It had snowed several inches overnight and temperatures were well below freezing. This was uncharacteristically early winter, but that can be Wyoming.
Jim took Bill and I out to a ranch about 20 miles from the lodge. We got there right about daylight. It is about 5000 acres and has a good population of mule deer. The hunting technique is to use the truck as a "mobile blind" to glass for deer and then adjust to any deer that look interesting. This might mean stepping outside of the truck and shooting, a stalk to get closer, or waiting them out to see where they go.
Very soon after it got light, we saw a mule deer buck bedded with a dow on a hillside. As it got light Jim used his spotting scope and saw it was a 4x4, but that was including brow tines. It wasn't a shooter, and definitely not a first-day shooter. I fully realize the "first-day" syndrome can sometimes result in a last day without venison.
Over the course of the morning, we moved to several more spots. I saw more deer than I have in years. Gobs and gobs of whitetails plus a few mulies. But the sheer number of deer was staggering
Jim saw one real nice mule deer making tracks into some timber, but we were not able to locate him after that. Still, that did give me hope for a mule deer.
We headed back to the lodge for lunch and a rest. This allowed me to take a few pictures of the lodge.
The lodge itself is a former riding camp and dude ranch that also served as a lodge for hunting. The owners, Gary and Carolyn now use to to house missionary families in the US on leave, but still maintain its use as a hunting camp for Jim et al. In addition to the main building, there is Gary and Carolyn's house along with a smaller cabin where the hunting guides camp. With the cold, wet, clammy conditions, a warm fireplace with solid walls and a roof was a luxury.
After lunch we headed out again, this time closer to the lodge. The first place we went had us on a rise with an expansive view. From where we were sitting, we could see several groups of deer, including at least two groups of mule deer, but no bucks in the group.
From where we were sitting, we could actually see Devil's Tower in the distance. This was sort of sprinkles on the icing on the cake.
At one point I was able to watch two young bucks spar with each other. It wasn't a full on buck fight, but it was still really cool to see. Being able to see that alone almost made my afternoon.
We moved around a few times throughout the afternoon and saw hoards more deer. There were several almost-shooters, but mule deer were scarce through the afternoon.
I had the job of opening and closing gates which got pretty muddy as the day wore on. It was just above freezing, melting enough of the snow to make things a total mess. The Wyoming mud is both crazy sticky and horrendously slippery. At one point, I asked Jim if I could take my gun with me when I had to open the gate as the cows the gate was keeping in were arrogantly looking for snacks or something.
Jim has a strict muzzle-down policy for guns in the truck - which would not be my preference and I believe comes with its own risk. But it is his camp. With all the mud I had tracked into the truck, I was starting to get a bit muzzle paranoid. I usually bring a soft-sided gun case on these types of trips just to keep the gun from banging all over the place in the truck, but I forgot on this trip. When in Rome ... and the risk is probably acceptably low.
We ended the afternoon looking for deer off of the county road. As with every place we had been, there were tons of deer with several almost shooters. There was one ~4.5 year old deer that had a really nice set of antlers, but it was also a bit thin. It was very close to shooter, but it walked to be looked at another day.
I thought we ended a little bit early as there was still ample light, but it was getting dark fast with the continued heavy cloud cover. Back at the lodge, my boots were impossibly muddy from my gate duty and a lace had nearly broken. Thankfully I had the foresight to bring some spares.
Most of the other hunter's day was similar to ours. Hundreds of deer seen, but none quite good enough yet. One group had gone after one whitetail, but had failed when the gun fired on bolt closing. Or was it operator error. Either way, not good.
Dinner that night was spaghetti and salad followed by home made cream puffs. Without a doubt, it was a very good first day of hunting.
No comments:
Post a Comment