Hunting the West/Prairie Whitetails


Guest Tatonka

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Guest Tatonka

For any of you who haven't hunted the wide open spaces of the west, you owe it to yourselves to make a trip out sometime before you kick the bucket. I'm talking about the pairie country of Colorado, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Montana, etc. What makes these areas so neat is that being relatively open, you see a lot of game, and just seeing a lot of bucks is a blast. I really don't think there are more deer in prairie country than in a lot of places in other parts of the country....probably even fewer, but when you can glass several thousand acres in a morning of hunting you're going to see a lot of game. That doesn't mean you're going to see all the game as there is a lot of little coulees, drainages, swales, etc. that deer will not be visible in, and it doesn't mean you will kill whatever buck you happen to see.. Far from it...seeing a deer in open country and getting within range are two very different things!!

People think there are more deer out here than the midwest, back east, etc. because the deer are so much more visible, but if you were to take a place like Illinois, Ohio, etc. and remove all the trees and then find an elevated spot to glass from how many critters would you see?

At any rate, for me (and most hunters I would think) seeing wildlife is a large part of hunting. I just fully enjoy watching wildlife and I do it year round. Pulling the trigger or releasing an arrow is just one aspect of things. When hunting the pariries you will see several hundred antelope, dozens of Mule Deer and Whitetails (far fewer whitetails in many areas), Elk in some areas and even the occasional Bighorn Sheep (not many areas have sheep, but a few do). You'll also see Golden Eagles, Bald Eagles, a lot of upland game birds, probaby quite a few coyotes, etc. As far as numbers go, "The Good Old Days" are right now. And there's this about looking at game.......you may not get access to hunt/kill on different tracts of land, but they can't keep you from looking!!!:)

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Right you are, Tatonka.:)

I've hunted antelope in both Wyoming and Montana several times and had an absolute blast. Like you say, you're seeing animals all day long and constantly trying to figure how to get close enough for a shot. Probably the most fun hunting of any I've done over the years.

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