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.