February 2

Western Big Game Hunting-Part 3


Our 2014 trip to Wyoming found us back at the original ranch where we harvested our first pronghorns.  This time we were after Mule Deer.  The ranch manager had spotted a big mature buck on the southern boundary of the property a few days before the season opened while hunting pronghorn. Immediately when we arrived we drove to the southern boundary to see if the buck was still using the rocky draws to bed mid-day.  There was no sign of the buck and we spent the rest of the day setting up camp and getting ready for our evening hunt.  Our evening hunt found our group spread out across the ranch overlooking a large creek bottom.  It has becoming tradition for us to encounter bad weather on our western hunting trips.  This trip was no different.  The wind switched and the temperature plummeted.  Our evening hunt ended with a few deer spotted (no bucks) and us getting hit hard with the first Arctic clipper of the year.

The next day our group split up again and found success.  We were both able to harvest our first mule deer bucks.  What made this hunt a success was using our optics to scan the rugged draws and coulees.  Both of our bucks were bedded under sandstone rock outcroppings.  Drastically different hunting techniques from hunting whitetails in the Midwest.

The people that we have met on our trips to Wyoming have been amazing.  We have been fortunate to develop great relationship and lasting friendships.  Our 2015 hunt is a great example of that.  We stayed with some friends south of Casper, Wyoming and had great success hunting the neighboring mountain foothills.  We spent an entire day scouting and did not see any bucks.  Opening day yielded the same results, no bucks.  We were getting a little worried, but on the second day we saw three legal bucks feeding in a secluded meadow half-way up the rising foothills.  I was fortunate to harvest a nice 4x5 buck.  The following morning (last day of the hunt) in the same meadow Jason's .270 found its mark on a great 3x3.  His hunt lasted a whole 5 minutes.  

An out-of-state hunting trip is something I would highly recommend to anyone especially to the western states.  Answering the following questions can get you on the right track to the hunt of a lifetime!-KK

• What do you want to hunt?
• Where do you want to hunt? private land vs. public land, outfitter vs. DIY
• When do you want to hunt? Early October deer seasons can be difficult to find mature bucks as opposed to a November rut hunt.  On the flip side, November in the high country can (and will) pose weather issues
• How do you want want to hunt? gun, archery, muzzeloader?  

Here are the application deadlines for several Western states:

Application Deadline	Elk	Deer	Pronghorn	Sheep	Moose	Goat
Montana	3/15/17	3/15/17	6/1/17	5/1/17	5/1/17	5/1/17
Wyoming	1/31/17	5/31/17	5/31/17	2/28/17	2/28/17	2/28/17
Colorado	4/4/17	4/4/17	4/4/17	4/4/17	4/4/17	4/4/17
Utah	3/2/17	3/2/17	3/2/17	3/2/17	3/2/17	3/2/17
New Mexico	3/22/17	3/22/17	3/22/17	3/22/17	NA	3/22/17
Arizona	2/14/17	6/13/17	2/14/17	6/13/17	NA	NA
Nevada	4/17/17	4/17/17	4/17/17	4/17/17	NA	4/17/17
Idaho	6/5/17	6/5/17	6/5/17	4/30/17	4/30/17	4/30/17

January 26

Western Big Game Hunting-Part 2

After our unsuccessful first trip to Wyoming, we wanted to stack the odds better in our favor for our 2012 trip.  We carefully studied the Wyoming Game and Fish website to learn about the draw process and draw odds.  We made numerous calls to private land owners to see if they were accepting of hunters.  We found a landowner that had room for us for a very reasonable trespass fee. Paying a trespass fee is very common in Wyoming to hunt on private land and we decided to go that route since we still didn't have any preference points accumulated that would allow us to draw some of the better public land units.  When we arrived at the ranch we quickly realized we had hit the jackpot.  The number of pronghorn roaming the open range was astounding.  We had a successful hunt and met some great people who have since become life-long friends.

There were plenty of tags available in the unit that we hunted in 2012.  We decided to take our chances and apply for a harder to draw unit in order to accumulate some preference points if we were unsuccessful in the draw and then just purchase left-over tags later.  Unfortunately, Wyoming Game and Fish drastically decreased the number of available tags.  We were unable to hunt the ranch that we had made such great connections with the previous year.  It was back to square one, this time last minute, calling landowners to see if they had hunting availability.  We found another landowner that had availability for private land access.  Our hunt was successful, with all hunters tagging out in less than a half-day of hunting.  My pronghorn was just short of making minimum score for the Boone and Crockett record book, but the hunting experience was not near as fulfilling as the prior year. (We were a little rushed and pressed for time as a major winter storm was tracking right for our hunting area).


While hunting pronghorn, another iconic species of the west started to catch our eye. Mule deer.  Those long ears and wide,tall, forked-racks became very intriguing to a bunch of Midwest whitetail fanatics.  It was determined that our next hunt would be for Muleys.

January 19

Western Big Game Hunting-Part 1

The aura of the American West is something that has always intrigued me, so naturally I have also wanted to hunt big game in some of the most scenic areas our country has to offer.  I started to seriously consider planning a hunting trip out west after I won a .243 rifle at a local NWTF banquet.  I was excited that I had won a gun, but I really didn't know what I would use it for.  After doing a little research, I discovered that a .243 would be a very nice caliber for hunting pronghorn.  My friends Jason and Andy had also expressed interest in hunting western big game so it was an easy sell to them. 

With the question of "what am I going to hunt?" answered, next came the question of "where are we going to hunt pronghorn?"  Naturally we were drawn to Wyoming, where pronghorn out-number people and the state boasts the most entries into the the Boone & Crockett record book.  The Boone & Crockett record book not only recognizes trophy harvests, but it is also a good measure of quality habitat and management practices.  We had our game picked-Pronghorn, we had our location-Wyoming, so we jumped in head first and applied for the top pronghorn units the state had to offer.  This seemed like a reasonable plan for a few greenhorns who knew nothing about the western hunting tag process.  We quickly got an education on the draw process, preference points, and land access.  

We did not get drawn for any of our first three choice units but we still wanted to go hunting. Wyoming sells any remaining tags first come first serve online/over-the-counter.  We found a unit that appeared on the map to have a good chunk of public land in the Thunder Basin National Grassland.  At the time we did not realize that much of this public land proved difficult to access.  We saw some nice bucks, unfortunately all on private land. Having quality maps and a GPS are essential out west, and we learned a very valuable lesson that has since paid dividends on other trips to Wyoming. 

Our first trip ended with both of our tags unfilled but we gained invaluable experience and had a ton of fun.  We were bitten hard by the western hunting bug.