texastrophies

In preperation for my elk hunt next month in Wyoming, Jake and I spent some airline miles and flew to Denver then drove to Wyoming to take a look at the area I will be hunting in. There were quite a few bow hunters out and about so we didn't really get out and do any scouting, but at least I did learn the lay of the land and find a place to camp at, with a couple of backup locations. We then did a little site seeing in the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. I took a ton of pictures and actually had a few that came out decent this time. Here are a few with a short caption for you. Hope you enjoy. Big city we passed through in Wyoming. Next we ate lunch at this historic site. The next two are a couple of scenery shots around my hunt area. Here are a few of Wyoming's claim to fame, or part of it anyways. A few scenic water related pics. Here is the only critter we saw in RMNP. And finally, Jake being Jake. Hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.

Checking in. Got a camera out, but it will be a couple of weeks before I can check it. My season doesn't start until first saturday in Nov. Of course I am in the same boat as Chance, well maybe boat isn't the right word to use, it has been a little dry here this summer.

We are back. I have finally came to the realization that I suck at taking pictures. Always blamed it on the camera, it isn't the camera it is the person pushing the button. I ended up with a few I could use though. So I will tell the story and throw a few pictures in to help me out. A little background first, in NM you have to apply for tags. I submitted Jacob and I together for antelope tags. When the results were posted, I found out that we were successful in drawing our tags. But I still did not know where we were going to hunt. NM allows you to apply for a general area of the state and if successful, they will assign you to a private ranch. The state has a program where they alot the land owners tags to use or sell as they wish as long as the rancher will allow a certain number of "state" hunters on the private land. After a couple of weeks we found out which ranch we were assigned to. After doing a little research, it turned out the ranch was a little over 14,000 acres and Jake & I were the only "state" hunters on it. The ranch had 8 tags, which meant there could possibly be 8 other hunters there also, though while we only had a specified three days to hunt, the ranch hunters could pick any 3 days in about a 3 week period. When I spoke with the rancher on the phone, he told me he did not allow any prior scouting, even though by state rules I was supposed to be allowed on the ranch two days prior to the season starting to scout. I didn't complain because that didn't affect my plans to much, as I had only planned on taking a look at it the afternoon before the hunt. Now on to the hunt, I headed out Friday morning at 5:15, with the plans of driving by the ranch on the way as it was visable on both the north and south end from two different roads. Found the ranch on the south end and was able to spot a few antelope laid up not far from a couple of water holes. I went around to the north end, which is where the entrance was and located it, but could really see much of the ranch from there. From there I went on to Clayton where we would be staying. In this paragraph you will notice I was using "I" and not "we" a lot, refer back to the first post in this thread to see why. Now on to the hunt, again, from the motel to the ranch was about a 45 minute trip which put me there about 15 minutes before shooting hours. My plan was to follow my map and drive the ranch roads for the first part of the morning and try to learn the lay of the land, see if there were any other hunters and maybe find some antelope. I waited at the entrance until it was actually light enough to see a ways and then started out. I had only made it about a quarter of a mile from the ranch house when I spotted a lone antelope near the top of a hill. I looked at him through the binos and could tell it was a buck. Pulled out the rangefinder and hit him at about 750 yards. Put the spotting scope up and thought he looked like a pretty good one, but since this was the first one I saw, figured I would continue on and see what else the place had to offer. Here is a pic through the spotting scope. I hadn't driven but maybe another quarter mile when I spotted this guy on a ridge about 150 yards from me just looking at me. Not as big as the first one so I just took a couple of pictures and moved on. From here I drove on to the south end stopping occaisionally when I would either see some antelope in the distance or to just glass. When I got to the south end I came up to a small ditch that had some water in it and a few goats mingling around. The big buck with this group was still smaller than the first one. I was beginning to realize that the first buck was also probably the best on the ranch. Here is a picture of this buck. Saw a few other animals on the place. The one that still has me confused was turtles. I didn't take any pictures of them, but saw at least 3 different turtles crossing the road in the middle of nowhere. Also saw a ton of these little furry creatures. Next I decided to head back and try to find the first one again. When I got back to where I first saw him, to my surprise he was still there, but as I sat there and watched him he got nervous and headed over the hill. This was with me almost a half a mile away. I looked at my map and decided I should be able to loop around in front of him and may be able to get close. So off I went, when I got to where I thought was a good spot to take off from, I loaded up my gear and to off up the hill. When I started getting towards the top, I started glassing over the rim looking for him, finally found him about 400 yards away. Of course by the time I had found him, he was already looking at me and it didn't take him long to head over the next ridge. Back to the truck I went. When I got down the road about a half a mile or so, I spotted him again. While I was watching him from the truck at over 800 yards, he was watching me and getting nervous and started heading up towards the top of the ridge he was on. I decided if he went over the top, I would double time it towards that ridge and try to close the distance on him. He did, so I did. When I got close to the top, I started glassing and moving slowly forward when I finally spotted him about 450 yards away, bedded down looking the opposite direction. I knelt down and continued to move forward until I ran out of cover. When I sat down, I had a small bush between us that was blocking my view of him. I moved over to the left about a foot to get a clear view since he was still bedded down looking the opposite direction. BUSTED. He somehow spotted me making that small move at a range of about 400 yards and was up and moving. He finally stopped and looked back at me at 425 yards broadside. After he stayed there for a couple of minutes I decided to give it a try. From the dust cloud, it looked like there was some wind drift that I did not allow for, but resulted in a clean miss. He took off and ran about 200 yards to the next ridge and then stopped and looked back at me. He then meandered slowly over the hill, feeding and watching me. Back to the truck I went. Did I mention it was in the mid 90's already. As I continued on around the ranch, I ran into the rancher who told me that he was going to meet a couple of guides that were coming in from Denver for 3 hunters that would begin hunting tomorrow. Not good for Jake & I. As it was getting close to noon, I decided to head towards the ranch house which was close to a seasonal creek that had basically the only trees and shade on this place and eat lunch. When I got close, I spotted a buck and while I was looking at him, I spotted the big one again. I watched these two get together and head behind a ridge. So off I go again. When I was getting close to where I thought they may be, I saw the smaller one running off the opposite direction, but no sign of the bigger one. About that time I noticed another buck bedded at a water hole watching me. He was about 500 yards away, but looking at the lay of the land, it looked to me like if I backed out and circled around, I could come up to the bank of the water hole without him noticing me. As I was making this trip, I finally saw the big buck heading west, crossing the property line, I guess he had had enough of me. When I finally got to where I thought I should be able to find the bedded buck about 30 minutes later, of course he was gone. I came to the conclusion that these animals were very alert and wary. Back to the truck and lunch. I looked at my map and found an area where I had not been yet and headed that way. I spotted a buck and doe bedded in a low spot that had good grass. As soon as I stopped, they were up looking at me. Ranged them at about 500 yards with no way to sneak them from here. I marked the spot, next to an old windmill and continued on my way. When I got to the end without seeing anymore, I headed back. As I was getting close, I noticed that the way the land laid, it looked like I should be able to sneak in pretty close from this side without being noticed. I killed the truck and let it roll down a slight decline in the road for about 300 yards and parked there. Off I went again. When I got to where I could see them I was over 300 yards away, I knelt down and closed the distance to about 240 yards. They were both feeding with their butts to me. At that point I noticed a steel post in the ground just in front of me and decided to try to make it to there and started crawling when they had their heads down. Finally got there. When I made the move from a crawling on my hands and knees position to a sitting position, they spotted me and started watching but not moving. A quick range put them at 193 yards. I expanded the bipod, caught my breath, and took the shot. The buck went straight down. Here are a couple of pics of him and me. He is not as big as the first one, but when I considered how scittish these animals are, other hunters tomorrow, and Jake would be here tomorrow, I had decided that I would be satisfied with this one and have no regrets. After a quick clean and quarter job, I cleaned up and it was time for me to head to Amarillo and pick up Jake. The timing worked out perfect. Day 2, Jake's day. Jacob must have some type of animal magnitism. On his mule deer hunt a couple of years ago, the buck he killed spotted us a couple hundred yards away and came straight to us. Jake killed him at 85 yards. I would like to give a long story about his hunt, but I can't. Thirty minutes after we started hunting. We spotted a buck in the middle of nowhere, walking towards us. I had Jake get out and get ready. He kept coming. At 125 yards he turned to go in front of us at a slow walk. I told Jake if he wanted him to take him when he stopped. We tried whistling, and grunting to stop him, he just continued his slow walk, but I could tell he was only seconds away from running, you could see he was getting nervous. I told Jake to get comfortable and shoot when ready. No sooner had I said that and BAM another goat on the ground right where he shot him at. Here are a couple of pictures of his. The good news was that it was early enough to where I could cancel our motel reservation for Sunday night and cancel Jake's flight home and he could just ride home with me and be able to go to school on Monday. In conclusion, while we may not have killed the biggest antelope in NM, I feel that we got a very representative sample of what this ranch had to offer and we are both excited with them. If you made it this far, thanks for reading it and I hope you enjoyed it.

In about 9 hours I will be pulling out heading to Clayton, New Mexico in the NE corner for the Sat. morning opener for antelope. Jacob was supposed to be joining me on the trip. Instead we found out a couple of months ago that he had a mandatory animal checkin for FFA on Saturday morning. After doing a little thinking and research, I decided to use some airline miles and have him catch a plane from Houston to Amarillo saturday evening. I will make the two hour one way trip back to Amarillo to pick him up saturday evening so he can hunt with me on Sunday and if necessary Monday morning. His return trip is leave's Monday afternoon in time to get him back for a FFA meeting Monday night. I am hoping to be back home sometime Monday night it is about a 12 hour trip from here to Clayton. If I have internet I will try to post some updates as the short hunt goes on.

Just know that she is in a better place now Steve. Prayers for you and your family. Her's have been answered.

Steve, you and your family are in my prayers. I know there are no words that make this time any easier for you, spend as much time as you can with her and let your family and friends comfort you when you need it and then you comfort them when they need it. It meant a lot to me to be setting beside her holding her hand when the time came. I know in my heart she knew her mom and dad and I were there. That is the only thing I can think to say, be there with her.

Congrats!!!!!! Thanks for the write up and story

Same here

Oh, just saw this. Prayers sent from here, Steve.

William had already removed it when I started looking for it. I was just a little late.

I guess that explains why I couldn't find it.

Where at?

I move half my 401 in to fixed last week, wish I would have done all of it now. Left the rest of my stuff alone. Wasn't a pretty day for stocks & mutuals. But I still have 20 years or more likely by the time I get to that age it will be 30 years to go.

Dow is down about 500 points today. I would like to thank all of our members of congress and the potus for instituing real change......as in changing the dollars I had in my 401 into pennies.

Have an interest

DIY antelope is a very possible hunt. Wyoming has tons of antelope and tons of public land. Play around on the site at this link. Wyoming Hunt Units and Hunter Success It will allow you to show the antelope units and also the public land. You can then look around on the Wyoming game and fish dept for links to draw odds and similar items. The other thing I would suggest is for all of you to go to the WGFD site now and buy a pref. point for next year. This will increase your odds of being drawn. Good luck and have fun.

texastrophies 45 nov. - jan. Thanks Chance

Ditto.

That sounds like a good way to spend a couple of weeks. Good luck to all of you. Get us some pictures.

Thanks. I started out this year with the plan of this AZ youth hunt being my only out of state hunt this year. Boy that has changed. Will be interesting to see how it all works out.

Congrats!!! This draw was typical for me. I (or Jake) have been waiting forever for this draw to occur. Yesterday I was stuck in a meeting all day long. Missed a couple of calls from a friend in AZ that led me to believe the draw had probably happened. Finally around 6:00 I was able to check, as I only applied for points for me, I checked Jakes first. He drew tag #000001 for the ML youth mule deer hunt in the rut with 5 points. Should be a great hunt.

Very nice. Maybe you can use it in about 6 months.

Here's to a safe and enjoyable trip. Be sure to take a little time off from your work to enjoy yourselves.

Happy Birthday, hope you have a great day.

Just read on another forum where a guy was experiencing the same problem. Sounds like there may be glitch in their system.