128-1

[luvinit999]

Drew a 128-1 tag this year kind of unintentionally (long story). Never hunted Wyoming this time of year and don't know if the bucks will be all down on the private or if they are still up in the high country like they are in the earlier hunts. What is the weather like that time of year? A little leery of going into the high country by myself that time of year. Not afraid to put some tough miles on the boots, just want to be smart and safe about it. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[440sixpack]

I think you can search on this forum and find some similar threads.

I hunted it 12 years ago and my wife had it 2 years ago, apples and oranges it's nothing like it used to be . but what mule deer hunts are.


You won't need to go high, just cover a lot of ground and do a lot of glassing. most of the deer will be on private and if they aren't there that's where most of them are headed so it's your task to catch them first.

If you want to have a good time accept this is a fun hunt not a trophy hunt, not to say bigger bucks won't be taken but anything over 160 is what you're looking for.

I love he country and the hunt, even though it sucks compared to when I took my 200" nontypical 12 years ago I plan on burning my max deer points on it in the next few years.
















Stay thirsty my friends

 

[luvinit999]

Thanks 440. I did search and found a few threads but only one that pretty much said what you said and I think you probably even replied in that tread. I just wasn't sure about the high country. That is what I am used to hunting. I knew the deer left for the lower elevations but I wasn't sure when that happened. I figured they probably stayed high until they couldn't stay anymore. I suppose the girls are on the private for the easy food and with the rut the boys will be where the girls are. I had read kind of conflicting reports about when to hunt that hunt in that one person said before the cow elk hunt but someone else said that didn't have that big of an impact. Your 2 cents?

 

[440sixpack]

The cow hunters are no problem most of them just drive the roads. the doe hunters are a bigger problem but most of them just camp out on the Spence ranch and screw it up. last year they cut the buck tags in half and that will help you.

I would hunt the last week if you only have a week, my wife killed her buck the 3rd to last day of the hunt and that was the first day we saw serious rut activity.

Even if you wanted to hunt the high country most of it is wilderness and off limits to a NR, but there's no need.

A can't really say what area is best because I haven't found one area any better than another. if you're willing to leave the road you'll leave the hunters, problem is you can't cover much ground that way. I'm not a road hunter and I dispise that type of hunting, but I honestly think driving the roads and stopping to glass square miles at a time is the most productive way to hunt this hunt. deer numbers and buck quality are just too low to hunt on foot during the prime times of day. do your hikes in the middle of the day.

We had no snow, if you get some it could be a huge help.










Stay thirsty my friends

 

[440sixpack]

So how was 128 this year?

I passed through a couple weeks ago and I can't say it looked like the weather was doing you any favors.














Stay thirsty my friends

 

[HONEYBADGER]

This hunt is overhyped and living off past glory days. It is not what it was and I have no idea why people still blow max points on it but at least it is a way to knock off a couple of max holders every year.

This year in particular I suspect will have been rough given the lack of weather.

Until something changes with this hunt like the season dates or deer numbers it will remain underwhelming.

 

[440sixpack]

I agree with you, but there are two reasons I will use my max points to draw it unless I have reason to change my mind before I do.

One, I love the area and any hunt is a good one for me. and two, I'm not sure any deer hunt in WY is going to be enough better down the road to be worth waiting for.














Stay thirsty my friends

 

[luvinit999]

Well, the tag story is that I applied to this area as a first choice that I had no chance of drawing with 4 points in hopes of getting my second choice and hunting with my group while not loosing my points. Well as bad luck would have it I was the 1 of 68 who drew it in the random draw. So I didn't want to burn points on it but that is what I ended up doing. So, I decided to hunt the gun opener here in Michigan and then book out to WY for the last few days of the season. Well, after hunting opening day here I didn't feel I had it in me to pack all night drive 24 hours straight and then hunt all day. I only would have had 4 days to hunt an area I knew nothing about with little sleep. So I decided to stay home and concentrate on whitetails here. Well, as my streak of luck continued 4 days later as I stepped onto one of my hang on stands the strap broke before I was hooked in with my safety harness and I fell to the ground breaking 3 vertebrae in my back. Done for this year but should make a full recovery and be back hunting next year. Would love to hear how this hunt was and see some pictures.

 

[440sixpack]

Sounds like your luck ran out once you drew the tag. it was a tough year in 128 I'd bet on that but it's too bad you didn't get to experience it you would have loved it anyway.

Get well that sounds like a wreck you had.














Stay thirsty my friends

 

[LIK2HNT]

Mine from last year. Public land. I would take that tag again in a heart beat.

Bill

 

[440sixpack]

Very nice buck, we didn't see anything of that class even on the private in the '11 season.
















Stay thirsty my friends

 

[ICMDEER]

Great buck, congrats. If I set those antlers by the fire with the license tag on them like that, the tag would catch on fire and I'd end up having the whole critter confiscated. But it sure is a nice pic.

Way to go.

 

[Zeke]

Now THAT'S a great buck Bill!
Well done.

Too bad the OP didn't get a chance to hunt... and got hurt in a fall. Some hunts seem doomed while others seem blessed. I guess that's why we keep going. You just never know what's around the next corner.

Zeke

 

[TOPGUN]

+1 Zeke I can't believe anyone would waste 4PPs and license fee like that and not even go on the hunt! Sorry to hear of the accident, but I guess it could have been worse.

 

[PleaseDear]

Reads like the OP wouldn't of had the accident if he would have came out and hunted his Wyo buck??

Screwy ending to this thread after all.

Robb

 

[LIK2HNT]

I always try to make the best of every hunt opportunity I get a tag for. Even if work screws it up and I only get to hunt for a few days, or hunt at the worst part of the season. Will never be successful if you do not try. You may only get an opportunity at a tag like 128-1 once in a lifetime. Always give it your best even if for only a few days. Life is just to short.

Bill

 

[TOPGUN]

The real shame of the whole thing is that he took away an opportuniy at an almost impossible unit to draw in, especially in the random draw where only one tag was issued and that a lot of other people tried for and then didn't use the tag. It almost seems like the "hunting gods" got back at him when he took that fall from his stand!

 

[nripepi]

Easy there Topgun, a treestand fall could easily have been fatal, way different than not being able to use a tag. To each his own, he wasn't even trying to draw the tag.

 

[TOPGUN]

LAST EDITED ON Dec-05-13 AT 09:06PM (MST)[p]>Easy there Topgun, a treestand fall
>could easily have been fatal,
>way different than not being
>able to use a tag.
>To each his own, he
>wasn't even trying to draw
>the tag.


*** I fully understand that the fall could have been worse and said so in my other post! If you haven't noticed, I basicly said the exact same thing that two previous posts had stated. If you get a tag, especially one like that, why not use it rather than waste the PPs, tag money, and the opportunity that you cost someone else that really wanted to hunt the unit. This really is a good example where even with only one tag issued that it's not impossible to draw a tag in the random draw and lose your PPs when you don't want the tag the way things work in Wyoming.

 

[Zeke]

My brother and I were discussing this example of an unused tag/hunt. Stuff happens.

I/we don't know the OP or anything about him or his circumstances.

Things could be as simple as the OP is younger, doesn't like to hunt alone, can't afford a solo trip out west, maybe doesn't have all the stuff to make a comfortable camp, doesn't really care that much about mule deer etc etc. Who knows? He made a choice and seems fine with it.

He was willing and able to go along with others but may not have had the ability to go it alone.

Many of us on here whould have done whatever it took to give it a chance but that's only speaking for us, not him.

Zeke

 

[TOPGUN]

LAST EDITED ON Dec-06-13 AT 11:02AM (MST)[p]Zeke---I think the OP explained his situation pretty well in his two posts. However, his OP wasn't even made until late in September asking for help, but I have no idea if he'd been looking into it since the draw results came out last summer, which IMHO he should have been doing if he wasn't. The point I was trying to make is that IMHO you shouldn't put in for any unit thinking that you won't get it with no plan in mind whatsoever in case you do. It appears that he just picked 128-1 at random because of the max PPs it takes to draw with no thought or possibly even knowledge of how the draw in Wyoming works. This was a good example where the OP lost about $500 just in PP and tag fees and now will have to start over and be 5 years if he starts buying PPs again before he's back to where he was. The big thing that I mentioned is that it took away the opportunity from all the people that had PPs or no PPs in that random draw to get that tag and I would hope that most others were prepared for the hunt if they drew it. Anyway, it's over and done with and the OP, along with others that read this that may not realize this can happen the way the Wyoming draws work, will now see that it is always possible to draw a tag under the system since everyone has two chances at a tag they apply for, regardless of whether they have any PPs or not when the random draw is held.

 

[Zeke]

^^^ that's all so true.

A guy really never knows what the random draw will bring.

(I wish I could be so lucky with random draws. I'm living proof, to me at least, that random draws suck!)

It's also too bad that some other sportsman got nixed out of a chance to go because the tag went unused... like you pointed out.

In 46 years of big game hunting, I've never let a tag go without giving it an effort. That's why my brother and I were cogitating on what possibly precipitated to make OP stay home.

Zeke

 

[440sixpack]

The moral of the story is don't hunt from a tree stand. hunt the open west.

I don't know how people can do it, I'd pull my hair out in the first half of a day sitting there like a squirrel in a tree.













Stay thirsty my friends

 

[Zeke]

>
>The moral of the story is
>don't hunt from a tree
>stand. hunt the open west.
>
>
>I don't know how people can
>do it, I'd pull my
>hair out in the first
>half of a day sitting
>there like a squirrel in
>a tree.
>

Funny and true!
I've done it a few times and I about lost my mind. I guess I'm not very good company up there, alone, in that tree. It takes a stronger mind than mine! LOL

Of course, you and I both know the big wide open West has it's own unique dangers. Usually falling from a tree isn't one of them!

Zeke

 

[oneaway]

Sorry to hear about your fall. Hope you make a full recovery.

If unit 128 is really getting that bad, the op probably did you guys a favor. He gave WY a bunch of his out of state money, then he didn't harvest a muley.

Hell, he probably would have killed the last 200" buck in 128. Now 440 is going to do it again! Can we please see your 128 pics 440?

 

[440sixpack]

I never said I would do it again, I said I love the area and I'd hunt it again as long as a tag can be drawn. it has gone down hill bad no question.

I don't know how to post a picture, and I didn't have a digital camera back then so I don't have anything anyway. that reminds me I was going to see if I can get some photos put into digital some way. I thought digital was a fad so I didn't buy a digital camera until 2004. I nailed that one right.

He is a 6X7 with a drop on the right and a long point coming off and down in front of his left eye that was broken off, it must have been a club or real long to begin with. not too wide but tall, like most of the mature deer in the area.















Stay thirsty my friends

 

[oneaway]

440 your buck sounds like a stud. When you get your cam, take a pic and post it up. You should post your wife's also.

I didn't mean anything by my comment. It sounds like you got a handle on 128. It would be cool if you did kill another 200 though!

 

[Zeke]

440 six,
take a digital picture of your old photo (they turn out pretty good if the light is right and you don't have a bunch of reflection).
Email it to me and I'll post it for you.... if you can and want to.
Let me know and I'll PM my email address to you.
Zeke

 

[TOPGUN]

>440 six,
>take a digital picture of your
>old photo (they turn out
>pretty good if the light
>is right and you don't
>have a bunch of reflection).
>
>Email it to me and I'll
>post it for you.... if
>you can and want to.
>
>Let me know and I'll PM
>my email address to you.
>
>Zeke

***I ran a bunch of my old photos through the scanner feature on my printer and then transferred them into my computer harddrive. They came out real good and now I can send them in emails just like I took them yesterday.

 

[440sixpack]

Zeke, PM your email to me and I'll try that.

Oneway sorry if I came back a little hard, there are so many wise guys anymore I tend to expect it. I really doubt I'll take a buck over 170 when I get to hunt it again but I'll still have fun I'm sure of that.

I was raised in and live in some great country here in eastern OR but there is something about western WY that I just can't get enough of.














Stay thirsty my friends

 

[Cozmo8]

Sometimes life gets in the way I had a unit 32 "special" bull tag and never stepped foot in the unit. Lost 900 bones and an opportunity to fill the freezer.

 

[Zeke]

Hey 440sixpack,
Check your PM. I sent my email address and I'd be glad to post up some photos for you.
Zeke

 

[Zeke]

Here are a couple pics of 440sixpack's buck.
I hope he'll get back on the thread and tell us more of the hunt etc.

Damn nice buck Mr 440 six!

Zeke

 

[BCS]

Nice buck 440....where in eastern oregon are you?

 

[BCS]

Nice buck 440...where at in eastern oregon are you located at?

 

[PleaseDear]

Nothing wrong with that buck 440.

congrats

Robb

 

[440sixpack]

That was back in 128's glory days. I passed on better bucks than we saw on my wifes hunt a couple years ago. it's too bad his left main fizzled out or he would have been real nice. the drop point by his left base is where it went I think, it's broken off so I don't know how much bone went to waste there.

It will be interesting to see if the tag reduction will help the quality out a little. I still think with the right weather there isn't anyplace I'd rather hunt deer. chances at a booner were never that good though I think anyone considering this hunt needs to understand that.















Stay thirsty my friends

 

[TOPGUN]

Still a very nice buck there 440, even like you say with the lower front fork fizzling out on him. I'd have shot him in a heart beat---Congrats!

 

[LIK2HNT]

440 that is a beautiful buck. To bad all mule deer hunts are not what they were. Next year I should draw the Kaibab late hunt and though not what it was, I am looking forward to it.

Bill

 

[440sixpack]

I drew the late Kaibab in '07, I hunted the whole season and saw one buck in the 200" range but I never got a shot at him. I passed on a 180 buck the first day thinking I could do better, I didn't.

You're going to have a great hunt, but be ready to eat tag soup if you're set on a booner. they do get a few every year on that hunt though so it's sure not out of the question.














Stay thirsty my friends