Nephew Perma’s 100 Day Challenge

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Well this was a month of conflicts, and honestly a mess. Nothing has been certain as far as my Wyoming hunts have gone and it truly disappoints me. But, we have a story to tell, and a story you shall receive.

Night 1

Mind you, this was not intended to be a “hunting trip”. This was a scouting trip that was planned long ago but due to this awarded work trip, it became a makeshift on the fly hunt trip.

I decided that the fear of hunting in grizzly country has been overinflated by me. I needed to prove to myself that I can do it and so I decided to do it. My dad and I get to a camp spot next to a stream with a willow patch next to some tucked away mountains. Nice spot and free of wind. We decide to scout that afternoon. As you can imagine, with two general seasons going on, all my waypoints were hammered with campers. We knew we had 3 mornings to make it work so we found 4 spots depending on where they were moving. The strategy was to start as far south as possible and bump north until we find deer, based on the corridor.

Like mentioned above, this was a tough hunt. This was a herd hit by the tough winter with tighter restrictions implemented by G&F. NR tags were cut drastically, there’s a point restriction and it was HOT. Not good odds to find deer.

But, we’re hunting!

 

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Day 1

I learned that I’m a terrible deer hunter. Never hunted mule deer up until last year. The issue I have is I hunt way too high. I figure the solution is to hunt them in September where everything is high.

We get to a nice knob where we can oversee a lot of roadless country, about 1/2 mile off the main road. We would eventually be glassing into the sun once it crests the alpine which is what I wanted. I had to sit back for a few and admire where I was and what I was doing. I’m in very unfamiliar territory with a general WY deer tag with a rifle in my hand. I felt out of place in a way, maybe appreciative and thankful for the opportunity.

Well, it was short lived. No deer were accounted for in this range of hills. Although, I did glass up a mama moose and her calf which is always a treasure. I also spotted four heads of elk, which is very fitting for me. No bulls so I didn’t make the chase. As you can expect with a general tag, we had some folks drive the top of the mountain and glass down, which I’m not sure is legal in this part of the mountain, (didn’t see any roads). Normally that would upset me but I was at peace that morning.

By 11 we decided to go back and regroup for lunch. Driving down a logging road, we ran across a grouse, which my dad made quick work of.

After lunch and an afternoon siesta, we decided to scout some more, we ran across a logging road way farther north than before that no one has been on. We walked that until sunset and eventually bumped our first doe. She had a collar on and was packing the weight. She stopped to examine us from about 60 yards and eventually took off. We glassed the other half of the logging road up to some large basins in succession, no bucks found.

 

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Day 2

Short on plans, we decide to go back to the doe spot since there were deer in there. We had a late start to the day so we get to the parking spot. I had noticed a choke point along the road that had a lot of foot traffic so I had come up with a pretty good idea. We would glass the same basins and sit in a blind where those deer could walk through. The bump in the hill was hit at around 175 yards so if a buck were to stroll by, it’s an easy chip shot with a solid berm. To the other side was another choke point where the top berm was 300 yards. We had a full 360 degree plan.

Well it just so happened that this plan actually worked. The collared doe showed up again with 3 other does. We had favorable wind so they froze and examined us at 175 yards. And to my surprise, a buck was a few yards lower than them.

Here is where it all fell apart. My dad struggles with his hearing, even with the hearing aids he has. I tried to signal to him that there were deer behind him but he’s too far away for me to talk even with my normal voice. He assumed that they were on a farther hillside so he proceeded to stand up and turn around. As soon as the deer saw that, it was over. I didn’t have enough time to examine to buck to see if it was legal, the deadfall from the burn in this area was so bad that the antler color matched the deadfall. Tried to explain to him what he had done but it wasn’t until I called it for the morning that it finally hit him.

We took off to the other side of the main road where they all ran off to, they never came back. I assumed they either took off to the next county or they made a large loop back to the same spot.

 

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Morning 3

Really not much to write here. The area we hunted twice was too disturbed to go back in so I rolled the dice on where I thought they’d run to, and I was wrong. It is what it is.

The issue now is that I learned my dad has a heel injury and has been babying it for awhile. It had not occurred until this morning. Which now brings up the conflict of the elk hunt. I had planned to go a little farther north into a different unit for elk or into another thick timbered area that is known to be steep but with his heel behaving the way it is, I don’t know that I have confidence that he’ll be able to hike it, let alone pack out an elk. So for the third time this year, I’m scrambling to find a general unit for elk that’s less taxing on his foot for hiking. And I have 3 days to come up with one.

All in all, fun hunt with some beautiful country. I will be back to conquer this region. Maybe just a different unit.