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In 2013 I remember watching a TV show about Antelope hunting in Wyoming. I vividly remember wanting to go Antelope hunting really badly, but didn’t know how or when I could afford that type of out of state hunt. After a little research I discovered I could buy preference points without having to buy an out of state license. That’s when I recognized I could afford to start accumulating points until I could afford to go out of state and draw a good tag. Fast forward to the spring of 2018 when I finally decided to cash in my 5 points for what Eastman’s calls a “Blue Chip” Unit. Upon receiving the notification I had drawn the tag I immediately called a friend (Cliffton)in Utah to assist me with the hunt. We had talked about hunting together in Wyoming for years. This would finally be the year we could hunt together. For this hunt I was planning on taking my bow, my Ruger Precision and Custom long range Savage Striker pistol. I had spent numerous trips to the range with all three and was very prepared to take whatever type of shot that presented itself. Approximately 3 weeks prior to leaving for my hunt I was having lunch with my boss. While at lunch I reminded him I would be leaving for vacation in 3 weeks. After further discussion we realized one of my key staff members would be gone at the same time. With another key staff member already out on Military leave we both could not be gone at the same time. Knowing my hunt would not be end for several more weeks I decided to cancel the original week of vacation and extend it two weeks later. This extension would cause me to spend additional driving time. The extension would also cut a few days off of my hunting. Upon arriving in Wyoming I would only have 3 days to hunt before having to return home. I would now leave for a family vacation to San Diego & Disney Land on Friday October 28th. We spent 5 amazing days in California with the family! The only issue now is we would be driving home on Tuesday October 2nd. The minute we arrived home I had to immediately leave for Wyoming! We left Disney Land at 7am. We arrived in Phoenix at 2pm and I left for Wyoming within 15 minutes. I knew I wouldn’t make it to Wyoming, but I wanted to make it as far as possible. The plan was to meet Clifton in Salt Lake City the next day and leave for Wyoming ASAP! After a long day of driving I made it to Beaver Utah by 1 am. After a short 5 hour nap I continued my drive to my Clifton’s house. Upon arrival at his house Clifton informed me we would not be able to leave until he and his wife finished laying sod in their front yard. He told me to take a nap inside his house and we would leave as soon as he was finished. Of course I couldn’t let him work without my help so after a few hours of laying sod for the first time we were finally on the last leg to Wyoming. We arrived to Wyoming around 9pm that night. We had a fantastic steak and then an even better night’s rest. With excitement in the air it was difficult to get to sleep, but with 2 days of driving behind me I settled in for a short, but well needed rest. The next day was a beautiful sunny, blue sky Wyoming morning. We had a quick breakfast, filled up the truck and headed into the vast Wyoming prairie to start the hunt. If you have never been to Wyoming I can assure you that filling a buck and 2 doe tags was not going to be a problem. The real challenge would be to find a quality buck that was worthy of waiting 5 years. My buddy had hunted this unit on several different occasions so we had a good idea where to go and what size goat we would peruse. Within 30 seconds of leaving town we started seeing Bucks in my unit. That started the very long day of looking over 200 plus bucks. I know some of you might feel 200 is an exaggeration, but let me assure you, it’s not! We actually counted! I’ve never seen so many Antelope bucks in my life! It was crazy! The day ended with us seeing several great bucks, but nothing worth ending my hunt so soon. I stated earlier that I had planned on taking my bow on this hunt. Unfortunately with having to leave my house so soon after arriving home from Disney Land I forgot my bow. This turned out to be a HUGE mistake. Throughout this hunt we saw numerous Pope & Young Bucks either right next to the road or within a short easy stock. If I could do anything over on this hunt I would have brought my bow and shot my buck and both does with my bow. The second day started much the same as the first day. We immediately started seeing bucks. On this day we looked at the opposite side of the unit to hopefully find a great buck. After looking over 100 bucks by noon we still hadn’t seen anything worth taking. We did see several great Muley Bucks lounging in private alfalfa fields. I’ve never seen such huge bucks with zero fear of humans. It was incredible to see. Nearing the end of the day we located a monster shooter buck in a valley without roads. This buck was definitely over 80 inches and was Amazing! The problem is the buck was on a nearby reservation. The buck was close to public land so we decided to come back to him in the morning to hopefully find him on public. With about 30 minutes left of shooting light we located another great buck. This buck had really tall horns, but was weak on the prongs. He was also on public land and was only 300 yards off the road. We spent a few minutes carefully looking over this buck with the spotting scope, but had a very hard time judging him. The real problem with this buck is we kept thinking about the monster buck from 30 minutes earlier. If we hadn’t seen the monster buck we would have 100% shot this buck. We decided to pass and started driving back to the hotel. Of course we were both uneasy with our decision and began seriously second guessing our decision. This ultimately led me to turn around and attempt to harvest this buck. We arrived a few minutes to late and just in time to watch the buck walk onto private land. This turned out to be the only mistake I had made on this trip. With only 1 more day to hunt I should have shot this buck! The drive back to the hotel that night had a strange somber feeling to it. With only the following day left to hunt we were both a little uneasy about what we would find the next day. Harvesting a buck in this unit or any unit in Wyoming is not hard. What we were finding out is harvesting a Boone and Crocket style Buck was becoming almost impossible! While eating an amazing Prime Rib steak I recognized that I had made a huge mistake and should have shot the tall buck! Unfortunately I let “score” get in the way of “fun”. We ended the night with a solid plan to go after the Reservation buck first thing in the morning and then go after the tall buck if that didn’t work. At first light we were both staring at the Reservation buck. He was chasing does about 200 yards on the wrong side of the fence. We felt he might cross onto public, but with only 10 hours left to hunt we decided to find the tall buck. About 30 minutes later we located the tall buck, but he was still on private land, but was slowly making his way to public land. We decided to look into some other area’s for an hour and come back to see if he had made his way onto public land. We drove away and found numerous more bucks. As it had been the previous 2 days all the bucks were nice, but not worth tagging. It was now noon and my heart was beginning to feel that all too familiar feeling of Dred and regret! We returned an hour later to find the tall buck. Thankfully we found him quickly and on public land. The problem was he was steadily walking towards private land. We quickly attempted to get close, but as it was the previous night he made it onto private land before we could make a move. At this time I was heartbroken! With only 6 hours left to hunt I knew my chances of getting this buck or any nice buck was seriously slim! We decided to look at some completely different country for the next few hours. This ended up being another huge mistake, because this was the only country we didn’t see any antelope in. It was beautiful country, just void of any living creatures. We returned to are of the tall buck at 2pm. Surprisingly we located him bedded about 100 yards onto public land. We quickly made plans and began our stalk. The stalk was going perfectly, until a doe popped up in the general area the buck was bedded. The doe ran off, but we never saw the buck go with her. We continued and got within 100 yards of the last location of the bedded buck. Unfortunately after a few minutes we realized the buck was gone. We never saw him leave and we could only surmise he was bedded close to the doe and she took him with her. It was now 3:30 on my last day to hunt. My buddy could easily tell I was beyond stressed out! I couldn’t believe I had come to Wyoming and would not get a quality buck! I knew I could kill a smaller buck just about anywhere in the unit, but that’s not what I wanted. I wanted a mature buck! At this time I had already made up my mind that I was not going to shoot any buck just to fill a tag. If it wasn’t mature and had the look I wanted I wasn’t going to tag out. Shortly after this realization I suddenly remembered the two bucks in the valley without any roads. The area was only a few minutes away so we decided to try and locate them. Within a few minutes we were fortunate to locate the bucks within 100 yards of where we found them a few days earlier. The bucks were only 650 yards away. I could have easily taken a shot with my Ruger Precision 6.5 creedmoor, but I decided I wanted to end the day and hunt with a challenge. Therefore I decided to take my long range pistol on the stalk. I was very comfortable taking a shot at 400 yards. Thankfully the terrain had enough small draws that enabled us to stay out of view for most of the hunt. We had a plan to get to a particular hill that would hopefully get us within 300 yards. Well, our plan worked a little too well. Upon popping our heads up out of the draw I immediately located the bucks and they immediately located me. That’s because were where within 150 yards. We spent the next 30 seconds attempting to the video camera working and getting me set up for the shot. This proved very difficult to do quietly and ultimately didn’t work. The bucks slightly spooked and ran out to 230 yards. At this time my Clifton told me to forget about the video and shoot when I was ready. I had a pretty solid rest, but not great. I took the shot as soon as the buck stopped. Once I recovered from the initial recoil of the gun I was able to see dirt fly about 3 feet in front of the buck. Clifton immediately said those dreaded words “You Missed”. I was not shocked, because my rest was not really solid. I was hugely dissatisfied with myself and wished I hadn’t taken the shot. The rest of the Antelope ran out to 300 yards and looked back at us for about 30 seconds. I could have taken another shot, but without seeing the second buck in the group I wanted to make sure I missed before attempting another shot. We gathered out gear and hiked up to the area the buck was standing. While hiking up I was filled with emotions. I was sad, mad and disappointed in myself! I was shocked I had just missed my last opportunity at a buck an hour before dark on my last day to hunt! While walking up I tried to keep it together, but with only an hour left to hunt I knew the hunt was over! I walked 5 more steps and I caught a glimpse of something white in the grass ahead of me. That’s when all my sadness and disappointment turned to hopefulness and excitement. Another 5 steps and I could see those beautiful black horns lying on the ground. To say I was excited and elated would be a huge understatement! I had just filled my tag with a really nice Antelope Buck with a pistol. The feeling was Awesome! After taking about 100 pictures we cut up the buck and began the mile hike back to the truck. We headed back to town for dinner and ice and began the long drive back to Salt Lake City. The rest of the trip ended much like the beginning of the trip. A lot of driving! We arrived in Salt Lake about 11pm that night. I continued my drive for another few hours until I reached Beaver again. I awoke the next day to rain and snow. The rain and snow continued throughout the rest of my drive home. At one point I was in a mini blizzard just north of Kanab. The rain continued all the way through phoenix. This trip taught me one very important lesson. There is nothing wrong with working hard to find a huge animal, but the search for a monster did take away a little of the fun. Ultimately I made a few mistakes on this hunt, but the knowledge and lessons learned were invaluable! Thank you very much to all those who assisted me on this adventure!!!!

So I gathered up some buddies and we jumped on the Wyoming bandwagon this year! 5 tags between 4 guys-- we filled 4 in 24 hours and then I opted out of filling my doe tag because I wasn't going to be able to get the meat home. Originally I was supposed to drive up from Texas (12+ hours), link up with our Denver dude and then get the NC boys who were flying in. Unfortunately for me I couldn't break of the 5-6 days I had hoped from work. So I had Fri afternoon to Sunday afternoon and I booked a hasty ticket and as a group we split a rental car (truck- more on that later). Here's how things went down: Thursday had some things come up at work that resulted in a much later than preferred ride to the airport to fly from Dallas to Denver. Still made the flight, guns arrived with no issues and had plenty of time to go pick up the rental car and drive to my buddy's house in Denver to spend the night before driving up to WY on Friday. Until I got to the Budget rental car center at DIA... 60+ people at 11pm and only 3 folks checking cars out. So when I got to the window at 2am... they no longer had full size trucks... but they did have a 2018 Tacoma TRD so I snagged it, which ended up being a great vehicle on and off road. Get to Dave's at 3am and we drink beers and BS until who knows when. He has to work Friday and I have to get the other two from the airport. Friday: I pick up our NC boys from the airport and we head north towards the promised land of WY!! Except it is raining, foggy and generally crap weather, not the 50-60 degrees and sun that were forecast. But we make it into our hunting unit and head towards a chunk of public land to check our zero since we all were now 6,000+ ft above where we confirmed our data. Upon arriving at said chunk of land... there is a chunky pronghorn buck standing off the road about 500 yards and he dips over a rise. I had compared my actual data from Texas (hot, low altitude) to the WY forecasted data (cold, high altitude) and the ballistic calc had told me there wasn't going much difference (less than 1/4 moa out to 600y). Since this was for sure a shooter buck and I had a short hunt we bailed out and made the stalk. I got up to the rise and over the top, bedded down, was the buck and a group of does. I ranged at 289 yards, my rifle is zero'd at 250. I keep inching up to get my bipod up and rear rest set. The does saw me and they slowly stood and began to walk down and away from me. The buck stood, slightly quartered too and looking at the does that were now trotting. I held just a hair high and into the cross wind. The 7RUM barked and the 145gr LRX buried itself just in front of his shoulder and exited just behind his offside shoulder. He ran maybe 25 yards and expired!! We were on the board having been in the state of Wyoming for about an hour! We got him gutted and back to the truck and proceeded to get the other two rifles double checked for zero and then we headed off to some other spots we had google earth'd. At last light Dave texted and said he was headed up from Denver. We checked a last spot and found a nice herd on the border of public/private. We marked them and headed back towards camp... until we saw a really great buck dip into a small draw off the road. We bailed out again and began a several hundred yard stalk up to the draw. As the terrain thinned out we knew he was going to be just beneath us. Boom- horns! There he was- the next man up got settled as we saw the buck turn broadside and trot off. We heard him alarm wheeze or whistle (whatever you want to call it) and we knew the gig was up. He made a brief stop and got flattened by my friend, shooting a family heirloom .270. We admired his buck which, to us uninitiated pronghorn hunters seemed to be a good bit larger than the ones we had seen and definitely bigger than my buck. Well, he just got scored and before drying he netted 80 6/8"!!! Saturday picked up where Friday left off- We got on several bucks early but couldn't get good stalks set up. Finally, I glassed up a super tall buck who was narrow and unmistakeable. After a great (and long stalk) Dave connected on this superb goat. The length on this goat was awesome and he grossed out in the mid 70s! We were feeling good about ourselves but we knew we needed another buck. We were having a great time but we all wanted the guys who had traveled across country to fill their tags!! I headed out with my buddy while Dave skinned his buck. We found a great wide, forward leaning buck but he spooked across onto private before we could make a play. Then- as we drove over a crest, tucked behind a hillside, almost invisible from the road was a buck bedded with does. Knowing that this had been a recipe for success so far we stopped. Checked our topo and made a plan. I got to crawl in with my buddy as he navigated to this unseen herd. I expected us to pop up about 300 yards off... but he got to within 80 yards before cresting the hill!! The antelope were now milling around feeding and headed off to our right. At 156 yards my buddy got the shot profile he was looking for and absolutely stoned the buck. Making us 4/4 in less than 24 hours of hunting!! Just an amazing trip overall and something that I think we see ourselves doing again the future!!

My 12 daughter was able to harvest her first deer opening morning and my 16 year old son was able to harvest his 4th buck on the first day he was able to hunt due to school and a football game.

My little girl filled her elk tag on Friday evening. The youth tags were doubled in the unit this year, which made it quite a bit more crowded than we expected. We had to work a bit harder and we were blessed with some really good luck. She shot this cow at 90 yards with about 30 minutes of shooting light left. She had been broadside, but turned quartering towards us. My girl had been ready to pull the trigger, but stopped to ask what to do when she turned. I told her to imagine where the opposite lung would be and shoot along that line. She put the bullet just in front of the near shoulder and it passed through and destroyed the off-side lung. The cow reared up and came down hard. She never took another step. This is her third big game animal in the past year. All three were taken with one shot and we never had to do any tracking. Some of you know the story of how she got sick right after the Kaibab doe hunt last year. When she was two weeks removed from the hospital the good people at Y.O.U. hooked her up with some mentors that helped her fill her pig tag with as little physical effort as possible. Her strength is back to normal now, and she is in remission. She looks as good as ever. We recovered the bullet too. I loaded her 7mm08 down to reduced recoil loads. It was pushing a 139gr interlock at 2440 fps. This is what the bullet looked like after an impact at around 2300 fps and passing through about 2 feet of elk. It retained 119 of its 139 grains. It's a great bullet when not pushed too fast (or too slow)...one of the first harvests I have been a part of where a cup and core bullet was used...I'm usually a Barnes guy, but this did the trick.

Well its bitter sweet! I just sent off my late rifle tag to Arizona Elk Society to be donated. I am moving back to Arizona & starting a new job on the 22nd so not gonna be able to get time off for my hunt. I am super pumped about moving back, but bummed I won't be able to use my tag this year. I am ok with it as I know a wounded warrior will get to use it & have awesome time. I would like to thank Tom Wagner & Arizona Elk Society for helping me complete the tag transfer. What a great way to give back to our vets!!!!!!

Awesome, get it mounted

My 14 yr old daughter and 12 yr old son got Jr cow elk tags for 6A/5BS. My sons friend also got drawn, so we had 3 tags. Due to a busy swim and soccer schedule I could only pull off one scouting trip. Needless to say, I was gonna put the boots to the ground and hopefully fill a tag or two. Friday morning was beautiful, heard some late rut bugles and then started hearing shots off in the distance through the forest. I knew we were in the right spot. Nothing turned up so we went to get a hot lunch put on by the AES at the St Joseph’s jr elk camp. Met some great folks even went out with a mentor who, bless his heart tried to put us on some elk but couldn’t locate any due to all the pressure. I did find a beautiful arrowhead, that made my day, elk or no elk. Saturday morning came early and we had pulled over to look at a map when my son said, “dad, are those elk crossing the road?” I look up and catch 2 run by. We park and head toward the direction they are going. I take my 2 kids and my buddy and his son split up because we have 2 different bulls bugling. I head east, he heads west. I get to a small clearing and decide we should sit under a couple of trees and see what happens. My daughter says “ I’m hungry, can I eat my PB&J?” After she eats it, she says I see an elk and it’s walking towards us, I put my binos up to verify and say get the monopod and gun. I range it at 100yds and it stops behind a tree, I asked her to wait for it to turn broadside, of course she says “ I know dad”. It continues to zig and zig between the trees getting closer. I range it again at 84 yds, I get excited and say shoot whenever you’re ready, once again she says, “stop it dad, I know”. As soon as I put the binos up, the crack of the 270wsm goes off. I look frantically to see where it went, I get scared because I can’t find it. I see something move to the left behind a tree, clearly it’s been hit and wobbly. I point it out to her for one last finishing shot. Gun goes off again and it drops. The 3 H’s happened immediately after ( Hootin, Howlering and High-5’s). On the radio to our buddies to get the truck, started the gutless method and had it in the truck within a couple of hours. Got it to the butcher and she was able to pick her meat choices. My son and his friend did not fill their tag but had a fantastic time at the elk camp, shooting BB guns and being outside despite the rain, wind and muddy conditions.

Love the pic of the kids together! Looks like some sibling rivalry?

Congratulations great Job!!!

2015 buck from Montana. 35 wide with a 12.5 in drop.

Lol, no respectable Michigander would ever stop putting out corn.

Kifaru has the best waist belt and suspension in the business. Not sure if the belt will work with your pack or not but you can buy a waist belt seperately from Kifaru. If all else fails, sell that and buy a Kifaru and be done with it. Since I bought mine I don't even bother looking at packs anymore. I'm set for life.

Cool thanks guys. I got out there for the last two hours of light yesterday but didn't see a thing. The wind was really blowing so that might have kept them off their feet. Since I've only had a few hours to spend out I've had to stick close to the mouth of the canyon so I think I need to push in a few hundred more yards and see if I can turn a few more deer up. The bucks are probably sitting tight this time of year but with the rut coming up for my next hunt I'm more interested in seeing where the does are hanging out.

Sorry for the late reply, work gets in the way all too often. The 270 brass is Winchester

Had a stinky head so Rossislider's kid couldn't help me. Couldn't be happier with Daniel Gradillas of Spot-N-Stalk Skullz. He has sent me photos and kept me updated all the way. Some of his photos are definitely frame worthy. Just adds to the experience.

A couple of great bucks. Her buck has really cool stripes by the eyes. Good teamwork.

Congrats Duck!! Sounds like a great trip! My Stepdad went up for a deer hunt a week and half ago and they did well on it, though not as well as your crew! Wow, that Yeti is small. any idea how much meat you had or how much those Goats weighed? Same size, bigger, smaller than a Coues?

Well.... that is a good reason (actually among the best) to need a new LRF!

Over your price range, but both my 10/22s wear an SWFA SS 3-15×42. If you wait until Black Friday timeline, or find them used, you can get into them for -$500. Amazing scopes.

neither unit has any deer left in them.

Wow, so much drama. For those worried about how the tags get allocated to wounded vets, please call Eddy Corona and talk with him directly about how he allocates tags that are donated to his organization, Outdoor Experience 4 All. Eddy is a good friend of mine and I know he is happy to talk with anyone at anytime about this or anything else about his organization (OE4A). His cell number is 480-529-8340. I am locking this thread so we can just move on. Please if you have issues with an organization, call and deal with them directly. Offer to help improve the organization if you think it needs changing. Be the change you wish to see. And if you have a problem with another member, deal with it directly with them. Bashing each other in the forum is just completely unproductive.

Its the brand of a scope, my friend. Im still unclear why you think trolling the long range section is good for anyone. Its obvious I have hurt your feelings at some point, I apologize for that. Please keep your almighty ethics out of the long range forum. Much appreciated. Cliff

Over serving? Theres no such thing...

His mom?

I wouldn't touch that liver. Catfish bait ? You might want to take the head and liver to fish and game so they can take biological samples from that one.