unclemoe
Member
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2019
- Messages
- 37
Well as with most people I chose Wyoming Pronghorn to be my first "Western" Style hunt.
I was coming from Illinois, heading threw Minnesota picking up my brother and heading out. I left Illinois around 330 pm so i could spend some time with my kiddos before i left for the planned week. Around 5 hours into the drive my wife calls me and asks if i meant to leave my hiking boots at home, I dont think i have ever been as upset with myself as i was then, i spent so much time making sure i packed the crap that i didnt put my boots that were by the front door. at this point it was around 800 at night and if i turned around there was no way i was going to be able to make the drive to Wyoming in one day. I called my brother who lived a few minutes away from an REI and was able to drive there, give them my membership number and look up what boots i bought from them last time and get the same size style and brand i bought 7 years ago from them. I knew that style boot did not need to be broken in last time i got them and was hoping this would be the case again, or else I was in for a long week.
I met up with my brother around 900 pm loaded his stuff into my truck and we were off. We drove almost all the way threw the night before stopping at a rest stop about 2 hours from our hunt area to catch some sleep, and because we were way ahead of schedule anyways and didn't want to be driving the dirt roads at 3am.
I made a wrong turn while driving and ended up in an area of our unit that I was not planning on hitting up but figured we were already on some National Forest land so might as well see what we could see. When we pulled into our parking spot it was around 25* outside and foggy as hell. The area we were hunting got a pretty big storm the night before we showed up and as many know the mud out there is a whole different ball game 100 feet into the hike and my boots weighed about 10 lbs each and had 2 inches of mud sticking to every side.
Our view as we stepped out of my truck.
We saw a few "road" hunters as we drove in, one who was literally sitting in his truck with his rifle pointed out his window glassing with his rifle scope.... But we found a gate where no one was at and decided to use the fog to our advantage. We hiked in a mile or so and sat on the far side of a hill using the hill to protect us from the road in case someone shot into the fog.
We sat on that hill for an hour or so hoping the fog would clear and we could start glassing, we could only see what we assumed was around 100 yds at any given time and our rangefinders would not work in the fog at all, so we just made some coffee and enjoyed the small view.
Around 1000 the fog finally started lifting and we decided it was time to go for a walk, We could see a few hundred yards by now and could see the whole basin we were over so we figured we would just check out the next hill and scout that basin and keep working the area like that. We crest the next hill and as we peak over the hill we notice a lope around 200 yds or so from us. He must have heard us or seen something he did not like because he did a quick walk away and then another 8 or so lopes joined him from farther away into the fog we could not see. I ducked down behind the hill and hugged the back side of the hill popping up every few hundred yards or so trying to see if i could get a little closer to them. About a half mile later i was finally able to get pop over a hill and get set up on them before they got in front of me. I ranged the lone Buck and was still unable to get a range on him due to the fog messing up my range finder so i watched them for a few minutes before they walked away into the fog and what would appear from the maps onto private land.
I was excited we were in the first half a day and we already and been able to make a stalk on some lopes and if there was a little less fog I may have been able to make the shot, which i later found out was only about 200 yards. I walked back to where we first saw the lopes and met back up with my brother. We hiked to the next ridge and set up again for some glassing and for the fog to clear up a bit. When the fog cleared enough to range up to 300 yds we go back to scouting around.
We climbed to the highest peak in the area and started looking around. We quickly found some lope behind us and when we were about to chase after then i found another small group about a mile away from us. We decided to slit up, my brother took the larger closer group since he had both a doe tag and a buck tag and i only had a buck. I dropped down behind the ridge line and make a quick hike towards the small group i was chasing. half hour or so later i was crawling up a hill that i hoped still hide the buck i was chasing behind it. i crawled up behind the biggest sage brush I could find and spotted the buck i was after. I quickly ranged him at 250, well within my comfort zone. I set up my tripod loaded the rifle and got ready, he was heading in my direction and not giving me a good broadside shot, and hey he was getting closer to me so i was in no rush. i ranged him again and he was at 236 and a few steps later he turned broad side and i let a round fly. The 6.5 dropped him in his tracks.
I took a few minutes to soak in what just happened and made my way to the buck. I get some pictures and then get to work field dressing him. By now i see my brother back where we split up on the top of a far away ridge and he is heading my way empty handed. While field dressing my buck i had another buck walk up to me at about 60 yards not seeming to care i was there, or he knew i had filled my tag and wanted to rub it in that he was safe.
My brother met up with me and then we noticed there was another small group of lopes about 600 yards or so from us. my brother got on his hands an knees and was able to crawl up to 200 yards away from this group. The group was 3 does and 1 buck and he was what i assumed was rutting pretty hard. Every few minutes he would just get a bug up his butt and start chasing one of his does, they would run away from us as fast as they could when the other 2 does would stay put feeding. They would run a half mile away then turn around and run back. my brother used this time to get into a good shooting position. Soon my brother was able to get a clean 200 yard shot on the buck and dropped him with a perfect double lung shot.
100 pm on our first ever western hunt both my Brother and I were able to fulfill our dream of harvesting a lope buck. We hugged it out and then got to work dressing his lope and quartering both of them up and bringing them to the truck to get them on ice. We then spent the rest of the day driving around looking for a decent site to camp. everywhere we found on public land was covered in those small cactus and we couldn't find a spot to camp to save our lives so we drove into town found a cheap hotel and stayed the night. We cooked our mt house meals in the hotel and then hit the hay.
We woke up early packed our stuff up and hit the road ready to fill my brother last doe tag. We decide to hunt the same area we did the day before since we knew it pretty well and we saw a few more does while packing up the night before. We pulled over and got our gear on just in time to see a pretty nice sunrise.
We pretty much did the same tour as the day before and ended up seeing a small group of 3 lopes from the same tall hill we found all the lopes from the day prior. The only issue with these guys is they were over 1000 yds from us with one small hill between us and them 400 yards from where we were at. We decide to sneak up to that hill together and see what they would do. half hour later we creeped up to that hill and set up to glass the lopes and see what they were up to. They were still 600 yards or so from us feeding and staying in a small area. Two of the lopes then beded down and then the 3rd did too. We knew they would be staying still for some time.
My brother made the choice that he wanted to try and stalk there lopes.
They were 600 yards or so bedded down in a near flat area. He slipped down and made a 2 hour belly crawl threw 500 yard of cactus rocks and sage brush that was 2 feet tall at the tallest point. It was single handedly the most impressive stalk ive seen. He inched his way forward till he was about 60 yards from the herd, not on purpose he just couldnt see them when they were bedded down untill then. He slowly set up his tripod behind a small peice of sage brush and waited. A few minutes later the doe stood up and he was able to connect again with a perfect double lung shot. I grabbed his pack and gear he left behind with me for his stalk, met up with him and we packed up his lope headed to the truck and cleaned ourselves up.
The trip was everything and more then we could have ever hoped for and i want to thank everyone who made it possible, I learned alot from everyone on this site and from watching Randy on Prime and hope to be able to pass on the info i learned to anyone who could benefit from it.
TLDR?? Great trip to East central Wyo Brother and I filled 3 lope tags in a day and a half.
I was coming from Illinois, heading threw Minnesota picking up my brother and heading out. I left Illinois around 330 pm so i could spend some time with my kiddos before i left for the planned week. Around 5 hours into the drive my wife calls me and asks if i meant to leave my hiking boots at home, I dont think i have ever been as upset with myself as i was then, i spent so much time making sure i packed the crap that i didnt put my boots that were by the front door. at this point it was around 800 at night and if i turned around there was no way i was going to be able to make the drive to Wyoming in one day. I called my brother who lived a few minutes away from an REI and was able to drive there, give them my membership number and look up what boots i bought from them last time and get the same size style and brand i bought 7 years ago from them. I knew that style boot did not need to be broken in last time i got them and was hoping this would be the case again, or else I was in for a long week.
I met up with my brother around 900 pm loaded his stuff into my truck and we were off. We drove almost all the way threw the night before stopping at a rest stop about 2 hours from our hunt area to catch some sleep, and because we were way ahead of schedule anyways and didn't want to be driving the dirt roads at 3am.
I made a wrong turn while driving and ended up in an area of our unit that I was not planning on hitting up but figured we were already on some National Forest land so might as well see what we could see. When we pulled into our parking spot it was around 25* outside and foggy as hell. The area we were hunting got a pretty big storm the night before we showed up and as many know the mud out there is a whole different ball game 100 feet into the hike and my boots weighed about 10 lbs each and had 2 inches of mud sticking to every side.
Our view as we stepped out of my truck.
We saw a few "road" hunters as we drove in, one who was literally sitting in his truck with his rifle pointed out his window glassing with his rifle scope.... But we found a gate where no one was at and decided to use the fog to our advantage. We hiked in a mile or so and sat on the far side of a hill using the hill to protect us from the road in case someone shot into the fog.
We sat on that hill for an hour or so hoping the fog would clear and we could start glassing, we could only see what we assumed was around 100 yds at any given time and our rangefinders would not work in the fog at all, so we just made some coffee and enjoyed the small view.
Around 1000 the fog finally started lifting and we decided it was time to go for a walk, We could see a few hundred yards by now and could see the whole basin we were over so we figured we would just check out the next hill and scout that basin and keep working the area like that. We crest the next hill and as we peak over the hill we notice a lope around 200 yds or so from us. He must have heard us or seen something he did not like because he did a quick walk away and then another 8 or so lopes joined him from farther away into the fog we could not see. I ducked down behind the hill and hugged the back side of the hill popping up every few hundred yards or so trying to see if i could get a little closer to them. About a half mile later i was finally able to get pop over a hill and get set up on them before they got in front of me. I ranged the lone Buck and was still unable to get a range on him due to the fog messing up my range finder so i watched them for a few minutes before they walked away into the fog and what would appear from the maps onto private land.
I was excited we were in the first half a day and we already and been able to make a stalk on some lopes and if there was a little less fog I may have been able to make the shot, which i later found out was only about 200 yards. I walked back to where we first saw the lopes and met back up with my brother. We hiked to the next ridge and set up again for some glassing and for the fog to clear up a bit. When the fog cleared enough to range up to 300 yds we go back to scouting around.
We climbed to the highest peak in the area and started looking around. We quickly found some lope behind us and when we were about to chase after then i found another small group about a mile away from us. We decided to slit up, my brother took the larger closer group since he had both a doe tag and a buck tag and i only had a buck. I dropped down behind the ridge line and make a quick hike towards the small group i was chasing. half hour or so later i was crawling up a hill that i hoped still hide the buck i was chasing behind it. i crawled up behind the biggest sage brush I could find and spotted the buck i was after. I quickly ranged him at 250, well within my comfort zone. I set up my tripod loaded the rifle and got ready, he was heading in my direction and not giving me a good broadside shot, and hey he was getting closer to me so i was in no rush. i ranged him again and he was at 236 and a few steps later he turned broad side and i let a round fly. The 6.5 dropped him in his tracks.
I took a few minutes to soak in what just happened and made my way to the buck. I get some pictures and then get to work field dressing him. By now i see my brother back where we split up on the top of a far away ridge and he is heading my way empty handed. While field dressing my buck i had another buck walk up to me at about 60 yards not seeming to care i was there, or he knew i had filled my tag and wanted to rub it in that he was safe.
My brother met up with me and then we noticed there was another small group of lopes about 600 yards or so from us. my brother got on his hands an knees and was able to crawl up to 200 yards away from this group. The group was 3 does and 1 buck and he was what i assumed was rutting pretty hard. Every few minutes he would just get a bug up his butt and start chasing one of his does, they would run away from us as fast as they could when the other 2 does would stay put feeding. They would run a half mile away then turn around and run back. my brother used this time to get into a good shooting position. Soon my brother was able to get a clean 200 yard shot on the buck and dropped him with a perfect double lung shot.
100 pm on our first ever western hunt both my Brother and I were able to fulfill our dream of harvesting a lope buck. We hugged it out and then got to work dressing his lope and quartering both of them up and bringing them to the truck to get them on ice. We then spent the rest of the day driving around looking for a decent site to camp. everywhere we found on public land was covered in those small cactus and we couldn't find a spot to camp to save our lives so we drove into town found a cheap hotel and stayed the night. We cooked our mt house meals in the hotel and then hit the hay.
We woke up early packed our stuff up and hit the road ready to fill my brother last doe tag. We decide to hunt the same area we did the day before since we knew it pretty well and we saw a few more does while packing up the night before. We pulled over and got our gear on just in time to see a pretty nice sunrise.
We pretty much did the same tour as the day before and ended up seeing a small group of 3 lopes from the same tall hill we found all the lopes from the day prior. The only issue with these guys is they were over 1000 yds from us with one small hill between us and them 400 yards from where we were at. We decide to sneak up to that hill together and see what they would do. half hour later we creeped up to that hill and set up to glass the lopes and see what they were up to. They were still 600 yards or so from us feeding and staying in a small area. Two of the lopes then beded down and then the 3rd did too. We knew they would be staying still for some time.
My brother made the choice that he wanted to try and stalk there lopes.
They were 600 yards or so bedded down in a near flat area. He slipped down and made a 2 hour belly crawl threw 500 yard of cactus rocks and sage brush that was 2 feet tall at the tallest point. It was single handedly the most impressive stalk ive seen. He inched his way forward till he was about 60 yards from the herd, not on purpose he just couldnt see them when they were bedded down untill then. He slowly set up his tripod behind a small peice of sage brush and waited. A few minutes later the doe stood up and he was able to connect again with a perfect double lung shot. I grabbed his pack and gear he left behind with me for his stalk, met up with him and we packed up his lope headed to the truck and cleaned ourselves up.
The trip was everything and more then we could have ever hoped for and i want to thank everyone who made it possible, I learned alot from everyone on this site and from watching Randy on Prime and hope to be able to pass on the info i learned to anyone who could benefit from it.
TLDR?? Great trip to East central Wyo Brother and I filled 3 lope tags in a day and a half.
