Bagel_7
Active member
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2017
- Messages
- 72
Been back a week or so now but packed up my family and headed 16 hours from Southern California to Newcastle Wyoming for their first real hunting experience. My wife, her dad, and I all drew pronghorn buck tags in Unit 7 and we decided to stay in Newcastle. We planned to hunt a couple days and do some sightseeing. This may be a little long winded, but some enjoy reading these things.
Morning 1 its very cold and had been raining all night and most of the day hunting too, so we all decided to load up into my Ram 4x4, which was an adventure on its own, and drive or slide around on the two tracks. Our hunting technique for the first day was poor and our encounters showed it. We had a group I spotted in a very stalkable location right off the bat. I get out of the truck and begin getting the kids out, we were going to try and stalk in with my 10, 6, and 3-year old, but people got a little ahead of themselves and did not follow the plan and when we crested the hill the group had moved on. After that day 1 was a lot of driving and a lot of spooking antelope where we could only attempt very hurried shots on antelope that knew we were there.
Day 2 the rain had stopped but we got snow flurries all day long, but this morning it is just me and my father-in-law. We head out first thing to a spot we had located a herd after shooting hours on day 1, we get out of the truck, split up, and begin to walk to where we would have a good view of the area. I get a 100 yards from the truck and realize I didn’t grab my gun or instruct my FIL to get his (he is a newer hunter than I am). I walk back to the truck grab my rifle and start walking my FIL’s to him, eventually I see him signing that he can see antelope so I begin to jog. As soon as I lift my head I realize he meant they were RIGHT THERE. Skylined I see a buck. The buck and my FIL had a staring match for a minute or two before I spooked the buck. As the group gets out of my FIL’s effective range I drop to prone and take a shot. Poor decision as I didn’t have time to range them and made a poor guess at their yardage. I check and find no signs. We move on and eventually find ourselves at a walk in area, we get out and my FIL spots a herd. We end up chasing these bucks 8 miles and never get a shot, our wind was bad the entire chase. However eventually I see two hunters crest a hill and the herd is below them, but they do not see the antelope. Eventually they see us wearing our orange and I frantically point out the herd. Well they took 6 shots between the two of them but no buck falls. We head back to the truck and call it a night. I did however on the walk find my son a dead head, and see two very nice mulies.
PhoneSkope pics
Day 3 we don’t hunt but make the drive to Mt Rushmore, it was freezing but that helped as the park was empty. Saw some collared mountain goats and went to the Pizza Barn for dinner that night. That was the family’s favorite restaurant during the trip, although we all liked Way Back burger as well.
Mountain goat selfies are a thing
Day 4 we had planned to head to Yellowstone but decided to hunt one more day and I’m glad we did. First light my wife, my FIL, and myself head to the spot we had seen antelope twice now, and for the second time we screwed it up. We got out and glassed, with rifles this time, but we couldn’t find the herd. We get back in the truck and drive 100 yards and there behind a small hill is the herd. They spook and again I jump out and get prone. But this time I range them at 250, but the buck is only giving me a severely quartering away shot, I wait it out and they run another 50 yards and stop this time giving me a slightly quartering away shot. I take my time and place the shot just a bit back. I hustle to the hill they were on and I don’t see him at first. I spot the herd cresting the next set of hills and I do not see a buck in the group. Eventually we give up and my wife needs to be dropped back off at the spare car as her, her mom, and the kids are going to a reptile exhibit in South Dakota. I tell my FIL after I know I hit that buck and this time I find the herds tracks in the mud, I follow them over the hill where I shot at the buck and find him immediately.
We head back to the hotel, skin and butcher the buck grab a bite to eat at Way Back Burger and head out to find my FIL a buck. We hit a 2 track and the first area I told him we should glass we split up. He is checking a big valley and I walked around to the backside of the mountain. I immediately spot a herd but they are easy 1-2 miles out. I run back to him and they are out of sight and I explain exactly what I want to do. We stay out of eye sight of the group and follow a river until we find a crossing point; from there we were able to follow a dry creek bed and get within a few hundred yards. As we begin to climb out of the creek bed and get to the backside of the hill where the herd is sitting we run into 4 does and a fawn. I start to get nervous if they spook the direction of the antelope we’re screwed. We wait them out and they go in a safe direction. So we slowly begin to climb the small hill, as we get close to the top I tell him we have to crawl to the crest. We get there and I give him my tripod to shot off, he can see about 40 antelope and 4 bucks in the group. He waits for the first buck to stand and he knocks him down! This is my FIL’s first big game animal and I am more excited for him then I have been hunting for myself in years. We eventually find the buck and gut it, and I walk back to the truck and drive over to load him up. We butcher him this time with the kids there and that ended our hunting trip. My wife’s tag was not punched but she wasn’t as comfortable with the freezing temperatures as we were.
They loved getting to see the butchering process and all wanted to hold the heart.
After that we drove into Yellowstone and eventually made our way back to Southern California with a lot of good meat and a new story to tell.
Not 100% finished I still need to glue the teeth and the horn down but my euro mounts came out pretty good.
Morning 1 its very cold and had been raining all night and most of the day hunting too, so we all decided to load up into my Ram 4x4, which was an adventure on its own, and drive or slide around on the two tracks. Our hunting technique for the first day was poor and our encounters showed it. We had a group I spotted in a very stalkable location right off the bat. I get out of the truck and begin getting the kids out, we were going to try and stalk in with my 10, 6, and 3-year old, but people got a little ahead of themselves and did not follow the plan and when we crested the hill the group had moved on. After that day 1 was a lot of driving and a lot of spooking antelope where we could only attempt very hurried shots on antelope that knew we were there.
Day 2 the rain had stopped but we got snow flurries all day long, but this morning it is just me and my father-in-law. We head out first thing to a spot we had located a herd after shooting hours on day 1, we get out of the truck, split up, and begin to walk to where we would have a good view of the area. I get a 100 yards from the truck and realize I didn’t grab my gun or instruct my FIL to get his (he is a newer hunter than I am). I walk back to the truck grab my rifle and start walking my FIL’s to him, eventually I see him signing that he can see antelope so I begin to jog. As soon as I lift my head I realize he meant they were RIGHT THERE. Skylined I see a buck. The buck and my FIL had a staring match for a minute or two before I spooked the buck. As the group gets out of my FIL’s effective range I drop to prone and take a shot. Poor decision as I didn’t have time to range them and made a poor guess at their yardage. I check and find no signs. We move on and eventually find ourselves at a walk in area, we get out and my FIL spots a herd. We end up chasing these bucks 8 miles and never get a shot, our wind was bad the entire chase. However eventually I see two hunters crest a hill and the herd is below them, but they do not see the antelope. Eventually they see us wearing our orange and I frantically point out the herd. Well they took 6 shots between the two of them but no buck falls. We head back to the truck and call it a night. I did however on the walk find my son a dead head, and see two very nice mulies.
PhoneSkope pics
Day 3 we don’t hunt but make the drive to Mt Rushmore, it was freezing but that helped as the park was empty. Saw some collared mountain goats and went to the Pizza Barn for dinner that night. That was the family’s favorite restaurant during the trip, although we all liked Way Back burger as well.
Mountain goat selfies are a thing
Day 4 we had planned to head to Yellowstone but decided to hunt one more day and I’m glad we did. First light my wife, my FIL, and myself head to the spot we had seen antelope twice now, and for the second time we screwed it up. We got out and glassed, with rifles this time, but we couldn’t find the herd. We get back in the truck and drive 100 yards and there behind a small hill is the herd. They spook and again I jump out and get prone. But this time I range them at 250, but the buck is only giving me a severely quartering away shot, I wait it out and they run another 50 yards and stop this time giving me a slightly quartering away shot. I take my time and place the shot just a bit back. I hustle to the hill they were on and I don’t see him at first. I spot the herd cresting the next set of hills and I do not see a buck in the group. Eventually we give up and my wife needs to be dropped back off at the spare car as her, her mom, and the kids are going to a reptile exhibit in South Dakota. I tell my FIL after I know I hit that buck and this time I find the herds tracks in the mud, I follow them over the hill where I shot at the buck and find him immediately.
We head back to the hotel, skin and butcher the buck grab a bite to eat at Way Back Burger and head out to find my FIL a buck. We hit a 2 track and the first area I told him we should glass we split up. He is checking a big valley and I walked around to the backside of the mountain. I immediately spot a herd but they are easy 1-2 miles out. I run back to him and they are out of sight and I explain exactly what I want to do. We stay out of eye sight of the group and follow a river until we find a crossing point; from there we were able to follow a dry creek bed and get within a few hundred yards. As we begin to climb out of the creek bed and get to the backside of the hill where the herd is sitting we run into 4 does and a fawn. I start to get nervous if they spook the direction of the antelope we’re screwed. We wait them out and they go in a safe direction. So we slowly begin to climb the small hill, as we get close to the top I tell him we have to crawl to the crest. We get there and I give him my tripod to shot off, he can see about 40 antelope and 4 bucks in the group. He waits for the first buck to stand and he knocks him down! This is my FIL’s first big game animal and I am more excited for him then I have been hunting for myself in years. We eventually find the buck and gut it, and I walk back to the truck and drive over to load him up. We butcher him this time with the kids there and that ended our hunting trip. My wife’s tag was not punched but she wasn’t as comfortable with the freezing temperatures as we were.
They loved getting to see the butchering process and all wanted to hold the heart.
After that we drove into Yellowstone and eventually made our way back to Southern California with a lot of good meat and a new story to tell.
Not 100% finished I still need to glue the teeth and the horn down but my euro mounts came out pretty good.
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