In the sage

deer_shooter

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Joined
Jul 20, 2009
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Location
Southwest Pa.
After about 28 hours on the road I got into Casper last Thursday night. Drove to my hunting area next morning and started to set up my tent. Wasn't long before I saw my first road hunters. Haha. Got my gear together and waited for them to clear and started glassing. In a couple minutes I found a small group of lopes about a mile away. It took about an hour to get in position and then I waited till they fed closer. I picked out a doe at 150 yards and hit her good. She only went about 20 yards and piled up.
Since I drew a general mule deer tag I also bought a doe tag and picked up a few lope tags too. I've seen a nice 4 pt here the last two years so I figured I'd poke around for a day or so and see if I could find him. I did a lot of glassing and only turned up a bunch of does and a forky. I never saw anyone else on foot. With that I moved camp to Buffalo.

Day 2
I found a draw that I wanted to check out and hadn't gone more than a half mile before catching a glimpse of a deer. It didn't take to long to find and a quick shot had a muley doe down - my first mule deer. I got her broke down and was happy to find I could get the whole deer in my icon pro 3200. After dropping it off at the truck I hunted till late afternoon without seeing anything but a few more does. I moved to another spot about halfway between Buffalo and Gillette with the plan of glassing till dark. I found a good spot and settled in. Soon a few does appeared and I watched them till it was almost time to pack it in. Then I hear something behind me and it took me a minute to figure out it was something running down the little gully behind me. Sure enough a buck popped out about 100 yards away and stopped broadside. I was able to get on him quick and took a shot. He spun and went about 30 yards before tipping over. He's not the biggest out there but for my first mule deer buck I'm very happy with him. It's a little hard to see in the pic but he's a 3x2.

Day 3
After putting in about 11 miles and packing out 2 deer yesterday, I slept in and did some camp chores then went out this afternoon. I'm down to antelope buck and doe now. I decided to check out a piece of state land and found a small group of lopes a mile or so out. Try as I might, I could not find them again. Several miles later I found another group of about 12. By now I was getting short on daylight so I plan to try getting on them at first light.
Sorry about the picture quality but all l have with me is my phone.
More to come ( I hope!)
 
pics or not, congrats on the deer and good luck on the lopes.
 
Way to get it done!
Keep up the tag filling and the updates - we can wait for pics.
 
Day 4
So today started off as a comedy of errors. I wanted to get up early and get in on the lopes I put to bed but set my phone for 4:30 pm and not am. Needless to say I slept blissfully until almost 7! I got to the trailhead and the were two trucks and a horse trailer there already. I was going to go elsewhere but figured I'd go in a ways and glass since I was there. Walked in about a half mile and stopped to glass. Apparently the jackrabbit hunkered in the sage brush at my feet took umbrage to me being there. He blasted out of there and shaved a year to two off my life.
Once I could breathe again, I found four lopes bedded about a quarter mile off. I dropped my pack and planned my route to get on them. After about 20 mins, I take a peek and find they were moving fairly briskly right towards where my pack was. I had to sprint back to where I started from and just got set up when they came in to view. A quick scan showed all does. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, especially a half mile from the truck I picked one out and bang, flop, another one down.
I got her back to camp, cleaned and on ice. Day was looking up.
I headed out planning to look over some new patches of BLM and the first few were already being hunted. I eventually found a patch of state land and took a walk and saw nothing. Once in the truck I started down the road and the map showed a tiny spec of state ground up ahead. I slowed thinking how funny it would be if there was something on it. I no sooner finished that thought and sure as shit theres a lope walking along about 600 yards from the road. I pulled over, grabbed my gun and binos and put on the shortest stalk I've ever pulled off. I got to a small rise 150 yards from my truck and looked over. There stood a doe about 100 yards away. I looked down to make sure I had chambered a round and when I looked up she was gone. WTH? I knelt up for a better look and apparently there was a small gully there cause out popped a small buck who nailed me instantly. I slowly got prone again and put the crosshairs on him. I was not sure I would shoot but as he is staring at me out comes a bigger one. Not a monster but a shooter for me. I shifted over to him and bang, flop. Down! What a cool end to an interesting day and an awesome hunt. Never in a million years did I expect to tag an antelope buck and 2 does and a mule deer buck and doe in 4 days. Wyoming sure has been generous. My buck deer tag was a second choice draw and the rest of the tags were leftovers.
 
I got back into 'civilization' on Friday. Pretty uneventful drive back. I did stop a few miles past Kaycee with the intention of raising hell on some praire dogs but they were largely uncooperative and I only got a few.
A few pics from my trip starting with my lope does:
Lope Doe1.jpgLope Doe2.jpg

Then the muley doe - as she lay and in the pack
MD Doe.jpgpack load.jpg

My muley buck. Only a 3x2 but my first one so still happy with him:
MD Buck.jpg

Finally my antelope buck:
Lope Buck.jpg

I was fortunate to fill all my tags and relaxed a few hours the last evening:
whiskey.jpg

For anyone interested, I was shooting a browning A-bolt 25.06 with VX2 3-9 and 110gr accubonds - a very good combination!
 
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