My youngest son sand I just returned from a DIY antelope hunt in Wyoming. It was one of the most fun hunts Ive been on. Wyoming and its people are great.
We drove out it took 32 hours of driving! But I had good company. The first day we were hunting we picked a place that was a little too hilly for goats. But we saw over 20 mule deer. My son stalked within 50 yards of 6 does just for fun. We left that area and checked out another after lunch. There were rabbits everywhere. We did see some goats off about a mile or better. We put on a stalk only to find they were on the wrong side of a fence.
The next day we were heading for another area when we saw a group of hills with three bucks standing on top of three different hills watching the sunrise? I checked my map and they were on a square mile of state land. We decided to check it out. When we peaked over the first hill we saw a small buck feeding and bedding down. We noticed he had a wound on his hind quarter. He was out over 300yards. After he bedded down i decided to come up on him from the other side hoping he would head towards mt son. Well I came up very close beside him and he decided to head away.
we spent the entire day in this area it was small but the goats were crossing it back and forth all day.
the next morning back we went sure enough goats every where. Most were bucks during a stalk I missed a very large buck but finished the day with a 200yard shot on this goat.



we spent the next few days trying to get a shot for my son. We dont get many shots over 100yards in the adirondacks. (its hard to find a place to practice shots over 100 yards) We hunted hard checking our hot spot every morning. The last morning we were leaving at noon we hit the hills again. It seemed to work best if the sun was coming up behind us. The goats would stand and look for a while not seeing us peeking over the hills. At 8am we saw a nice doe standing looking back in our dirrection. Only problem was it was 300yards and the only way to shoot was off my shoulder. (a hill was between us). My boy and i got braced he took the shot and she hit the ground like a rock. I was shocked he was happy. When we checked her for holes the only one was between the eyes. My son looked at me and said i guess sometimes its better to be lucky than good.

We had a great time and it was my boys first biggame animal.(new york doesnt let them hunt biggame until 16years)
When we go again Ill make sure i have a range finder and better shooting support.
Dean

Wonderful good! Sounds like you guys
had a great time! Thanks for the story and pics.
Congrats
Bfly

Very nice, Dean, bet that was a great time since your son could join you! I'm hunting NY for deer in November.

Sounds like you both had a great time. I personally don't hunt out west without a bipod or shooting sticks.

Congratulations on the successful hunt. Thanks for sharing.

X

looks like the best kind of quality time...congratulations!

.........you and your son getting it done!! Like T said, I can't think of a better trip or better quality time!!

Congrats,

Bob

Congrats! I always get more enjoyment out of my outdoor pursuits when the wife and kids join in!
I did my first DIY antelope hunt this year as well.
And will be taking the kids next time!
(And I was complaining that WY doesn't let kids hunt big game until 12!)

Thanks all for the kind words. As you can tell I am quite proud of the boy. He hunted hard everyday. He was smiling just as big the morning of the last day(when we were thinking he was going home empty handed) as he was the first day. He still says the best part was a stalk we made on a group of goats where the GPS said we crawled for over 1/4 of a mile.
We should have both tagged out on bucks the second day if our shooting was a bit better. I will have sticks for the next shoot.
Anne I am not seeing alot of feed in the woods in my area of NY I think It could be a hard winter for our deer.
dean

Great job!