I headed to Wyoming with high hopes this year, and planned to take some time to look for a really good buck. It ended up being tougher than I thought it was going to be.
I got there two days before the season started and began driving around learning the unit and where the antelope were concentrated. There was no shortage of 'lopes, but they sure were jumpy for not having been shot at with guns yet. Between the heat shimmer, wind blowing the scope, and jumpy antelope, field judging was tough at best. The best time to glass was early morning and late evening, so I re-visited areas of concentration at those times to get a better idea of what was around.
After 4 days of looking, the common denominator between all the better bucks I had seen seemed to be a lack of mass. I found some with great length and some with great prongs, but rarely anything more than average mass. I was sorely tempted to shoot a couple of "pretty" bucks I saw, but I didn't want to cop out so early in the season.
At about 6:45am on the third day of the season, I spotted what looked like a good buck over 2 miles away. I could tell that he only had average prongs and length, but he looked better than average in mass even at that distance. After a long drive and stalk, I finally got within 175 yards of him at 11:15 and quickly decided that he was much better than anything I had seen so far. The end.
Only 14 3/8" long, but good mass.
I got there two days before the season started and began driving around learning the unit and where the antelope were concentrated. There was no shortage of 'lopes, but they sure were jumpy for not having been shot at with guns yet. Between the heat shimmer, wind blowing the scope, and jumpy antelope, field judging was tough at best. The best time to glass was early morning and late evening, so I re-visited areas of concentration at those times to get a better idea of what was around.
After 4 days of looking, the common denominator between all the better bucks I had seen seemed to be a lack of mass. I found some with great length and some with great prongs, but rarely anything more than average mass. I was sorely tempted to shoot a couple of "pretty" bucks I saw, but I didn't want to cop out so early in the season.
At about 6:45am on the third day of the season, I spotted what looked like a good buck over 2 miles away. I could tell that he only had average prongs and length, but he looked better than average in mass even at that distance. After a long drive and stalk, I finally got within 175 yards of him at 11:15 and quickly decided that he was much better than anything I had seen so far. The end.
Only 14 3/8" long, but good mass.
