I finally got connected to the NET here in eastern WY and thought I would send in a report from our mule deer and pronghorn hunt with Table Mountain Outfitters. We have a had a very successful trip despite some incredibly dificult weather conditions. Click more and read on for the whole story and more photos…TH

SO here is the story…We got in camp on Oct 19 after the scariest palne ride of my life. There were 40mph plus cross winds coming in to Cheyenne. Opening day for mulies and goats was to be the 20th. I had hunted here two years ago and had a hard time. My scope was knocked way off and I missed a huge mule deer and a couple of pronghorns. I finally managed to drop a mulie the last day. Here is that 2005 buck.

So the forecast was to be about 50 degrees on the 20th with 35 mph winds - snow overnight, 33 on the 21st with 35 mph winds, and the wind was supposed to stay really high for our entire 4 day trip. For once, the weatherman got it right, only on the 20th, the winds were sustained at 40 mph with gusts of 55mph. I am typing this 4 days later, and the wind is howling and has not let up in 5 days. Obviously this is tough for a number of reasons - we are tring to film the hunt for Outdoor America and it is really hard to have a still camera in this wind, it also keeps the deer bedded in protected and hidden spots, so they are really hard to find, and lastly, once you get a shot, holding a gun still and knowing bullet drift etc. is a real problem.

With the forecast for high winds all week, I decided we needed a buck fairly close, and I wasn’t holding out for am absolute monster. The first good solid buck I found and we could get footage of, I was taking.

We saw a few deer on the morning of the 20th, but nothing shootable. About 11 AM my guide Doug who I hunted with last time I was here as well, told me we needed to check a small isolated draw out in the middle of the open prairie that was lined with huge rocks and boulders. Doug said bucks like to get down in there out of the wind and lay up. We slipped in to check the draw, and sure enough, across from us almost under a boulder the size of a large room, was a good buck. I looked him over and could see he was a good 4×4 with brow tines, I knew his fronts were a bit small, but he was a great looking buck. He was also within 100 yards and in a spot where we could set the camera up somewhat out of the wind, and I could get a good rest on the rocks I was hiding in.

We can’t shot animals in their beds on The Outdoor Channel, and I could only see the buck’s head and neck, so we had to do something. After getting set with the deer in my crosshairs, Doug slipped back down the draw a couple hundred yards and let his scent drift to the buck. On cue, he smelled Doug and stood up. He took two steps into the open, and I put a .30 T/C bullet right behind his shoulder. He went about 15 yards and was out.

The buck was 27 inches wide and made great footage. He didn’t have quite as much mass as I thought he did, but it was really hard judging him well in the wind. I ranged the shot afterwards and he was only 56 yards away. You can see his ruffled fur in the photos, that was from the 50 mph wind gusts.

In the afternoon, we went to hunt pronghorns. There was a real non-typical that was on the ranch, and I wanted to try for him. One horn went up and the other went out 90 degrees to the side of his head. After a few hours we found him in a group of about 150 pronghorn. After 2-3 stalks, we got in decent shooting range, and I got ready to shoot. The wind was blowing hard left to right, so I put the crosshairs out close to his nose as he was facing left, and I took the shot. My windage was on, but I shot right over his shoulder. Shooting in the open in that wind was a mess. We called it a day.

The next day we awoke to some snow on the ground, but a near blizzard was happening with the very high winds and lots of blowing snow. The guys all rolled out for mulies at dawn, and we hung back and drank coffee. You couldn’t see far, and Ryan my producer, said we couldn’t get the camera out in the weather. After a pot of coffee, Ryan told me that since I had 2 good pronghorn kills on film this year, and my co-host Scott Haugen had 2-3 in the can, we really didn’t need another. I decided to go hunting for a big game animal without a TV camera for the first time in close to 3 years. I told Doug I wanted to go have fun, and I thought it would be really cool to get an antelope in the snow. Being a writer, I was also thinking it would be a good story and photos would be different.

Doug and I went out and stalked a number of groups of goats, turned some down, didn’t get quite close enough on others, etc. The wind and snow were howling. There was 4-6” of snow where we were by then. We found a group of about 30 goats and made a long stalk to get in front of them. We belly crawled in the snow to the crest of a rolling hill, and they came over the hill across from us. There were 2-3 good looking bucks in the group, and I tried to find the best. It was tough in the snow, but I finally decided on one that looked heavy and had great prongs. I knew he wasn’t super tall, but I love big cutters.

I got on the bipod and waited for a clear shot. He was slightly quartering to, and I squeezed the ICON trigger. All the goats took off, and my buck and two others broke right away from the herd, then came zipping back to the left. I was upset. Though it was 190 yards in the wind, I really felt good about the shot. To miss again had me down. Doug and I both saw those 3 bucks running full tilt with not a limp or anything. I was beating myself up as we walked over to double check there was no blood, etc. To my amazement, my goat was lying stone dead about 30 yards over the hill! It was a really fun hunt crawling and stalking in the snow with no real pressure. The sun broke through and the snow quit for about an hour and gave me a chance to get some photos (but the wind kept howling).

Friends Pete Angle and Dave Maas have both taken nice mulies with lots of hard work this week, and I hunted all day yesterday with Eddie Stevenson. We saw a monster deer that I had actually seen 2 falls ago, but he slipped us twice. Eddie and the boys are out right now on the last day of the hunt trying to find him. I stayed in to try to get some work done, but I know it is tough out there because the high winds sound like a freight train outside the window. Headed home tomorrow for about 8 days, and then me and the BowTech head to TX for a NO FENCE deer hunt. Hope everyone is well…TH