Two years ago I loaded up the truck and headed West for a DIY antelope hunt in central Wyoming. Actually it was the research for that hunt that eventually led me to Skinny Moose and it’s writers. I drove across Nebraska alone, at night, and got to my unit around 5:00am. I was chasing antelope around as soon as the sun came up. I lived on pop-tarts, jerky, and the 10 gallons of water I hauled in with me. I slept in the truck. I also had a fantastic time. I wanted to go back to the sage brush last year but I already had a conflict between the birth of my daughter and an archery elk hunt (the daughter won out). So 2010 it was.
This hunt was very different. The crew that I hunted with this time aren’t really sleep-in-the-truck kind of guys, so we booked with Table Mountain Outfitters. They are based out of Northeast Wyoming, not far from Douglas. When we got to camp there were antelope and mule deer walking around within range of the kitchen!
The next morning The Old Man and I headed out after breakfast. Our guide’s plan was to spend the first hour or more looking over bucks and helping us get a feel for what it was we were looking for. My limited antelope hunting experience had already taught me that it was tough to tell an 80″ goat from a 70″ and perhaps even harder to tell a 70″ for a 60″. With three pairs of binos and a spotting scope we picked apart maybe 40 bucks over a hour or so. Too shot, too thin, no prongs, etc… In a relaxed morning hunt I looked over more bucks than I did during the entire 2008 hunt. Bucks like this one were literally everywhere you looked:
After a while we started covering more ground. It wasn’t long before we found a shooter buck. We hid the truck behind a hill and started trying to close the distance. Around a hill, down in a wash, and at 200 yards we couldn’t find the group we were looking for. We crept forward to 150 yards of where we thought they were when I spotted a doe looking at us. I lined up for a standing shot on a set of shooting sticks while the guide and the old man dropped down below sight line. The buck came towards us to investigate but only his head was visible. The guide took my white hat and waived it in the air to “flag” him. It gave me the 20 yards I needed to see his chest. A short but somewhat uncomfortable standing shot took care of business:
Good length, great prongs, and fantastic mass throughout. I was very pleased!
I’ll tell you about The Old Man’s hunt tomorrow.
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