By Paul Young

Our favorite topic is public land and all that it offers. From hunting, to hiking and exploring the back-country, public land lies at the heart of all of our adventures. In this trip we set off for a whitetail deer hunt in Wyoming. We only had three days to make it happen, so we drove all night to make it into town for a morning hunt. 

The first morning was slow, with little action and being new to whitetail hunting we did a lot of moving around and consequently saw a lot of white flags running away from us. We learned our lesson in the morning so it became a sit and wait game the remainder of the hunt. 

The area was littered with deer. We saw endless does, but we were not having any luck seeing any bucks. After talking with a few folks that had been hunting in the area, it sounds like we mistimed the rut. We thought for sure the week of Thanksgiving would have been prime opportunity to hunt the peak rut. We were wrong. Many of the locals indicated that this is usually the prime week to hunt, but for whatever reason, the deer just hadn’t kicked into the rut yet. 

With all of the does we were seeing we thought for sure we would see a few small bucks beginning to chase, but again we were wrong. The first night was really slow, we didn’t see much of anything except a mountain lion. That indicated to us we were in either a good or bad spot. We decided to call it a night and change up our plans for the following morning. 

A small cold front moved in overnight, bringing in two inches of fresh snow with it. We thought for sure today was going to be the day. It was brutally cold, with wind gusts upwards of 20 mph the wind-chill brought the temp into the single digits. This made sitting and waiting even more difficult. But we knew we had to sit tight if we wanted an opportunity at getting a shot. 

The action picked up quick. As soon as it was light enough to see, the deer were moving all over. Again, all we were seeing were does. In fact we actually had two does walk right up on us to 20 yards. They wheezed and snorted at us for about 30 minutes trying to figure out what we were. With the air temp being what it was, and the use of our Scentblocker, we were disguised despite the wind being right at our back and in the deer’s face.

The does eventually moved on and we refocused our glassing efforts on the draw below us. Slow periods of no movement, filled with does feeding from time to time allowed the morning to pass slowly, until I saw a big-bodied deer walking our way. 

I thought for sure this had to be a buck. I quickly grabbed my binoculars to check out what was coming my way. Sure enough a small 2.5 year old buck was walking my direction. I wanted to hold out for a more mature deer, but with time as slim as it was and two more tags to fill, I decided quickly that if presented a clear shot I would take it. Sure enough, moments later, the buck presented a perfect broadside shot at 85 yards. One round from the 6.5 Creedmoor put him on the ground in his tracks. 

We were ecstatic to finally have a buck on the ground.  For an area we knew very little about, and the fact that we were on public land, we couldn’t be happier with how the trip turned out. We only filled one of our three tags, but the trip was a success. We had meat in the coolers and a new trophy to hang on the wall. 

With a little research we managed to go into a new area, harvest a nice buck, and see a lot of deer. It goes to show that doing your homework pays off. 

That’s all for this time, and remember, keep your tip up, shoot straight, and never forget to Salute the Outdoors on your way home!