So after a fun 2 day antelope hunt last year, my buddy Rick and I booked a combo mule deer/antelope hunt with Bear Track Outfitters in Buffalo, WY. The owner, Pete Dube, has run the lodge for about 30 years, and is now in the process of selling to TJ Tavegie (who never stops smiling). Our "guide" for this trip was Mark Wilson, whom most of you in the 307 know of....


Friday September 30 we flew into Buffalo and saw some antelope right on the short drive to the lodge:




After checking in with Pete and TJ, making sure our rifles were still dead nuts on, we decided to check out the local microbrewery, Clear Creek Brewing. It didn't suck that they brew a nice IPA and the Ryder Cup was on....




Typical funny story when we're hunting with Bear Track: Opening morning we scouted a bit, and were in the truck glassing. Mark's looking to the left up in the hills with the spotting scope on a decent 4x4. I'm fence bitch, and Rick is in the back. Ryder Cup is on XM radio. All of a sudden, a buck pops up over a little draw about 80 yards in front of us. Now, this is soon after we didn't bail out fast enough after a real stomper and he didn't stop until he was over in the next county. So I'm yelling "buck, buck", Mark is yelling "where", and Rick is thinking I said "f@#k, f@#k" because the Americans missed a putt...

Realizing that Rick gave up his right for first shot because of his attention deficit, I bail and proceed to shoot offhand, right over the buck. My eardrums are now ringing due to my failure to throw in the ear plugs... I drop to a sitting position and as the buck is trotting over a rise, nail him as he's quartering away. The 130 grain VLD drops him and paralyzes his back end. Have to put in a finishing shot and even though I can't hear a single frickin thing because damn, those Vias brakes are LOUD, I'm like, "what the H E double hockey sticks did I just do?"




Turns out my eyes didn't deceive, and I had a dandy 6x5 with nice brow tines!





The "loudenboomer"...




End of Day 1, a few local Black Tooth Brewery beers were enjoyed...

Day 2 started off nice with a beautiful sunrise splashing across the Bighorn Mountains. We were fortunate to catch a rainbow, which seemed to be good luck:




So, knowing that Rick is shooting a .270, which goes with a rainbow like peas and carrots, I tell Mark we gotta find out what's at the end of that damn thing...




Sure enough, there's a nice 4x4 up the draw about 330 yards distant. In typical Hoosier fashion, I'm running the rangefinder because Mr. Wyoming Hunting Guide left his rangefinder in his frickin golf bag... By the time Mark gets on the deer, Rick pulls the trigger and down goes buck #2. Rick and I pose for the "rainbow shot", as I'm explaining to him that shooting a rainbow mule deer with a .270 will make him most certainly famous on the Campfire...




Now, I'm not much of a cameraman, but as we got up to the top of the ridge, I snapped a pick and think this shot was money...




Rick and Mark go to look over the ridge for the end of the rainbow so he could stick the muzzle of the .270 into it. They didn't find it...



Rick ended up with a nice buck with a really cool tine, real nice for his first mule deer:



Lunch time was up soon

So now we're on to antelope hunting, which being northeast of Buffalo, we had a little work to do as the resident herds had moved south about two weeks prior.

And here comes the "if you hunt long enough, you see some things that make you go "huh""...

We were on and off goats for a few hours, then as it gets to be late afternoon, out of nowhere we find a single buck only 160 yards away. Rick gets set up on him and takes a quartering away shot at 200 yards. Now, he's shooting that 270 with a Nosler Trophy Grade factory 130 grain Accubond. Hits the buck, it goes right down and doesn't move. We get up to it and find this:




Bear in mind, this is the entry wound. No exit wound was found... We didn't mind, we had speed goat number 1 down!




So as the day draws to a close, we are treated to a very cool sunset shining on a darkened sky:



Panorama style:




End of day 2:

Day 3 starts off with a forecast for rain setting in that morning. I am without a speed goat and am now back in the fence bitch seat. Being that pickings are pretty slim, and I want some antelope summer sausage, we search for quite a while and finally around mid morning find a couple does and a small buck. They went over the rise, but as we were backing out, we found another average sized buck laying on the hillside XXX yards away. I say XXX because I now can't range anything over 300 yards away because my POS Sig Kilo 2000 all of a sudden stopped ranging at distances over 300 yards. It took me several attempts, but I finally got the range. In case you're wondering, Big Game Guide Wilson's rangefinder was still in his frickin golf bag....

I can say this, when you get a G.A. Precision Extreme Hunter 6.5 SAUM all set up and dialed in, shooting a bedded animal at 300 yards is fun! He never moved:



And then we were done. Had to celebrate a successful hunt with a Black Tooth Brew and a selfie:

Sounds like a blast,
and that's one helluva entry,,,ouch

That evening we got some nice weather from Mother Nature:










As luck would have it, Oregonmuley had already tagged out and hauled ass back home, so we enjoyed a nice steak dinner with Sendero Man. This place cooked up just about the best steak I've ever eaten:

Day 4 found us shooting a few whitetail does to thin the population out, and allowed me to break in the new lightweight 6.5 SAUM. Those 130 JLK's get to 500 yards pretty fast! No pics as I'm not much for taking pictures of head shots...

The new stick, sans scope:




Day 5 found us on our way home from a fun trip, and thought I'd leave you all with a nice shot of my home race track...

Congrats looks like you guys had the time of your lives...

Nice work. GREAT mulies.

My Sig Kilo 2000 took a dump on me too in the fog this year. really disappointed in it.

Looks like you had a great time! Love the Buffalo/Sheridan area was just out there last weekend and weather was great! I'll be back in the spring!

Been having a little trouble with my Sig Kilo also. Love it when it works though

Great stuff Marty, really some nice pictures!!! Congrats to you both, really like the muley bucks you guys got. I will hopefully get one of those next year when I'm in the 307. I'll be burning up 7 preference points on a unit just south of where you hunted.

Sure wish timing had been better, sorry I missed you and Sendero Man at the Winchester!!

Nice hunt guys. Also, nice work supporting the local brewery.

Sorry I did not meet up with you while you were here, Mark is an even better friend then he is a guide. Glad y'all had a Good trip

P.S. Clear Creek Brewery got into a legal matter over names. Clear Creek Distilleries brought suit to them if they did not change their name. So Clear Creek Brewery is now Mishap? Brewing co.

Great post Marty and NICE mule deer, love the character points!


Fun reading along with uber pics!

Good story and great pictures! Glad that you had a good time here in Wy. Kinda wanted to cross the hill, and say hello to some of you fellers. But, it wasn't in the cards this year. Maybe next.
Congrats on a safe,successful hunt. memtb

Looks like a great time - and nice critters!

Great stuff!

Aside, I've never seen a LRF that didn't have issues in fog including my Leica.

Thanks Brad,
As an aside, I took it out several times after in bright sun, partial clouds, and full cloud conditions and it did the same thing. Just must have gotten a bad one...

Great story and pics. It looks like you guys had a blast.

Details on the light weight 6.5 SAUM please, It looks dandy

A BIG +1

looks like a great time, Marty! Congrats! Dang, after shooting my pards GAP Extreme hunter, I can't imagine how loud that thing must be without ear pro!

That's what it's all about. Your hunt was the kind that we all dream about and only occasionally get. Thanks for sharing.

KC

Awesome pics, story, and critters. Sounds like an awesome time!

Great write up and pics! Congrats on some fine animals and great choice of beer!!

Just saw this thread Marty. Good stuff all the way around!

Very nicely done. Congrats! You're accomodations in WY far outpace mine...

Looks like you all had a blast.

Nice wright up Marty. It was good to meet you, again.

And by the way, this guy here guided two Florida guys to a couple of monster muleys!! Pics of those would be awesome!

Chip, I can recommend NEVER doing that! 😉

Marty,

Congrats on a great hunt and thanks for the write-up, something I'm terrible at (which makes me appreciate others that much more).

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am out of country right now. See about it in a week.. Got two pot winner so he next week also. I might have to get some ok from the men in the pics first...

So here are some of the bucks that wyowinchester guided his hunters to:

First set is father and son who I've seen every time I've been out at Bear Track. They shot these right at last light in the rain on day 3:

Week 2 saw him guide another father/son combo to some more excellent bucks:

And just for reference, he was my guide 3 years ago when I got my first mule deer:

Those are some great mule deer!

That's my wife and my favorite restaurant in Buffalo.

Hell of a hunt! Congrats!

Nicely told and photographed. Sounds like you really enjoyed the time out there. Cool looking mule deer buck.