Wyoming Hunting Guide D.I.Y. Episode 5

In this episode I give my pick for the top Do It Yourself Antelope area in Wyoming for the 2011 season!

Wyoming Hunting Guide Episode 4

Dawsons First Goat

4:45am came early for the Rivera Boys today! By sun-up we were glassing a group of antelope on cloud creek. However the buck we were looking for had apparently been taken yesterday or possibly pushed into another area. So we headed to our backup spot on alkali creek. We had seen a nice freak and some heavy beamed bucks in an out of the way spot only a week earlier. With Dawson being sick yesterday, we missed opening day and were hoping that our "backup" bucks were still hangin' tight. I parked the truck behind a ridge and walked to the top to see what I could see. There were antelope everywhere in our little honey hole. The bucks were all fired up and rutting heavy. They were chasing does and keeping smaller bucks at bay. In the very bottom of the drainage I spotted a thick horned buck herding four does in our direction. I scrambled off the ridge to the truck and grabbed the boys to plan a sneak. We closed a lot of distance behind a rimrock before peeking over to see the buck at only 200 yards. No sooner had we seen him, and he fed down into a small draw out of sight. We tucked Mason under a small overhang on the rimrock and told him to stay put.

Dawson and I then scurried to the top of the rise to wait for the buck to re-appear. We hadn't quite made the crest when I spotted the does feeding up the opposite ridge. Dawson instinctively kicked out the bi pod and assumed a shooting position. Within seconds of getting ready the buck came into view. "Two twelve" I whispered to Dawson as I lowered the rangefinder. "When he stops let him have it" I instructed in a low voice. The buck took another three steps and as if willed to do so stopped quartering slightly away facing right. "Take him Smallz" I said. Dawson must have been well into his trigger slack, because the rifle barked instantly. The buck hunched and hopped about three times and stood again. "Reload kid!" I shouted. Mostly because my ears were ringing so bad. I heard the bolt cycle and waited for the report of the rifle again. At the second shot the buck stumbled and lunged forward collapsing within ten yards.

Mason had already covered the twenty or so little steps between us and him, and had begun his usual litany of questions. We assured him that Dawson had gotten the buck, and the three of us went to confirm the hits. Dawson's buck is a magnificent first buck. With great mass, good length and decent cutters he has everything you could want in an antelope.

Wyoming Hunting Guide Episode 3 D.I.Y. Hunt

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Wyoming Hunting Guide Episode 2 Part 1 D.I.Y. Hunt

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Wyoming Hunting Guide Episode 2 Part 2 D.I.Y. Hunt

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Wyomng Hunting Guide Episode 1 D.I.Y. Hunt How To

Mason's 10/22 Gets The Custom Treatment

With my youngest son Mason about to turn seven, I decided to do some custom work to his Ruger 10/22 rifle. After all, what 7 year old boy doesn't want a customized .22 rifle capable of shooting one hole groups at 50 yards? Up to this point his existing rifle was mostly stock save for an aftermarket hammer and a recoil buffer.

My plan was to shorten and inlet the factory stock, re-install the factory butt plate, eliminate the barrel ring and install a .920 heavy barrel. I started by cutting two inches off of the butt stock. I have found that if you run a piece of masking tape around the stock and make the edges line up where they overlap, giving you a very straight cut. Next I inletted the barrel groove to accept the larger .920 barrel.

I removed the majority of the material with a router, finishing it with a one inch dowel wrapped in abrasive paper. I then lopped off the piece of forend where the factory barrel ring went, and began re-fitting the butt plate.

After getting the radius close with a jig saw, I used a used a small bit in a router to make the recess on the top of the stock where the butt plate screws on.

I used a fiberglass bondo to fill the viods (my screw up's) between the plate and the stock. Once sanded and prepped, I gave the stock and barrel a couple of coats of grey primer. My intention is to let Mason choose the paint scheme.
As it sometimes goes with best laid plans, my timing was such that the completion of the rifle directly conflicted with the opening of archery antelope for my oldest son Dawson. So as of yet, we haven't been to the range to shoot any of those "one hole groups" with Mason's custom shooter.

P. Doggin On The 4Th of July

Thought I would share some pics of my two favorite boys enjoying some hot prairie dog shooting on the forth of July! We headed up to my favorite "Honey Hole" in the southern Bighorn Mountains on the morning of the 4th with some bottled water, juice boxes and hot dogs on ice! As much as I wanted to unleash the VTR on some 600 yard dogs, I decided to leave it home on ths trip. I really wanted my six year old son Mason to crater his first dog! Mason was shooting his slightly modified ruger 10/22, and Dawson his heavily modded Ruger 10/22. Right off the bat My youngest connected with a big un at 62 yards, doubling it over for a second shot to the bean! Then My oldest game hogged three out his side of the rig. The rule is, whomevers side of the truck the critter gets spotted on, that's which boy gets to shoot it. It works out to be pretty fair, but not perfect! My new girlfriend, Kaycee was ridin shotgun, and got so wrapped up in the fun, she decided she would take a crack at a few! Now you gotta understand, this is a girl who although born and raised here in Wyoming, had never before fired a weapon at a live animal. Her first one fell dead after one shot at 22 yards. Now here was my problem, I had three shooters, and only two shootin' irons...... All I heard ALL afternoon was, "My Turn, My Turn, My Turn"!! After about five hours of devastation, and "sharing nice", I told them we should finish up, bbq those hot dogs and head back to town in time to see the fireworks. My youngest replied with,"Dad, we can see fireworks anytime. Can't we just shoot a little while longer?" I Can't argue with six year old logic! We stayed another couple of hours, roasted our hot dogs, and celebrated our Forth Of July one bang at a time!

New Mule Deer Hotspot!

So, I know it's been a while since the last post, but your ol' buddy Lucky has been busy makin his own way in the world of business. The good news is, I now have plenty of time to explore new areas and find exceptional animals. Such is the case with yesterdays trip to Riverton and Lander. After calling on a couple of prospective clients, I decided to explore. The area I chose to explore was not entirely new to me, but not entirely familiar either. I had lived in the area as a young boy, before moving to Bairoil at age 12 and had not been back since. The thing that prompted me to look into the area again was the nearly 100% draw odds in the region combined with huge amounts of public land. In the early 1980's My Dad guided non-resident hunters from our house in the small, now abandoned oilfield town. As I recall most were from Michigan, and all by word of mouth. The one thing that stands out in my memory is the feeling of anticipation that filled the conversations and activities the day before their hunts began. These men would clean rifles, hone knife edges, oil their boots, and some would even carve crosses in the tips of their soft point bullets. All just nervous energy manifesting itself in different ways, some of which I still see happen in my hunting camps as an adult. My Dad was a great hunting guide. In those days he was a professional wrestler, and in peak physical form. It was nothing for him to drag a mature buck deer a mile or more for a client. He was legendary. He could fill entire days afield with stories about pulling pranks on Andre Roussimoff(Andre The Giant) or hitting the gym with Terry Bollea(Hulk Hogan). Those hunters couldn't get enough of my dad's well delivered stories. Some of the bucks that came out of this area in the 1980's were absolute monsters. One hunter guided by my dad won a local Big Buck Contest with his buck scoring almost 190 points.
The country hasn't changed much since the 80's mostly dry with deep sage and plenty of rimrock. The springs still flow quite well in places. It is those places where I expect the concentrations of animals to be. Because it was mid-day and almost 90 degrees, I didn't expect to see a whole lot of activity. The critters would most likely be layed up in the shade. What I did find however was an area with some excellent habitat and very good draw odds that has historically produced trophy quality deer. A few more trips and cooler weather should have me looking at what type of bucks this area is producing in the new millennium.