Our season started yesterday, October 15th, in Wyoming. My Dad has only mule hunted once back in the 70?s, and this was my first experience ever hunting for mule deer. My Dad is 71, and this will be his last time most likely to take a hunting trip like this.
We left Wisconsin Saturday morning with intentions of staying in Laramie Saturday night, make the rest of the track Sunday morning to Jeffrey City. This would allow us most of Sunday to scout, and get familiar with some of the areas that I had picked out. Unfortunately, we got caught in a blizzard just east of Cheyenne. I-80 closed down. So we hunkered down in Cheyenne for the night. Hoping to get on the road bright and early Sunday morning. I-80 was closed. I-25 to Casper was open, but not looking good. So we decided to wait a little bit for the roads to clear up. We made the decision to get going on I-25, and take the Casper route. Roads weren?t great, but we finally made it to Jeffrey City at 2:00 pm. We unloaded everything as quick as we could, and headed out to scout with the time we had.
We only got a look at our first intended spot. I underestimated the steepness and size of the terrain. Wow, things look different in person than on aerial views. Come yesterday morning we gave it a go anyway. We saw lots of does and fawns right away. We saw our first buck at around 9:00am. He was out at 350 yards, but I couldn?t get a real good to see how big he was. There was another hunter headed towards the buck as well. The last sight of him we got was him moving away from us towards the other hunter. We lost sight of him, and the other hunter shoot once. We figured that buck was dead. So headed up over top of the rock formation to get back into the next sage basin. Had lunch, and my dad took a nap while I glassed. I couldn?t find anymore deer, but did get to watch a group of ten antelope with some nice bucks in the group. At noon we got up to continue marching on through basin to get to the next basin. My dad was about 200 yds away from me. I happened to look back past him, and saw a deer that looked like a buck. The background was rocks. Which, made it hard to make out antlers, but I thought I got a glimpse of antler. I was able to finally flags my dad down to tell him I saw the buck. There was a washout that went all the way to the back of the basin where the buck was headed. I decided to take the washout to try and find him. I got to 300-400 yds from the back of the basin when I saw him pop up out of the washout, and into the tall sage. I made my way back to him trying to get a shot, but couldn?t. I followed him all the way to the back, and lost him in some trees and bushes. I got to within 50 yds of where I last saw him, and he popped out 75 yds away stairing at me. I was able to get my tripod up and use it as a monopod. Got him in my sights with the gun shaking all over the place from adrenaline, nerves, and being out of breath. One shot, and down he went. My first mule deer!!
We got him boned out, and had two miles to pack him out to a two track. I?m still hurting from it now. Lol. We finally got to 250 yds from the two track when I spot some deer on the ridge right at the two track. A group of 7 deer with 4 bucks. The biggest were 2 x 2?s. I told my dad if he wants one it?s not gonna get any easier hauling one out than where those bucks are standing. He made the decision to shoot. I ranges them at 230 yds. One shot, and my dad had his deer down.
I had another mile yet to get the truck. In total we hike about 8 miles, and we were able to get our deer the way we wanted to. Not from the truck. Not from the 4-wheeler. It was a great experience, and I got to do it with my dad. Thanks to everyone for answering my questions as I planned all of this.
Now I gotta figure out how to attach pics.
We left Wisconsin Saturday morning with intentions of staying in Laramie Saturday night, make the rest of the track Sunday morning to Jeffrey City. This would allow us most of Sunday to scout, and get familiar with some of the areas that I had picked out. Unfortunately, we got caught in a blizzard just east of Cheyenne. I-80 closed down. So we hunkered down in Cheyenne for the night. Hoping to get on the road bright and early Sunday morning. I-80 was closed. I-25 to Casper was open, but not looking good. So we decided to wait a little bit for the roads to clear up. We made the decision to get going on I-25, and take the Casper route. Roads weren?t great, but we finally made it to Jeffrey City at 2:00 pm. We unloaded everything as quick as we could, and headed out to scout with the time we had.
We only got a look at our first intended spot. I underestimated the steepness and size of the terrain. Wow, things look different in person than on aerial views. Come yesterday morning we gave it a go anyway. We saw lots of does and fawns right away. We saw our first buck at around 9:00am. He was out at 350 yards, but I couldn?t get a real good to see how big he was. There was another hunter headed towards the buck as well. The last sight of him we got was him moving away from us towards the other hunter. We lost sight of him, and the other hunter shoot once. We figured that buck was dead. So headed up over top of the rock formation to get back into the next sage basin. Had lunch, and my dad took a nap while I glassed. I couldn?t find anymore deer, but did get to watch a group of ten antelope with some nice bucks in the group. At noon we got up to continue marching on through basin to get to the next basin. My dad was about 200 yds away from me. I happened to look back past him, and saw a deer that looked like a buck. The background was rocks. Which, made it hard to make out antlers, but I thought I got a glimpse of antler. I was able to finally flags my dad down to tell him I saw the buck. There was a washout that went all the way to the back of the basin where the buck was headed. I decided to take the washout to try and find him. I got to 300-400 yds from the back of the basin when I saw him pop up out of the washout, and into the tall sage. I made my way back to him trying to get a shot, but couldn?t. I followed him all the way to the back, and lost him in some trees and bushes. I got to within 50 yds of where I last saw him, and he popped out 75 yds away stairing at me. I was able to get my tripod up and use it as a monopod. Got him in my sights with the gun shaking all over the place from adrenaline, nerves, and being out of breath. One shot, and down he went. My first mule deer!!
We got him boned out, and had two miles to pack him out to a two track. I?m still hurting from it now. Lol. We finally got to 250 yds from the two track when I spot some deer on the ridge right at the two track. A group of 7 deer with 4 bucks. The biggest were 2 x 2?s. I told my dad if he wants one it?s not gonna get any easier hauling one out than where those bucks are standing. He made the decision to shoot. I ranges them at 230 yds. One shot, and my dad had his deer down.
I had another mile yet to get the truck. In total we hike about 8 miles, and we were able to get our deer the way we wanted to. Not from the truck. Not from the 4-wheeler. It was a great experience, and I got to do it with my dad. Thanks to everyone for answering my questions as I planned all of this.
Now I gotta figure out how to attach pics.
