After not drawing a tag to go west the last several years I decided to hunt with a friend that wanted to hunt Region W mule deer. This will be my first trip to the area and I would appreciate any tips anyone is willing to give me either here or by PM. From what I've read it's hard hunted and it's hard to get to far off the roads in parts of it. We are going to get in a scouting trip between now and the hunt to see the country for a few days, learn a little of it before season. Any advice for a someone on their first trip? Thanks for any help you can give.
Region W Wyoming
- Thread starter mcseal2
- Start date
WYhunter24
New Member
- May 27, 2015
- 14
- 0
wy-tex
Veteran member
Nate K
New Member
Good luck on the hunt this fall. My brother-in-law and I are planning on going out to that area on a cow elk hunt next year. The plan is to get a western hunt under our belts while putting meat in the freezer and scouting for a mule deer hunt in 2018!
I'm heading out Wednesday for a scouting trip, plan to drive through the night and scout Thursday through Sunday morning. I had a question for those of you with experience in the unit. Is it worth dragging the trailer and Polaris Ranger up there for scouting? If not I have an old 98 Suburban I'll take and leave the truck and Ranger home for Dad to use on the ranch while I'm gone. I hate to drag the rattling trailer around anyway unless I'll need the UTV to access country to get a feel for it. I want to spend a day in the forest looking that part of the unit over also and wondered what the roads there are like this time of year. I'm not one of those hunters who just drives around hoping to get lucky during hunting season but I want to do a lot of exploring this trip deciding where to hunt during the season.
Thanks for any help you can give.
Thanks for any help you can give.
Eberle
Veteran member
That is a smart decision, I've been through 82 and hunted 80 & 81. Don't forget to purchase your UTV sticker. Good luck!
Thanks everyone. I will get the sticker but thanks for the reminder. We will be driving overnight Wednesday and rolling in at daylight Thursday morning so I might just unhook the trailer and do some morning scouting of country with the truck. See what's there a little bit without focusing on one spot to much, get the lay of the land. Then get checked into the hotel, get the sticker, SLEEP, and go back out that evening. We will get a nap each as the other drives on the way up, not ideal but doable. It isn't the first time we have done that to maximize hunting or scouting time but seems to get tougher as we get older.
Forgot to update after the scouting trip, been crazy getting calves weaned so I can go on the actual hunt.
We survived the scouting trip and all went well. We didn't need a chainsaw in the forest part of the region but definitely saw where we could have, the path was just already cleared everywhere we went. Beetle killed trees are everywhere. We spent some time in both the forest and lower part of 82, plus a little in 100. We saw more deer down below but they are much more visible in that terrain. We hit McCarty Canyon, Rendle Butte, Cow Butte, and lots of other areas plus several forest roads we walked off of and glassed into the drainages from. We never saw any giant bucks but did see a few mature bucks that we would be happy with. Most of the older ones we saw forked pretty high on the back and wouldn't score awesome but had good mass and are cool deer. Any good mature buck like that is plenty good enough for us, I just don't want to screw up on a stud of a 3yr old. I just don't like shooting young bucks with the potential to be really great, just my personal feeling. I am happier if I outsmart an older one, get lucky on an older one, or eat a tag trying for an older one. The scouting trip was definitely worth it, our map was not perfect and lots of roads aren't marked well. It seemed like our OTBP paper map, Garmin vehicle GPS, and OnX app didn't always agree. I think we'd have wasted a lot of time if we hadn't learned some of the unit and laid some tracks and waypoints on the OnX app. I'm looking forward to season. It was great to get out of the heat and humidity of home and experience Wyoming weather and to be away for a few days. Can't wait to be headed back with a rifle and tag.
We survived the scouting trip and all went well. We didn't need a chainsaw in the forest part of the region but definitely saw where we could have, the path was just already cleared everywhere we went. Beetle killed trees are everywhere. We spent some time in both the forest and lower part of 82, plus a little in 100. We saw more deer down below but they are much more visible in that terrain. We hit McCarty Canyon, Rendle Butte, Cow Butte, and lots of other areas plus several forest roads we walked off of and glassed into the drainages from. We never saw any giant bucks but did see a few mature bucks that we would be happy with. Most of the older ones we saw forked pretty high on the back and wouldn't score awesome but had good mass and are cool deer. Any good mature buck like that is plenty good enough for us, I just don't want to screw up on a stud of a 3yr old. I just don't like shooting young bucks with the potential to be really great, just my personal feeling. I am happier if I outsmart an older one, get lucky on an older one, or eat a tag trying for an older one. The scouting trip was definitely worth it, our map was not perfect and lots of roads aren't marked well. It seemed like our OTBP paper map, Garmin vehicle GPS, and OnX app didn't always agree. I think we'd have wasted a lot of time if we hadn't learned some of the unit and laid some tracks and waypoints on the OnX app. I'm looking forward to season. It was great to get out of the heat and humidity of home and experience Wyoming weather and to be away for a few days. Can't wait to be headed back with a rifle and tag.
Yeah hopefully it doesn't grow to big. The most recent info I could find showed it had burned about 2500 acres, but that was Monday night or Tuesday morning. It was headed NE from Forest Rd 851.1 at that point it showed. I don't know where it will stop though.
As of 5pm today inciweb showed it at 10% containment, 2452 acres.
You are right on the hunting improving I think. It might be a few years before I make it back though, I have a moose hunt booked for 2018 and my points are stacking up to draw for antelope and elk on either side of that. Might have to try to get enough time off for two hunts one of those years.
As of 5pm today inciweb showed it at 10% containment, 2452 acres.
You are right on the hunting improving I think. It might be a few years before I make it back though, I have a moose hunt booked for 2018 and my points are stacking up to draw for antelope and elk on either side of that. Might have to try to get enough time off for two hunts one of those years.
Last edited: