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WY - Preventing Getting Rained In

dragginwood

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Joined
Aug 9, 2017
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Headed out to WY and have been seeing a quite a bit about roads getting pretty muddy in the event of precipitation. What do you guys do for contingency plans to prevent from getting rained in and stuck on some of the back roads?

Doesn't seem like there is a lot to winch to, and 4x4 isn't always the end all be all... Curious what tools or tricks of the trade you folks have employed to keep moving and more importantly keep hunting.
 
Tire Chains & a rod to hit into the ground and winch from
 
Stay out of those places and don't tear up the roads.

I heard somebody say once that his pickup front wheel wells were so full of mud that he couldn't steer.
 
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We carry a post hole pounder, T post, cum along and along with a quality set of tire chains, and yes not all tire chains are created equal. Its isn't much but usually works in a pinch.
 
For me, I will be close enough to the highway that all-terrain tires, tire chains and I carry rain gear. I take advantage of rain and show because that is when deer and elk bed down and it covers the sound of my approach. That is if I am confident enough that I know where they are bedding at.
 
That’s the plan, but I can’t walk from Michigan so I need to park somewhere, and that’s most likely going to be on dirt back off the main drag.

You typically won’t have issues on the main gravel roads, it’s the double tracks and smaller roads that get ridiculous.

Last year it snowed/sleeted the entire first day. As soon as it started I moved my car to the gravel road, 1/4 mile from camp, and hunted on foot until things dried out. I drive a sedan.

Just use common sense, and be prepared to walk.
 
Its gonna depend a lot on the soil type in the area. Bentonite is a major no go if it gets wet. You can barely walk in the stuff if it gets wet, you'll have two inches of it stuck to your boots. I learned to hunt pronghorn in the Shirley Basin, and there was rain coming we high tailed it out of there. You wont want to drive in a place like that at all if it's even damp. There's other places, like the Red Desert where it can get really bad when it's wet, but if you wait a bit after the storm the soil usually drains really fast. Your best bet is to just use common sense. If your gonna tear up the road really bad, it's gonna rut it all up and be a PITA for everyone that uses it after you even after it dries out, including you during hunting season. If you're hunting public, contact the regional office of whatever agency and they'll give you much more specific info than we can here. I like the idea of using a post to attach a come along or wench to in a bind, but keep in mind if you have to do that you're gonna have to do it a lot to get out, and at that rate you should have probably just parked in a good spot, walked, and used a good spotting scope to scout. Keep in mind there's always a lot of folds in the landscape that you can't see from the road, and often times that's where the pronghorn will be during the season, or even before. Let the road hunters push the animals to you. Often times, the animals get so habituated to the road hunters and seeing pressure from the same places over and over again that most of their focus is in those directions. Ive seen areas where the mule deer bed where they can watch the roads and obvious parking spots from a long ways away. That's how they survive. Make a big loop, which might be several miles, get behind the animals, let the other folks push the animals to you, and often times they'll never see what's coming. I shot a nice pronghorn a few years back on a walk in area by doing just that. All their focus was on the road hunters 600 or so yards away on the county road, and it allowed me to make a small move on pancake flat terrain to get in position when I was stuck with no move some 500 yds away for several hours. I shot that buck in bow range when the people on the county road stopped on the road to glass and the animals moved right towards me. Hunting pronghorn in heavily hunted areas is like a game of chess. If you get too aggressive, they're gone. They can cover a mile in no time. Sometimes it takes 3-4 hours to close those last few hundred yards, or for the animals to close the distance for you. Be patient, don't be afraid to crawl. If they see you crawling lay down and wait. Resist the urge to look up every minute. They'll usually go back about their business after a short while if you don't get too upright. Probably the most important thing, and I see people make this mistake all the time....don't park where they can see you and try to make a stalk, that'll end in failure 99 percent of the time, even if they're way out there.
 
Rain...lol wait till we get 6" snow dumped on you in september like few years ago. It is what it is, pack extra few days of beer, fuel and food and wait it out if it comes to it. Please dont ruin roads , park and walk, wait it out or plan better....
 
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