An Adventure to Remember

[shortpants]

Have you ever asked yourself what am I doing out here? I found myself on the side of a 2 lane highway in southwest Wyoming asking myself that question. Is it to much to ask to just come out here and have a good hunt and just have an opportunity at a decent 4x4 buck? I had never been so happy to see pavement in all my life. It was day 5 of my 6 day hunt and it just kept getting worse. At this point I didn't even know what I was going to do but I knew I did not want to drive my truck another inch down a dirt road under the current conditions.

 

It had started out so well. A long but beautiful drive from Arizona to Wyoming filled with some amazing sites and a few gas pumps as well.

 

 

 

 

 

I stopped along the way and shot my rifle since I had not had any time behind the trigger this year due to the fact that all of my free time was dedicated to my archery bull tag. After 18 straight days of elk hunting ( 4 days of scouting and 14 hunting ) that tag went unfilled because I was determined to shoot one of the 370-390 class bulls I was chasing every day or nothing. Anyway back to shooting the rifle I was surprised to find it shooting 7 inches to the right at 300yds. I re zeroed the windage turret and continued north. It was dark as I crossed into Wyoming for my first time which was going to make it difficult to know where to start out the next morning. I finally stopped because I reached a road closed sign on the two tracker I had been following. I had no idea what I was going to find when the sun came up the next day but I was excited to find out. I curled up in the cab of the truck for a few hours dreaming of what the next 6 days was going to bring!

 

My goal was just to get up high and glass as much as possible. It was just light enough to shoot as I started up the nearby ridge. I was in deer right away finding three does just above the truck. I started glassing and found deer everywhere I looked! I was only 400 yds. from my truck and had deer all around me! After looking several deer over including some forkhorn bucks and 1 decent framed far off buck I pressed on following the ridgeline farther up the canyon. I looked up ahead of me and saw my first of many Wyoming antelope and he was a beautiful low 80's type buck possibly a booner. I made a big loop back to the truck because I needed to figure out where I was going to camp and get it all set up so I could spend the rest of the week concentrating on nothing but hunting. It was a great start to my hunt seeing 24 deer, a handful of antelope and 2 bobcats!

 

I set up camp where I could approach the canyon from the other end and also have better access to some predetermined waypoints I had saved in my GPS. This was to be my home for the next week.

 

 

After getting camp set up I jumped in the rhino to get back over toward where I had glassed up the 1 decent framed buck earlier that morning. I found him not far from where I'd last saw him but he was only a 3x2 with a good size frame. I ended up seeing a total of 50 deer, 12 antelope, and the 2 bobcats. What a great opening day! Even though I didn't see any shooters I knew if I hunted hard enough I would eventually turn one up.

 

Day 2 found me on top of one of my waypoints I had saved, an amazing glassing point where I could cover miles of country.

 

 

 

 

 

The temperature was only around 40 which is mild but he 30mph. winds made it feel pretty chilly up there. I stayed up there glassing for hours but could not turn up a shooter so I went back to camp for a hearty lunch.

 

 

I decided to shoot my rifle one more time just to make sure I would be ready and I'm glad I did. When I had stopped and shot on the way up I mentioned I was surprised to find my rifle shooting way right. Now I found it shooting left after I had re zeroed the turret. I determined the reason for this was because I always shoot prone whenever possible but when I shot on the way up I had to shoot sitting due to some tall grass. That had obviously changed the way I shoot my rifle and so I re zeroed again back to the original zero and moved the target back to 360 yds. It was on but I could tell making a long shot in those Wyoming winds was going to be a challenge. I got back out and finished day 2 with a total of 50 deer, 26 antelope, 2 coyotes, and my first grouse siting.

 

 

Day 3 I decided I would take the truck and cover as much different country as I could. It was the middle of the hunt and I needed to know if I was going to have to move camp. I drove from glassing point to glassing point seeing lots of deer and actually the most bucks I had seen yet. I went a long way and could tell the further I went the more hunters I would see. That's most likely because the locals know where to go and I didn't but I hate crowds so I was determined to find my own honey hole and let them keep theirs. I did get to see my first ever moose in the wild and that got me excited but i needed to keep searching for my trophy so I pressed on. I looped back taking a different road than the one I'd come in on. At 1:00pm I was driving through some of the ugliest country I'd ever seen thinking nothing would want to live out here when I thought I saw an antelope. I stopped and backed up to take a closer look and a 3x3 muley jumped up and took off running. I drove back up the road to get to a better vantage point and found some more deer including a small 3x4 and another buck that had broke his G2 and G3 off. There wasn't any hunters out here in this area and these were the best bucks I'd seen yet. I thought I'd found my honey hole but after glassing from every angle in the area the rest of the day seeing a few more does and a bunch of antelope I wasn't totally convinced but the area had proven potential. I saw a total of 57 deer, 41 antelope, the moose, more grouse, a coyote, and my first armadillo!

 

 

I still had a couple of areas I had not seen yet so for the 4th day I decided I would go check out one of them that I had a good feeling about. This is where my hunt went from a lot of fun to not so much fun. As I headed out of camp it was damp and mostly cloudy. I had rain off and on for those first 3 days but nothing to complain about. As I got closer to the area I wanted to hunt I found myself in a thick fog.

 

 

I decided to turn back and head into the area I'd been in the evening before but by the time I made it back up there the fog had moved into that area as well. I turned back around and decided since the fog was heading north I would drive south until I found clearer skies. By the time I saw sunlight I'd driven over 100 miles and it was noon before I found a glassing spot in this unfamiliar area. I saw 50 deer and 195 antelope that day but the only buck I saw was bedded right next to the road in the middle of a town. That was like salt in the wound of a bad day of hunting. Don't get me wrong it's awesome to see that many animals but I called Game and Fish to see if it was possible to pick up an antelope tag and they said no. I was starting to think I'd bought the wrong tag. It becomes hard to swallow to have so many opportunities to take a great antelope buck but can't and no opportunities at the quality of mule deer buck I'd come so far for. Oh well it was a rough day but I was sure the next day was going to get better.

 

 

I awoke the next morning to snow which I thought was going to be a blessing bringing the bucks out and making the glassing easier. That's not exactly how it went. After having to use 4 wheel drive to get out of camp I headed down the slick roads. It was now day 5 and I still had not even seen the buck I'd come for but I was feeling good about my chances with this cold front that had blown in. Clouds covered the tops of all the ridges and everything was white making figuring out where I was a little tough. For some reason my GPS did not save my track from day 3 so I did the best I could but ended up going down the wrong road. Under normal conditions this road would be no big deal but suddenly I found my truck sliding sideways heading for a deep ravine to my right. I was only going less than 10 mph. when the truck just broke loose on the ice. Luckily it hung up on a sage bush just before dropping into the ravine. I was 3 inches from going over and not sure how I was going to get out of this one. After slowly backing up about a foot and getting out several times to make the best plan I finally decided I was either going to get out of this in one piece or me and the truck were going to pieces together so I put on my seat belt and drove it like I had somewhere be. I made it out but the clouds where now dropping on top of me and visibility was next to zero. Here we go again I thought but I wasn't ready to give up. I drove about a mile when suddenly there was a break in the clouds so I jumped out and glassed which happend to be the same area I'd seen the 3 bucks the afternoon of the 3rd day. I found 19 does and a few antelope but no bucks. The good news was the sun was trying its best to make a comeback and it looked like it was going to start getting good. I turned around to get back in the truck and head down the road but discovered my rear tire completely flat. I have never used this jack since I bought this truck and what should have been a quick fix was not very quick. After a few choice words and another wave of snow to make it that much more enjoyable I was off again. I immediately noticed my next problem. The spare tire was a smaller diameter than my other 3 causing it to turn at a different speed than the others and on these slick roads that was the last thing I needed. My only choice now was to take the best way back to the pavement because I could not go back to camp the way I'd come and I wasn't going any deeper into the mountains with a truck that was trying to get me killed.

 

After a white knuckle ride I made it to the highway and we are back to how this story began.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had come to Wyoming for an adventure and gotten more than I'd bargained for. I could leave a beaten man or overcome and finish what I'd come here for. Those who know me know it was an easy choice. I never quit mostly because I'm one of the most stubborn guys you'll ever meet. My pitty party was short lived and I was headed to town to get a tire and try to make it out for the afternoon hunt. It almost didn't happen due to the fact out of 4 tire stores no one carries tires my size in stock. They all told me it was a special order tire and would take days. My luck suddenly turned around when one guy looked in the back and found a used tire that would fit! They were busy but he said he would sneak me in so I walked to a Mexican restaurant next door. After a good lunch and some encouraging words from friends on the phone I walked back over to get the truck. I knew my luck had turned around when the guy said it was only $21.00 total!!!

 

 

 

The other good news was I wasn't that far from the area I had tried to hunt the morning before but turned around because the fog. I had a good feeling about this area and for good reason. I just picked a spot and decided I was going to get away from the truck and get in on foot. After glassing the first basin and putting a 1x2 in the crosshairs just to get that feeling I hiked to the next basin. I knew when I saw the next basin I was in a great spot. It was a lot of country with lots of cover for a big buck to come out of. Only a couple minutes into glassing the sun lit up the far side of the basin. This was a mile away and I wasn't going to waste my time with it until the sun hit it because even if I saw deer over there I wouldn't have been able to tell what I was looking at under cloudy skies. I glassed the sunny area which was just below a big aspen thicket and immediately found 4 bucks, 1 of which looked bigger than anything I'd seen. I packed up and made my way closer. At 800 yds. I set up again and started glassing. I found 2 bedded bucks and 12 does but could not find the other bucks. Of the 2 I could see the bigger one was an ok 3x3. Was this the buck I had seen? I was really hoping he was a decent 4x4 but it was possible this was the biggest one. I made my way closer. At 500 yds. I found the buck I'd been looking for all along. Normally I can make that shot with confidence but due to the lack of trigger time this year and those crazy winds that never stop up there I really wanted to get inside 350 yds. With deer all over the place I took the chance and was able to get within 280 yds. crawling half the time. He was feeding behind a tree and when he stepped out I had only a small window before he would disappear behind trees in the foreground. As the gun barked I saw the death kick of a hit buck. He was out of sight so I quickly grabbed all my gear and moved toward him. I saw the other 3 bucks leave the basin but not him. As I got closer to the area he had been in I saw his rack sticking out of the sage just 20 yds. from where I'd shot him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would like to thank my wife for taking such great care of our kids while I've been gone hunting all season. I couldn't have done it without you babe! And thanks to all my friends who were there with me through text messages all week. You guys kept me going! And a big thanks to my parents for helping me process the deer. It's great to have a meet cutter and wrapper for parents!

 

I can't wait for my next adventure!

[Chef]

I enjoyed your write up quite a bit.

I'm glad you stuck it out and saw your luck change in the end.

Congratulations on your hard earned 4x4!

[azslim]

Nice buck and good story.

 

Armadillo in Wy.......never ever heard of it and I was born there and my families go back many generations.

[ehunt]

Great buck!!

[loco4coues]

Great buck and great story, thanks for sharing it.

[azsagebrush]

Sounds like " you had them right where you wanted them"!

 

Monty

[Browning'sCustomMeat]

Great write up. Thanks for sharing and congrats on a well earned buck. Way to stick with it.

 

-Jeremy-

[stanley]

Great pics and story!!!! Thanks for sharing the experience!!!!

 

S.

 

[shortpants]

Sounds like " you had them right where you wanted them"!

 

Monty

You have no idea how great it was when you texted that to me. I laughed my arse off and it made me get focused again. Thanks Monty for the great words that have become famous. You know I'll be using your line for the rest of my life.

[izquik72]

Great story and a great adventure

Thanks for sharing.

Nice buck shooter for sure

[nohoch]

Great write up and congrats on a very nice buck. Question for you.....how do you like the trailer/camper that you took? I've seen that at Sportman's for the last few months and always wondered how well it performed. Again, congrats on a the adventure.

[mcelkhunter]

That was a great story. Congrats on a good buck!!

[Tucson John]

Hey great story and nice Buck! Really enjoyed it. Way to stick with it.

 

Thought I would also chime in on the Jumping Jack Trailer: I have had mine for about 4 years and I use the heck out of it. It's a great little trailer you can drag around anywhere your truck goes. I have had two Polaris Sportsman 500's on it and they fit perfect and trail light. I'd highly recommend these trailers.

[WHT_MTNMAN]

great job on a great wyoming buck.

[KaibabHunter]

Great job and way to stick with it. Nice buck.