VikingsGuy
Well-known member
Being almost entirely off the grid for a week means getting buried back in the office upon return, so am late in posting an update. In short, we had a blast. We were in a "hard to hunt" third choice unit, but had plenty of public land to stomp around. We were in the second week of the season, so the 'lopes were very spooky for the most part. But after putting in the walking, my son, myself and my son-in-law all punched our buck tags. A first for both of them. All 3 bucks were “representative” - decent but not great. But we hunt for the comradery and meat so that was perfect. The new Davis wall tent worked great even with the wind and rain we had. A few pics follow.
For those interested, here is a little more detail. On day one I hunted with my buddy from CO who also joined us and we saw plenty of smaller bucks and does and even got lined up for a few shots, but it seemed wrong to pull the trigger on small bucks on the first day of a 5 day hunt so we never pulled the trigger. Near the end of day one I did line up on a buck I was willing to shoot, even on the first day. I was prone on the top of a little rise looking down on him, he hadn't seen me, 150yards easy shot -- except that immediately behind him (and I mean like 5 feet, nearly touching) was a cow. No doubt my TTSX was going to pass clean through and I didn't have a bovine tag handy, so I waited for one of them to move a little. But sure enough, something spooked him and he bolted full speed to the next county. Bummer, but the trip was still in its early phases.
Day two we came across the nicest buck we saw all week and he let me get to within 90 yards of him. I lined up the shot and pulled the trigger and it felt good, but the buck just stared at me for a moment and then trotted off. No sign of a hit and no impact in the surrounding dirt to give me an indication of the nature of the miss. He stopped about 170 yards away and looked back. I lined up another shot and pulled the trigger, this felt good too. This time he bolted full speed and ran for a half a mile over a ridge. I was dumfounded. Two clean misses at short range and no indication of any bullet impact. And then I looked at my new scope. This was the first time I had used a turret scope hunting - I had previously used BCD scopes. After a day and a half of marching around WY slung on my pack it had spun 18.5 MOA. So, that explains the misses - later I looked up the ballistics on my app and it was perfectly dialed for 845 yards. A good reminder of why safe shooting requires you to look past your target to make sure there is nothing behind it to hit. I was mad, but at least I had a reason that I could correct.
Day three. I was committed to shooting something day three, as I wanted my tag out of the way before my son arrived (he had to fly in mid-week due to some school stuff he couldn't miss earlier in the week). I was hunting with my son-in-law and found a lone average buck on a hill side about 750 yards away. There was another little hill to the right and up ahead that would get me to about 300 at the crest and would give me a chance to close the distance unseen. So I walked up the little trough to the intermediate hill walked to near the crest and then bellied crawled to the crest and set up for a 280 yard shot. About the time I got the distance, the buck saw me. But he stared at me long enough for me to set up and take the shot (but not before confirming my turret was in the right place). After the shot, I heard the bullet thump and he started to run for the top of his ridge - he stumbled over a piece of sage brush right at the top and tipped over just on the other side of the ridge 40 yards from where he stood. He was dead by the time I got there. A second year in a row for my 25-06 Howa 1500 in a B&C stock shooting handloaded 100gn TTSX, double lung. The evening of day three I drove to Casper airport to pick up my son - it was cold and a little snowy.
Day four I was committed to helping my son punch his tag. Pretty early, he and I were on a small herd with a nice buck that was super skittish and we stalked them up, down and all around for half a day, about mid-day while going over a ridge that herd had run over we bumped a smaller group that had a shooter too, but both groups eventually ended up on to private after much walking on our part. As we stood there a moment talking about next steps, we spotted a third group about a mile away on a hill side. We also saw a nice creek bed about 300 yards in front of the distant hill side. So we planned our stalk. We took an angle where we covered the mile out of their sight and entered the dry creek and followed all the way to the west end. We then belly crawl up the edge to see if the 'lopes were even still there. They were, but what we originally guessed to be a 300 yd gap ended up being a 600 yd gap. But then we saw a little portion of the creek the branched off and went a little further forward. We dropped back down to the creek bottom and worked up the little branch. Crawled to the top edge of that and got a distance of 405 yds. My son dialed his turret for elevation and accounted for a 10 mph crosswind in his aim and took his shot. I saw that it hit ground just a tad high. The does started to move around at the sound of the shot, but the buck stayed still. I didn't have time to figure out a turret adjustment for him basis what I saw, but I told my son to aim the the front foot - he fired and the buck dropped right there. His first antelope - taken with a 7mm08 Tikka T3X in B&C stock shooting 134gn Hammers. It was super special for me to have spent the day planning stalks with him and having it rewarded in the end with his longest shot ever and a decent buck. We both were in hog heaven. That evening, NDMuley and his 3 nephews joined us at our campsite for elk burgers and some good hunting stories. He is a heck of a good guy and it was nice to kick back for a few minutes and catch up. Also, my son in law, hunting in a different area (with my daughter/his wife as his spotter) got his buck day four as well. It was a very good day indeed.
Day five the only task was to help my buddy from CO to punch his tag. In the morning we had a couple of "near the road" things that didn't pan out. Even stumbled into NDMuley and watched him go balls deep into mud in what we all thought was a dry creek bed. Midday to dusk we got off the road and marched all over the place for a couple of decent stalks that didn't pan out and the trip was over. He got tag soup, but said he didn't regret passing on Day one chances.
Then it was tear down camp and head home - filled with the warmth of another set of family memories in the great outdoors. Thank you WY, and thanks to all those on HT that have made our last 2 years of western hunting possible.
For those interested, here is a little more detail. On day one I hunted with my buddy from CO who also joined us and we saw plenty of smaller bucks and does and even got lined up for a few shots, but it seemed wrong to pull the trigger on small bucks on the first day of a 5 day hunt so we never pulled the trigger. Near the end of day one I did line up on a buck I was willing to shoot, even on the first day. I was prone on the top of a little rise looking down on him, he hadn't seen me, 150yards easy shot -- except that immediately behind him (and I mean like 5 feet, nearly touching) was a cow. No doubt my TTSX was going to pass clean through and I didn't have a bovine tag handy, so I waited for one of them to move a little. But sure enough, something spooked him and he bolted full speed to the next county. Bummer, but the trip was still in its early phases.
Day two we came across the nicest buck we saw all week and he let me get to within 90 yards of him. I lined up the shot and pulled the trigger and it felt good, but the buck just stared at me for a moment and then trotted off. No sign of a hit and no impact in the surrounding dirt to give me an indication of the nature of the miss. He stopped about 170 yards away and looked back. I lined up another shot and pulled the trigger, this felt good too. This time he bolted full speed and ran for a half a mile over a ridge. I was dumfounded. Two clean misses at short range and no indication of any bullet impact. And then I looked at my new scope. This was the first time I had used a turret scope hunting - I had previously used BCD scopes. After a day and a half of marching around WY slung on my pack it had spun 18.5 MOA. So, that explains the misses - later I looked up the ballistics on my app and it was perfectly dialed for 845 yards. A good reminder of why safe shooting requires you to look past your target to make sure there is nothing behind it to hit. I was mad, but at least I had a reason that I could correct.
Day three. I was committed to shooting something day three, as I wanted my tag out of the way before my son arrived (he had to fly in mid-week due to some school stuff he couldn't miss earlier in the week). I was hunting with my son-in-law and found a lone average buck on a hill side about 750 yards away. There was another little hill to the right and up ahead that would get me to about 300 at the crest and would give me a chance to close the distance unseen. So I walked up the little trough to the intermediate hill walked to near the crest and then bellied crawled to the crest and set up for a 280 yard shot. About the time I got the distance, the buck saw me. But he stared at me long enough for me to set up and take the shot (but not before confirming my turret was in the right place). After the shot, I heard the bullet thump and he started to run for the top of his ridge - he stumbled over a piece of sage brush right at the top and tipped over just on the other side of the ridge 40 yards from where he stood. He was dead by the time I got there. A second year in a row for my 25-06 Howa 1500 in a B&C stock shooting handloaded 100gn TTSX, double lung. The evening of day three I drove to Casper airport to pick up my son - it was cold and a little snowy.
Day four I was committed to helping my son punch his tag. Pretty early, he and I were on a small herd with a nice buck that was super skittish and we stalked them up, down and all around for half a day, about mid-day while going over a ridge that herd had run over we bumped a smaller group that had a shooter too, but both groups eventually ended up on to private after much walking on our part. As we stood there a moment talking about next steps, we spotted a third group about a mile away on a hill side. We also saw a nice creek bed about 300 yards in front of the distant hill side. So we planned our stalk. We took an angle where we covered the mile out of their sight and entered the dry creek and followed all the way to the west end. We then belly crawl up the edge to see if the 'lopes were even still there. They were, but what we originally guessed to be a 300 yd gap ended up being a 600 yd gap. But then we saw a little portion of the creek the branched off and went a little further forward. We dropped back down to the creek bottom and worked up the little branch. Crawled to the top edge of that and got a distance of 405 yds. My son dialed his turret for elevation and accounted for a 10 mph crosswind in his aim and took his shot. I saw that it hit ground just a tad high. The does started to move around at the sound of the shot, but the buck stayed still. I didn't have time to figure out a turret adjustment for him basis what I saw, but I told my son to aim the the front foot - he fired and the buck dropped right there. His first antelope - taken with a 7mm08 Tikka T3X in B&C stock shooting 134gn Hammers. It was super special for me to have spent the day planning stalks with him and having it rewarded in the end with his longest shot ever and a decent buck. We both were in hog heaven. That evening, NDMuley and his 3 nephews joined us at our campsite for elk burgers and some good hunting stories. He is a heck of a good guy and it was nice to kick back for a few minutes and catch up. Also, my son in law, hunting in a different area (with my daughter/his wife as his spotter) got his buck day four as well. It was a very good day indeed.
Day five the only task was to help my buddy from CO to punch his tag. In the morning we had a couple of "near the road" things that didn't pan out. Even stumbled into NDMuley and watched him go balls deep into mud in what we all thought was a dry creek bed. Midday to dusk we got off the road and marched all over the place for a couple of decent stalks that didn't pan out and the trip was over. He got tag soup, but said he didn't regret passing on Day one chances.
Then it was tear down camp and head home - filled with the warmth of another set of family memories in the great outdoors. Thank you WY, and thanks to all those on HT that have made our last 2 years of western hunting possible.
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