I'm a little late in posting this story, but hopefully it'll help someone next year!
Back in August, I took my wife and 2 year old son to Wyoming on a short scouting trip/ family vacation
That story is here: http://forum.eastmans.com/showthread.php/17211-Family-Scouting-Trip-Wyoming-and-South-Dakota
In October, I was able to sneak away from my 2 jobs and get some hunting in. I arrived in Wyoming on October 11th with a Region Y deer tag, a unit 20 Antelope buck, 3 unit 20 does and a unit 22 doe tag. I had 3 days before my 2 friends from Minnesota arrived to hunt with me. Both of them had the same tags as me. I planned on scouting for a couple days and trying to fill my Unit 22 doe since the season had been open a couple weeks already.
Day 1-
I spent the first day planning where I'd camp. In August, we camped pretty high up, around 7000 ft. It was windy there but I saw lots of antelope up high there. I arrived on the mountain around 2am and slept for a little. As daylight broke on the 12th, I realized the basin prairie at that elevation was pretty much a wasteland. A little snow covered the shaded areas and the few trucks of elk hunters camping there. The wind was blistering and it became obvious this wasn't going to be where I'd find antelope. I putted around for a couple hours checking trail cameras I left in August and studying tracks at the water holes. Sometime while doing this, my buddy sent me a picture of a 30 foot ice castle he rented for the trip. I was content on tent camping, in fact I like it better, but I wasn't going to snub my nose at a week in a heated ice cabin on wheels. There was no way he'd be able to drag it up the mountain, so I began the hunt for camp elsewhere. I dropped down to 3500 ft. and found a level spot. Nothing exciting there. I pitched my wall tent and planned for a couple nights alone before they arrived.
Day 2-
I spent most of the day scouting deer. I relocated 2 nice 4 points that I had previously found in August. They weren't giants, but very nice bucks for region Y. They followed the same trails and patterns from the summer too. Antelope proved really tough to find. I mean really tough. All the spots that held goats in the summer were empty. After a few long hikes, I found goats bedded, but nothing that excited me. Then again, it was a unit with leftover tags that I drew as a 3rd choice, I wasn't expecting much. That evening I glassed a new area and found a ton of small bucks. Deer were very thick but they were all 2.5 or younger. I pitched a small tent at the base of the hill the 2 big 4 points were at to give myself an advantage for scouting the next morning.
Day 3-
I glassed the 2 4 points at daylight again. They followed the script perfectly. I hiked to see where they'd bed and was pretty disappointed to see about a dozen pop-up campers and tents where the bucks were walking. They bounded out like crazy and ran onto private ground. I guess I should've mentioned by now this unit has very little public. Small parcels were key to finding animals, but that meant they all ran to private ground as soon as a truck slowed down on the road 1500yds away. Anyway, I was pretty bummed. I knew the bucks probably wouldn't feed back the way they had done all summer and the night before. I still had hope for the morning though.
I spent the afternoon scouting unit 22 for a doe. I actually found a pretty good number of antelope on 22. Very limited pieces of public land and it required some serious hiking, but it was rare not to find a goat. I spotted herd on the very back edge of a BLM section. Right at a mile away. There was a really, really nice buck in that herd, really nice. The land dipped into a creek and a cattle pasture. My hope was to cover an "L" shape that would total 2 miles. I started the hike, dropped into the creek and everything pretty much worked perfect. I got to 500 yards, ranged the goats, and realized they were just off BLM by about 100 yds. I waited and they worked right to me to about 275-300 yds. I leveled out my .308 at 275 yards...man that buck is nice, B&C for sure! I picked out a doe and squeezed one off. She ran about 40 yards and toppled. Pretty easy tag to fill, which surprised me.
Later in the hunt, my 2 hunting buddies blew a stalk and missed does, 4 times. Target panic is a beast after a 2 mile stalk!
My Minnesota friends arrived that night in the ice castle and set up. Man that sucker was warm! Trucks piled into the mountain all night as is typical for an easy to draw unit. Pretty frustrating, but, it's what I expected.
Back in August, I took my wife and 2 year old son to Wyoming on a short scouting trip/ family vacation
That story is here: http://forum.eastmans.com/showthread.php/17211-Family-Scouting-Trip-Wyoming-and-South-Dakota
In October, I was able to sneak away from my 2 jobs and get some hunting in. I arrived in Wyoming on October 11th with a Region Y deer tag, a unit 20 Antelope buck, 3 unit 20 does and a unit 22 doe tag. I had 3 days before my 2 friends from Minnesota arrived to hunt with me. Both of them had the same tags as me. I planned on scouting for a couple days and trying to fill my Unit 22 doe since the season had been open a couple weeks already.
Day 1-
I spent the first day planning where I'd camp. In August, we camped pretty high up, around 7000 ft. It was windy there but I saw lots of antelope up high there. I arrived on the mountain around 2am and slept for a little. As daylight broke on the 12th, I realized the basin prairie at that elevation was pretty much a wasteland. A little snow covered the shaded areas and the few trucks of elk hunters camping there. The wind was blistering and it became obvious this wasn't going to be where I'd find antelope. I putted around for a couple hours checking trail cameras I left in August and studying tracks at the water holes. Sometime while doing this, my buddy sent me a picture of a 30 foot ice castle he rented for the trip. I was content on tent camping, in fact I like it better, but I wasn't going to snub my nose at a week in a heated ice cabin on wheels. There was no way he'd be able to drag it up the mountain, so I began the hunt for camp elsewhere. I dropped down to 3500 ft. and found a level spot. Nothing exciting there. I pitched my wall tent and planned for a couple nights alone before they arrived.
Day 2-
I spent most of the day scouting deer. I relocated 2 nice 4 points that I had previously found in August. They weren't giants, but very nice bucks for region Y. They followed the same trails and patterns from the summer too. Antelope proved really tough to find. I mean really tough. All the spots that held goats in the summer were empty. After a few long hikes, I found goats bedded, but nothing that excited me. Then again, it was a unit with leftover tags that I drew as a 3rd choice, I wasn't expecting much. That evening I glassed a new area and found a ton of small bucks. Deer were very thick but they were all 2.5 or younger. I pitched a small tent at the base of the hill the 2 big 4 points were at to give myself an advantage for scouting the next morning.
Day 3-
I glassed the 2 4 points at daylight again. They followed the script perfectly. I hiked to see where they'd bed and was pretty disappointed to see about a dozen pop-up campers and tents where the bucks were walking. They bounded out like crazy and ran onto private ground. I guess I should've mentioned by now this unit has very little public. Small parcels were key to finding animals, but that meant they all ran to private ground as soon as a truck slowed down on the road 1500yds away. Anyway, I was pretty bummed. I knew the bucks probably wouldn't feed back the way they had done all summer and the night before. I still had hope for the morning though.
I spent the afternoon scouting unit 22 for a doe. I actually found a pretty good number of antelope on 22. Very limited pieces of public land and it required some serious hiking, but it was rare not to find a goat. I spotted herd on the very back edge of a BLM section. Right at a mile away. There was a really, really nice buck in that herd, really nice. The land dipped into a creek and a cattle pasture. My hope was to cover an "L" shape that would total 2 miles. I started the hike, dropped into the creek and everything pretty much worked perfect. I got to 500 yards, ranged the goats, and realized they were just off BLM by about 100 yds. I waited and they worked right to me to about 275-300 yds. I leveled out my .308 at 275 yards...man that buck is nice, B&C for sure! I picked out a doe and squeezed one off. She ran about 40 yards and toppled. Pretty easy tag to fill, which surprised me.
Later in the hunt, my 2 hunting buddies blew a stalk and missed does, 4 times. Target panic is a beast after a 2 mile stalk!
My Minnesota friends arrived that night in the ice castle and set up. Man that sucker was warm! Trucks piled into the mountain all night as is typical for an easy to draw unit. Pretty frustrating, but, it's what I expected.
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