Dad, John and I went on the Wyoming hunt this year. We stayed in Buffalo, WY. We researched a lot and called hundreds of landowners before the hunt and found one that was willing to let us hunt whitetail on their land. We got there and there were no whitetail on their land. We tried the first few days to hunt public land and we were not able to find any whitetail deer on public. (We saw a bunch of nice ones on private land) So we started to knock doors and ask permission. Everyone said yes, but they said it would cost us a minimum of $1500 just to hunt on their land. We were a bit discouraged and planned how many more days to try until we just drove home. We went to a small diner that was selling "bugers" to get some lunch.
While we were eating we felt a little out of place to say the least. First, everyone in there had a beard like Santa Clause. Second, everyone in there was drunk, and third, we were the only ones that knew how to spell burgers.
The good news is that as we were leaving a rancher showed up to the small diner to pick up some groceries that he had them order for him. We asked him if he knew of anyone who might let us hunt. He said that he charged $1500 for hunters but that he only does mule-deer hunts and he saves the whitetail for himself. He said that he was getting too many though and we were welcome to come see if we wanted to shoot them. We could barely hold in our cheers. We followed him to his place 30 minutes away.
When we got there he sent John and I to check a field and he took Dad with him. Dad saw 3 bucks but passed because it was the first day and very cold. John and I walked in a blizzard to the field he told us to check and we were in shooting distance of a great big whitetail. I could not see through my scope as the cold weather had fogged it and I was unable to get it to stop fogging up. John took a shot at this buck, but the mix of shooting through the grass we were in and a blizzard coming down it seemed he missed. Depressed we walked out.
The next evening Dad shot this nice buck as he watched it walk all the way across an open field to within 50 yards of him. It was a great buck and we were all very happy for him.
John and I split up and hunted the general area where he missed the big buck the night before. We did not see any bucks worth shooting that were on our ranchers land. I did see a nice buck but it was on the other property that we did not have permission to hunt.
The next morning, John went a different route to the field he shot at the big buck in the first day. He wanted to come in from a different angle. As he crested the hill to where he could see the field he saw a nice buck in the field. It was him. One shot from 400 yards and Johns buck was down. It turns out that he had grazed it the first night. Here he is...
We hunted the rest of that day and I passed a lot of smaller bucks but I did not see anything I wanted to shoot on the land we had permission to shoot. I saw the nice buck on the neighbors property again.
The next morning I went with John to the field he shot his buck in. There were only small bucks there. We were walking back to the truck where Dad was when we saw a doe running the fence line between the property we had permission to hunt and the neighbors property. She was on our side of the fence. Right behind her came that big buck we had seen twice on the neighbors property. I got in position and shot right before it was to jump the fence following the doe. I missed, but it stopped him. I shot again, but again I rushed the shot. I calmed down and made a good shot anchoring him before he could leave the property. Here is my buck.
We had a great time. I am so glad to have brothers and a Dad that I can share these memories with. I have the best family. Thank you Stephanie for supporting me in these trips.
From left to right: My buck, Dad's buck, John's buck.
