Family man's 2019 season log

[jeremy.b]

Hey all!

Its that time to (finally) start off my 2019 hunt log!

Here's a link to last years thread for those that may be interested: A family man's 2018 season log

First a little family update:

We purchased a house in the SLC area this spring (what a rodeo!) and are getting a settled in as well as we can in such a busy place. My wife and I both are feeling the tug of moving up to north Idaho though (although the CDA/Post Falls area is bonkers now too..)!

Anyway, the family is doing well, happy and healthy.

And man, the boys are growing fast! I've been able to take the older two on a couple decent hikes this spring/summer and they continue to impress me on how far they can go (with only a little complaining)!

The older hooligan will be making some appearances in my later stories too!

2019 will likely should be a shorter year (over-all) compared to last year.

Here's the tags I have in my pocket:

• I drew 2 first-choice WY antelope doe tags in a fairly popular central WY unit.
• I drew a muzzleloader ID either-sex antelope tag. This will be a blast of a hunt!
• I also have a UT general season archery deer tag.
• There is a tiny chance I'll pick of a OTC ID deer tag while visiting my folks in late October as well.

Both antelope hunts are Sept/Oct seasons. I'm going to risk the chaos of opening day on WY to try to fill both doe tags right away. Assuming I pull that off, this will then open up my schedule to focus on the ID muzzleloader antelope tag for the tail end of Sept and if needed on into Oct.

I then have my UT deer tag that I can use in the UT extended archery, which gives me a later Oct/Nov hunt to play around with. I have a couple spots I have gotten to know a bit so I'll probably just spend a bit of time hiking/scouting those areas in later Oct/Nov to see if there is anything worth chasing after.

We are visiting my folks up in N. Idaho in late Oct and I've been feeling the itch to chase whitetails again. If I can't shake that itch (and the budget allows) I'm considering picking up a ID deer tag. Alternatively I might take my sister-in-law to try to fill her deer tag while we're up there.

As far as this thread goes, I already have a ton of scouting in the books that I'll get posted up over the next few days. There also might be some bonus spring turkey hunting content coming too.

Thanks for those that follow along, I'm looking forward to taking you all along for the ride!

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Bout' time you came back around.I'll follow along and see what you kick up.

 

[jeremy.b]

My wife's 2019 spring turkey hunt:

Lead in: We have gone up to N. Idaho to visit my folks in early-mid May for the past few years. This year, with buying a house in early spring & other general chaos we had put that visit on the back-burner a bit. But after settling in we made the call to go ahead and head up the first full weekend in May.

In past years I had been able to chase turkeys around and managed to fill my tag that weekend 3 out of the last 4 years .

The last 2 of those years I had also been taking my wife (Hope) and her sister out to try to get them birds too.

This year we decided to focus completely on getting Hope her first bird (baby is old enough to be fine without mom for a bit in the mornings!).

We picked up Hope's turkey tag on the way through CDA (did I mention its a zoo now??). Later that night Hope shoots her shotgun a bit to get re-acquainted with POI and how it patterns at various yardages. I also run up to where we plan to hunt that morning and manage to put a gobbler to bed. Plans are all set for the next morning!

Oh, and fair warning, I didn't go into these hunts with the plan to log them here, so the pictures are going to be spotty!

First morning:

The area we'll be hunting that morning is some land that is owned various timber companies. The specific area is a largish ridge that over-looks a timbered valley that is mostly private property.

The bird I had roosted the night before was just into the timber on the nose of the main ridge. Above that timber was a mix of grassy meadows and recently cut timber.

We make it up to the main ridge, but hang back a bit off the break to keep from getting busted by the roosted birds. We get set and call a couple times and get a response, then another response down in the valley, and another, and another.... yeah, there are like 10 birds spread across that private down there!

Anyway, we're a bit further away from the tom than I would like, but its getting light enough that we're stuck for now. I try to work the bird with the call, but there are some hens with him and he's not very interested. After they get down off the roost they get quiet and seem to have moved off down the ridge.

The whole time we worked that bird we continued to get tons of responses around the valley we were overlooking. We also heard 2 different shots so obviously someone was having some luck too!

After the birds we were on quieted down, almost all of the birds in the valley clammed up too.

We slowly wandered up the ridge, calling a bit and waiting to see if anything would pipe up again.

Hope is waiting patiently!

After a good 45 minutes of almost no responses, we finally get a bird to light up right below us, just off the timber company ground. We take our time, wait a bit and the bird starts warming up, and a few others fire off with him. We're guessing there are at least 3 birds down there. One of them starts consistently responding, so its game on!

We head down into a little basin that had been recently logged, and set out my cheap folding decoy where I hope the tom will see it and give us a shot.

Now this decoy has NOT been good to me in the past. 2 years prior we had 3 toms circle Hope, her sister and I just out of range and we had set up that decoy. So setting that decoy was a bit of a risk (and I knew it).

We finish setting up, and I work the bird. He's definitely committed and on his way. Finally Hope spots his fan just behind a stump. He's out of range but is working closer!

And then he spots the decoy.... He putts a couple times and turns around. Man!!!! He doesn't completely bail though, and circles around below us, and then up the other side of the sub-ridge we're on (sound familiar?)

At this point we decide to see if we can just pop over the sub-ridge behind us and see if we have a shot on the bird. Up we go, sneak over to the sub-ridge and there he is! But he's got us dead to rights and is in some brush. He takes off and flies down into the valley and we had no shot.

Man that was fun though, and Hope was having fun and game to keep going. The decoy gets permanently stowed in the backpack and on up the main ridge we go!

We go maybe another 1/4 mile up the ridge to another little basin looking for more gobbles.

The second basin doesn't net us any new gobbles, but we were getting occasional responses from the 2 remain toms that the first bird had come from. We drop down toward those birds but on a different ridge from where we had called the first bird in.

After getting down we figured out a possible setup, and so I work those 2 toms a bit and one of them commits and starts heading our way!

We get set, about 40 yards off the property boundary below us that would give a perfect shot to Hope once the bird clears the property boundary.

The bird reads the script to a letter, clears the property line and Hope is getting all set to shoot. I tell her to shoot it in the head. And here's my second mistake.... With her POI, she would need to actually aim down at about beard level to hit the head. And I knew it. So, in the heat of the moment, when I tell her to shoot it in the head, what does she do, aim at its head! BOOM. No flopping bird... nope, just a flying away turkey... We chat it over, and she knows exactly what happened, and shares that she aimed at the head. Based on the very not-dead turkey that flew away, we're both very confident she shot right over him.

Bummer! But we had a great time, and decide to call it a morning. On our way back to the truck, the last tom is still gobbling to my calls... but we just educated 2 of the 3, we don't need to educate the last one just yet!

Hope shoots her shotgun a bit more to further cement her POI, and we line her up with a second set of shells that open up her pattern a bit for closer shots if she needs it.

 

[jeremy.b]

Second morning:

We decided to go to a different area the second morning (it was a Saturday). This area is some bigger woods NF/state land that usually holds a few birds and almost no-one hunts them up there.

Access to the area is gated until the main roads firm up, so if the gate is closed then the birds can be REALLY easy to hunt (I shot the 3rd bird I got on in one morning 2 years prior when the gate was closed). If the gate is open though, then there are quite a few recreational ATV/UTV riders that hit that area and the birds are harder to hunt due to pure human presence in the area.

We head up in the dark and the gate is unlocked and open. We roll our way along the road through a valley that usually has birds and strike up a number of gobbles. It takes a bit but finally we nail down a bird that seems to be approachable from a different closed road, park and work our way in. Its at least 1/2 mile over to the ridge the bird was roosted on.

We can tell the bird has hens and the closed road we go in on is a little bit exposed, so we have to pretty careful to not get busted working in on the bird.

Eventually we do get on the ridge above where we had the birds located and settle in to listen.

And nothing... silence, everywhere...

We have no idea where the bird went, he and his hens were only 100 yards or so below where we setup, but they are silent now. We are fairly confident we slipped in unnoticed, and every bird in the area had quieted down too.

We give it a bit, but nothing materializes after sitting for a good 45+ minutes and Hope snuck in a little power nap while we waited.

We are right at the top a major ridge and decide to work the ridge down toward where we hard heard another gobble or two deeper into the valley.

The top of the ridge is fairly open timber and along the way both Hope and I got the feeling we should be looking for shed antlers. With no turkeys sounding off its probably a better use of our time anyway!

We go another 1/2 mile down the ridge (still no gobbles yet) and start to bail back into the valley toward where we heard the other set of birds.

I stop to check my phone to make sure we're going to hit the right sub-ridge. Hope walks up next to me and says "HA!" I look down to my left and there's a good sized (but pretty chewed on) whitetail shed not 4 feet from me! That was Hopes first shed ever, and man, if it had not been chewed up it would have been quite the dandy! The shed goes in the pack, the other birds are silent still as well so we just decide to wander our way back to the truck, calling as we go.

On the way we do start getting a response from a bird all the way on the other side of the valley we are on. We chat it over and decide that if we don't hit anything else then we would consider going over to see what we can do with him.

1/4 of a mile from the truck, I stop to call and bam! We get a gobble RIGHT below us. We're only 100 yards above the main road we had driven in on and he's between us and that road.

We have a fire-drill for a few minutes trying to figure out a setup. There is an open grassy hillside right below the road on the nose of a little sub-ridge that offers zero cover, a brushy mess on either side of it and immediately above it.

We do have some room to back off above the road to the side though and eventually decide that's our best bet.

The plan is simple: the bird will come up through the open ridge (that we can't see), hit the road and walk the road right to us...

The only problem is the shot will be close (25 yards or less). Of course we didn't think to change out Hope's shells to the more open ones for that close shot...

We settle in, and I start working the bird and he's coming in exactly to plan (2nd day in a row?!). Around the corner he comes and Hope's heart-rate sky-rockets. He's going to come right into her sight-picture, but she decides to adjust, makes the little move and shoots!

BOOM! The turkey jumps up in the air, flies UPHILL into a patch of brush even with us. I have no idea why she missed, but we don't care, up we go to try to get back on him! We catch sight of him just as he figures out what happened and takes off...

Man, so close! So we talk it over, the bird was under 25 yard away, and Hope's pattern at that distance (with her main shells) is only around 5-6" in diameter.

From what we can tell when she shifted the gun, she also shifted her sight picture and as best as she can remember she shot right in front of the bird! I didn't even consider swapping shells around in the heat of the moment (they other ones open the pattern up to a good 14" at 25 yards). Hope did though, but bird was too close at that point.

Anyway, that was still a good way to end that morning! We didn't stress chasing the other bird because he was down in a brushy mess of a ridge quite a ways away and it was getting on in the morning.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Great story,looking forward to more.

 

[jeremy.b]

Last morning!

We headed back to the timber company ground for our last morning hunt (sorry no pics for this one!)

We get a later start, hoping to get in after the "off the roost" lull we saw the last two mornings.

Right out of the truck we strike a couple gobbles. They are located down a couple hundred yards off the nose of the main ridge in the area.

We hike in and get right above them. Since I didn't think we set up close enough to the very first bird on the first morning, I pushed us down the ridge a little bit before we setup. As we do that though I notice that I can see a LONG ways down that ridge. We get set and start calling and get zero response. Yep, pretty sure we got busted!

We bail out and start working our way back up the main ridge, essentially re-tracing our steps from two days before, calling as we go. Unfortunately we're getting ZERO response, anywhere in the valley. Hope and I chat it over and I know there is one spot that seems to have birds another mile up into the valley. Its on private, but if I can get in a sassing match with some hens I might be able to call something in (and yes that has worked for me in the past!).

Away we go! The spot I have in mind is a very open cutting unit that is at almost a full section in size. There is a little cover in a few places, but not alot.

We hit the edge of the unit, call and I get a whole bunch of responses from the private off the lower edge of the unit. We decide to slide over to one little patch of remaining trees that overlooks where the birds are at to see what we can do.

Settled in, we can hear there are quite a few hens in the group, so I start calling really aggressively with the hens ("sassing the hen" is what we call this approach). This goes on for a solid 20 minutes and the birds definitely start shifting around and moving.

Eventually we spot a couple toms and a hen one ridge over from us, ~ 300 yards away. It also sounds like a set of birds is working their way up the draw that separates our ridge and that next ridge. We shift positions a little, and continue to call a bit. After resettling in I notice a bird respond WAY up on the next ridge, well over 1/4 mile away. This is a new bird and he's a LONG way off up that ridge.

Calling continues and Hope says "did you hear that one?!" I had heard something, but I just assumed it was the bird way up on the ridge. I call again and this time I can hear that we now have a bird BEHIND us working his way down our way through the cutting unit.

We scramble to find another setup, but are feeling pretty pinned down due to how open everything is. We slide up through a small patch of trees just above us, but are now stuck with no more real cover. We setup, but don't like the spot that well. There is a skid train that is 60+ yards off the top of the ridge we're on and we're both afraid that the bird will just work that trail on his way down to us without us being able to see him.

It was what it was and the bird was definitely on his way!

I work on him and he does exactly what we were afraid of, eventually passing by just out of sight (we can hear him spitting and drumming) on that skid trail. After a bit he's not responding any longer and from what we can tell he's probably circled the little patch of timber below us on the ridge. As a last ditch effort, we decide to stalk our way down through that timber and see if maybe we lay eyes on the bird and/or get a shot.

Up we go, Hope out in front. We make it ~50 yards from our setup spot, and haven't seen the bird yet. We still in stalk mode, but I say that maybe he's already taken off. A few more steps takes us right above the main patch of timber below us and out pops the bird at 15 yards! He's starting to make tracks, Hope is on him, shoots, knocks the bird down! And back up he goes, gets his wings and away he flies.. ALL the way down the unit way down into the valley...

We go check the spot, find feathers, and head down to the valley where I saw him last in flight. I'm feeling super bummed, afraid I had pushed Hope too hard to go after that bird like we did. But she's very resolute and tells me she would not have done the stalk if she wasn't comfortable.

We get down to the edge of the cutting unit and into the timber, but we both know its a bit of a lost cause and the private boundary is only 200 yards below us at that point. Its getting well on into the morning, and a bit more search we call it and we head out.

Talking it over on the long hike back to the truck the best I can tell his Hope hit him somewhere in the chest, but likely hard enough to be lethal hit. Sometime later Hope says something along the lines of "well, I shot my turkey, I just didn't get to take him home. I guess coyotes have to eat too...". I'm really impressed with how she handled it. It was a crappy situation, but she met it well and it didn't completely shake her confidence and she's ready to hit it again (but was done for that trip). We'll get her a bit more trigger time, get her used to shooting some clays and such (which she hasn't done yet). I bet she'll just drop the hammer on the next bird we get her on.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Coyotes gotta eat too.I like the way she thinks.Good Ethical Hunter.
And another great story.

 

[sluggo6850]

Great story, and maybe a few lessons learned. Next one will be in trouble!! Good luck

 

[duckhunt]

great updates

 

[jeremy.b]

Thanks guys, it was a really good trip after it was all said and done!

We hadn't had nearly that level of action any years prior and getting to share that with Hope was super fun.

I did go do a little scouting around for birds in UT, but I was a bit turkey hunted out and didn't find a ton of birds.

Sure was pretty though:

 

[jeremy.b]

Rifle/Muzzleloader prep

For those that remember last years thread, I wasn't super impressed with the terminal performance of the bullets I was shooting out of my 270 at close range.

I did some research and grabbed some new powders, some 150gr Nosler Partitions and 133gr Sledge Hammers and finally a chronograph (Magnetospeed sporter).

For the tail end of spring and early part of summer I did load development with the 270. Eventually I settled on the 133gr Sledge Hammers going around 3120 fps. They shoot way better than I can on most days, around 3/4 MOA on a bad day, way less than that on a good day.

I also spent some time on my muzzleloader in prep for for the Idaho antelope hunt. My setup from last year was pretty sound, so I didn't mess with my load or anything. The memory of the cow out at 160 yards and not feeling comfortable with that distance last fall stuck with me though. So the one thing I did do was to add target knobs to my Williams peep sight so I could dial distance now.

When I'm doing my part here's what she can do at 200 yards off the bench:

I do have to say, seeing well enough to hit something well at 200 yards, even with a super fine crosshair in my front globe sight is still hard!

I have a couple more range trips to continue practicing from hunting positions but its sure is nice to have everything well dialed in at this point.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

That's darn good at 200yds.Keep at it,It can only get better Right?...Right?

 

[Crossbowguy]

Will be following along!

 

[jeremy.b]

That's darn good at 200yds.Keep at it,It can only get better Right?...Right?

Absolutely! I will be sending plenty more rounds down range between now and my hunts .

 

[jeremy.b]

Wyoming Antelope scouting trip

After finding out that I drew my two first-choice WY antelope doe tags I nailed down a trip to scoot over and check the unit out.

Before I get to that though, I do want to share that I did some research on the 2019 antelope drawing odds and there was a significant jump in the number of doe tag applicants this year from 2018. I didn't compare to 2017 (or earlier) but it sure seems like lots of folks are jumping on the antelope hunting bandwagon. I'm a little mixed about that, but I think its safe to say the days of semi-easy to draw DOE tags are starting to dwindle.

Anyway, for my scouting trip my plan was to take one of my off-Friday's (I work a 9-80 schedule so I get every other Friday off) to get to the unit in the morning, tool around until dark, camp, and tool around in the morning a bit and head back home. My basic plan was to look over access, see if I could nail down places to get far enough away from the main roads to avoid some of the opening weekend traffic.

Since this was to be primarily a driving trip, I decided to take my oldest son Joshua with me as well. He's 6 now, able to keep himself occupied, and would be interested in spotting antelope when the time came.

We hit the road o-dark-thirty and made our way through Wyoming. We saw some really nice antelope along the way to the unit, and I put Joshua to work looking for more. By the time we hit my unit we had counted somewhere in the 150-200 range already. I've only hunted Montana for antelope, so the shear number of them was impressive, and that was just from the highway!

After grabbing some lunch we launched into our unit. Our plan was to drive the majority of the main roads in the unit. There were a couple established campground scattered deeper in the unit and it looked like we might hit them just around dinner time. Now, I will say there are just ALOT of antelope in that state! I was trying to mark them on ONX as we drove, but eventually gave up, there were just too many. We couldn't go over a new ridge without spotting more!

We confirmed some good access points that get away from the main roads though, and saw some really amazing country:

The day wore on, and Joshua was getting antsy to make camp (AKA get some dinner going). Every flat spot he would say, "that looks like a good spot"! A gentle reminder that this was an adventure and we would find camp when we found a good spot (and no, every grassy spot was not a good spot).

Eventually we made our way up to one of the campgrounds and found it completely un-occupied when we got there. It was a bit higher in elevation that most of the other unit and up in the timber a bit. It also had a little creek running right beside it, so Joshua was immediately occupied!

I set camp, started our fire and started getting all settled in.

We got our dinner going (dogs on a stick!) and had a couple other sets of folks show up through the evening. We took some time to visit with one of the other groups, cleaned up and called it a night.

We packed up at day break and headed out. We spent a few more hours covering another side of the unit, eliminating and confirming more access. Late morning we hit the highway and started the trip back home. This time we took a different route back that was considerably more scenic, getting to see even more new country on the way home. Overall we were only gone 36 hours, so it really was a quick trip!

And it was a productive trip too. It cemented in my mind that I need to work to get off the beaten path. There is so much easy access in that unit (and more antelope than I cared to count) that I can see why everyone says most folks just drive the main roads (and probably the better 2-tracks). I've nailed down some spots that require a little walk to see/get into and that I hope will have antelope come season. I'll be heading up a day early to hone in on the exact areas, so fingers crossed!

Also, Joshua did amazing! He was self-sufficient, helpful and had a great attitude the whole trip. I would take him on the hunt, but it would require taking him out of school, and since I'm trying to make the hunt quick I've decided he'll have to stay home on this one. But I'm excited for when the next one comes along that he can come on!

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Sounds like your headed for success,Hope the other million hunters don't
crowd you too much.Good luck and have a good one!

 

[jeremy.b]

Idaho Antelope Scouting (Trips 1 & 2)

After finding out that I drew the Idaho muzzleloader antelope tag, in my random googling on the hunt I stumbled across a post where someone mentioned they also drew the same tag. I made contact just to say hello in case we ran across each other (there are a fairly limited number of tags). Turns out, he, his dad and his dad's friend all drew the tag, and are close enough to the unit they can scout fairly regularly. We compared some notes and he shared a little of what he had turned up while scouting.

In mid-July the whole family headed up for Hope's cousin's wedding in central Idaho. On the way back we decided to swing down and cruise through a small part of my antelope unit. Based on some of the intel I had from the Idaho tag-holder we knew there was an accessible spot where we could spend an hour or so and probably find some antelope right from the road. The intel was sound and we did turn up a couple small bands of antelope, and a couple decent bucks in a bachelor group. It was also fun little side-trip for Hope and the boys (mostly Hope though) to look for speed goats.

The last weekend of July I headed back up to Idaho for a quick over-night trip on my own to scout the unit. The other hunter had not had a chance to cover other portions of the unit so I wanted to put some miles in and see what else I could turn up. I had picked out potential glassing locations in ONX, some that I could drive to, some that required a bit of a walk. My plan to was to go to one end of the unit, and work my way back hitting those glassing areas and tracking the animals I found along the way. I didn't really plan to glass a ton at any of these locations since my main purpose was to just establish that they worked as glassing spots and I had decent access.

Turns out I picked the ONE day that southern Idaho was to get rain in July:

I hit the first glassing area mid-afternoon, and thankfully the rain let up and I only got moderately damp hiking over to glass. I picked up a small group of antelope on the very edge (or slightly over) of the unit boundary a couple miles out. Unfortunately I didn't have my spotter on my pack so I couldn't get a good look at them, I could just see a buck and a couple does. I made my way back to the truck, drove to the next spot and kicked up a small buck when I parked. I checked into another area but didn't turn up any more obvious goals.

I headed out and once on the main road I saw another decent buck with 2 does. I made my way to the next glassing spot, hike a fair ways in to overlook a large sage flat, nailed down the glassing location, but didn't see anything besides a few cattle in the flat.

Out we go and on to the next spot. And so it went the rest of the afternoon/evening. I didn't actually turn up any more antelope in any of the spots I hit from then on. But again, I wasn't super concerned since I was spending the bare minimum amount of time glassing, and with the weather there was a good chance they were holding to cover a bit.

The evening sure turned out pretty though!

Finally at the tail end of the night I headed up to one of my last glassing locations that would let me see a good portion of the area the other hunter had already scouted. The sun had dropped enough that I couldn't see well enough to find anything, which was just fine. That glassing spot was amazing though!

I found a spot to sleep for the night and got settled into the back of my truck. I reached out to the other hunter and we compared notes again for a bit.

The next morning I hiked out to another spot to look over more of the country the other hunter had covered. I was looking into the sun and it took FOREVER to finally turn up some animals.

(Those tiny brown dots in the middle of the frame are a buck with 4-5 does/fawns). So, mental note; don't glass in that spot in the morning!

Headed back to the truck, I made my way to one other spot to hike in and glass from. This last spot was the first true bust of the trip from a glassing perspective. But at least I found something to bring home!

I packed it up, snuck in a side trip to catch up with a buddy who lives fairly close (who doesn't hunt unfortunately), and made it back home before the kids bed time!

Another great scouting trip. I had well tempered expectations on what I would (or probably wouldn't) find from a number-of-animals standpoint. Idaho certainly isn't Wyoming when it comes to antelope! But at the same time, it was great to nail down places that should hold a handful of animals outside of the main area that the other hunter had scouted already.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Sounds like you go a lot accomplished in your short trip.Always better than going in blind.

 

[Crossbowguy]

Looks like a lot of fun!

 

[jeremy.b]

Idaho Antelope Scouting Trip 3

After my previous scouting trip I was able to make plans to connect with Andy, the tag holder from Idaho, on another quick scouting trip in mid-August.

I headed out early to connect with him in the morning with plans to tool around in his side-by-side on the far end of the unit where I had found the handful of antelope on the prior trip.

I arrived a bit ahead of him and scooted down into the area that I had spotted the antelope the morning of my prior trip.

In the 20 or so minutes I had I was able to turn up one buck tucked up in on some private.

Decent buck, but again, on private, and that area is very accessible so likely will get some pressure come season.

I met up with Andy a bit later and we trucked our way out to the far side of the unit, took out the side-by-side and started tooling around. We covered a series of fairly hidden little basins, turning up one buck across the unit boundary and then a little buck that I jumped when I walked over to some little ridges we couldn't see into. We didn't see any more antelope in the first area, but we covered it well and nailed down some water sources.

We packed it up and moved on to a second area, but didn't see much there either, other than a couple pop-up blinds some folks had setup on stock ponds. It was reaching the end of the day and we headed out. Andy did stop at one good classing spot on the way out (that I blew right past since I was officially in "get home" mode) and turned up around a dozen more antelope, including a couple bucks, one of which was really nice. Overall, we covered some sweet country for only having a day trip to do it in.

Based on what Andy had seen in prior trips, and based on what the little buck was doing that I jumped it up, we suspected that the antelope were just holding pretty tight to cover. The rut wasn't far off though, and we fully expect them to be up and moving way better when season hits.

It was great to actually meet Andy and spend a day tooling around together. I'm sure we'll be able to work together well and I'm really looking forward to what we can get into when season comes around!

My WY trip is rapidly approaching, so before too long I'll have some news on how that goes. Wish me luck in the chaos of opening weekend!