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NAW's Big Buck Blog
Quick Work in Wyoming
February 12, 2009
There's only so much predictability in hunting big whitetails. We can plan all we like, but they do their thing when they want. We must adapt to their schedule, and despite what you might have read or been told, it isn't to be found on any Web site or moon chart. When hunting we have to be ready from the first moment to the last, or face the very real possibility of missing our only chance to score.
I'm reminded of this as I look back on my 2008 Wyoming hunt with Mike and Esther Watkins of Trophies Plus Outfitters. It was the week of Thanksgiving, which marks the end of the Cowboy State gun season. Cameraman Mike Clerkin and I were there to videotape a hunt for North American Whitetail Television Presented by Arctic Cat, and with the rut in full swing along the western edge of the Black Hills, we had high hopes of taking a solid buck.
Northeastern Wyoming's diverse blend of timbered ridges and sweeping
prairies is strong whitetail habitat.
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The bad news about our plan was that, due to obligations elsewhere, we'd have only two days to hunt. The good news was that I'd already been assured this would be ample. I'd heard it from none other than my co-host on the show, Stan Potts.
"Oh, you'll shoot a mature buck in two days," he told me. "Guaranteed. Thanksgiving week might be the best one of the whole season for rutting activity. You'll kill one."
Stan has never steered me wrong on a whitetail tip, and considering he's had a long history of hunting with Trophies Plus, I had every reason to believe him. Still, two days is a frighteningly short time span in which to take a mature buck in front of a TV camera, no matter where you're hunting. If weather or any number of other hunting factors put the squeeze on us, we'd have precious little time to overcome it. I knew better than to think "guaranteed" should be taken literally.
For this reason, perhaps I was more focused than usual as we prepared to start our hunt on the morning of Nov. 26. Fortunately, the weather was almost ideal, registering a dry 17 degrees as guide Skip Petersen drove Mike and me down the highway under a star-laced night sky. Our destination was a nearby ranch on which Skip knew of a great spot near a rolling hayfield.
In the darkness we set up our spotting scopes in some spiny yucca plants on a grassy knob overlooking a draw near the field. As dawn broke, we could see whitetails start moving back to cover after a night of feeding and frolicking. In fact, right away we found ourselves looking at a 3 1/2-year-old buck tending a doe. Then we saw more deer on the horizon. Then more in the draw. Then more coming down a distance fence line. Then still more on and around the hayfield.
Thanks to its location near the junction of Wyoming, Montana and South
Dakota, Trophies Plus Outfitters can offer hunts in all three states.
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Several of these milling deer were bucks with decent racks; it was what you might term a "target-rich environment." But all of them were at least 350 yards away, and getting no closer. Besides, we had our sights set on taking as good a deer as we could find, given the time constraints under which we'd placed ourselves. We'd just keep sitting and glassing and hoping the right buck would show himself in a location that would allow for a successful stalk.
Within the first hour of daylight, we'd already seen enough bucks that talk of how we might approach them had come up. But three things held us back: (1) all of the better deer were at least 500 yards away; (2) none was a slam-dunk shooter; and (3) in order to reach even the closest of them, we'd first have to cross the draw in front of us, which itself was full of does, fawns and small bucks. Our chances of slipping through them undetected, then finding ourselves within good range of a buck we wanted, seemed scarcely better than those of winning the lottery. We sat back and kept on glassing.
Eventually, a pod of does and fawns worked their way around to the top of the brushy draw. And as they did, we spotted a fine buck with them. His thick coat fluffed up and his rack shining in the angled morning sunlight, the mature 8-pointer with exceptional brow tines was a fine example of the Northwest whitetail subspecies.
Never pass up on the first day of the hunt a deer you'd gladly shoot on the last day. That saying has been around for a long time, and it's good advice. I'd never taken a deer in Wyoming, and the one in the eyepiece of my Nikon spotting scope looked plenty good to me. There's always a bigger one out there somewhere, but to see a solid mature buck and then roll the dice on finding one bigger is risky business -- especially with the clock ticking down toward an early deadline.
Had the buck gone on his way around the far side of the draw, he'd probably would still be roaming the Wyoming countryside. Instead, he decided it made more sense to come our way around the head of the drainage, so he could hit a scrape under a lone tree about 250 yards from us.
NAW Television cameraman Mike Clerkin (left) and guide Skip Petersen show the author's 8-pointer, shot on the first morning of the hunt.
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As the deer began moving our way, Mike, Skip and I all began moving into position for a shot. With my guide whispering the range for me and Mike running the camera, I got a good rest for my Thompson/Center Pro Hunter and waited. The buck worked his scrape, then moved a few yards closer. Finally, he was broadside and stationary 230 yards from us, and the .280 Rem. spoke.
At the shot, the buck staggered off a few yards but didn't drop. He turned to face back toward the draw, then again stopped broaside. Seeing no reason to quit shooting, I squeezed off another round and heard a solid thump echo back up the draw toward us. Moments later, the deer was down for good.
When Mike and I got to Wyoming, our fear was that we'd run out of time to get my tag filled with a good buck. In retrospect, Stan was right about two days being plenty. Thanks in large part to Skip's knowledge of how rutting whitetails use the ranch we hunted, we hadn't even needed one full morning to tag out on a trophy. Now I know why the last week of gun season is said to be one of northeastern Wyoming's best times for buck action.
My only regret about this first hunt with Trophies Plus? The next day was Thanksgiving, and with our buck already on the ground, we'd be heading for the airport in Rapid City instead of fattening up on a table overflowing with Esther's homemade pies and other holiday fixings. Now, why on earth did I get in such a hurry to shoot a deer?
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
If you're looking to hunt northeastern Wyoming, southeastern Montana or western South Dakota for any of several species, check out what Trophies Plus Outfitters has to offer: www.trophiesplus outfitters.com. For outstanding videos on the natural beauty of this region, as well as innovative products for hunters, visit Skip Petersen's site: www.skipenterprises.com.
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