Yeti GOBOX Collection

Father/Son 1st Lopes

Buck Fever NW

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May 23, 2022
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Oregon Coast
Had the pleasure of taking my son to hunt pronghorn in WY this past week. It was both our first time hunting out of state and also hunting pronghorn. Needless to say, it was a blast.

We only had a few points built up so the unit we drew had pretty limited public access but was nonetheless a fun place to hunt. That said, with limited access and time (more on that), we decided to take the first opportunities we were presented with, if at all.

While there are few small public land parcels in the unit, we were mostly planning on hunting in an HMA, as most I talked to, including the bio, suggested it was our best bet.

Day 1 - the goal was to fill my son's tag and have day 2 as the back up. We arrived at HMA at first light an immediately spotted a small group at our chosen spot. We saw a buck in the group and slowly headed their way. On the way, we saw another buck at 452 yards. I know that's an easy shot for some, but I told my son we were keeping shots to less than 400, so after a short standoff he took off. We proceeded toward the group and my son got first stalk of the day, crawling across the prairie. Almost got close but got busted by the does.

Hiked around the area some more and didn't see anymore so got up to a higher spot another group way off in the distance. Headed their and got another stalk going. Learned a lot on this trip, including how deceiving distances can be on the prairie. They didn't look THAT far, but they kinda were, and everytime he got closer they would slowly move further, lol. Frustrating but fun! He to about 350 yards from a nice buck and missed the shot, bummer.

Decided to try find a place we could find a little more cover to hopefully close the distance a bit better. Found a spot with some ditchlines and another group about 700 yards away. Followed the ditchline and got to about 200 yards of 2 bucks going at each other. The bigger would never stop moving and eventually went back to the does leaving a younger by himself. My son said he'd be happy with any buck for this first time so he moved in a bit closer a got set up on the sticks and was able to take him. Definitely not a monster, but he was plenty happy, so I was too.20221002_121709.jpg

Day 2 - my turn to give it a go and while we saw some antelope on the HMA, we didn't see tons of bucks, so decided to explore one of the small public land parcels. Again spotted a group right off the bat, but pretty far away. Decided to look around some more and another group with a couple bucks that were closer, with better topography to make a stalk. Was able to get mine at around 230 yards. What a blast.
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Originally, the plan was to shift to mule deer for days 3-5, but found out the week before that homecoming was this weekend so that shaved off a day. On top of that, my son came down with some type of cold the day we started on our trip, lol (of course!). Anyway, we hunted deer (general season) one day but after that he was looking pretty beat so we called it good and switched to doing some sightseeing with mom before heading home.

Overall, a great trip, and we learned a lot (more than i can fit in a post). In hindsight, he could've maybe held out for a "better" one, but haven never been there and not knowing what to expect we figured we'd take what we could get for our first venture (and be very grateful!).

Everyone we interacted with in WY were very nice, and special thanks to Cornell Cowboy, and especially Wytex for listening to my plans and giving feedback, very much appreciated.

OK, this post is probably too long, but it was really fun spending time afield with my son and exploring new country and critters. Can't wait til next time.
 
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