2023 Light Year

[970_lly]

Never too late to start a thread here, right? The year began with applications in which I applied for a handful of tags with ~30-70% odds. I struck out on pretty much every single one and by mid June I had a Wyoming antelope tag, a couple basic Colorado bear tags, and a Colorado bull tag in my pocket. I snagged a Colorado antelope tag later in the fall and picked up a Colorado landowner deer tag in September. Overall this year has been slow and “light” for me compared to usual. My goal here is to share my stories and pictures from this fall but keep it somewhat short and sweet. More to come!

 

[970_lly]

After the September bear hunts Wyoming antelope was my first “real” hunt of the year. As most know the winter was pretty brutal in most of Wyoming although this unit was in a pocket that was not several affected. There was still some winter kill but overall things seemed to be doing well. My buddy and I covered the entire unit and felt we looked over almost every buck on public in 3.5 days. I carry a lap/pace counter and count all the bucks I see while antelope hunting, and I won’t bother saying how many we saw as I doubt many would believe it. It was an awesome hunt and we felt this was about the best buck we had seen. We moved into position on him and realized he has a wounded right rear leg and was almost unable to get up out of his bed or walk. That made the decision that much easier. We had a pretty serious cross wind but one shot at 460 yds and he didn’t take another step.

 

[970_lly]

Came back to Colorado and got some work done, then headed out for a 1-2 day trip for another antelope. The tag is truly in about the worst unit in the state as far as numbers, access, and terrain/country for them. Saw about 75 antelope which is more than CPW says are in the unit. Didn’t kill one but was on coyote patrol during the hunt and scouting for 2nd season.

Second one is probably the biggest dog I’ve killed. Wish he had a little better fur as he’d be getting tanned right now.