ETH and ETH Jr’s western misadventures -OR- ETH and ETH Jr’s pronghorn manventure

[EastTNHunter]

Put in for a few WY tags back in the spring. Was surprised to draw not only a Unit XX pronghorn tag, but also a Region X deer tag and an X-6 tag for whitetail deer, the latter of which was my screwup because I didn’t realize that it was only good on private land. I had no points for the deer tag, and was lucky on the same unit last year. I guess lightning struck the same place twice.

I’ve always been intrigued by muleys, but they became less of a burning desire to kill when I finally was able to afford to travel to hunt. I’ve always been more drawn to elk, and then later to pronghorn as I learned more about them. I was going to hunt pronghorn alongside my daughter a few years back, but ended up just getting a special tag for her since points creep had started going up and they were roughly double the cost at the time. Obviously the special tag is much higher now. She was successful that time and we had a great trip. I swore that I would come back for myself to pronghorn hunt “soon.” Then points creep exploded and I couldn’t draw the unit I wanted to get for a few years in a row. Finally changed units and drew for this year.

At first pronghorn was going to be my focus on this hunt. It’s what required points to draw, I had been dreaming of it for years, and my family loved the meat. But for some reason I decided to focus a lot on mule deer this time since I had chased them twice before but still had not gotten one. I studied them online, picked @manitou1 ‘s brain, e-scouted and my brother @Hunter0925 convinced me to try to get on a good buck before season and put him to bed the night before season opener. That was to be my plan.

 

[EastTNHunter]

We were scheduled to leave Friday, drive to my brother’s house in Casper, then head on up to scout for 2.5 days before opener. Lo and behold, the Monday before we were to leave my back went out. Meds and stretching got me functional again, but it still wasn’t right… and then came the roughly 24hr drive.

My 10yo son and I got there the 2.5 days early, but could only turn up a few dink bucks and a ton of does. No decent bucks, much less big ones. We saw plenty of beautiful country, a couple of cool snakes including a prairie rattler, a porcupine and lots of prairie dogs, hawks, etc. We decided that we would hunt around the area of the highest deer concentration and hope that we had just overlooked a decent buck in among the good land and smaller deer.



Some of the pictures just don’t do justice to how steep some of the areas that we hiked actually were. My son did really well and I told him how proud I was of how much he had grown from last year.



Ate at the Dash Inn in Buffalo… maybe more than once . Highly recommend it

 

[EastTNHunter]

Then to beat all my son got sick the night before opening day. I figured that it was a combination of dehydration (I can’t get him to drink enough water), swimming in the hotel pool and going back and forth to the hot tub, and motion sickness from riding to our last scouting spot, but I knew that I would be a bad dad if I forced him to push in the couple of steep miles the next morning to get to the spot that we wanted to hunt.

I let him “sleep in” a little bit, then woke him up to ask if he felt that he could go. He said that he felt better but drained. He could go, but not hard. Fair enough. We called an audible.

 

[EastTNHunter]

There was some nearby land that we could drive to that looked like prime pronghorn country on the map, but we had not scouted it. The plan was to go to the far eastern side and work our way back with the sun at our back, stopping to look at bowls within a mile or so that could not be seen directly from the road. We might even find a muley.

First stop on a small parcel right at daybreak: short walk, no visible lopes.

Drive to the next, bigger parcel.

This would be a good time to interject that I did not properly understand the rules of this piece of public land. I thought that you could only drive on the main, public road, and that two-tracks were off limits. So we picked a two-track off of the main road and decided to walk in a half mile to glass over a saddle and into a bowl.

This would also be a good time to add that I decided that my big Mystery Ranch Marshall backpack that had been loaded down for all day muley hunting in the steep stuff was too bulky for these types of jaunts, so I packed my license, sitting pad, and kill kit into the (hitherto never used by me) detachable fanny pack from this backpack and we walked in. I just carried my spotter in my hand, and we slowly walked as I made fun of myself to my son about being a fanny pack hunter. I asked him if he was going to tell on me, and he said that he would only tell family. Let’s also keep that a secret here, ok?

Well, the first saddle in the ridge didn’t open up what we wanted to see, but the next ridge over had a bowl right behind it that we wanted to see… You can see where this is going, right?

 

[EastTNHunter]

Down and over, and this bowl was MUCH bigger. We were picking along slowly, glassing the bowl for speedgoats AND the rimrock around the edges for muleys. Two to four steps then stop and look through the binoculars. The bowl kept opening more and more as we rounded the bend. We finally got a good ways in and decided that this bowl was devoid of wildlife, but we kept seeing more cattle.

“Let’s walk up to the base of that finger over there” I said, pointing about 150yd away, “and see what we can see around the bend at the far end. I doubt that we will see anything, but let’s try.”

Famous last words, or something like that.

We’re focusing on the other end of the bowl slightly to our left over 1000yd away as we angle up to our right, when I happened to glance up straight in front of us.

“Buddy, look right here in front of us!”

“What?”

“There’s a herd right here!”

Standing and staring straight at us 150yd away is a group of 10 or so pronghorns. I hand him the spotting scope, drop down to a knee, and put a round in the chamber. As I deploy my bipod I pinch the crap out of my finger, and I start to bleed pretty good. As this goat rope unfolds, I can’t seem to get in position for a wide open 150yd shot.

The buck wasn’t the biggest, but to my eye he had decent length and cutters, with his tops hooking back down. Very little mass. My son doesn’t care.

“Are you going to shoot him?”

“ I dunno, he’s the first that we’ve seen and…”

About that time they all take off over the ridge to our right.

“Are we going to chase them, Dad?”

“I think they may have won this round, but we can try if you want.”

“Let’s go!” I could sense the excitement in his voice.

By this time we are over 1.25miles from the vehicle, and I had been trying to be easy on him. He’s now pushing me on!

We cut up a gap in the ridge and huff and puff up to the top. Tall sage and flat. We slow and try to catch our breath.

Within a minute we see them as they are cutting at an angle up the face of the next low ridge over. I get down for a shot and start to pull up my rangefinder.

“I’ll range them, Dad.” So I hand him the rangefinder.


I can’t get over the sage, so I move forward.

“Range?”

“240”

“Are you sure?!?” It sure looks further.

“242”

Ok.

They trot up and over the ridge. Dang!

I still see one doe that had gone up ahead, and she is to the right on top of the ridge now.

“They technically aren’t skylined, Dad”

“You’re right, she has a higher ridge right behind her.” Proud dad moment. He was thinking hunter safety.

“Are you going to shoot him, Dad?”

“I may if he comes back over, but that doe is staring right at us and I doubt that they’ll come back.”

“The buck is looking right at us, Dad.”

I hadn’t seen the rest of the herd materialize just to the left of the doe. But the buck is head on and staring at us, and does are tightly flanking him. I don’t feel comfortable about that shot at all.

“I have to wait for him to clear the does, and I’ll feel much better if he turns. What’s the range?”

“240”

“ Again? Are you sure?!? It sure seems further, buddy.”

“240, I’m sure.” He says confidently as I hear the rangefinder click again.

“Ok…?…?”

About that time the does turn and start walking left. The buck turns and starts walking. I was still breathing heavily, and I thought “I need to lead him.”

I put the crosshairs on his shoulder, pull just ahead, and squeeze.

Boom!

 

[EastTNHunter]

The 308 barked, but I saw no reaction from the buck. I also felt poorly about the shot. Felt that my crosshairs drifted too far forward and off of the shoulder.

“I think I missed. Did you see him react?”

“They all startled at the shot, but he didn’t go down or act like he was hit.”

“Ok, let’s mark that spot and walk straight there to look for blood or signs of a hit.”

As we get there and look back, 240 looks right from this angle. Funny how it confused me from the other direction. Noticed that my finger is dripping blood pretty good, so I pull out my hanky and wrap it since I didn’t have my first aid kit with me (remember that fanny pack?)

No hair, no blood, no antelope. We walk the direction that they went and look for any sign of a hit. Nada. Search for half an hour and nothing. Clean miss just as I felt, and I explained to my son that I much preferred a clean miss to a bad hit.

I kinda chuckled and we both talked about how much fun it was. He seemed a little bit confused when I told him that I wasn’t even mad about it. We had fun and would likely have more chances.

As we walk back we look up and see several trucks parked off of the two track several hundred yards to our left. We thought that we were alone, but it was at that time that I understood what the regs meant about using established roads and two tracks. The adjacent HMA/WIHA was walk in only. The vehicles did not affect us at all where they were, but we had walked a good bit on two track where we could have driven.

Oh well.

We head back to our spotter and the jackets that we had scuttled, not being stealthy or quiet at all. On the way I got a text from @Hunter0925 that my nephew had gotten his first bull elk. Sweet! Dropped down off the ridge into the bowl and happened to glance right just before I stepped out of the shadows.

 

[EastTNHunter]

I saw two patches of white about 1000yd away. Threw up the binos and saw pronghorn.

“Buddy, let’s grab the spotter. Those are pronghorn! Can’t tell if they are bucks or does”

I slipped down and got the spotter, then moved back up to the base of the ridge.

Both were does.

This is a good time to remind you that I was wearing a freaking fanny pack with not much in it. I reminded my son that we didn’t have any water and that we were nearly a mile and a half away from the vehicle.

“But what about the antelope, Dad?”

“They’re still a long ways away, and we don’t even know if there’s a buck with them. And I was trying to go easy on you.”

“It’s your hunt, Dad. I can do it.”

“Well, it’s not going to be a straight walk. We’re going to have to maneuver over to that other side, go around the base of two hills, then climb up to the top of that big hill before we can even tell if there’s a buck.”

“Onward!” He says enthusiastically.

 

[EastTNHunter]

We followed the plan, but bumped into some cattle about 3/4 of the way there. We were afraid that they were going to spook the antelope, but they went the other way and stopped to watch us.

Up to the top of the hill and ease into a saddle. We look over the edge and see what looks to be a decent buck chasing two smaller pronghorns, which I assumed were the does. I took a range: 450. I had been practicing that back home from prone, and with the lack of wind I was confident in the shot if it would stand still.

I looked back and my son was excited. He was wanting me to shoot this pronghorn, and they did not know that we were in the world. I told him that we needed to drop back and loop up to the top of the hill where there was a rock formation. We could sneak up to it and get in position for a prone shot, but I was wanting a better look at the buck first.

We got up there and were greeted by cactus. We stayed low and crawled up to the edge. I noticed that the goats had come closer. I ranged them at 177, but it felt straight down.

I looked for the buck through my scope.

“I’m not shooting that one, buddy. He’s just a dink. I thought that he was bigger.”

“He looks good to me.”

“Well, maybe it’s the other one.”

I looked at the other ones and realized that all three were bucks. We then looked further down to the left and saw the two does hundreds of yards away watching the show. At that time we realized what was going on, and the bigger buck was not chasing the does, but he had been trying to chase off the smaller bucks.

I looked back and got the big buck in the scope as he chased the smaller bucks off of a pond. He went down for a drink.

 

[EastTNHunter]

This would be a good time to let you know what I learned from @manitou1 about ponds in this area… later that day. This time of year when the water levels are low, the sulfur levels are high. The water and mud STINK. Badly! But I did not know this yet.

As the buck got to the pond’s edge I told my son that he had decent mass and cutters, I’m not good at judging pronghorn, but I thought that he was a good one for the area. I saw an ivory tip and a hook on one side so I would shoot him when he cleared the pond.

But then he just stopped at the water’s edge, perfectly still and quartered away. I audibly said “nevermind,” then squeezed, hoping that he would either drop right at the edge or run away from the water.

Well, he did neither. At the shot he lunged. Right. Into. The. Pond.

I didn’t know how bad this was yet.

We high fived and laughed and took pictures. We watched the smaller bucks and does running around trying to figure things out. Then we mapped our way down the steep hill. No pictures do justice to how steep this hill was.

 

[EastTNHunter]

We gathered our stuff, looped around to the saddle, and descended. When we got to the bottom I realized that I had left two other things in my backpack: 550 cord and game bags. I was pretty mad at myself at this point.

I was able to fish him out of the pond without my foot totally sinking. But then I realized how badly the pond muck STUNK. And now the buck STUNK. No matter what I did I could not keep this muck off of me, and thus my hands that I used to skin and quarter this guy.

We did the best that we could have keeping things clean, then set the quarters on the shady side of the sage bushes on the lower side of the dam. I told my son that we needed to make time to get back to our backpacks and game bags because it was going to warm up quickly.

I’d like to say that the 308 165TGK is one heckuva bullet. Quartering away and still gave a good exit at 308Win velocity.

I grabbed the backstraps and tenderloins and threw them on my shoulders and started the roughly one and a half mile hike out. Thankfully, a nice hunter from West Virginia was driving by and saw us walking back when we got a little over halfway back and on the two track. He offered us a bottle of water, and bag for the meat, and a ride back to our vehicle. My son said that was the best tasting water he had ever had in his life.

 

[EastTNHunter]

Not sure what’s up, but the files are too large on the pictures of the pronghorn. Won’t upload them.

 

[EastTNHunter]

We drove in on the two track to cut down on the distance. We emptied our backpacks and went in to get the rest of the meat and head. When we got back and had everything on ice we were worn out, but also overjoyed. We chugged water, then celebrated with ice cold Mexicokes from the cooler.

I wish that I could say that we got a muley, but no mule deer were harmed by us on this trip. We never could turn up a decent buck. I did not want to take a small buck with the plight of mule deer right now. I feel confident that they are in the rebound in that area, as we saw plenty of does and dinks, but I felt it best to let them grow older. I wasn’t trophy hunting, but I wanted it to be mature. We saw one big, beautiful, mature 3x2 on our drive in one morning in the dark, but that was as close as we got.

Overall it was a great trip. We enjoyed our “manventure” as my son named it. We got to talk about being good stewards of God’s creation, but also that we should worship the Creator and not His creation. We talked about true thankfulness and having an attitude of gratitude towards God; we literally started naming blessings that we could see each day, but also discussed how God is good and in control even when things don’t go the way that we want them to. We talked about growing into a man, and how cultural norms don’t make things right. We talked about what true manhood should be, and the selflessness that comes along with that.

Despite the flubs and fumbles, I am thankful for this trip. He is looking forward to chasing pronghorn for himself when he is old enough to, and I hope that we get to have an even better manventure then.

 

[kansasdad]

Super fun with your kid

Congratulations

 

[WNC2500]

Congrats @EastTNHunter
Always great time with kids and creating those lifelong memories.

 

[MaddH]

Looks like a great trip. I grabbed me a burger at the Rush in on Oct 1 myself and another on the 3rd. Pretty good burger

 

[manitou1]

Ha! Good write up Ryan.

 

[EastTNHunter]

Ha! Good write up Ryan.

It was great eating lunch with you and Will and catching up!

 

[EastTNHunter]

Think I finally figured out the problem with posting pictures. Just remember that you are looking at the clean side