I didn't draw the Utah elk tag I thought I would so I went to plan B, a left over Montana deer tag. I was originally planning to hunt the southeast part of the state as it was closest to me but I received an invite from Tennessee Tater to hunt with him in the Fort Peck area. He turned out to be a great guy. Very friendly and a gracious host.
We had rain the first day and on the second day I spotted a nice buck as we were riding ATVs along a ridge top heading for a glassing spot. The buck and the does he was with spotted us and bounced away over the hill. I couldn't locate them but decided to return there the next day while Dan and his partners went to a different spot.
I spotted a group of deer about a mile away and while I couldn't see antlers at that distance I had a suspicion it was the same group from the day before. I bailed off the hill and worked my way along a gulley on the valley floor, staying out of sight of the deer. After running out of cover I crawled about 100 yards up to the edge of a rise and spotted a smaller buck.
While I was glassing him an unseen group of does spotted me and stotted up a ridge, where they stopped to look at me. I scanned back lower where the smaller buck was and spotted this guy. He walked towards me and stopped at the head of a draw. I elected to take the frontal shot since he would disappear from view if he kept walking. I couldn't use my bipod but got as steady as I could from prone. I was breathing hard from the long stalk and crawling plus some excitement but I managed to squeeze off a good shot at 250 yards. I heard the smack of a hit and he took off quartering away up the hill. I worked the bolt and got on him leading him a little and holding high for the increased distance. At the shot I heard the smack of another hit and he turned back down the hill. He made it about 75 yards then staggered and went down.
My first shot had taken out his heart and I had led him a little too much with the second shot breaking his shoulder but too far forward for the vitals. He is my fourth mule deer buck taken over the years and the second with a rifle. He is no giant but he is my best one and a great trophy for this Missouri boy.
I left out the next day and headed to the northeast corner of Wyoming to try to fill a left over antelope doe tag. I arrived in the afternoon and drove around for about an hour trying to find some public land accessible by road. I spotted some antelope near two different small parcels of BLM land but in both cases they were about 100 yards off on private land. It would seem that they have played this game before. I drove to a section of state land about 10 miles away and arrived just before sunset. I spotted a group of about 15 does about 3/4 miles away. There were two wooded draws between me and them so I got out of sight and hot footed it along the draws to close the distance.
I eased up out of the draw and was slinking up the hill when I spotted an antelope looking at me, just its head visible. I dropped down and set up my Bog Pod for a possible shot. I caught movement and looked up to see the entire group at about 100 yards broadside looking at me. I didn't dare rise up high enough to get on the sticks but I used one of the legs to steady my rifle and took a doe right behind the shoulder. She tipped over backwards and it was done with a couple of minutes of shooting time to spare.
I used my Cloud Peak Gunworks 6.5 SAUM purchased from a member here. I was shooting 130 gr JLK VLDs at 3150 fps and they worked nicely. All in all a great hunt and I hope to share camp with Tennessee Tater again.
We had rain the first day and on the second day I spotted a nice buck as we were riding ATVs along a ridge top heading for a glassing spot. The buck and the does he was with spotted us and bounced away over the hill. I couldn't locate them but decided to return there the next day while Dan and his partners went to a different spot.
I spotted a group of deer about a mile away and while I couldn't see antlers at that distance I had a suspicion it was the same group from the day before. I bailed off the hill and worked my way along a gulley on the valley floor, staying out of sight of the deer. After running out of cover I crawled about 100 yards up to the edge of a rise and spotted a smaller buck.
While I was glassing him an unseen group of does spotted me and stotted up a ridge, where they stopped to look at me. I scanned back lower where the smaller buck was and spotted this guy. He walked towards me and stopped at the head of a draw. I elected to take the frontal shot since he would disappear from view if he kept walking. I couldn't use my bipod but got as steady as I could from prone. I was breathing hard from the long stalk and crawling plus some excitement but I managed to squeeze off a good shot at 250 yards. I heard the smack of a hit and he took off quartering away up the hill. I worked the bolt and got on him leading him a little and holding high for the increased distance. At the shot I heard the smack of another hit and he turned back down the hill. He made it about 75 yards then staggered and went down.
My first shot had taken out his heart and I had led him a little too much with the second shot breaking his shoulder but too far forward for the vitals. He is my fourth mule deer buck taken over the years and the second with a rifle. He is no giant but he is my best one and a great trophy for this Missouri boy.
I left out the next day and headed to the northeast corner of Wyoming to try to fill a left over antelope doe tag. I arrived in the afternoon and drove around for about an hour trying to find some public land accessible by road. I spotted some antelope near two different small parcels of BLM land but in both cases they were about 100 yards off on private land. It would seem that they have played this game before. I drove to a section of state land about 10 miles away and arrived just before sunset. I spotted a group of about 15 does about 3/4 miles away. There were two wooded draws between me and them so I got out of sight and hot footed it along the draws to close the distance.
I eased up out of the draw and was slinking up the hill when I spotted an antelope looking at me, just its head visible. I dropped down and set up my Bog Pod for a possible shot. I caught movement and looked up to see the entire group at about 100 yards broadside looking at me. I didn't dare rise up high enough to get on the sticks but I used one of the legs to steady my rifle and took a doe right behind the shoulder. She tipped over backwards and it was done with a couple of minutes of shooting time to spare.
I used my Cloud Peak Gunworks 6.5 SAUM purchased from a member here. I was shooting 130 gr JLK VLDs at 3150 fps and they worked nicely. All in all a great hunt and I hope to share camp with Tennessee Tater again.
