every direction on the roads. Not wanting any part of that we took off to a couple of the smaller out of the way parcels we had found antelope on the previous two days.
We are boots on the ground in the first piece about 10 minutes prior to shooting light. We get set up about 200 yards from where we had seen a buck with a small group of does milling about the day before. No sooner than the antelope had come over the hill and were feeding down into the cut someone starts whistling at us from the road. This is where we screwed up and should have stuck to our guns. The antelope take off so we head to the road to see what this guy wants.
The first words out of his mouth was, "I don't give a #*^@#* what your GPS says, this is private property!" Instead of telling him to call the warden or we will for HH, and not being sure of ourselves like we should have been, after a 5 minute or so conversation we tucked our tails between our legs and headed back to the truck. Hearing all the horror stories of guys getting pinched for trespassing had us kind of on edge and was the reason we rolled over. As soon as we got in the truck we checked the National Grassland Map and sure enough, public ground. I had a newborn at home, and didn't really have a day to burn playing phone tag with the warden so we took off for the next piece. I don't think I'll ever forget that cats name, its burned into the back of my mind, and it is still nagging me we didn't call the warden right then and there.
We are scrambling a bit in the Subaru as it's now well into shooting light when my dad says lets go check out that piece of walk-in we glazed over during scouting. It allowed access to a sizeable piece of the grassland on the backside, and it was a couple mile hike we bet most weren't willing to make. We end up finding a buck bedded with a couple does down in a bowl shortly into the hike. We get into 300 yards but can't get any closer. We sat on the buck for two hours waiting for a herd of cows to clear out from behind them. The cattle finally clear and I shot him at 334 yards with my 6.5manbun.
This is getting pretty long. To make a longer story short we packed my buck out, ran back to camp, and got it on ice. Trucks near camp had cleared out, so we set out into the piece we were camped on. We did about 4 miles out in a loop, dad shot his doe after passing on a solo yearling buck. I ran back to camp while he broke it down and brought the car around to where the pack out was only going to be about a mile versus 3 or so. Next morning dad shot his buck down on that same piece of walk-in where I killed mine. We went back to camp, packed up, and were in the Badlands by 3 P.M where we stumbled into some bighorns.
Looking back we really should have gotten region B tags, we stumbled into decent mule deer bucks both days. It was awesome to watch them, but at the same time it was a bit of a kick in the nuts.
It was a fairly eventful trip, had a run-in with a local outfitter/rancher, had someone in camp night before opener, filled our tags, and helped a fellow HT'er out with some coordinates that worked out on a muley buck.
We made a mini vacation out of the trip from Michigan. My dad wanted to see the Badlands and Mount Rushmore. We decided we'd see Rushmore on the way out, and swing through the Badlands on the way home. We ended up taking my Subaru. Hard to beat 26mpg with it stuffed to the gills.
We got into Newcastle midday two days before the opener after visiting Mount Rushmore. We wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to figure out the lay of the land. We spent most of the day just driving roads glassing, and figuring out where and where not we could hunt. Had an interesting interaction with a badger, saw some goats, and never found a good spot to camp so we ended up grabbing a motel in Newcastle for the night.
Day before the opener was more of the same. Driving and glassing with a priority of finding someplace to camp. Around noon we finally found the only tree on public ground in the entire unit to camp under. It was settled down in a break out of the wind. Made camp and went out to find some antelope to sit on until sunset.
Opening morning....what a gong show. We had kind of expected it, we didn't set any super early alarms, took our time with breakfast and piled in the Scoob about 45 minutes prior to shooting light. A couple of the herds we had been keeping tabs on from camp already had 3 or 4 trucks parked near them and headlights in every direction on the roads. Not wanting any part of that we took off to a couple of the smaller out of the way parcels we had found antelope on the previous two days.
We are boots on the ground in the first piece about 10 minutes prior to shooting light. We get set up about 200 yards from where we had seen a buck with a small group of does milling about the day before. No sooner than the antelope had come over the hill and were feeding down into the cut someone starts whistling at us from the road. This is where we screwed up and should have stuck to our guns. The antelope take off so we head to the road to see what this guy wants.
The first words out of his mouth was, "I don't give a #*^@#* what your GPS says, this is private property!" Instead of telling him to call the warden or we will for HH, and not being sure of ourselves like we should have been, after a 5 minute or so conversation we tucked our tails between our legs and headed back to the truck. Hearing all the horror stories of guys getting pinched for trespassing had us kind of on edge and was the reason we rolled over. As soon as we got in the truck we checked the National Grassland Map and sure enough, public ground. I had a newborn at home, and didn't really have a day to burn playing phone tag with the warden so we took off for the next piece. I don't think I'll ever forget that cats name, its burned into the back of my mind, and it is still nagging me we didn't call the warden right then and there.
We are scrambling a bit in the Subaru as it's now well into shooting light when my dad says lets go check out that piece of walk-in we glazed over during scouting. It allowed access to a sizeable piece of the grassland on the backside, and it was a couple mile hike we bet most weren't willing to make. We end up finding a buck bedded with a couple does down in a bowl shortly into the hike. We get into 300 yards but can't get any closer. We sat on the buck for two hours waiting for a herd of cows to clear out from behind them. The cattle finally clear and I shot him at 334 yards with my 6.5manbun.
This is getting pretty long. To make a longer story short we packed my buck out, ran back to camp, and got it on ice. Trucks near camp had cleared out, so we set out into the piece we were camped on. We did about 4 miles out in a loop, dad shot his doe after passing on a solo yearling buck. I ran back to camp while he broke it down and brought the car around to where the pack out was only going to be about a mile versus 3 or so. Next morning dad shot his buck down on that same piece of walk-in where I killed mine. We went back to camp, packed up, and were in the Badlands by 3 P.M where we stumbled into some bighorns.
Looking back we really should have gotten region B tags, we stumbled into decent mule deer bucks both days. It was awesome to watch them, but at the same time it was a bit of a kick in the nuts.
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