Wyoming Doe/Fawn - Part #1

The Wyoming doe/fawn hunt has become a fixture on the hunting calendar for my friend Doug and me. We have been fortunate each of the last four years in drawing two tags each for our first choice unit and we've had excellent success utilizing the Wyoming Hunter Management Area (HMA) program. We've actually gotten to know the landowner himself and even though the property is open to the public hunter through the HMA program we still enjoy our interaction with him.

This year we would be adding my 12 year old niece to the application and hopefully getting her a couple pronghorn and some excellent meat for the table. But her hunt and mine will have to wait until the UEA weekend so that we can take the kids with us and not worry about them missing school. True to form, in spite of talking about finally hunting doe pronghorn together all summer, Doug found a free weekend and decided to make the long drive from his home for a quick day trip. The funny thing is that for four years now Doug & I have said, "This will be the year that we actually hunt together," and each year we aren't able to make our schedules line up... maybe next year! Here is Doug's hunt this year:



As soon as I pulled off of the freeway and entered into the unit I envisioned pronghorn in their usual locations. I imagined having to hike out to distant white and tan dots way out in the sage brush. I was almost disappointed to spot a herd of approximately 12 pronghorn right off of the road in the river bottom parallel to the road. Normally upon spotting my quarry, I hunker down and go into stealth mode filled with excitement.

"There they are! This is actually going to happen." I casually pulled off the road into a designated parking area and proceeded to calmly remove my boots and replace them with my hunting boots. I pulled my rifle from its case and prepped by backpack for packing out a couple of pronghorn. I strapped on my binoculars and started to make my first steps towards the vulnerable pronghorn standing 217 yards from the parking spot.

I dipped into the river bottom and was concealed completely by overgrown sagebrush several feet taller than me. Several deer burst and jumped out of the sagebrush as I headed toward the pronghorn... even if the deer had alerted the pronghorn of my presence they would still be within range. I cleared the tall sage brush and spotted the alert pronghorn headed up a shelf. They were looking back at me from 171 yards as if questioning whether I was really a threat. I pulled the rifle to my shoulder and centered the crosshairs on one of the does. After a short time of contemplation, I lowered my rifle and raised my binoculars to look over the rest of the herd. I had plenty of time to be picky as they stood there in observation. I was unsure of what I was looking for, holding out for a specific doe pronghorn seemed silly or pointless, but I had just driven 6 hours and I did not want to end my hunt not 2 minutes after stepping foot out of the car and into fresh air. After what seemed like 10 minutes the small herd walked over the crest of the small shelf, so I slung my rifle over my should and casually headed in pursuit.

As I crested the top of the shelf I immediately spotted a buck pronghorn that was running towards the herd of ladies. All the does were focused on his approach and they had absolutely neglected me as a threat. I walked towards them to a small hill where I could lay my back pack down and get a steady rest. As I took the rifle off my shoulder and laid it down over my pack the herd suddenly burst into running speed. They didn't run away from me, instead they ran across a wide opening. As they slowed I ranged them at 288 yards. One doe stood broadside so I chambered a round and settled the cross hairs on her vitals. As I pulled the trigger I heard the familiar "thump" of a solid hit. I watched the herd run off and searched through my binoculars for the one that had been hit. The herd ran about 100 yards and all of them looked back at their previous location. I was confident from their behavior they had left a doe behind. Since I had 2 tags on me I ejected the empty shell, chambered a new shell, and centered the cross hairs on another doe. After the shot I heard the same familiar "thump." The herd ran off back toward the river bottom where they had been originally when I first spotted them. As I raised my binoculars I could see the second pronghorn on the ground. I scanned the location again where the first doe was shot and memorized the landmarks to begin my search for her. As I walked toward the 2nd pronghorn and the angles changed through the sagebrush I spotted the first pronghorn on the ground.

The next 30 minutes were spent boning out both animals and packing them to my minivan. I drove 6 hrs to hunt for 16 minutes.

The Glassing Tree

As hunters many of us identify our hunting spots by referencing specific geographic locations or landmarks... a ridge or rock pile, a bowl or draw, a water hole... any defining attribute. In the areas that I hunt and fish we have a number of these locations that we have named and identified and when talk about these places by the names that we have given them everybody in the group knows exactly where we are talking about.

One of these locations within my hunting circle is "The Glassing Tree". At first glance it is merely a lone scrubby old pine tree near the head of a large basin, but it is my number one spot to just sit and glass miles and miles of country. It's a location that is always productive regardless of time of day or time of year. I know that I can hike to The Glassing Tree in the summer and have an excellent couple hours of glassing. I can also go there late in the year and find numerous animals. Winter, spring, summer, fall... there are always animals to be seen from The Glassing Tree.

We've begun to branch out into many of other social media platforms and I've approached it as an opportunity to do a bit of rebranding. As I've searched for something that would adequately represent us here at Utah Big Game Odds the unanimous choice was The Glassing Tree.

You’ll be able to continue to find us here at this blogspot page, nothing will change with how this site is managed and we’ll continue to update and post stories and spreadsheets here so please hit the follow button or subscribe with your email but you’ll also be able to find us on Instagram at @theglassingtree, on Facebook at TheGlassingTree, and also at our YouTube channel at TheGlassingTree. We’re excited to branch out into these platforms and hopefully give you a better access and interaction with The Glassing Tree team of friends.

First Trail Camera Check of 2018...

After about a month I made it back out to check my trail cameras. The hike went easy enough, again the climb up from the ATV parking area to the first camera was taxing enough to make me question my motivations but I was able to quickly locate the camera. I quickly unlocked it and pulled the memory card. I transferred the contents of the memory card over to my laptop and replaced the card. Here are a couple of the better pics from that first camera.


A short hike up the ridge and I was soon face to face with my second camera. This one didn't pick up any images except for me walking away from the camera back in July and then me fiddling with it to unlock it. Kind of a bummer, it's on a really good trail at the edge of a clearing, I can't image that in a whole month nothing walked past that spot. I replaced the card and I'll give that camera a second chance and if it still doesn't show me anything after the archery hunt concludes I'll try it in a different spot.

Across the open face of the draw I hiked to get to my third camera. I pulled the memory card and transferred the files. I really liked what I saw from this camera... lots of deer (mostly smaller bucks), lots of elk, and a moose or two. I thought that this would be a great spot to sit and watch while on my hunt in September.


I had an extra camera left over from last time and I took the opportunity to set it up as I made the trek from the third to the fourth camera. I found a well worn trail and secured the camera to a tree alongside. I'll be interested to see what this camera takes pictures of in a couple weeks.

The fourth camera is down in the bottom of a steep bowl right at the base of the hill as the north facing slope climbs into some thick pines. There are trails all throughout the area. I pulled the card and transferred the files quickly. Most of the action on this camera came from a cow and bull moose that bedded right in front of the camera and stayed there until the infrared flash bothered them enough to make them get up and leave.


The fifth camera is what I call "The Bedroom Cam"... I climbed the aforementioned steep pine covered slope and located my camera that was strategically placed in a cleared out area that is transected by game trails with several cleared bedding areas in view. I was impressed with many of these pics and caught one of the best bucks I've ever seen on camera here.


Just down below the pines and slightly to the east is the location of the last camera. This camera overlooks a well used corridor that feeds directly to a spring fed pond that holds good water year round. I'm extremely happy with this camera, I was able to get images of several more very nice bucks including a beast 6x4 buck with a neat inline 5th and kicker on his left side... far and away the biggest buck I've gotten on camera.


And walking into the bowl I think I spotted the 6x4 buck and got a good look at him on the hoof through my spotting scope. The pictures leave a bit to be desired, I'll be looking to get me a PhoneSkope or something similar soon.


I've shared just a few of the trail cam pics but you can see all of them on the Trail Cam Pics page. Don't forget to subscribe and follow along with our hunting adventures this fall... it's going to be a fun and exciting fall, I can feel it!

Rifle Bullet Selection for 2018...

A couple years ago a friend and I decided to buy a couple budget rifles. My intent was to have a short action rifle that would be suitable for my young sons to begin hunting with. We ended up purchasing matching Mossberg Patriot rifles in 7mm-08.

I had tinkered with a handful of different handloaded rounds but haven't found any one particular load yet that has really performed the way that I had hoped. I decided to try out a couple different factory loads to hunt with this fall and ended up getting a box of Hornady Superperformance GMX in 139gr and a box of Hornady American Whitetail Interlock SP also in 139gr from Widener's Reloading and Shooting Supply online store. I was intrigued by the GMX bullets, they are a solid metal lead-free bullet and having my 11 year old son use a lead-free bullet seems like something that could give a guy a little extra peace of mind that if/when an inexperienced young hunter makes a bad shot that we won't be finding lead fragments all over in the meat. I was also intrigued by the Interlock SPs, I have shot Interlock SPs exclusively out of my .30-06 over the last couple years and they shoot extremely well and have performed well terminally on a couple of cow elk in the last couple years.

139gr GMX - 200 Yards

I snuck away from work one morning earlier this week and headed over to the range before lunch. I was hoping to be early enough to beat the heat but all it took was one 200 yard walk to hang my targets to realize that there would be no beating the heat today. I set up to shoot the GMXs first and in short order had my first three shot group on paper. What I ended up with on paper wasn't exactly impressive, about a 7" group at 200 yards. I was hoping for a little bit better to be honest, so I quick shuffled out to switch the target out and give the Interlocks a try.

What I found on paper for the Interlocks was even less impressive than the GMXs... a group that appears to exceed 11" at 200 yards. That definitely would not do so I decided to put the Interlocks away and take another look at the GMXs.

139gr Interlock SP - 200 Yards

From the first target of GMXs I calculated the center of the group and adjusted my scope accordingly then walked a brand new target downrange and shot another group of GMXs at both 200 and 300 yards. Admittedly, I was surprised to see that the 200 yard group tightened up a bit from 7" to 5" and the 300 yard group showed real promise with the difference in windage being less than 1"... the elevation has a pretty good spread still but I really think I can attribute that to shooter error. I know I got a bit sloppy at 300 yards because I wasn't particularly confident that the ammo would perform well for me. But all in all I think I'm ok with giving these GMXs a try this year and hopefully with one or two more trips to the range I'll be able to get a really good feel for what these bullets are truly capable of.

139gr GMX - 200 Yard Group (red) and 300 Yard Group (blue)

I've ordered another box of the GMXs to use on a doe/fawn pronghorn hunt in Wyoming in October and for my son to use in November on an Idaho general and doe whitetail hunt.

Follow or subscribe (top of right sidebar) to follow me and my son this fall on our hunts, we've got a full fall with 7 tags between us along with some upland game and some epic fall fly fishing... we'll be posting full recaps when we get back from each adventure.

Antlerless spreadsheet updated.

The antlerless spreadsheet has been updated with the 2018 report data and is free to download. Click the image on the left, if you'd like to save a copy for your personal use just log in to your Google account and the download option will be available. If you don't have a Google account but would still like a copy of the file just send an email to utahbiggameodds@gmail.com and I'll respond with an attachment.

Thanks for following along and if you'd like to stay updated on everything that we have going on this fall just click that "Follow" button or enter your email to subscribe.