IABoilermaker
Member
This past spring after all the elk application deadlines had come and went I decided I wanted to do more than 1 western hunting trip a year. At the same time my family and I were in the middle of moving from central Iowa to Eastern Iowa to be closer to all of our family in Indiana and the new home location put me about 12 hours from what I believe most consider to be the western hunting border. Knowing that my annual 2 week elk trip wouldn’t leave time for much, I decided I was going to find an antelope hunt on the eastern edge of Wyoming in an area with high draw odds with zero points. I did a little looking and with some help from a few good folks here on the forum I had a plan in place to get a tag that would allow a long weekend from work and home with a banzai run of driving on each side. I ran the idea by the misses and she was alright with the plan, the day I was putting in my application I happened to ask her if she was interested in coming along if we could convince Grandma to come look after our little ones for a few days (much easier now that we were only a 4 hour drive). I figured she would as she has always liked camping and being outdoors, she naturally said yes, then I asked her if she wanted to get a tag. She has hunted in the past but only with a bow a handful of times and has never been overly confident around guns. To my surprise she said she did and that she would work on the shooting skills with me over the summer, so we were off to the races. I put in our applications and a few weeks later we saw we both had either sex tags for Wyoming. Over the course of the summer we would go shooting when time allowed and my wife was able to get to a point of being capable at 150 yards or closer with the .243. After reading all the stories of 250+ yard shots I was concerned about range but figured we would be there on opening day and have that advantage on our side before animals started to get more leery as season rolled on. With shooting under control the stage was set. We would leave on Friday before the Sunday opener, drive all night get a few hours rest, scout Saturday and be ready for opening morning and then hunt until Tuesday if necessary and book it back to Iowa for work the following Wednesday.
Friday September 29th rolled around and I had the day off of work while the wife was working a half day. I got up and showed my mom the kid’s routine for getting to school and got the truck loaded and ready to go. Once my wife got home at 1 we were on the road for the 13 hour drive by 1:30 with plans to make it all the way to our unit that night and sleep in the truck. About 2 hours from our destination we decided it was better to sleep in South Dakota and finish the next morning. We woke up in the truck the next morning around 5 a.m. and were back on the road. We pulled into our unit at about 7a.m. and began to see antelope frequently right off the highway on or near public land. Not wanting to get over excited but the in the back of my mind I was thinking maybe this will be easier than first thought. Over the next few hours we checked a few walk in areas and some BLM and located 3 bucks. We continued the search of all the public land we could cover between driving and hiking for the following 8 hours and only saw 1 other buck on public land. My over confidence from earlier was starting to turn to doubt. As we sat down that night to plan we talked about the three bucks we had seen and there locations the first two were in relatively close proximity and both fairly close to roads. I suggested we go after that one first for my wife as we had a good set up to sneak in in the morning from parking on state ground lot and walking into the BLM. If that didn’t pan out we could cut back over to the state side where we had seen one of the other bucks and go after him.
Opening morning we were set up about 20 minutes before legal light near where we had last seen one of the bucks the previous day. As light was coming on I was glassing and across the fence on private ground I saw two antelope. Without being able to make out much I assumed it might be the buck from the day before. Just then my wife elbowed me in the knee and said right there pointing I front of us I looked out and there 90 yards in front of us was the buck and his 3 does from the day before. I looked at my phone and it was 3 minutes until legal light. I told my wife to get the gun up and find them in the scope. She got set up and got comfortable as the antelope continued to feed away. As my phone ticked over to legal light I checked the range and they were now 115 yards away, I told my wife to chamber and round and shoot when she was ready. For someone who wasn’t comfortable around guns just five months before, the transition between giving her the go ahead and her first antelope being on the ground was much quicker than I would have expected. She took one shot and I saw the antelope drop. Less than a minute into season and we had one tag filled. I told her lets go get some pictures and get him quartered and back to the cooler in the truck. As we were processing her antelope I said as soon as we finish here let’s go across the road and we can look for the other buck we saw yesterday. That plan lasted about ten minutes as we were finishing her buck up we heard a shot near the road. As we were carrying her antelope out, I saw the buck from the day before being accompanied by two hunters to their pickup.
With no reason to stay in that are we headed to the walk in where we had encountered a buck with three does the day before. As we walked into the area we almost immediately spotted a small group of antelope in the distance. Assuming it was the group from the day before we swung wide and planned our approach. After sneaking for around some terrain we got within shooting distance of the group only to find them without the buck. As I was sitting there contemplating what to do my wife pointed up the hill and said there is a buck, all we saw was the silhouette on an antelope as it crested a hill chasing some does. We had both agreed any antelope was what we were after so off we went after this group. As we were approaching the area we expected to be able to come over a hill and get a look at the group out of nowhere antelope started piling over the hill at us and the group was standing there about 25 yards away, I went to pull up my gun but the scope was turned up from previous shooting and I had no sight picture with such close proximity. The antelope figured out the game before I did and were off to the races before I could get a clear shot. Slightly dejected and wondering what happened I crested the hill to see another set of hunters that I am assuming had spooked the group back to us. I did however realize this was the buck from the day before he had just picked up a large group of does we saw in the area and left his smaller harem it seemed. As they ran out of sight I asked my wife what she wanted to do as I could tell she was starting to wear down from the travel and lack of sleep. She said let’s keep going for a little while. We walked another mile or so continuing to check all the landscape features for any sign of additional antelope only turning up one doe and a fawn about 1000 yards away. We sat down for a snack and a rest and to do some glassing. By this time she had had enough and wanted to go check another area and maybe catch a nap. I told her to sit there with our stuff for just a bit longer and I was going to take the binoculars and rifle and check just over the top of the hill we were on the side of. As I was standing on top of the hill I saw some other groups coming in from the other end of the walk in area and figured it was as good of time as any to turn around and go look elsewhere. Just as I turned about 1000 yards away I spotted some movement, it was the group from earlier and they were headed back toward where we first encountered them. I ran back down to my wife’s position and she said to go after them she would gather the spotting scope and our lunch supplies and catch up to me.
Off I went in their general direction keeping and old knotted up tree as a sign marker. As I got close to where I thought I might encounter them I slowed down and started slipping over hilltops looking for the group. First hill nothing, second hill nothing, and by this time the misses had caught back up to me. I told her I was pretty sure they should be over this next hill as this was the general area I had last seen them and I already checked two areas. As we began sneaking over the last hill we looked to our left and there was about 6 does staring at us through small ravine about 250 yards away, without missing a beat they ran out into the middle of a large flat and settled back into their normal behavior but still looking our way. As I assessed the situation there was a small creek bed that had a fair amount of brush in it running into the flat area, I told her let’s start walking away and as soon as we are out of sight drop into the ravine and head straight back towards them. As we got closer to the large flat area we had last seen them the brush got sparser so I told her to stay back with my pack and I would continue on by myself. I grabbed my rifle, leather gloves, and knee pads and started the bush to bush crawl. I got out to about 500 yards and they were still moving about chasing one another and grazing. However I was out of any discernible cover and was afraid they were going to keep moving out, as I watched the majority of the herd was heading away with two does still looking my direction. Figuring I had nothing to lose I took off one of my leather gloves and reached above the bush I was behind and waved it at the does. They didn’t seem too interested but took a few steps my way which got the buck’s attention. At that point I figured what the hell might as well go all in, I started waving the glove again and to my surprise the buck and another doe started to move my way at a pretty rapid pace. Within a few minutes the buck was standing broadside at 175 yards. I took aim and my first shot was a swing and a miss, to my surprise he took a few steps my way and turned broadside again, the second shot found it’s mark and by 1p.m. on opening day we had both tags filled and our work cut out for us for the remainder of the day. I sent her back to get the truck pulled around on another closer road as I broke my buck down. Just as I finished up quartering and bagging him up she popped over the hill and helped me get him back to the truck and cooler. By about 4 o’clock we were back to camp where she decided she was going to nap while I cleaned skulls and celebrated with a few cold ones.
While I was cleaning skulls I got to talk to a few other hunters two of which wound up being fellow hunt talkers as we found out after I got back to an internet connection, and the local game warden who stopped by to check licenses and take a few measurements. Overall a pretty good trip and a good introduction to my wife for western hunting. Now I am off to Colorado shortly for the 1st rifle elk season where I don’t expect the hunting to be so convenient. Thanks for reading. The field pics of my buck didn’t make the cut as I have decided I am no longer a 1 gun man, the .300 WSM didn’t hurt too much meat but made a mess of things on antelope size game.
Friday September 29th rolled around and I had the day off of work while the wife was working a half day. I got up and showed my mom the kid’s routine for getting to school and got the truck loaded and ready to go. Once my wife got home at 1 we were on the road for the 13 hour drive by 1:30 with plans to make it all the way to our unit that night and sleep in the truck. About 2 hours from our destination we decided it was better to sleep in South Dakota and finish the next morning. We woke up in the truck the next morning around 5 a.m. and were back on the road. We pulled into our unit at about 7a.m. and began to see antelope frequently right off the highway on or near public land. Not wanting to get over excited but the in the back of my mind I was thinking maybe this will be easier than first thought. Over the next few hours we checked a few walk in areas and some BLM and located 3 bucks. We continued the search of all the public land we could cover between driving and hiking for the following 8 hours and only saw 1 other buck on public land. My over confidence from earlier was starting to turn to doubt. As we sat down that night to plan we talked about the three bucks we had seen and there locations the first two were in relatively close proximity and both fairly close to roads. I suggested we go after that one first for my wife as we had a good set up to sneak in in the morning from parking on state ground lot and walking into the BLM. If that didn’t pan out we could cut back over to the state side where we had seen one of the other bucks and go after him.
Opening morning we were set up about 20 minutes before legal light near where we had last seen one of the bucks the previous day. As light was coming on I was glassing and across the fence on private ground I saw two antelope. Without being able to make out much I assumed it might be the buck from the day before. Just then my wife elbowed me in the knee and said right there pointing I front of us I looked out and there 90 yards in front of us was the buck and his 3 does from the day before. I looked at my phone and it was 3 minutes until legal light. I told my wife to get the gun up and find them in the scope. She got set up and got comfortable as the antelope continued to feed away. As my phone ticked over to legal light I checked the range and they were now 115 yards away, I told my wife to chamber and round and shoot when she was ready. For someone who wasn’t comfortable around guns just five months before, the transition between giving her the go ahead and her first antelope being on the ground was much quicker than I would have expected. She took one shot and I saw the antelope drop. Less than a minute into season and we had one tag filled. I told her lets go get some pictures and get him quartered and back to the cooler in the truck. As we were processing her antelope I said as soon as we finish here let’s go across the road and we can look for the other buck we saw yesterday. That plan lasted about ten minutes as we were finishing her buck up we heard a shot near the road. As we were carrying her antelope out, I saw the buck from the day before being accompanied by two hunters to their pickup.
With no reason to stay in that are we headed to the walk in where we had encountered a buck with three does the day before. As we walked into the area we almost immediately spotted a small group of antelope in the distance. Assuming it was the group from the day before we swung wide and planned our approach. After sneaking for around some terrain we got within shooting distance of the group only to find them without the buck. As I was sitting there contemplating what to do my wife pointed up the hill and said there is a buck, all we saw was the silhouette on an antelope as it crested a hill chasing some does. We had both agreed any antelope was what we were after so off we went after this group. As we were approaching the area we expected to be able to come over a hill and get a look at the group out of nowhere antelope started piling over the hill at us and the group was standing there about 25 yards away, I went to pull up my gun but the scope was turned up from previous shooting and I had no sight picture with such close proximity. The antelope figured out the game before I did and were off to the races before I could get a clear shot. Slightly dejected and wondering what happened I crested the hill to see another set of hunters that I am assuming had spooked the group back to us. I did however realize this was the buck from the day before he had just picked up a large group of does we saw in the area and left his smaller harem it seemed. As they ran out of sight I asked my wife what she wanted to do as I could tell she was starting to wear down from the travel and lack of sleep. She said let’s keep going for a little while. We walked another mile or so continuing to check all the landscape features for any sign of additional antelope only turning up one doe and a fawn about 1000 yards away. We sat down for a snack and a rest and to do some glassing. By this time she had had enough and wanted to go check another area and maybe catch a nap. I told her to sit there with our stuff for just a bit longer and I was going to take the binoculars and rifle and check just over the top of the hill we were on the side of. As I was standing on top of the hill I saw some other groups coming in from the other end of the walk in area and figured it was as good of time as any to turn around and go look elsewhere. Just as I turned about 1000 yards away I spotted some movement, it was the group from earlier and they were headed back toward where we first encountered them. I ran back down to my wife’s position and she said to go after them she would gather the spotting scope and our lunch supplies and catch up to me.
Off I went in their general direction keeping and old knotted up tree as a sign marker. As I got close to where I thought I might encounter them I slowed down and started slipping over hilltops looking for the group. First hill nothing, second hill nothing, and by this time the misses had caught back up to me. I told her I was pretty sure they should be over this next hill as this was the general area I had last seen them and I already checked two areas. As we began sneaking over the last hill we looked to our left and there was about 6 does staring at us through small ravine about 250 yards away, without missing a beat they ran out into the middle of a large flat and settled back into their normal behavior but still looking our way. As I assessed the situation there was a small creek bed that had a fair amount of brush in it running into the flat area, I told her let’s start walking away and as soon as we are out of sight drop into the ravine and head straight back towards them. As we got closer to the large flat area we had last seen them the brush got sparser so I told her to stay back with my pack and I would continue on by myself. I grabbed my rifle, leather gloves, and knee pads and started the bush to bush crawl. I got out to about 500 yards and they were still moving about chasing one another and grazing. However I was out of any discernible cover and was afraid they were going to keep moving out, as I watched the majority of the herd was heading away with two does still looking my direction. Figuring I had nothing to lose I took off one of my leather gloves and reached above the bush I was behind and waved it at the does. They didn’t seem too interested but took a few steps my way which got the buck’s attention. At that point I figured what the hell might as well go all in, I started waving the glove again and to my surprise the buck and another doe started to move my way at a pretty rapid pace. Within a few minutes the buck was standing broadside at 175 yards. I took aim and my first shot was a swing and a miss, to my surprise he took a few steps my way and turned broadside again, the second shot found it’s mark and by 1p.m. on opening day we had both tags filled and our work cut out for us for the remainder of the day. I sent her back to get the truck pulled around on another closer road as I broke my buck down. Just as I finished up quartering and bagging him up she popped over the hill and helped me get him back to the truck and cooler. By about 4 o’clock we were back to camp where she decided she was going to nap while I cleaned skulls and celebrated with a few cold ones.
While I was cleaning skulls I got to talk to a few other hunters two of which wound up being fellow hunt talkers as we found out after I got back to an internet connection, and the local game warden who stopped by to check licenses and take a few measurements. Overall a pretty good trip and a good introduction to my wife for western hunting. Now I am off to Colorado shortly for the 1st rifle elk season where I don’t expect the hunting to be so convenient. Thanks for reading. The field pics of my buck didn’t make the cut as I have decided I am no longer a 1 gun man, the .300 WSM didn’t hurt too much meat but made a mess of things on antelope size game.
