So we just spent the week just north of Gillette, Wyoming hunting mule deer and antelope with High Velocity Outdoors. Now Derrick and I have already been through it all as far as outfitters go. We've had 2 terrible experiences this year and 2 great ones...and this one was by far the best. Hazer Bulkley runs the outfitter and he was actually one of our competitors on North American Safari Challenge last year. He has access to 30,000 acres and boy did he set us up for success. We harvested 4 beautiful representations of Wyoming wildlife in just 2.5 days. Wyoming hunting is very unique and good optics are the key! Thanks to Leupold, we were hooked up with 2 really clear and awesome pairs of binoculars! Basically, you drive around in a truck until you reach a high point overlooking miles of country. You then use spotting scopes and binoculars to scan and scan until you spot tiny white spots which indicates a mule deer face or rear. Then you pull out the higher powered optics to check out antler specs. If you decide the animal is worth it, you stalk....sometimes a mile or more in hard hard country. It was very unique for us, but pretty darn cool. Now Hazer also owns Bison Barrells, a custom gun manufacturer, and he has built us 2 custom 7 mags. They are both totally capable of shooting accurately up to 1000 yards as they are topped with the Leupold CDS turret system scopes. You just turn the dial to the appropriate yardage, adjust for wind, put your crosshairs on the target, and pull the trigger.
Derrick's mule deer was spotted on the neighbors the very first night. We watched him but of course couldn't shoot him. The next morning, we went to the same general area and woohoo, he had moved onto our side of the fence! He was settled into an area of brush and we went on the stalk. As we got close, a group of does spooked and took off over the hill, Derrick spotted a big buck with them and we thought we had lost our buck. Hazer wasn't convinced it was the same one and he would have to travel a good ways during our stalk, so we kept going and Hazer respotted our deer..thank goodness! you could barely barely seem him and he had settled down for a nap. We set up on him and Hazer used a coyote call to make him restless and he finally stood up. Derrick took the shot at 230 yards and he went about 20 yards and went down. He was the first animal of trip...and he is beautiful!
I wish I had taken a picture of the landscape when we spotted this guy, because weirdly, there was a shadow that was literally the shape of Texas...when you watch our show, you'll see, but it was crazy! We spotted 2 bucks, one on the east side of the Texas and one on the west side. Hazer was very excited about both of them and on the stalk we went. We got within 200 yards of him and fortunately, he was looking right into the sun when looking at us. He was suspicious of something going on so was kind of restless and finally he broke and took off about 100 yards. He finally squared back up, gave me a shot at 290 yards and I took it. See above for the results. :) I would like to point out that he's bigger than D's!
After the muleys came the antelope hunt. We were actually headed into lunch after my mule deer when we spotted a big group of antelope in the flatter country. Hazer spotted a buck he was very excited about and they decided to try to set up fairly long range on this one. The group was very comfortable, so we got away with a lot of movement, and Derrick was able to get comfy against a fence post at 400 yards. He took the shot and nailed him, but weirdly, the antelope froze on all 4's....he was the most well balanced dying animal ever! He stood there for over 7 minutes when D finally decided to go ahead and shoot him again. He took another 400 yard shot and dropped him. Derrick was THRILLED with this antelope. He is really tall, has great curls, and even ivory tips...and a weird 3rd horn starting to grow out of the middle of his forehead.
It was the last night of the last day of our hunt and we were trying hard to get Cherise an antelope. For some reason, the antelope were super spooky. The groups were running all over God's creation and we couldn't get set up on a buck even within 600 yards! Finally, a group took off for the top of a mountain and settled in around 650. They told me to shoot and I thought they were crazy. I trusted the gun, but I'd never shot that far. I got set up, and took the shot and was just barely barely over the top of him! Hazer realized he had dialed the scope to 650 for me, but we hadn't taken into account the uphill angle. But we didn't get another shot to correct as the group moved over the top of the mountain. A group that kept running from us all evening finally calmed down about 400 yards from us and I ended up taking a 400 yard shot at a mature buck in that group. Unfortunately, the shot wasn't perfect and I hit him fairly far back. He tumbled down the mountain which ended up breaking the tips off both of his horns and we had to end up finishing him off later. No hunter likes that situation, but it occasionally happens, which stinks.
Anyway, we were blessed with this trip. Got tons of great footage for Ranch Hand Horizons. Plus, we have a special treat to show as Derrick and Hazer recorded the process of custom gun making and we show a lot of that process in a "How its Made" format.
Ranch Hand Horizons will be airing on the Sportsman Channel the last week of December and running through June 2012. We will announce airtimes as soon as we know them!
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