Alright, things are far enough along now that this thread is about past due...
I'll go 1st:
I spent 5 glorious days in Wyoming last week. I saw mule deer. I saw whitetail deer. I saw elk. I saw antelope. I saw wolf tracks. I saw black angus. I saw herefords. I saw whiteface. Go beef! lol
My tag was for antlerless deer-but a very, very special kind of antlerless deer. They were a kind of deer that lived only a 1/2 mile from irrigated lands...
I have no regrets. In actuality, we had got to practice stalking muleys each day-even if we had to halt pursuit once we were 1/2 mile from a pivot off into the surrounding hills, and we did have a couple of legitimate chances. I tried a Hail Mary of a shot at 481 yards that was a solid miss. We spotted the group of 8 does and 1 buck nearly 2 miles away from a high ridge we were using to get a wide view of the country. I crawled and worked my way through several draws and small canyons, using the terrain to evade their many sets of eyes, but eventually got busted by the buck. The rangefinder said 481 Y. Late on the 2nd to last day, it felt like the 4th quarter, down by 2 pts, 4th down. What else to do but set up for that 65 yard field goal? So, that's what I did. I learned some important lessons there on the limitations of my marksmanship and rig, stuff to work on for next year. My older retired buddy that joined me was a real mentor. He helped me track and look for the deer I shot at for hours, and worked through all the possibilities so we were sure it was a miss. He also coached me on the dangers and cautions of shooting in close quarters in proximity to stock and agriculture: you have to be super careful in these kinds of places and be certain of your backstop.
The bucks were actively rounding up does all last week. We saw several harems where a buck had a group of 8+ does, and one corker of a buck that had twice that many, but it was all he could do to keep smaller bucks away from his girls. It was quite the sight!
So, feel free to use this as a place to tell your tales of 2019 tags unfilled.
I'll go 1st:
I spent 5 glorious days in Wyoming last week. I saw mule deer. I saw whitetail deer. I saw elk. I saw antelope. I saw wolf tracks. I saw black angus. I saw herefords. I saw whiteface. Go beef! lol
My tag was for antlerless deer-but a very, very special kind of antlerless deer. They were a kind of deer that lived only a 1/2 mile from irrigated lands...
I have no regrets. In actuality, we had got to practice stalking muleys each day-even if we had to halt pursuit once we were 1/2 mile from a pivot off into the surrounding hills, and we did have a couple of legitimate chances. I tried a Hail Mary of a shot at 481 yards that was a solid miss. We spotted the group of 8 does and 1 buck nearly 2 miles away from a high ridge we were using to get a wide view of the country. I crawled and worked my way through several draws and small canyons, using the terrain to evade their many sets of eyes, but eventually got busted by the buck. The rangefinder said 481 Y. Late on the 2nd to last day, it felt like the 4th quarter, down by 2 pts, 4th down. What else to do but set up for that 65 yard field goal? So, that's what I did. I learned some important lessons there on the limitations of my marksmanship and rig, stuff to work on for next year. My older retired buddy that joined me was a real mentor. He helped me track and look for the deer I shot at for hours, and worked through all the possibilities so we were sure it was a miss. He also coached me on the dangers and cautions of shooting in close quarters in proximity to stock and agriculture: you have to be super careful in these kinds of places and be certain of your backstop.
The bucks were actively rounding up does all last week. We saw several harems where a buck had a group of 8+ does, and one corker of a buck that had twice that many, but it was all he could do to keep smaller bucks away from his girls. It was quite the sight!
So, feel free to use this as a place to tell your tales of 2019 tags unfilled.
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