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papa

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Posts posted by papa


  1. I have hunted 24A for over 20 years and really looked forward to the december hunts where it was easy to find quality bucks with less hunters. Now there needs to be a traffic cop on dripping springs road on opening mouring.

    over the last few years I have watched a steady decline in mature deer. this year we had October tags all the deer we did see were small. Not saying there are not goods ones still in there. I read a artical from the game and fish that they put out about the time they split the season. They stated that the hunt success ratio would be the same over 3 hunts verse the one December hunt I totaly disagree.

    We will be up there tommorow in our old honey hole hopeing to find a buck and do a little scouting for the pig hunt.


  2. I finally scored on a nice 100+ buck. We saw him twice before the season, once in velvet and once after he rubbed off. I was blessed to find him opening morning. I shot him with my .270 at 160 yards, from a cliff edge down into a very steep canyon. It was a straight on shot in the chest. Dropped in his tracks. His buddy 2x3 stood and stared at him for several minutes before running off. I shot him at 9:00am and got him to the Ranger at 1:00pm....4 hours. My hunting partner, Bill, was able to drive his Ranger to within 1/2 mile. I met him there and we had a snack, hydrated, slipped into are pack frames....I said "don't forget your walkin' stick, you're gonna need it". He was a heavy deer (The processor estimated him at 140 lbs) so the packs were heavy. This was definitely a "poor man's sheep hunt" experience.

    I haven't taped him yet. What do think?


  3. Decided to go to Wyoming this year for antelope and possibly deer if I had time as there were leftovers in the unit I went to. I had a buck antelope tag and two doe antelope tags. My Brother in law went with me too help out and we had a great time. This was my first trip to Wyoming so I was not really looking for anything huge. Just wanted to get a lay of the land and find some good areas to hunt in the future. We left the house in Gilbert at 4 in the morning and we were off.

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    We drove all the way to Laramie and decided to spend the night there. Little did we know it was homecoming weekend for the University of Wyoming and almost every hotel was booked. We finally found one which was extremely overpriced but o well. We woke up Saturday morning and drove to my unit which was about an hour and a half north of there. Didnt take long and we had some spotted and were walking into the the hunter management area.

     

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    I spotted several herds with some decent bucks and we were off. I tried to sneak around a big knob and come around to get a shot at a nice buck i had seen. The wind was way too strong to try anything of any distance so I knew it was time to crawl. I peek over the hill and see them at about 200 yds. Perfect! I get all set up and peek ove again for the shot. Nothing! No antelope in sight and it had only been about 30 seconds. Thinking I did something to screw it up I slowly stand up to look around and a few coyotes decided they wanted first dibs at the lopes. At least I knew it wasnt my fault. I walk to a different area and see more antelope everywhere but they are too skiddish to let me within 1000 yds. The rest of the morning was spent closing the distance which I eventually did on a decent buck. Here was the shot as I waited him out.

     

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    Buck down after only a 100 yd shot He dropped in his tracks from the 7mm. See if you can find him where he lay below...

     

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    My first antelope ever!

     

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    The next morning I decided to go look for deer up on a high mountain nearby and see if it was worth getting a leftover tag. A storm blew in and made it a bit too foggy to try to really se much. Got some good pics from it so it was worth it.

     

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    After that I decided to go after the two doe tags I had in my pocket. It wasnt long before I found one to shoot. I hit her good and she was down. I used my 30-06 on her at 120 yds and it did extreme amounts of damage on her so there were no pics taken. 165 gn federal ballistic tip was too much for her. I did get some good meat on her though. Just nothing on the front end.

     

    The next doe was accompanied by a huge buck that I wish I had a buck tag for in that unit. I only had doe tags for this unit so he will have to wait til next year. the doe was 263 yds from me and i dropped her in her tracks as well. 7mm 162 gn hornady sst was a good match for her. there was nothing left of her heart when I opened her up.

     

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    Overall this was a very fun trip that I would recommend to anyone. We made the drive back in one day with two people driving and it wasnt so bad. I will be back year after year with the family for many more memorable experiences. Special thanks to my Bro In Law Kevin. I owe you...


  4. I recently had the opportunity I have been waiting for since my daughter was born, and that was experiencing her first hunt. To parents who haven't experienced the joy of watching there child harvest an animal and the excitment it brings you are truly missing out. I have been lucky enough to shoot a substantial amount of animals in my life, and i can honestly say that nothing can ever replace the moment of joy when she made that shot. We took this buck about 15 minutes before dark on Saturday the 22nd, after a frustrating period of her trying to get on a spike we had been watching and debating on most of the day (I am very glad that he wasn't cooperating). My dad found this buck just before dark and he was extremely cooperative, i had just purchased the triclawps clamp system from Santana Outdoors and was able to get Rylee set up just over 150 yards. The product is an amazing addition and worth its weight in gold, Rylee was able to get in a comfortable position without having to fight the weight of her gun. With my father watching, she made an amazing shot, breaking the shoulder just as we had talked about. Watching this buck flip over backwards and her amazing excitment is undescribeable, needless to say there were some tears shed and lots of screams and hugs. To top it off, we were directly accross the canyon from where i shot my first deer, 22 years ago. The second picture shows the other two kids sharing in the excitment once we got back to my dads. I want to thank my dad Keith Johnson and my first daughter for sharing this with me,


  5. kehl congratlation on your first BUCK.That smile you had on our face was from ear to ear.

    We were the couple that drove up to you in the ranger.

    Hunter it was nice to meet you.We worked that area over real hard and never saw the buck with the small drop that i told you about he is still in there.

    Kehl once again a great job.


  6. The scouting started 3 weeks ago with us glassing up good deer and having a great time. We planned on getting up to the area on Thursday afternoon but was suprised to find out that we could make it up early. So Wednesday we found ourselves glassing the same canyons that had weeks previous held bucks, but didn't see any bucks only does.

    Thursday ended up mostly the same, great numbers of does(35) only one spike(250 yds. from camp). Along came the 21st and with it opening day, and more does. Then Saturday came, more does! By the end of daylight on Saturday we had glassed 61 Coues does and 1 spike! I was starting to get upset and Kehl was getting discouraged. My father made it up Saturday and with him came luck! We woke up early Sunday morning made coffee and some breakfast and hit the hilltop. After 2 hours behind the glass my father walked to the next cut to see if he could see the quail that had been calling since daybreak. He stood there for about five minutes and then a deer popped up! "DEER! DEER!" he quietly hollared to us, Kehl grabbed his .308 and I grabbed the scope. We covered the 40 yds. in no time, I put the scope on the deer and said "SPIKE"! Kehl put one in the chamber as I was removing the spotter from the tripod, he rested the gun, pulled it tight to his shoulder and squeezed the trigger. BOOM! Missed just over the deer. RELOAD! Take a deep breath, exhale and squeeze. BOOM! the deer kicked, came up on its hind legs and fell down the canyon! After high-fives and hugs Kehl and I went to recover his deer. Im very proud of him he didnt complain when it was 90 degrees and we werent seeing any bucks and he had ice in his veins when it was time to make the shot.

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