Deer Hunt 2011

The main activity of our vacation was deer hunting.

Wyoming is full of deer, and beautiful country. Great people, too.

We had many spectacular morning sunrises...





Many close encounters with wildlife, too.

A herd of elk moved through the ranch... fortunately they didn't stick around.

A few days later a lone calf ran through our hunt - very lost and frantic.

Good thing the kids could tell an elk from a deer...


We also had some fantastic moonrises, too.

The weather was beautiful most of the time. We did get some nice snow early in the hunt, but it never stays long in northern WY.







After many encounters with big deer, the hunting princess got her first buck - a nice spike.

Many lessons were learned this hunt - and a big one was how great it is to get any deer.

She was very excited about this spike, even after missing chances on bigger deer. That is a great lesson.



This dude was keeping an eye out.

Some of the hunt was up in the Sunlight area near Yellowstone.

Much more hunting pressure up there than we've seen ever before, but it was the last 2 days of the month-long hunt.

Not many deer, either , but LOTS of wolves.



We did get into a few deer in the mountains here and there, and even a few nice bucks.

Spending any amount of time in WYomings mountains makes it painfully obvious how few deer and elk are left up high with all the wolves running around.

Hopefully the wolves will leave soon when all the game is gone.



There were still plenty of bucks down low in the flats, though.

Openning morning Dad took this nice 3pt. There were bigger ones around, but with the kids coming later it was better to get one hanging so we could get on with vacation and putting the kids onto deer.

You know your kids are hill-billy when they forget to put on shoes when excited to see Dad's deer... but she'll be one heck of a hunter some day!



Here's another nice buck we spotted at the Taxidermist's place down the road.

The boy took a nice 3pt for his first deer too.

Again, he was very excited and grateful for this one, even after having many shots at much bigger deer.

His valuable lesson? Keep extra ammo in your pocket!

It was a fantastic hunt in beautiful country. Good times and teachings that are priceless.