Wife's 1st Mule Deer / & nasty outfitter

[sbhooper]

Good write-up, Clayton. I just wish that I could have hooked up for a ftf chat with you guys. That was a great hunt and you earned that in those crappy, wet conditions. Fortunately, I did not run into any landowners with that attitude, but then again, I did not get close to them, either. I did hear the waitress in the Outpost Cafe tell someone that most that she talked to tagged whatever they could and went home, as no one was getting permission on private land.

Those units don't have a lot of public access and the herds are not in good shape, either. I think that there are way too many permits allotted.

 

[Crumb]

Congrats, looks like a happy hunter!

 

[ol_spark]

Good story and way to stick with it.

 

[maxx]

Nice work.

I am a little surprised that the warden said to avoid it, that I don't agree with. I know their resources are so slim but it would have been nice if he said "go hunted I will be on standby".

I have a spot I duck hunt. It is a public river into a lake that is basically private. The one end is pretty decent duck hunting if you hit it right. I talked with the GW before I hunted it. He not only told me I could, told me all the rules I had to follow he then encourage me to go do it.

 

[JonathonJEB]

Great story and buck. Congrats

 

[Walkathon]

Great deer for your wife! Congratulations! Can't believe the game warden told you not to hunt it because of "Carl" WTH?

 

[Muskeez]

Thanks guys and it really was a fun hunt! Reading these other stories of other hunters in WY having troubles is a little scary. I have been in WY the past 4-5 years and never had one single problem, and technically I didn't even have a problem this year, luckily. I shouldn't have said, (If I did) that the warden said NOT to hunt it, he just said something along the lines of "if we can hunt other public spots first it maybe a good idea in order to avoid any confrontations" , which I totally agreed with his theory. He really was a super guy and we visited for quite some time. A full day later we decided to drive past that piece and spotted the buck so we went on into our land and brought it back out

 

[sbhooper]

I have met some real good game wardens and biologists in Wyoming.

 

[duckhunt]

Great stuff

 

[2rocky]

In 2003 I had a similar incident with an outfitter in Region B. A pretty big operation with 3 letters for their name.

 

[Muskeez]

You mean like PDQ Ranch? Nope, "crazy Carl" Ranch was not labeled that way that I know of.

 

[Dukslayer26]

Enjoyed reading your story and congrats on your wife’s buck!!

 

[POk3s]

Awesome job!! It feels nice when somebody, ANYBODY, wins a battle with these lying fools! Drives me nuts.

I started hunting eastern Wyoming for whitetail and antelope just before the "onx era". It made me into one hell of a map reader, but it's amazing how many spots I hunted that extend hundreds of yards further than where the "cattle fence" is. Most of the deception these guys created for so long has disappeared, but as you guys can see, it's still alive and well in some places.

It also stings a bit more when landowners don't have to have their land marked, fenced anything, for you to get ticketed. Yet they can wrongly mark public land as private, put up locked gates on public roadways, etc. It previously eliminated about 25% what I now hunt because I was too scared to chance the circumstances, even though I knew the ridge and creek drainage behind that sign was public. Okay...I'm off my soap box! Happy hunting!

 

[bigdonniebrasco]

Now, GFY/KMA is the more appropriate response when the Carls of the world decide to claim public land as their own.

This had me HOWLING!!! I can't image Randy talking like that, but it sure would be a hoot!

Congrats to you and your wife, great write-up!!

 

[2rocky]

You mean like PDQ Ranch? Nope, "crazy Carl" Ranch was not labeled that way that I know of.

Nope I'm talking about "Wyoming's #1 hunting outfitter and the top antelope outfitter in North America. We offer antelope, mule deer, elk and black bear hunting on beautiful private ranches in Wyoming's most game-rich areas. Our focus on quality and customer service is unparalleled.

For more than 35 years, XXX has been guiding hunters in pursuit of the ultimate western hunting experience. With over 700,000 acres of leased private land, XXX offers more hunting opportunity than any other outfitter in the state."

 

[El Jason]

Nope I'm talking about "Wyoming's #1 hunting outfitter and the top antelope outfitter in North America. We offer antelope, mule deer, elk and black bear hunting on beautiful private ranches in Wyoming's most game-rich areas. Our focus on quality and customer service is unparalleled.

For more than 35 years, XXX has been guiding hunters in pursuit of the ultimate western hunting experience. With over 700,000 acres of leased private land, XXX offers more hunting opportunity than any other outfitter in the state."

Pretty sure that would be the same outfitter who tried to villainize Big Fin a few years ago. Correct?

 

[npaden]

LOL. That kind of narrows it down, especially when you google the first sentence of your quote.

Their definition of a "Record Book Buck" is interesting too. I generally don't think of a high 70's SCI score as a "record book buck" but I guess they do.

An antelope qualifies for record book status when it scores in the high 70s and above using the Safari Club International scoring system.

I guess I shot a "Record Book Buck" this year in Wyoming after all!

 

[Big Sky]

Man, I enjoyed that story and the picture. Chalk up a win for the public hunters! If you hunt long enough on public land sooner or later you will meet a crazy Carl. I've met several. I sure wish I would have had the technology we have now back in the day when I had some of those confrontations!

 

[Gr8bawana]

Congrats to you and your wife!
With the advent of hand-held GPS units, more and more of the Crazy Carl types are going to have to go pound sand since they aren't able to lie and intimidate hunters on public land they want to keep for themselves.

 

[grizzly_]

Great job!

My public/private battles... When my buddy and I turned 16 we walked into the County Recorders Office and asked them to retrieve all the big maps from their safe (this was pre-Internet) and studied them looking for public land to hunt pheasants. We found a piece of Utah Power & Light land that was being posted and used by the adjacent hunting club. It was next to where we hunted ducks so we were familiar with the area.

Opening morning, before legal shooting started at 8am, we were sitting on the side of the road with my buddy's dogs when the landowner raced over to tell us we couldn't hunt there. He threatened to call the sheriff and we agreed and told him we'd wait there.

He started dancing like a cat on a hot tin roof. The greedy little punks that we were.... we didn't turn him in, but we hunted the area (and his pheasants) until my buddy went away to college. We basically got free 'private' property and endless pheasants for years. I still laugh at that guy thinking back on how a couple of punk kids pulled that off.

---------------

Years later, in the time of GPS chips, my brother and I were archery hunting BLM land in Unit 55 in Idaho. Walking a fence toward where we wanted to hunt, two guys in a truck raced across the private land and threatened to have us arrested. I showed him that I had a GPS and promised to stay on public land. He got so heated that I thought it might come to blows. I actually had my hand on my sidearm under my jacket. He finally told me to FO and said, "I know where you parked your truck," before speeding off across the field.

There was no way I could enjoy my hunt worrying about my truck so we ran back as fast as we could. Every time I drive past that guys house I want to knock on the door and beat the tar out of him. I've never hunted there again, it totally ruined it for me.

I guess was a bigger bad@ss in my youth