Coueshunter WY speed goat hunt

[WAcoueshunter]

Figured I should catch up on a couple hunts...

My cousin from Phoenix and I have hunted WY several times for deer and/or antelope over the last 10 years or so.  Think this was my fifth WY buck antelope tag, and I've had four deer tags.  It's a trip we look forward to, always a great adventure.  This year, we had the added bonus of our kids coming along on a speed goat hunt. 

We drove over on 9/26.  My kid studied the Oregon Trail recently, so we stopped at a whole bunch of land markers on the way in.  Kinda makes up for missing school, right? 

[WAcoueshunter]

We got there in the evening with a few hours left to hunt, and immediately set out to locate some antelope.  I hunted this unit a few years back so had a good idea where to start.  Didn't take long to find plenty of antelope, the trick was finding a good one that we could shoot!  This unit has a decent amount of gas/oil activity, and those antelope near the gas pads are clearly used to trucks and people.  We chose to hunt away from the gas pads, as it's more fun to chase "wild" goats, but I also just felt we were more likely to find better bucks away from people.  Here's a few gas pad goats that stood by while I snapped photos with my phone.  No zoom required here, these are within 100 yards of the truck.  Public land, shoot them if you like.

[WAcoueshunter]

That first evening, we saw probably 25 bucks, but none that got us really excited.  We had a few days to hunt, so no rush.  Next morning we went to the north end of the unit to see if we could find anything bigger.  Same results though, plenty of antelope, just none that were very big.  Biggest one was maybe 70" or so?  We went back to the southern end of the unit at midday. 

One very cool thing about WY, they allow kids to hunt small game without a license if they are accompanied by an adult with the proper license.  So I picked up a small game license so my kid could hunt too.  Here's a cottontail that thought he was better at hiding than he really was.  Sage grouse season was open, and we jumped two groups of about 10 each, but they were always out of range of our .410.  [Note - he has a hunter orange hat, which is the requirement in WY.  But I have a 'no hat' rule for pics.]

[Eric M]

I dont think school has anything on a trip like that. As long as the kids can read the signs haha

[WAcoueshunter]

That afternoon we finally found a buck that had it all - length, mass and good cutters.  We bumped into him about four times, but each time he would take off before we got within about 600 yards or so.  So then we'd need to relocate him and start the stalk again.  Great day of hunting.  We never got a shot at that guy, but my kid clearly learned the difference between gas pad bucks and their wild cousins. 

On the morning of Day 3, we continued to look for the big buck, but then found a herd with a couple pretty good bucks who were fighting over a hot doe.  I could tell my kid was getting a little restless.  We used the terrain to get within about 400 yards, but the bucks wouldn't hold still and that is longer than I wanted to shoot.  So we circled around the backside of the hill, belly crawled to the edge, and lo and behold the better of the two bucks had chased to doe right into our laps.  One shot at 110 yards to the chest and he was done.  Good stalk, easy/short shot, great way to finish. 

With our tag filled, the last day my kid wanted to chase bunnies and sage grouse.  We didn't find any bunnies that day, but finally caught up to one of those wily sage grouse.  Definitely the highlight of our trip for my kid!

[Stein]

Cool trip, I'll have to look up the Oregon trail stuff for our trip next year.

[mburrows]

Thats awesome! Congrats on the great trip all the way around.

[Widgeondeke]

Sounds like a very educational trip for the kid 

Congrats on the lope and congrats to him for the grouse & bunny 

[go4steelhd]

Awesome 
Taking your son makes it even better 
Thanks for sharing

[grundy53]

Great trip! Way more educational than sitting in school.

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