another Wyoming trip(pics and long)

[QH's Paw]

Well, as some of you may know I had a trip planned to Wyoming Oct.16. As luck would have it, my work had a 1 week shut down that week, so we left a couple days early.
The plans were to waterfowl hunt, upland and possibly tag a doe Antelope(over the counter tags for non res $34, who can say no to that).
Unfortunately, I had Kodi (my dog) out bird hunting during bow season(in Oregon) and he had hurt a paw. It seemed like it wasn't getting better so, a couple days before we left, it was off to the vet. Bad news was the Vet said no upland at all but, good news he could waterfowl if it was water based not fields. I really wasn't looking forward to breaking the news to him but hey, gotta listen to the Doc.
So we leave early and drive straight through to Wyoming. 13 hours later we're at my son's place and here is our first meal in Wyoming

Yep, grilled antelope rib eye. Now that's a primer.
Next day we spend running around buying licenses for Wyoming and Idaho both and didn't get any time to hunt but, did some limited scouting (in Idaho) on what turned out to be a bad lead (from another hunting forum). That evening, when my son got home from work, we headed out so he could show us some starting points on the H2O fowls. We get about 100yards down his road and the exhaust basically falls out from under the car. It sounds like a tank dragging a chunk of iron down the dirt road. We turned around and back to the house for dinner instead. Guess what's for dinner, Antelope tacos, what else?
Next day is spent fixing the exhaust and repairing another rig for a back up , just in case. They didn't have bailing wire (no such thing, they use twine nowadays instead) so, I found some fencing wire and did my best to rehang the exhaust enough to hopefully get to a shop. We drive to the next town and the shop has a sign saying they won't be back for almost 2 hours. I decide the wire held it this long, no since in wasting anymore time waiting around. We take care of a few other things and head back to the house.
Okay, it's dinner time. What's for dinner? Well, antelope spaghetti, isn't it obvious.
My son has the next day off and an elk tag that is for cow only. So we head off to hunt elk the next morning. I carried the shotgun for upland.
On the way in we saw 2 moose. A decent bull and a cow. I took pictures but they didn't turn out good enough to post.The first area we intended to hunt was saturated with hunters(in Wyoming that means 2 or more other hunters within a mile or so) so we moved on to the back up hunt plan"B".
About an hour into the hunt I shot my first Wyoming bird finally, a grouse.

Not much later, we cut fresh tracks in the snow. We even came on a spot where a bull had made a fresh rub. Fresh bark on the snow and even on some of his tracks. We continued tracking the original elk. We heard shots over the ridge and, after a bit of waiting to make sure they didn't come back our way, we moved off in a new direction searching for undisturbed animals. We never did find anymore elk or sign and, as the day continued, I finished off a limit of grouse. It would turn out to be my only bird limit the whole trip.
After I shot a second Grouse, I snapped off some pics of the surrounding area and ridge lines.





All pics are of the Wyoming Grays river range and Wyoming range in the distance.
We finished the day off fishing. We even managed to land a few cutthroat but no fish pics this day.

[QH's Paw]

The next day was our designated grass/sage maggot day. My son informed us that all though we had a long drive(approx. 1 1/2 hours) we really didn't need to leave real early. Antelope are so plentiful in our hunt area that it is no problem to find them anytime of the day. It was all public land we hunted. As others have mentioned in previouis posts and threads, the goats are everwhere over there. Since we only had doe tags, our main problem was getting in a position that allowed a clean shot on a doe and no bucks near.
I wish I had a better camera(and knew how to use it) for some herd pictures. We would spot herds of 80-100 animals and move in. Each time it was apparent, as we got closer, that the herds were comprised of more bucks then does. We saw bucks 17"+ and saw several bucks in each herd that would be considered decent by Oregon standards.
We made stocks on a few groups before I was finally able to connect with this doe.


Sure it's not a nice buck like the rest of the pics being posted but, it was my first day ever in pursuit of Antelope. It also meant alot to me because my Father had past away just days before our trip and I was carrying his old Winchester 30.06. It did it's job for me just like it had several times before for Dad. One high shoulder shot and she was laying right where she had been standing.
A quick skinning job and bagging of my doe and it was time to find a doe for my Daughter-in-law. We made moves on a number of herds but, things weren't coming together. Finally, we decided that taking a stand and waiting for them to move would probably work out. The herds were being pushed around by other hunters and rigs on the roads. It didn't take long, as my sister and I watched from off in the distance on another hill, for a herd of about 70 total to start heading somewhat diagonal to my son and his wife's postion, . We were afraid they might not see the herd because of the lay of the land. Then it came, the crack of the .270. With that sound, Jennifer threw her hat off in the air. All I said was "I hope she threw it off because she's happy not mad". The view to the doe she took was blocked by a small hill between us and them. It dropped stone cold dead on the spot, by a high shoulder shot, for the second one of the day.
We got in the rig and drove as close as we could get to her and her doe. Here's a pic of her second doe of the season.


That about covers the first half of the trip. If I get time I'll try to post up some more pics and info. from the second half of the trip which was the main waterfowlin' portion of the trip.
Here are a few pics of Idaho side of the valley(Caribou USNF). We had taken a quad ride to try and find some grouse but, the sun soon disappeared part way through the ride.

[cubsfan]

Sweet! My kind of country. Is there quite a bit of public access? That is a cheap out of state hunt.

[duckboy]

Well done Mike,

Looks Like your Dad's old rifle still hits the mark.

Really glad you made it out there and had a solid experience.
How's Chris holding up,

It must be rough when you have to switch from Antelope Ribeye to Crappy old Elk Steaks,

Oh well,

Tell Kodi to rest that paw,

He's got some swimming to do in the next 60 days and it just might involve a little salt in a wound if he doesn't lay low now.

PS,
if you need anyone to field test the Lope steaks,

Just say the word,
I don't want you to be overwhelmed.
Best,

DB

[QH's Paw]

Originally Posted by cubsfan

Sweet! My kind of country. Is there quite a bit of public access? That is a cheap out of state hunt.

Yes in the area we hunted there was alot of public land. The $34 tag is doe only. You have to draw the buck tags and they are more in line with Non-res fees(over $200 if I remember right)

Originally Posted by duckboy

Well done Mike,

Looks Like your Dad's old rifle still hits the mark.

Really glad you made it out there and had a solid experience.
How's Chris holding up,

It must be rough when you have to switch from Antelope Ribeye to Crappy old Elk Steaks,

Oh well,

Tell Kodi to rest that paw,

He's got some swimming to do in the next 60 days and it just might involve a little salt in a wound if he doesn't lay low now.

PS,
if you need anyone to field test the Lope steaks,

Just say the word,
I don't want you to be overwhelmed.
Best,

DB

Actually, Christopher is sitting in the hospital in Jackson right now as I write. He had his appendix taken out about 2:00 today. When we left there this weekend, he was having abdominal pains. When he called me Monday night and said he still had the pain I told him to get in to the doc ASAP. Finally, this morning, his boss told him to go to the hospital. Kids, what can you tell'em?

[tracker]

Thats home to me! Likely hunted all the spots you were at. Was the antelope on the northwest side of Pinedale? Remember many a ride up Greys River with Grandpa and Grandmother looking for game. Was on a few fish planting trips to lakes up there also.

Funny story! A group of us (4) had just come down off the hills with our horses after hunting elk. We were sitting around the truck and trailer eating. A truck from California stopped and asked us where all the elk were. It seems they had read somewhere that all you have to do was drive the Greys River road to shoot your elk. I told them not one of us had ever shot an elk from the road here. They left quite upset at some writer. Anyway just as they were rounding the corner out of sight, a herd of maybe 20 elk came down off the hill in front of us. Well when it was done, two elk lay in the river and two on the far side. Well back comes the California truck and he is all angry about us locals not sharing the wealth. We were all surprised just as much as he was.

Found a box of dynomite up Greys River that had been left by the Oil sismo guys. Box of blasting caps too! Was a whole lot bigger explosion than I thought it would be. Luckily when I set it off, it was way up on some private ground I was in charge of. And also lucky is that the next day when the sherriff came calling he was related to a couple of friends that were present!.

Yep home!

[steelheadslayer]

Sounds like an adventurous hunt Mike. Glad you were able to get some time in with the son and daughter in law. Hope Kodi recovers well and fast. My pup is having her own paw problems, vet yesterday said she hyperextended a toe but today it's all filled with pus and I'm thinking insect bite. Will watch her closely and may have to take part of the day off work tomorrow for a return visit.

[QH's Paw]

Originally Posted by tracker

Thats home to me! Likely hunted all the spots you were at. Was the antelope on the northwest side of Pinedale? Remember many a ride up Greys River with Grandpa and Grandmother looking for game. Was on a few fish planting trips to lakes up there also.
Yep home!

I couldn't tell you exactly where we were but If I started from Alpine I think I'd be able to find it (the antelope area that is).
It really is nice over there but the waterfowling doesn't come close to what we have here and that is the longest season I hunt. Would I go back? Yep, in a heartbeat.