In March when the applications to put in for the draw was coming due I had asked my friend Scott to see if he wanted to put in with me to got to Wyoming to hunt antelope. He was all for it. He has been on many big game hunts but has never killed anything. Generally it takes 3 - 4 years to get a out of state tag. So my hope was just hope at the time. So when June came around and we revived notice that we had drawn our tags I was more than excited. For me it was better than opening any Christmas present.
Now that time had come to start preparing for our hunt. We went to the rifle range a few times but not enough as I find out later. I made a couple of orders to Cabelas and read what I could on judging antelope.I even went over to Kemmerer for a scouting trip. September couldn't get here fast enough.
The time was here to head to Wyoming. We couldn't get out for the opening day because we had a couple of birthdays to celebrate. After that we were off. We left Logan at 5 in the morning on Saturday. We arrived in Kemmerer around 830am. We took our time getting there because we took it all with us.
On our way there we had seen a lot of antelope off the side of the road. Scott was ready to jump out and shoot the first thing he saw with horns. I held him back and told him to wait. He will have his chance soon enough.
We set up camp by Fontenelle Reservoir.
As soon as we got things settled we were off to find our goats. We started off on a couple of roads trying to figure out the area a little. As soon as we got off on the main road we started seeing antelope every where. in my head I'm looking for a big one in Scott's he was looking for anything. As we looked and glassed for a while. We had looked over many bucks but they just weren't what we were looking for. So finally we spotted a big group of antelope about a mile away. We were above them and looking through our spotting scopes at them. As I was looking through the group I seen a really good buck. He was raking his horns in the sagebrush and chasing the does around. I knew he was a shooter. Now to formulate a plan to get closer to them.
We were above them and there were small draws and gullies leading down to them. We picked a route and started hiking down towards them. As we got closer I got more nervous. They could run at any time. We started sneaking up toward the small hill between them us. I told Scott that this one is his. I think he was a little surprised that I wasn't shooting it.I didn't want my hunt to be over so quick. i also wanted Scott to get his first antelope. So Scott lowered his Bi pod and took a solid rest. I told him witch buck to shoot.We crept just enough to see them. They were starring right at us. The big buck went off to chase a smaller buck off. Now he was 150 yards away. Scott too aim and with one shot he was down. The buck didn't go far at all. I was shaking with excitement an I was excited for Scott to be able to shoot his first Big Game animal. As we walked up to him he got bigger and bigger. He has a real pretty set of horns with Ivory tips. We couldn't have been more happy at the way the stalk and shot turned out.
Now the work began to get his antelope processed and cooled down. Luckily we got his Rhino out there so we didn't have to pack him out.After we got the buck back to camp we headed off to town to get some ice. We stopped by Nate and Courtney's house since they are right next to the store. They offered to let us store the antelope in there deep freezer. Thanks Nate and Court. That was so helpful because we were going to be out there for two more days and didn't want to mess around with ice and coolers the whole time.
Now the hunt was back on. It was my turn. We picked up Nate since we were there and wanted the extra set of eyes and headed out for the evening hunt. We went to a little valley that I had been to when we went scouting the area. This valley had a bunch of antelope and a lot of bucks. There we a couple that I was tempted to shoot but they weren't just quite big enough. It was still a lot of fun getting close and seeing so many antelope running around.
The next day we headed out in the desert. It didn't take long to locate antelope. I was being really picky. I'm sure Scott got tired of me turning down everything we saw. The bucks horns we saw were either to short. Not thick enough. Not enough curl and so on. I just couldn't find the "ONE". We dove a lot of miles and seen a lot of country. After you see so many antelope they all start to look the same. We still had fun playing cat and mouse with a few antelope.
This was one buck they we got real close too.
So the next day came upon us and I was determined to shoot something that day. I just didn't want to shoot something small, but my trigger finger was really itchy. I was starting to think would it be better to shoot a smaller one and be with friends or wait and shoot a bigger one and be by myself.
We decided to head out to a different area of the unit. I thought this area would have been hunted hard but we didn't see to many people over there. We got up really early in the morning to head into an area in the mountains. We took the Rhino so we could cover a lot of ground. The sun rise was a site to see.
We glassed and glassed to see what was out there.
On this little trip into the hills we come across an old abandoned mining town. You can see the foundation of the buildings that used to be there. The only building standing was the jail.
As we were above in the mountains we saw a bunch of antelope below in the valley. We decided to head down there and check them out. As we were driving along we seen a lot of antelope but they were all on private land. In Wyoming they don't have to post there land to keep people out. It was hard knowing where you were some of the time. We didn't want to tick somebody off and get in trouble.
So we headed north down the road to the public lands. As we turned a corner on the road we spotted some antelope. We stopped and glassed them and there he was a big buck. I could tell right way he was a big one. We tried to make a plan to get to him. We parked the truck and headed down the hill toward them. Next thing we know they are high tailing it out of there. We see them that they are heading towards the road. We get back into the truck to head them off. The does cross the road and the buck stayed behind. He took off the other way. We thought we could catch up with him but if you thought antelope cant jump fences well they can. He jumped a fence and got out into the middle of nothing. We thought we would head the other way and cut him off. We spotted him off the road so we stopped and went to get in shooting range.We snuck along a fence line and set up for a shot. He had joined some more antelope. We ranged him at 330 yards. I took a good rest and BANG. The dust flew right behind him. I shot over him and off he went 100 miles an hour out of there. My heart sunk to my gut. We tried to catch up with him again but never could find him. At this point I felt pretty bad. All that work we had done to find a good buck and to get in range had flown out the window with one high shot.
Well we went in to town to pick up Nate because we needed some luck on our side. We headed out North to looks for that Special buck. It didn't take long once we hit public land to see antelope. They had been burning sagebrush patches all along the area. I thought there's not going to be an animal in 50 miles of this place. Sure enough as we drove along we seen a group in one of the burned out spots. We stopped to look them over and at first we saw all does. Then I noticed a nice set of horns in the brush. I could tell they were thick but couldn't tell how long until he stood up. Once he stood I could tell he was a good one. I got out off the road and at this time they started running out of there. I took a quick shot and missed. As Nate and Scott were in the back ground telling me distances I took some more shots. Nothing. He was heading up into the hills. Word of advice do not try shooting at a running antelope. It is as much as impossible to hit. We had seen where they had went and headed up the hill. We tried following them but they were always a step ahead. They were to far out of range but we chased them down a hill to were we thought they would stay. We found a road that took us to the top of the mountain. Yes were were in the mountains chasing antelope and not deer or elk. We planned our stalk through the aspens. We see that they had moved to the other ridge. I set up knowing that he would be out any time. Scott says there he is. I moved forward out of the trees just a little bit to get a clear shot. I see him. I make sure I'm solid. I ask for a range. They tell me 350 yards. I'm thinking holy cow that's really out there. I put my cross hairs on his back and squeezed. BOOM!! I hit him. I could see that he wasn't moving real fast but he wasn't down. I took another shot and I heard the thud and he went down for good. I was shaking like a leaf but the feeling of elation and satisfaction came over me. As I was walking over to him I was hoping that he was a good one but at that point I didn't care. I seen him laying there and went over to see what he looked like. There was defiantly no ground shrinkage with him. He got bigger as I got closer to him. I couldn't have been more happier. He is a great Buck. Heavy Thick and has lots of character. High fives and lots of pictures later and we were off the hill.
We got the buck back to town and butchered him out and then we took our capes and horns over the the Taxidermist.
I had such a great time. We defiantly made some memories to last us a life time or at least until next year.
Thank goodness I have a somewhat understanding wife.Now I need to go and pick out the place on the wall for him.
