I would have liked to have had the Mystery Ranch Marshall Pack on my Wyoming DIY public land antelope hunt in 2014. As a first time DIY public land hunter in the west, I hadn’t put a lot of thought into how I would get an antelope out, potentially over a distance of up to a few miles, if I was successful. Going into the hunt, my solution was to use a sled.
The first day of the hunt was unsuccessful. I saw several small groups of antelope but I wasn’t able to get close enough for a shot.
On the second day of the hunt I tried a new area. At dawn I hiked up to and along a ridge that was the highest elevation in the area. I soon spotted a herd of about 20 antelope but they were approximately 2 miles away. Using the terrain I was able to sneak in close and I shot a nice buck at 125 yards. Then it hit me. I was 3 miles in from the nearest road. I kept asking myself, “How am I going to get this animal out of here?” I called a friend (who also didn’t have a pack) that was hunting a few miles away and he stopped at the truck to get the sled and a bag of ice and then he hiked in to where I was.
Looking back, the sled wasn’t a good choice. My hunting partner and I dragged the antelope in the sled for 3 miles over rolling terrain back to the truck. While I am proud of our drag effort, I don’t want to have to do that again.
The next antelope or deer I shoot on public ground out west will be broken down in the field at the kill site and I will pack out the meat, cape, and horns or antlers on my back. However I will need a pack to do that. The Mystery Ranch Marshall Pack would allow me to do this.
The first picture below is me dragging my buck during the 1st mile of the 3-mile drag. The second picture shows my route for the day, as recorded by my GPS.
sweet, all's good
