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Post by lawrencecountyhunter on Oct 16, 2017 9:58:54 GMT -5
I just got back from my Wyoming pronghorn hunt. I hope you enjoy a summary and some photos from the trip.
We left the evening of Friday, 10/6 after work and drove through the night, arriving at our hunt area Saturday morning. We went to the area I had planned to set up camp, but the 65 MPH winds were just too much for my tent to handle; It was apparent that the tent was either going to be destroyed in short order or ripped from the ground and blown into the nearby reservoir. So we spent the afternoon driving the unit looking for a sheltered place to set up camp, and found none. We eventually drove about an hour south up into the Snowy Range to an area I had hunted a few years before. As we gained elevation and got into the timber, the wind became much more manageable. We set up the Kodiak Canvas, unpacked our stuff, then hit our cots for some much needed sleep.
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Post by lawrencecountyhunter on Oct 16, 2017 10:29:00 GMT -5
Sunday, Day 1 of hunting, found us on a section of BLM at daybreak. As we crested a hill we could see pronghorn out on a flat plateau; We snuck to the edge and waited until legal shooting light. There were 2 bucks and 2 does about 200 yards out. My BIL crawled another 40-50 yards closer until they caught on to us and started to run. They stopped for a brief glance back, giving him an opportunity for a shot. The buck went a few yards, bedded, then laid his head down. The bullet had clipped his ribcage below the heart, but high enough to be a fatal shot.
 
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Post by lawrencecountyhunter on Oct 16, 2017 10:37:21 GMT -5
We got his buck caped, quartered, and on ice before my BIL realized that he had lost his phone somewhere on the square mile of ground we had hunted. I zoomed in on my Garmin so that we could follow our exact track and actually found it fairly quickly.
We continued through the unit, seeing several hundred more pronghorn, some on public, some on private. There was a winter storm coming, and we wanted to be back to camp before it hit. As were leaving the unit, we saw a lone buck leaving a piece of private and heading onto public. We drove on around the corner, parked, and stalked towards where the buck had been heading. We found him bedded just on the public side of the line; At 150 yards he spotted us, stood up, and a shot from the .30/06 dropped him right back into his bed. As we got him taken care of, we started to get pelted with ice and sleet.
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Post by lawrencecountyhunter on Oct 16, 2017 10:45:25 GMT -5
As we got back to camp, the sleet turned to snow, and the temperature really started to drop. The outside temperature got down to 17*F, but the propane heater kept the tent a balmy 50*. The forecast called for up to 15" of snow at our elevation, so were happy to only find about 8" of accumulation that next morning. Regardless, I was afraid that as the snow melted, it would make the dirt roads leading up to our camp impassable, so we spent all of Monday around camp. We reorganized our gear, went on a good hike through the forest, and ate well.
I also got my head skinned out in preparation for my euro mount.
Pork chops tonight. We also had bacon, burgers, hot dogs, and bratwursts.
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Post by lawrencecountyhunter on Oct 16, 2017 10:55:29 GMT -5
Tuesday, hunt day 3, we ventured down out of the mountains and to my BIL's leftover doe tag unit. This was a further drive than our buck unit, and upon arrival we found that the state and BLM sections we had planned on hunting had been enrolled in a Hunter Management Area that we did not have permission for. We continued on into Casper to the G&F office, which also hosts a really cool visitor's center, and obtained the necessary permission slips. It turned out that the HMA had just been officially designated a couple weeks before, so there had been no way of knowing about it during my research phase over the spring/summer.
We made a few unsuccessful stalks that evening and returned to camp. Wednesday, hunt day 3, we returned to the same area and conducted several more long hikes and unsuccessful stalks. There was plenty of ground and plenty of animals, but they were herded up in the center of large flat plateaus and large bowls. These antelope had been hunted with rifles for a month by now, and were positioned where they could see anything coming their way from several hundred yards in any direction. Finally on Wednesday evening, we found a small group at the base of a hill in a stalk-able position. We parked the car around the corner, circled around behind the hill, popped over and BIL shot a fawn at around 100 yards. We added it to the meat cooler and headed back to camp.
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Post by lawrencecountyhunter on Oct 16, 2017 11:03:13 GMT -5
We packed up camp the next day and headed to my deer unit for our last hunting day. I had a whitetail doe only tag, and although we took a very enjoyable and scenic hike that evening, we saw no whitetails. We did see a lot of elk sign, about 30 mule deer does, and one giant-bodied mule deer buck on our way out. We spent the night in Lusk and headed back home Friday. We got my BIL's buck to the taxidermist Saturday and put away/cleaned gear, and got all the meat fully processed and wrapped Sunday night.
It was good to see my family, which I always miss dearly on these trips, but I'm already itching to go again.
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Post by featherduster on Oct 16, 2017 11:05:30 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing the story and great photos,congratulations.
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Post by HuntMeister on Oct 16, 2017 11:07:20 GMT -5
congrats and thanks for sharing!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2017 11:28:48 GMT -5
Thanks for all the shares. Awesome pictures and sounds like you had a blast and success. Congrats!
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Post by ukwil on Oct 16, 2017 14:28:03 GMT -5
Congrats to both of you guys and great pics. Thanks for your help in the planning of my trip. Ive definitely got the western bug now.
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Post by whitetaildave24 on Oct 16, 2017 16:09:47 GMT -5
Congrats on a great trip and thanks for sharing.
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Post by gilder on Oct 16, 2017 21:08:05 GMT -5
Congratulations! Big thank you for sharing.
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Post by jman46151 on Oct 17, 2017 7:43:38 GMT -5
Good job...we were there the last week of Sept and it rained the first three nights we were there.
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Post by steiny on Oct 17, 2017 8:58:32 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing.
Looks like fun !
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Post by duff on Oct 17, 2017 13:07:42 GMT -5
Great job wyatt!
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Post by treetop on Oct 20, 2017 18:02:16 GMT -5
Congrats lope can be some good eats
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