Season of a lifetime - Summer/Fall 2025

[npaden]

Packed up and ready to hit the road heading to Wyoming as soon as I get done with the work I have to get done today. Probably leaving close to 5 pm to get started that way.

Meeting my friend from Wyoming there so pulling the trailer up. Probably going to leave it in Trinidad at our place in Colorado on the way home and try to get up there to hunt bears next weekend.



Haven't decided if I'm going to do this one as a separate semi-live hunt thread or not.

 

[npaden]

I decided to go ahead and do a thread for the Wyoming pronghorn hunt.

2025 Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt

Hopefully going to be a short hunt. Some of you guys jinxed me with your vehicle issues. I’m sitting in the discount tire shop in Casper getting 4 new tires put on my truck. Hit something in the road 15 miles from my unit and ruined the tire. Of course I’m at like 40% tread on them and...

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[npaden]

Okay. Back from Wyoming and am very happy with the pronghorn I ended up with.




Got back at midnight after dropping the trailer at our place in Trinidad on the way home.

Going to run up there this weekend and see if I can find a bear. Not that optimistic that I can get it done in a weekend but might as well give it a shot. Don’t plan on doing a separate thread on it as it’s going to be short and boring unless I get one.

 

[npaden]

Left the office a little after noon headed to Trinidad. Doing this one solo.

Will be interesting to see if I can turn the big bear up or not. Will be focused on keeping the wind right and finding some openings where I might have decent sight lines.

 

[npaden]

Well my lucky streak ended with the bear hunt.



Spent 3 days and didn’t see a bear. Lots of sitting and being bored. Not my favorite style of hunting but really the only way I thought I had a chance.



Did some tree trimming to even be able to see 70 yards.



Birds did their best to keep me entertained but it was a couple very long sits with no cell service where I was at.




The oak brush sure is hard to hunt when it still has all the leaves on it. Going to have to figure out a better way to hunt it for when my son will have the tag next year.

 

[MT_elk]

Great hunts! Thanks for sharing!

 

[npaden]

Last weekend was a bust at the land I’m selling. I’ve got everything set up for a southwest wind and last weekend the wind was out of the East and Southeast.

Shouldn’t have even bothered. A couple does came in but spooked off the bucks.

Closest the big one got was about 60 yards and he figured out something was up.



A woodpecker wanted to come in the blind with me.



Sunset on last weekend.



Close got moved to 10/31 so only weekend left I can hunt is this weekend.

Looking for one of these 2 to show up.



Didn’t work out tonight with another SE wind, but it is supposed to shift to SW the next two mornings so hopefully it will happen. The last two years things had worked out nearly perfect for archery down here but not this year. Even painting my face up in the blind so all the white from my face and beard doesn’t give me away.



Visitor tonight was a great heron.

 

[npaden]

I wasn’t patient enough to wait for the big 10. I think the wide 8 was pretty cool.

 

[Kimber7man]

Great buck!

 

[npaden]

Had a buddy clean up the blood a bit with some photo editing magic.



Think they look a lot better.

I posted this in the “as they lay” thread but he bled quite a bit!

 

[txco]

When does Arizona start?

 

[npaden]

When does Arizona start?

Season starts 10/24 and it is a little over a 12 hour drive so going to start heading that way after work on Wednesday 10/22 and get about 4 or 5 hours down the road so we can get there at a decent time to get set up and meet the guide and all that fun stuff and be ready to get after it on opening morning. Pulling the trailer and the wife is going with me to try to get some time off to relax and enjoy the outdoors while I’m hunting. Hopefully we will have some good weather for her.

There is still a chunk of the unit that is closed from the Dragon Bravo fire and doubt it will open up before the end of the year. Not sure exactly what the deal is but the guide I had talked with and had been texting over the summer isn’t going to be able to guide me so going to be assigned someone else which doesn’t sound ideal. The guide I had been assigned was very confident in his ability to find me a good buck but hopefully whoever I end up with can do a good job as well. I’ve been spoiled with some excellent guides so hopefully that will continue.

 

[Valley1320]

Beautiful buck! Congrats

 

[npaden]

Starting a thread for the last big hunt of the year for me.

Kaibab Plateau Early Rifle Hunt

Well, this is the last of the big tags that I drew this year. With all of the other tags I had this year, I knew I wouldn't be able to do any scouting and so I felt that hiring an outfitter was the way to go on what is most likely a once in a lifetime tag. This is the easiest to draw tag of...

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Will try to keep it updated as often as I can. Wish me luck on this one, I think I'm going to need it!

 

[PorterHouse]

Sheesh! What a season! Congrats on all the success so far.