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2020 TeenageHunter's Adventure Log

TheMadCatter

TheMadCatter

Well-Known Member
After what seems like an eternity hunting season is starting to slow down and come to a close. One of my most successful years yet is almost behind me. For some people 2020 will be remembered as a year of dread and awfulness I'll be able to reminisce back to the "good times". Laughing until I cried around the fire/propane grill/truck/heater with new and old friends, having more truck problems than anyone should ever have, and days with long and miserable pack-outs that would break even the strongest of souls. To everyone who came hunting with me this year, THANK YOU. You made this year special and I cannot believe all the overwhelming support and CAN DO attitudes I saw this year.

I have to rewind back to late August this year when I started packing my things up in my small apartment after an eventful summer of working around elk, mountain lions, bighorn sheep, a moose, a bobcat, few prairie dogs, and more rattlesnakes than I care to deal with. I shoved everything I owned into my brand new (New to me) 2017 Jayco Baja edition 174BH camper. Stacking my newly found piles of antlers and heading over to guide camp in far western Colorado. I listened to bugling bulls and started to clean out camp. Those first few weeks of hunting were rough due to drought-like conditions. I'd love to talk more about my guiding exploits, but, this isn't about my guiding experience. This post is more about the memories I made during my own hunts this season.

My first hunt started on the 8th of September, my Wyoming season opened with a violent winter storm. Being my only day off during archery season I took the chance and grabbed my bow and headed out. The knee-deep snow with 60-70MPH winds kept everything bedded down in the deep draws in the desert. I was able to locate a few mule deer and a single cow elk before deciding that this blizzard wasn't a joke and could easily close down roads and I wouldn't be able to get back to camp to guide the next morning. My next hunt wouldn't be until October 1st.

Back on January 10th, 2020 some of you might recall I invited everyone on the forum to participate in a Pronghorn hunt in Wyoming with me. I had an amazing response with eleven people not including myself reaching out and deciding to come. On September 30th, Ty, one of my friends from Texas picked me and my trailer up from Laramie, Wyoming after my truck decided it needed a new transfer case without telling me. We met Bayne, Leo, and Jayce from Nebraska, Michael and Larkin from Iowa, and Brandon from Wisconsin. We gathered everyone up and went out to look for a few Pronghorn. We were successful and found a few, as per agreement Bayne was up first. Everyone piled into two different trucks and headed out for the morning. Bayne made an amazing shot at 205 yards with the smokeless Muzzleloader a few minutes after legal shooting light! Then it was Jayce's turn, we drove around a while before we finally located a buck bedded and put the stalk on. We made it a few hundred yards before the gig was up and he spotted us. He ran went along the fenceline and I said "450 yards" and he ran another 100 yards. My guess was that he wasn't going to shoot until Bayne said "I'll dial it up" as I watched Bayne dial the scope out to 550 yards and range the buck at the same time. As the buck turned Jayce let one fly at 550 yards and smoked him with the Muzzleloader. To say I was impressed is an understatement, I know plenty of people who can't shoot that far with a rifle let alone a Muzzleloader. An hour later we found another buck about a mile off the road and up a steep cliff bank. Ty had to work for that buck and it wasn't easy for him. We stalked within 100 yards and Ty ended up pulling the shot and gut shooting him. We had to go over the next ridge and get back on him and shoot him two more times after finally dropping him. While we were at Ty's buck we saw multiple bucks a mile off behind us and we went after them. Michael was up and we ran out there and were able to get onto a buck at 250 yards and make another gutshot which did end up killing him in the long run. We gathered both bucks and packed them out whole to the truck and got them taken care of fast. Soon after Leo shot his buck and then as we pulled into camp Curtis and Sam from Iowa showed up and we headed out to get them their bucks.
 
In Sam's (sep0667) own words:
"I met another Iowawhitetailer and we carpooled out together. As we got further west and started seeing pronghorns the anticipation was building. When we rolled into camp all the guys that were already there were out hunting, but we saw the cleaned skulls that a couple of guys had got opening morning already. About an hour later everyone that was out hunting rolled into camp and they unloaded another two or three goats. TH wasted no time asking us if we were ready to hunt. We quickly changed and headed out. Curtis was up first and wasted no time and spotted some bedded probably a 1.5 mile from the road while glassing and four of us headed in. As we got closer TH and Curtis made their stalk while I and another guy stayed back and watched it all unfold through our binos, it was like watching a live hunting show! It was a long pack out for Curtis using the backpack technique about 2 miles back to the truck. Back at the truck, we talked with an old rancher for about an hour that watched us hike out. He told us about a buck that was feeding down the road about a mile so we headed down there. Another hunter was up next, he elected to pass and so did I as the buck looked a bit smaller than what we had all seen in camp and after what Curtis just got. By that point it was dark. It was crazy that Curtis was already tagged out after only being there for just a couple of hours. A couple of the other guys went out and filled their tag that evening as well on their own.

Friday morning was cold, but it warmed up quickly. Josh got his buck down in the morning pretty quick, but other than that it was a long morning and into the afternoon of checking a lot of public ground and glassing without seeing a lot, well it seemed like we saw a lot, but it also seemed like those pronghorn knew what is public and what is private. We decided to split up later in the day and have two groups go our separate ways. It wasn't long after we split up that the guys in the other group had one down. I had my chance again shortly afterward. We spotted a goat about 1/2 mile off the road and made a stalk the long way around using a creek bank as cover. We got up within 230 yards and I goofed up and missed high. I have my rifle zeroed for 200 yards. Since the buck was at 230 I guess I let my archery instincts take over and held the crosshairs right at the top of his back (just like you would hold your 20-yard pin high on a 30-yard shot) and I had a clean miss. I was feeling pretty down because by this point that was my second opportunity, counting the buck that I passed the evening before, and it was down to just me and one other hunter to fill our tag yet. Well, the other hunter was up next since I missed. We drove to another spot that we had seen a nice buck with a huge group of does a few times now, but they were always just off the public on private. This time they were not and the other hunter filled his tag. We used an oil well/thingy as cover to get within range. Unfortunately, it was not the big buck that we had been seeing. After that, there were only about 30 minutes of light left and that was the day.

Saturday morning rolled around and I was the only one left in camp with an unfilled tag. I really felt like I'd missed my chances. Even though everyone tagged out so quick, the pronghorn #'s really seemed to be down in the area (a couple of wardens even said #'s were way down) and a lot of the pronghorns seemed to have moved over to the private ground. I was beginning to think that I would just fill my tag on a doe as I wanted to at least bring some meat home. Most of our group had already left and another was leaving later in the morning. We had to pick up another hunter that had just got into town the night before and a couple more guys were coming yet Sunday so not all was lost, but I felt it was the last minute of the 4th quarter lol. Curtis was basically just waiting on me as he had already filled his tag that Thursday afternoon and we carpooled together. He was having fun shooting prairie dogs though. We checked a couple of spots where we had been seeing them, but it was empty. We ended up driving out further into the unit that we had not spent much time. The other guy we picked up had both a pronghorn and deer tag. We came along a creek with trees(a rare sight where we were hunting) and we started glassing. I started seeing mule deer does in the trees etc. Josh said he saw a buck, I didn't see it. Then I noticed some closer to the road and told josh. He quickly exclaimed, "no I'm I'mking about the pronghorn!" I couldn't believe it. I was looking at the mule deer does just 100-200 yards of the road, but there was a group of pronghorn probably a mile away. I quickly got them in the binos and sure enough, there was a buck in the group of about 10 does. We quickly got parked and made a game plan to put on a stalk. We dropped down into the creek bottom and worked our way towards them. We popped up out of the creek bottom a few times to see if they were still in the same spot and how close we were. We worked our way down to about perpendicular with them and slowly crawled up out of the creek bed onto the level ground. Josh ranged them and they were at 228 yards. Basically the same distance as my miss. This time I knew to just keep the crosshairs right on him and no need to hold high or low. Just take it easy and squeeze the trigger. I had to stop and re-extend my bipods all the way out was the grass/sage was too tall. Luckily none of them spotted us or moved too much. I was able to get him in the scope and easily get settled. After waiting a few seconds for some does to clear out I was dead on. A slow squeeze of the trigger and he dropped in his tracks. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face walking the 228 yards up to him. It was fantastic. It was probably about 0930 and it was a nice cool crisp morning. It was a beautiful setting with the creek and trees in the background and it was a great stalk to get up within a range from being a mile out."


Thank you Sam for helping me type part of this out #plagerism
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My next hunt was October 7th, it was a single day hunt and an interesting one at that. My truck was still broken down and I didn't have a way to hunt elk. I was sitting waiting for my truck to get fixed and had an idea to ask one of my Iowa friends who lives in Wyoming now to take me out. Luckily enough for me, she agreed and we headed out that morning. I knew where this bull was going to be and after a week of the season. The morning was crisp and as the sun rose up above the sage I was able to glass up the same beautiful bull I saw days prior while bringing my truck to the shop. I knew how to hunt this bull and we slowly worked toward him. On our way to the bull, we had five other bulls come over the ridge and they ran right into us. We couldn't finish the stalk without spooking these bulls over the ridge and ruining the stalk. After about half an hour they worked off and we ran over the ridge and the bull and all of his cows were gone. After about ten minutes I saw a cow elk poke her head 600 yards away in the sage. That's when I set up and knew the bull was going to come out there. I figured out my MOA @620 yards needed and pulled up the rifle and put the smackdown on this bull. We packed him out in about two and a half hours, she was able to pack better than most of my buddies! I couldn't help but leave the hooves on the bull and stick them out the windows as we went to the processor.

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On October 15th I headed to Oregon. The hunt was uneventful other than the fact I saw over 700 elk. I couldn't find a legal buck on public land to save my life.

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On November 4th I was able to kill a Bear in Oregon. After 12 days of commutative hunting in Oregon, it was an interesting day. I saw twenty deer after walking fourteen miles. While hiking an old logging road on public land I was heard something crashing in the thick nasty jungle undergrowth of western Oregon. I looked up and saw a black blob, knowing it was a bear I watched it for a while to confirm there weren't cubs and figured it was a boar after watching it for about ten minutes. I grabbed the Bergara B-14 Wilderness Ridge in 300 Winchester Magnum with Hornady 200gr Precision Hunter ELD-X and dropped this giant sow in her tracks. (I'll add more to this story)

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On November 6th I was able to kill a Blacktail in Oregon. After hunting 14 days total and the only reason I was able to hunt the last two days was that my truck broke down. After they fixed my transfer case they forgot to tighten the bolts on my driveshaft and it fell out. I never even heard it fall out. 130 yard shot on an old logging road going to grab my trail camera before I left. I was able to cut a liter water bottle and put it over where the driveshaft meets the transfer case so that transfer case oil wouldn't come out. (I'll add more to this story)

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On November 27th I was able to kill a Coues Deer in Arizona, below is the entire video of that hunt.

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Keep adding to this thread every hunt. Will be awesome to look back on. And this isn't school, plagerise away!!
 
U could probably broadcast a live show 12 hours a day & 90% of the year!! Living the dream! & working hard at it! Very well done my man!!!!
620 yards!?! Nice!!! What bullet u shooting ?
 
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I once worked with some older gentlemen that told me if I had a list of things to do and see that I should do them at a younger age when my body could handle it.
You can always work to make up for the lost time and if you have connections you can keep alot of your costs down on these adventures.
Congrat's I'm glad your getting the chance to do all this. It seems to be a fading value with the way the world is in such turmoil.
Have fun!!
 
tracker said:
I once worked with some older gentlemen that told me if I had a list of things to do and see that I should do them at a younger age when my body could handle it.
You can always work to make up for the lost time and if you have connections you can keep alot of your costs down on these adventures.
Congrat's I'm glad your getting the chance to do all this. It seems to be a fading value with the way the world is in such turmoil.
Have fun!!
Click to expand...
Bingo!! Youngsters know how to do things on the cheap & ok with that. There’s a few rich guys that do it in their later years but they pay up the nose for it and I am 99.99% sure they don’t have as much fun as these youngsters.
 
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