Wyoming Region F buck

[abhold87]

Put in for Wyoming this year and got lucky enough to draw my first time in Region F. From the sounds of it it’s a easier hunt to draw but a super hard hunt due to it being a migration hunt. My dad and I drove down on Monday and got to Cody Wyoming around 4:30pm. Decided to head out and check a road I wanted to hunt the next day and was amazed and the amount of deer on the private lands. Tons of mule deer and whitetail. Some stuff whitetail bucks and some decent mule deer as well. So we made a plan that night and headed up the next day after a good rest.
Day 1
  Started the hunt on some lower state land next to the private land. As soon as it gets light we start to head out and the very first animal I see is a grizzly bear with her cub headed up from where we wanted to go. Definitely got that on alert uneasy feeling going for the rest of the trip. After lots of hiking, finding a 4x4 set of sheds, a 2 point shed, seeing 5 small bucks,  and one medium sized 4 point on private we decided to move to a new spot. Driving into the new area we scared around 20 does so we decided to set up camp and then hunt from there. Ended the day hiking a bunch more miles and seeing 9 more does.
Day 2
  Slept in the truck after seeing the bear and froze my butt off. Woke up to super high winds and a little snow. Hiked up a ridge where we saw the does head the night before and got into some beautiful country… with no deer moving. After a long morning sit and seeing two does we headed back towards the truck. As we crested the ridge we saw 3 does and a smaller 3x3 sneaking up the hill into some nasty territory. Got back down to the truck and packed up camp and talked to a couple different guys. One guy ended up being from Seattle and the other group was from Texas. The guy from Seattle said he used to live here for 20 years and that it was super dependent on if the heard had migrated or not. He and the Texas guys who talked to a biologist said half the heard still hadn’t come down. I believe the first half was the crazy amount of deer in the private fields. So we decided to go check another area and hike a bunch for the views lol cause we continued to not see deer up high. Decided to end the day and come back into town and stay in a hotel.

[snake]

how many days do you have to hunt?  What kind of camping set up do you have? Are you freezing your butt off while you're camping?

[meatwhack]

I bet he shot a buck and is back home by now.

[abhold87]

Day 3
  Woke up today and decided to head back to the state land lower next to the private. Got to our spot and waited for the sun to come up as other guys headed up the road. Got out and started to hike in and found a bunch of deer in the field the state land is next to. Ended up having 2 small bucks, a small 3x3, and a decent 4x4 with a huge body. They all of course stuck in the private land and just let us admire them. The two bigger bucks were sparring and getting a little pre rutty with the does. After watching them disappear towards the herds of deer down lower I headed over to the other side of the ridge hoping they cut down that way. Ended up spotting another 2 point shed and headed down to get it when we left. After getting back to the truck we headed up the road into some new area we wanted to check out. As we’re going up the road we see one of the Texas guys coming down in his side by side. I waived and looked in the back of it to see a 25” or so big tined 3x3. It was a great buck. So we start to get our hopes up a little bit since the area we are headed to is a little higher in elevation than what we had hunted so far. We get up to around 8700ft elevation and find a good looking area. Old timber cuts and in some left over snow. We start hiking up a ridge and I looked back to the ridge by the truck to see a deer walking. It was around 800 yards or so away but had a good feeling it was a buck due to the colors. Just looked Bucky to me. So we decide to head back down towards it and then I can see antlers. I can tell it’s not big but it’s the first buck we’ve actually had a decent chance to shoot, it’s a couple hundred yards from the truck, and the weather is supposed to get nasty this weekend. So I decided after multiple texts to my dad to take a shot. After sneaking through the snow and thinking the deer hand winded me a couple times I was able to sneak right up on it at 105 yards. He never knew I was there and I shot him right in his bed. Was a super fun and memorable hunt with my dad. Checked off another state and on to Another next year hopefully.

[abhold87]

Game warden check station said it has been super slow since it opened the 15th. 8 bucks killed today tho to include mine and the two Texas guys bucks. The one guy said he had seen only one really nice 5x5 that he wouldn’t hesitate to shoot. The guided hunts up in the wilderness I think are doing pretty good but most people down low either weren’t seeing anything or  it was just smaller bucks and does

[Duckhunter14]

Great write up and congrats on your buck. Thanks for sharing, some of those areas can be really dependent on the migration and snow up high. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[Limhangerslayer]

Nice buck, congrats!

[snake]

nice buck looks like a big body.

[NRA4LIFE]

Nice job.  The Ishawooa hills by chance out by the little school house?  Territory looks familiar.

[abhold87]

Nice job.  The Ishawooa hills by chance out by the little school house?  Territory looks familiar.

Hear a lot of shooting from over there. A lot of road hunters I guess according to the one guy. I could see over at the Ishawooa mesa and trailhead parking and it looked packed so we never headed that way. I was up at belknap creek when I got him. Did a lot of hunting at Aldrich creek as well.

[Elkfever]

Nice write up and congrats on getting it done in a new area. 

[pianoman9701]

Beautiful buck, man.