I have to thank a couple HT guys first, Grant from MI , Colton, and Jon from MN, thanks guys and it was nice to meet Jon in person at a gas station in SD.
My wife and I drew Wyoming Region B deer tags as a second choice. Lord only knows why I put B as a second choice,... I was absolutely positive we would draw a LE unit as we had 2 more points than were needed last year. Well point creep kicked our butts and we got region B deer tags. First thing the biologist said when I talked to him was that they don't recommend B unless you have private land to hunt. Nice! Well, I knew that some public is better than none and we would make the best of it. I did a scouting mission with my bow on Sept. 1 and after 4 days of seeing one buck per day I shot a forky after he came 75 yards too far into the breaks after feeding in the private hay fields all night. I watched him go into a wash out cut and never come out. I snuck up on him 30 minutes later and shot him straight down in his bed. Tag punched and relieved that I would only have to find one deer in October for my wife. Thanks to OnX, as without it I would have went by the fence which was off by 200 yards.
We decided to go back out the second week of the rifle season to avoid the orange army. Good call I believe as we operate in low gear. We saw about 1-2 bucks per day after a ton of glassing and walking. The weather was wet and the boots got heavy! We booger-ed up a couple stalks on a forky and a small 3x3. We weren't seeing enough deer to be fussy.
Grant told us about a small piece of public land. He had been sneaking on some antelope a week earlier when he saw 3 mule deer bucks on the same small parcel. As he started his stalk he had a nasty landowner/outfitter drive up and start yelling at him and of course spooking the antelope. This fella, lets just call him "Crazy Carl", as I don't want to use his real name, insisted that the grassland map and the OnX chip were wrong and they needed to get off of HIS land. Grant and his father did just that as they didn't want a fight. They went on to shoot antelope on a different piece. Grant told me to check out this spot for deer and check with the warden first before hunting it. I did just that. The warden was an awesome guy and confirmed that it was indeed National grassland and public. He suggested I still hunt elsewhere if possible to avoid any confrontations. The warden went to talk to "Carl" who changed his story and said that Grant was "headed out onto his deeded land" earlier in the week and that is why he chewed them out. The warden told "Carl" to not be chasing anyone off of the public land that is bordered by his land. I agreed with the warden that we would not be walking this piece of OUR land , but I did tell him that if I drive by and spot a deer on it that we ARE going to shoot it. He agreed and said that of course that was fine.
So after a 3 mile walk on Monday morning with 5 pounds of mud on each boot we needed a break so we decided to drive down past "Crazy Carl's" since the night before in the dark we had seen several deer on the side of the road as we drove through that general area. Sure enough after 5 minutes of glassing I find a herd of about 10 does and one buck bedded in the sage. We spent the next 30 minutes glassing them ranging every hill, doing the math on yardage into miles, and estimating where the buck was bedded. I was jacked and ready to go but my wife was reluctant. She worried about "Crazy Carl". I showed her all of the maps and explained to her that the deer were on OUR land. We just needed to get close and make a good shot. After another 20 minutes of talking her into it we were off to give it a try. We crawled as close as we could before getting skylined on a small hillside. The deer were below us and feeding and bedding off and on. The buck was bedded most of the time. My wife struggled seeing the buck through the scope and through the yellow grass tops. We later learned that her breathing on the scope didn't help either
After laying there for an hour we decided to put the pack upright and she would use it as a rest to get over the grass. As we did so the buck saw us and stood, she got him in the crosshairs and fired, and the buck folded on the spot! We were so thrilled and relieved that the buck hadn't ran off into the private land and we felt so blessed and thankful! I kept my GPS on the entire time to document our path and shot so that we could show CC or a warden if needed. We took 15 minutes to admire her buck and take many photos before starting to bone it out. The snow had just started 10 minutes before she shot and by the time we had him back to the truck there was 1.5" of snow on the ground and the sun was gone. It was a very enjoyable hunt and I'm glad the crazy man hadn't come out to confront us. It was also more than a little pleasing to know that we had shot a buck from a spot that the local landowner/outfitter had misbehaved on. We had kind of a "HAH, TAKE THAT!!" moment Grant especially got a kick out of it and texted me that they were glad that we had gotten one from that piece.
Thanks again to Grant and Jon and Colton for sharing where they saw deer the week before. Here's a pic of my GPS. The blue flag is where I estimated the buck was laying. The red dot is where we shot from. The blue dot is where the buck dropped. The pink line is just the Go-To feature from our campsite many miles away that evening when I took the pic of the gps screen. (No we didn't walk across that white piece) . The shot was a little risky now that I look back on it, but we are extremely grateful and thrilled with her first mule deer!
My wife and I drew Wyoming Region B deer tags as a second choice. Lord only knows why I put B as a second choice,... I was absolutely positive we would draw a LE unit as we had 2 more points than were needed last year. Well point creep kicked our butts and we got region B deer tags. First thing the biologist said when I talked to him was that they don't recommend B unless you have private land to hunt. Nice! Well, I knew that some public is better than none and we would make the best of it. I did a scouting mission with my bow on Sept. 1 and after 4 days of seeing one buck per day I shot a forky after he came 75 yards too far into the breaks after feeding in the private hay fields all night. I watched him go into a wash out cut and never come out. I snuck up on him 30 minutes later and shot him straight down in his bed. Tag punched and relieved that I would only have to find one deer in October for my wife. Thanks to OnX, as without it I would have went by the fence which was off by 200 yards.
We decided to go back out the second week of the rifle season to avoid the orange army. Good call I believe as we operate in low gear. We saw about 1-2 bucks per day after a ton of glassing and walking. The weather was wet and the boots got heavy! We booger-ed up a couple stalks on a forky and a small 3x3. We weren't seeing enough deer to be fussy.
Grant told us about a small piece of public land. He had been sneaking on some antelope a week earlier when he saw 3 mule deer bucks on the same small parcel. As he started his stalk he had a nasty landowner/outfitter drive up and start yelling at him and of course spooking the antelope. This fella, lets just call him "Crazy Carl", as I don't want to use his real name, insisted that the grassland map and the OnX chip were wrong and they needed to get off of HIS land. Grant and his father did just that as they didn't want a fight. They went on to shoot antelope on a different piece. Grant told me to check out this spot for deer and check with the warden first before hunting it. I did just that. The warden was an awesome guy and confirmed that it was indeed National grassland and public. He suggested I still hunt elsewhere if possible to avoid any confrontations. The warden went to talk to "Carl" who changed his story and said that Grant was "headed out onto his deeded land" earlier in the week and that is why he chewed them out. The warden told "Carl" to not be chasing anyone off of the public land that is bordered by his land. I agreed with the warden that we would not be walking this piece of OUR land , but I did tell him that if I drive by and spot a deer on it that we ARE going to shoot it. He agreed and said that of course that was fine.
So after a 3 mile walk on Monday morning with 5 pounds of mud on each boot we needed a break so we decided to drive down past "Crazy Carl's" since the night before in the dark we had seen several deer on the side of the road as we drove through that general area. Sure enough after 5 minutes of glassing I find a herd of about 10 does and one buck bedded in the sage. We spent the next 30 minutes glassing them ranging every hill, doing the math on yardage into miles, and estimating where the buck was bedded. I was jacked and ready to go but my wife was reluctant. She worried about "Crazy Carl". I showed her all of the maps and explained to her that the deer were on OUR land. We just needed to get close and make a good shot. After another 20 minutes of talking her into it we were off to give it a try. We crawled as close as we could before getting skylined on a small hillside. The deer were below us and feeding and bedding off and on. The buck was bedded most of the time. My wife struggled seeing the buck through the scope and through the yellow grass tops. We later learned that her breathing on the scope didn't help either
After laying there for an hour we decided to put the pack upright and she would use it as a rest to get over the grass. As we did so the buck saw us and stood, she got him in the crosshairs and fired, and the buck folded on the spot! We were so thrilled and relieved that the buck hadn't ran off into the private land and we felt so blessed and thankful! I kept my GPS on the entire time to document our path and shot so that we could show CC or a warden if needed. We took 15 minutes to admire her buck and take many photos before starting to bone it out. The snow had just started 10 minutes before she shot and by the time we had him back to the truck there was 1.5" of snow on the ground and the sun was gone. It was a very enjoyable hunt and I'm glad the crazy man hadn't come out to confront us. It was also more than a little pleasing to know that we had shot a buck from a spot that the local landowner/outfitter had misbehaved on. We had kind of a "HAH, TAKE THAT!!" moment Grant especially got a kick out of it and texted me that they were glad that we had gotten one from that piece. Thanks again to Grant and Jon and Colton for sharing where they saw deer the week before. Here's a pic of my GPS. The blue flag is where I estimated the buck was laying. The red dot is where we shot from. The blue dot is where the buck dropped. The pink line is just the Go-To feature from our campsite many miles away that evening when I took the pic of the gps screen. (No we didn't walk across that white piece) . The shot was a little risky now that I look back on it, but we are extremely grateful and thrilled with her first mule deer!
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