Wyoming mule deer hunt

I’m back from Wyoming.  John and I had a great hunt in our first time hunting western Wyoming.  This would have been a great hunt even if we hadn’t been successful.

We left Minnesota and spent the first night at a motel in Edgemont South Dakota.  I can’t say that it was a good motel, but what the heck it was pretty cheap and for a couple guys heading out on a hunting trip it worked just fine. 

The next day we got up early and headed for camp.  We stopped in Riverton Wyoming and picked up our required Sportsman stamp.  We drove up to Moran Junction where we turned south and drove along the Tetons.  The Tetons are awesome.  We saw lots of buffalo along the way towards Jackson Hole.

Here are a some pics of what we saw along the way

 

 

We finally arrived in camp after over 20 hours of driving over the past two days.  This hunt is with Greys River Trophies and is a guided hunt.  John and I often hunt on our own, but this time chose to use an outfitter as we felt it would greatly help us to locate trophy mule deer in the high country.

When we pulled up in camp, we first met Carol the camp cook.  Carol is the wife of Ken, who is one of the guides.  Believe me, Carol is an excellent cook and our food was above and beyond what I had expected for a hunting camp.  Carol showed us our tent and we unpacked our gear.   We were very impressed with the tent and whole camp.

Some pics in and around the camp and area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We actually got into camp a day early.  We did this so that we could hopefully acclimate somewhat to the elevation.  Camp was at about 7,000 feet and we would be hunting deer mostly between 9,000 and 10,500 feet.

We shot our rifles to make sure they were still on.  Mine only took one shot.  We had to make a slight adjustment to John’s rifle and then he was on.

 

Gary, the owner of Greys River Trophies was our guide for the trip.  He came into camp the evening before we started hunting.  Gary went through some things about the hunting and the camp and asked us a few questions too. 

Every day we got up about 4:30 AM, made our sandwiches, ate breakfast and then loaded up in Gary’s truck.  We then drove to different trail-heads and rode in on horse from there.  Gary got the horses ready and all we had to do was get on and ride.  OK, that makes it sound easy, and it would be for an experienced horse rider.  John and I have ridden horses a few times and even did one other horse hunt.  On that hunt we rode the horses on much flatter land.  This hunt was in very steep country and we really appreciated the very good horses that they had.  John and I were quite sore the first couple days from the riding.  The first day we rode in about 9 miles.  The trip out was a little shorter as we walked the horses down the steep spots and took a shortcut out.

Day one was a great day in some beautiful country.  I had a hard time wiping the smile off of my face.  We saw about 17 deer the first day.  The best buck was a typical 4 X 4 that would have scored about 140 inches.  We passed on this buck that was bedded about 160 yards below us.   We also did quite a bit of climbing and hiking and it really tested our lungs as went up over 10,600 feet.  We saw 4 elk today down low.  We also saw a cow moose and her yearling calf on the way out.

 

 

Me glassing for deer. I’m at 10,600 feet per my GPS.

 

Day two was a great day.  I think we saw somewhere between 25 and 30 bucks this day.  Many of them were 4 X4’s that would have scored in the 120 to 130 range.  The best buck today was a dandy that would have scored about 150 inches.  His rack had the was a typical 4 X 4 that also had nice eye guards and each back fork had small sticker points on them, so actually he had 6 points on each side.  We watched him for over an hour at 325 yards.  I almost shot him, but held off as he was only 20 to 21 inches wide.  I really wanted a buck at least 23 to 24 inches wide.  I thought John might take that buck, but he held off too.  In hindsight I think one of us should have tried to take this buck.  I also saw a 5 X 5 bull elk today.

Gary glassing for deer.

 

John with Emmit, a horse that he rode 2 days.

 

Me with Town, a very nice horse that I rode 2 days. 

 

The third day was our slowest day.  We hunted hard, but only saw 7 deer.  We covered a lot of ground and I enjoyed the day as we crawled up to ledges and peeked over glassing for bucks below.  We did see a bull and cow moose on the ride in.  It was early and we could only see their outlines, but were sure one was a bull as he was grunting at us.  Or maybe he was grunting at the horses.

 

 

John eating a T bone steak for supper one night.

 

Lunch fixins.  This is where we made our lunch everyday.

 

Day 4 started out in the same place as day 3, but this time we rode into a different area.  We saw a Cow and calf moose on our way in.  We got up to our first glassing location and soon began to spot deer.  First a doe and a fawn and then more.  I asked Gary if he had looked at one buck I saw.  He looked and then noticed a bigger one that was in front of the one I saw.  There were actually 4 bucks there.  He said that it was a good buck about 24 inches wide and would score about 160 inches.  He said to get set up for a shot as he got his spotting scope on it.  By the time I was all set up and ready to shoot the buck was 628 yards away.   Yeah, I said 628 yards!!!!!!!!  I really put in a lot of time this summer practicing at long range, but not that long.  I pulled out my ballistic chart and it said that my bullet drop at 600 yards for my 300WSM was 60 inches.  Since he was at 628 yards I decided to try to hold 5 foot over his back.  Now the hard part is trying to figure out how high 5 foot is.  I had a rock solid rest and felt confident that my shot would be true, with the only problem being my hold over.  When the buck turned broadside I slowly squeezed the trigger.  The buck jumped like I had just grazed him low.  Gary said that I had shot just underneath him.  The buck ran a little ways and then just slowly walked away and into a strip of timber on the mountain side.  The other 3 bucks just stood around like nothing happened.  There were 9 other deer down lower than those 4 bucks.  We watched them for a half hour or so.  It was fun as we got to watch a couple 2 1/2 year old bucks do a little sparring.

We then rode the horses around and up the mountain higher.  We spent some time glassing up high. Then Gary and I tried to make a little push to John, but nothing came out.  We then worked our way around the top and worked our way back towards the horses.  John and I were to slowly walk along the mountain side through the strips of timber where we figured the deer we had seen earlier were bedded for the afternoon. 

We really took our time.  John was below me about 100 yards.  I guess John was more where the deer were bedded.  He kept jumping up deer and was getting frustrated and he would either just get a glimpse of them or just hear them running away.  Finally 3 bucks jumped up in front of him about 60 yards away and stood there.  John said that all he saw were lots of antlers, so he picked one out and fired.  The buck he hit only went a few yards and was down.  It ended up being a 3 x 3 that will probably score about 100 inches.  

When I heard John shoot, I was in a pretty thick strip of timber just above him.  Since I couldn’t see anything from where I was, I ran ahead to an opening.  When I got there I didn’t see anything.  I climbed down and up a steep ravine to try to see better.  I still saw nothing, so after a couple minutes I whistled for John.  John whistled back, so I worked my way down towards him.  I had went about 20 yards when I looked down the mountain and could see a dandy buck running up towards me.  I couldn’t believe it.  I slipped the safety forward on my rifle and put the crosshairs on the running buck.  I tried to fire when he was at about 35 yards, but I had only pushed my safety from full safe to half safe so the gun didn’t fire.  I looked down and noticed this and quickly pushed the safety all the way forward to fire.  By now the buck had turned and was through the ravine and going up the other side.  I put brown in the scope and fired.  The deer looked like he had been hit, but kept running.  I worked the bolt and fired again as quickly as I could.  This time the bullet hit the buck between his shoulder blades and the buck staggered and went down.  It was pretty steep and the buck rolled quite a ways down hill.     

I quickly went down to my buck and then John came over.  Our bucks were less than 100 yards apart.  We exchanged stories and then since it was 5:10 PM figured we better to get Gary and see what he wanted to do with the deer.  Gary said since there were 2 of them we would just get them gutted and come back for them in the morning with a pack horse.

Gary is sure that my buck is the same one that I had missed in the morning.   

John with his buck.

 

Me with my mule deer buck.  I think you can see that I am more than happy with him.

 

By the time we took a few quick pictures and gutted out the bucks it was getting late.  We walked the horses down the mountain and then rode them out the last couple miles once we were down to fairly level ground.  The last half hour of our ride was in total darkness.  You really have to trust your horse when you can’t see anything.

The next morning we got up at our regular time of 4:30 AM.  We rode the horses as close as we could to the deer.  Since there was a steep ravine there, we would have to pack the meat, cape and antlers a couple hundred yards before the pack horse could take over.  On the ride in we saw 4 moose.  First a yearling cow and then a bull that was with a cow and a calf.

We went to John’s deer first.  When we got to the spot we had left the deer we soon found out that it was gone…….  John asked if we were playing a trick on him.  We laughed and Gary said, yeah right, we got up in the middle of the night and came out here and moved the deer.  John had tied open 2 of the legs on the deer so that it would cool down faster.  I guess he didn’t tie very good knots as something had drug it off.  I found a log about 18 inches high with hair on it that I figured the deer had been drug over.  Now we were a little nervous as we hadn’t brought a gun with us.  Gary told us that they do get grizzly bears in this area sometimes.  I then found the stick that we had used to prop open the deer and then some more hair leading down hill.  At this point I stopped and got my knife out of my pack.  I figured if I was going to be chewed on by a bear I wanted at least a knife to fight back with.  About the time I was ready to start tracking again John and Gary spotted the deer about 75 yards down hill.  Basically, whatever drug the deer away didn’t harm it at all.  The only thing we noticed was that the tail was missing.  Maybe it was drug by the tail????

We took a few more pics and then boned out the meat.

John with his buck the next morning after we found it.

 

We then headed over to see if my deer was still there.  I was glad to see that it was, as my knot had held it in place.  However, something had tried to drag it away and had chewed and pulled on it’s brisket.  I wasn’t happy as there is a hole about the size of a grapefruit in the brisket.  I want to mount the deer and think I will be able to patch the spot with part of the brisket from lower down.

This picture was taken the morning after when we went in to pack him out.

 

I am extremely happy with my buck.  His rack is over 24 inches wide outside and has 169 2/8 total inches of antler, including the inside spread.  He has 5 points on his right antler and 7 on his left, that include 2 stickers.  I like the sticker points as they add character to the rack.

 

John on Tex.

 

Me on Shorty.  I rode Shorty 3 days.  He was a great horse that I got along with great once I figured out how to control his speed.  We shot our bucks on the mountain side in the background behind me.

 

Gary on his horse Bullet, leading out the pack horse for the day, Ace.

 

 

 

On the left is Gary’s wife Jenny.  She is a fun and very energetic person and definitely brings sunshine to an already bright camp.  On the right is Carol, who along with being an excellent cook brings a lot of helpful friendliness to the camp.

 

I have been on a few other guided hunts that were OK, but not great, so I really tried to do my homework to find the best guide for this area.  I can’t believe that there could be a better outfitter around.  Gary and Jenny have an excellent business that they enjoy and it really shows.  There is no guarantee that you will get your game and in this rugged country it’s not easy.  All one can ask of an outfitter is for decent equipment and food and that they work to help you find the animals.  Everything Greys River Trophies has and does for you is top notch.  Their wall tents, stoves, cots, cook tent and food are all excellent.  The horses we used were very good mountain horses in excellent shape for what they have to do.  Everyone there was friendly and helpful.  I really can’t express how happy I am with the whole hunt.  Maybe this best sums it up, I can honestly say that even if I didn’t get a buck I would have still been very happy with everything