Hunting in Wyoming

Last month I got to go to Wyoming on a whitetail hunt near Sundance (way up in the northeast corner of wyoming). I went along with a couple other guys who had hunted this place before. We seen a lot of good bucks and each filled our tag.

A view of the property.

My 10 point buck.

Adam's 10 point buck.

Todd's 11 point buck.

And of course it wouldn't be complete without me finding a nice shed!

I also got to go on mountain lion hunt in Wyoming also. My friend Tre located a lion track this past wednesday night and told me to be ready to get a lion the next day. I got up at 2 am and drove to Star Valley and met Tre at 6 am. We waited for daylight before we headed up in the mountain where the lion tracks were. About 100 yard up we found a fresh set of lion tracks in the snow. We let the dogs go there and they immeadiately were on the lions trail. After 20 minutes, we determined they had treed the lion according to their location on the GPS. We hiked up the mountain about 400 yard further to where the dogs were and sure enough there was lion in a big pine tree. The videos show the rest...

I got a big tom mountain lion. He weighed 140 lbs and measured 7 feet long.

This was definately the coolest thing I have ever done! Thanks Tre!

...and a special BIG THANKS to Kerrilyn for letting me go and taking care of everything!

Summer Fun with Friends

Last weekend we went to Star Valley to spend some time with our friends. Becky and Jeramy were visiting from Texas and Colter and Amanda were blessing their new baby boy. Even though they had a lot of family there for a busy weekend, we had a nice place to stay at Darren and Jerolyn's. Sunday evening, Darren took all us to catch crayfish. The kids had a blast!

 Hotdog tied with yarn onto a short stick was the crayfish catching machine.

After a few minutes, trophy crayfish were all over the hotdogs. Then you slowly pull them up so they don't fall off.

A Trophy Crayfish!

 Easton and Saralyn showing off their skills.

This was something we won't ever forget! Thanks Darren!

On Monday evening, Jeramy and I were able to go fishing...just like the good old days!

Catching Cutthroat like these sure brings back great memories.

We even got to fish 'till dark (thanks to our awesome wives!) and were treated with an gorgeous sunset.

 On Tuesday, Tre let us use his horses for day and we were able to give kids a nice ride up in the mountains.

We had a great time with our friends in such a wonderful place. It was really nice getting to spend time together and watching our kids play together now that we're older and all have a family of our own, jobs, and things that keep us busy. I'm sure there will more times like these to come! Thanks again to Darren, Jerolyn, Colter, Amanda, Jeramy, Becky, Tre, and Savannah for being such great friends to have!

Exploring new territory

I got to go explore a new area the other weekend looking for sheds. Here's a few photos from the journey.

One of the coolest pictures I've ever taken.

I don't believe an elk put this antler here, but I'll take it anyway.

It was getting hot, and I while I was looking for nice spot along the creek to cool off, I almost walked right past this one.

 Well, this year's antler hunting is over, and I didn't get time to share my experiences. So here's the stories and pictures:

This was an old big muley shed I picked up on Easter weekend.

The Utah Opener with a few friends. We only found deer sheds this year.

I went back to where I found the big elk shed a few weeks before and was lucky enough to find the match! Besides finding the first side, this was definately a highlight of the year!

Then a few minutes later I finally found my first fresh elk antler for the year.

Not a bad haul for three guys, but only 2 were fresh.

Another fresh elk shed.



This was the load of antlers me and a couple other friends picked up near the elk refuge in Jackson.
We found 20 antlers total. We started looking for them at midnight while riding horses and found 5 in the dark. We also had to cross a river in the dark which was scary. But the way back was especially difficult because the horses were tired and the pack horse was very full and kept getting stuck in the timber. Once we finally re-crossed the river and got back to the horse trailer we were relieved and very happy that we all found antlers and were all safe. I can't wait to do it again next year.

A view of the Tetons. Unfortunately, I was so consumed finding antlers and riding the horse I didn't stop to take any pictures while finding the antlers. I will have to try better next year.

I got to take Kerrilyn hiking one day and all we found was just this old chewed up elk antler.

So here's my final antler collection for this year. Not bad, but not many were fresh. We didn't have the usual snow pack, so the wildlife was scattered more and didn't winter in their normal wintering areas as much. But I did find my biggest elk set yet (it scores right at 360") and the muley set Kerrilyn and Alma found is also the biggest deer set we found (is scores right at 180").