WY 2015 - coueshunter

[WAcoueshunter]

A few pics from last week.  Gotta love the big country!

[grundy53]

Beautiful!

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[WAcoueshunter]

Thanks!  Tough not to find things to take cool photos of back there. 

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[WAcoueshunter]

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[Bigshooter]

Congrats.  Anymore pics of that mule deer?

[Wolfdog2314]

Awesome pix. Great animals!

[vandeman17]

Very nice. We are heading out Wednesday for my first mulie hunt in wy

[Timberstalker]

Awesome country. Great memories.

[WAcoueshunter]

Very nice. We are heading out Wednesday for my first mulie hunt in wy

Sweet, look forward to hearing about it.  Weather forecast looks good through the rest of the week.  What part of the State are you headed to?

[WAcoueshunter]

Congrats.  Anymore pics of that mule deer?

Here's the story on the buck.  The pic of the spotter looking at the hillside is where I found him - this was a new spot we found the day prior.  It looked promising, so we hit it first thing last Friday.  The weather had been warm and sunny most of the week, so we'd only see bucks at first and last light.  But it dumped rain last Thursday and overnight, so Friday morning the deer stayed out longer to feed.  Relative to the spotter pic, my buck was at the treeline, just out of view of the top right corner of the picture. 

Still not sure if it was my buck, but I spotted a pretty good one about 30 minutes into the morning at the top of the mountain.  No way I could have made it up there before they disappeared the days prior, but I thought the weather would keep them up longer that morning.  So I took off straight up that avalanche chute in the middle right of the pic.  That thing got REALLY steep - several times on the way up, when one hand was touching the wall for balance, I thought this is nuts and I should head back down before I become the avalanche.  But the deer were likely to bed soon and Saturday was our last day, so I kept on, one step over the other.  If nothing else, I'd spend the day up there and figure they'd stand back up at some point.  So two hours and 2500' of gain later, I broke through into the openings and it was game on.  There was fresh sign and beds everywhere up high on that hillside.  I can remember an exact moment when I said to myself, 'oh, it's gonna happen today.'  I knew there were bucks there, and the open, up and down terrain up there was perfect for glassing and getting close for a shot. 

Sure enough, it didn't take long.  At the top, I crossed out of one chute and peeked over the crest into the next and saw four white butts feeding away from me.  Based on where they were, no question they were bucks - over the course of the week, almost all of the deer at treeline like that were bucks.  The does lived mid-mountain and lower, and there were no bucks down there.  Then at the top, there was nothing but bucks.  The trick was just getting there and finding a good one before they disappeared into their beds for the day.   So I pull up the binos and the first buck is a pretty good one - not a giant, but it's late morning on the next to last day.  I quickly looked over the other three and they were all smaller forks and three points.  Ranged the bunch at 310 yards, uphill.  The terrain was still really steep, so I couldn't shoot prone and my pack wasn't tall enough to give me a good rest.  So I  got comfortable on my rear with elbows on my knees, and waiting for the bigger buck to cross into an opening.  He did, and I squeezed, then just saw white patches cartwheeling downhill through the trees.  Deer were running everywhere, but pretty sure my buck was down. 

It took a little while to get over there and find the right tree patch, but here he is.  I took these pics to help tell the story.  Not a giant, but I couldn't be more stoked about the hunt and how it all went down. 

[Timberstalker]

Awesome!  And to kill him at almost 2 miles in elevation, just crazy!

[vandeman17]

Very nice. We are heading out Wednesday for my first mulie hunt in wy

Sweet, look forward to hearing about it.  Weather forecast looks good through the rest of the week.  What part of the State are you headed to?

We will be in the north central part of the state south of ten sleep. Looking forward to my first Wyoming adventure

[pashok23]

Didn't know that unicorn exist in WY

[Bean Counter]

Great job! 

[Bob33]

You earned that buck, and the memories. Congratulations.