USA: Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt With My Daughter Sept 2022 With SNS Outfitters

[375 Ruger Fan]

Right after I got home from my Alaskan moose hunt, I had a quick turnaround to Wyoming. I had hunted pronghorn in 2018 with SNS Outfitters and taken a record book animal on that hunt.

USA: Wyoming Pronghorn Hunt With SNS Outfitters Sept 2018

I made a quick hunt in Wyoming and took a really nice pronghorn. The hunt was with SNS Outfitters & Guides (http://huntwyo.com/) and they did a great job. I hunted Area 72, just west of Casper. More details and photos to follow in the next couple of days.

www.africahunting.com

My youngest daughter, Elise, had been bugging me about a hunt, so we decided to do this hunt together. Elise had 4 preference points and I had 3, so we pooled our application and booked a hunt with SNS. We hunted Unit 72, just west of Casper. This was the same unit I hunted in 2018, but we were on a different ranch. This ranch was 60,000 acres, so lots of room to hunt. The hunt occurred the last few days of September and the rut was in full swing!

I knew I was going to take my tried and true 270 and I thought my Ruger M77 MkII in 6.5x55 would be a good choice for Elise. We spent a few Saturdays at the range and I noticed her small hand could barely reach the trigger when gripping the factory stock. I made a call to @Shootist43, knowing he had lots of experience with the 6.5 Swede and his grandkids. Art confirmed a theory I had, that getting a thumbhole stock helped out with small hands. I then really lucked out, finding a nice thumbhole stock on eBay for $100.

Unit 72, just west of Casper, Wyoming

 

[Firebird]

Beautiful rifle and I like your solution to the smaller shooter dilemma. Excited to read more, learn how the rifle and shooter performed and see the pictures!

 

[shotgungibbs]

I hunted pronghorn outside of Casper, back in 1982! Great area to hunt. Great looking rifle set-up for your daughter!

 

[BRICKBURN]

Creative solution.

 

[gillettehunter]

Nice looking rifle stock and a great way to make it work. Sorry I missed the opportunity to come down and visit.
Bruce

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Nice looking rifle stock and a great way to make it work. Sorry I missed the opportunity to come down and visit.
Bruce

Sorry Bruce, I flat out forgot to contact you about our visit in Wyoming. Thanks for the compliments on the rifle, it did work well doing the stock change out. Finding one on eBay that was an exact fit was a real timesaver and moneysaver.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

We departed home late Monday morning and had relatively short United regional jet flights to Denver and then to Casper. Benny Tillerson, a senior guide and camp manager with SNS, was at the airport to meet us and drive us to the Ramkota Hotel. Driving out of the airport, we saw our first dozen or so pronghorns, plus a bunch of turkeys too. Benny is 79 years young and has been guiding for SNS a long, long time. He is from Alabama and first came hunting as a client. When he retired from his job with the fire department in Alabama, he started full time guiding with SNS. Benny was named Wyoming Outfitters and Guide Association Guide of the year a few years ago. Benny plans to guide one or two hunts next year, at age 80, just to do it and then retire. Super nice guy and I am so glad to know him and call him a friend.

SNS gets a discounted rate at the Ramkota Hotel, which is a very nice place in Casper. After getting checked into our rooms, we had a meeting with Benny and a few other SNS folks, along with some other hunters in a small conference room in the hotel. SNS does a good job of discussing safety issues and keeping everyone legal. We met our guide, Brad, and discussed plans for in the morning. One other nice deal that SNS provided, they had a large refrigerator in the conference full of sandwich meat, bread, cheese, etc. Also fresh fruit, soft drinks, water, Gatorade and every kind of snack cakes, candy bars and granola bars. We were to come down in the morning and make our own sack lunch. The plan was to stay gone all day.

Tuesday was our first day to hunt. The hotel had a breakfast buffet that started at 6am, so we did that and then went to the conference room to make our sack lunch. Brad, our guide, had a ice chest in his truck with lots of water and Gatorade. It was a cool, clear morning and luckily, very little wind.

Driving west out of Casper, we saw numerous antelope and mule deer. After about a half hour drive, we were at the ranch we were going to hunt. Brad stopped his truck and set out a target along a steep bank and then drove down 100 yards. We checked the zero on our rifles and all was good. We then started cruising the ranch roads and immediately spotted antelope everywhere. When a really buck was spotted, we'd get out of the truck and attempt a stalk. The first 3 or 4 stalks ended fairly quickly, as there were lots of bucks displaying rutting behavior and just going crazy. It was fun and entertaining to watch.

About 9:30 am, we found a really nice buck and he was keeping an eye on us. We were glassing from the truck and the buck was about 300 yards away. Brad told us we were going to try something and it had a 50-50 chance of working. The plan was to drive a little further down the ranch road and put a small hilltop between us and the buck. Brad thought the buck might move around the back side of the hill and come around to where he could see us again. As soon as we drove down the road and stopped, we all jumped out and got set up. Brad had put his Harris bipod on Elise's rifle, so she got set up in a prone shooting position. I stayed at the truck and was leaning on the hood and glassing from there. Within a couple of minutes, the buck came around the back side of the hill, just like Brad thought might happen. The buck saw me and the truck, but didn't have a clue where Elise and Brad lay in wait. The buck got to within about 90 yards of them when Elise finally fired. The 6.5 Swede with a 143 gr Hornady ELD-X did the job and the buck fell where it stood.

After all the photos and properly tagging the buck, we made quick work of field dressing. The morning was warming up and with no wind blowing, the intense sunshine was actually making it hot. Very much like hunting in Namibia. I was a little concerned that we might have to run into town to drop off Elise's buck at the meat processor, due to the heat. Luckily, Brad texted another SNS guide in the area and his client had also punched his tag on a nice buck. We met the other guide and transferred our buck to his truck and he headed to town. This allowed us to stay in the field and keep hunting. It was Dad's turn to get a buck.

 

[WyoBull]

Congratulations on your hunt! I live in Casper and my next door neighbors daughter took a really nice Antelope out of 72 last Saturday.
If you ever get up this way again, reach out.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Well done Elise. She obviously took her time and executed the shot well.
congratulations.

 

[gillettehunter]

Nice buck. Those are good cutters on him. Always great when a good shot is made.
Bruce

 

[CM McKenzie]

Good buck! I Agree with Bruce on the cutters.

 

[Bullthrower338]

Well done Dave!

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Still Day 1 of hunting on Tuesday, late morning, we resumed cruising around the ranch slowly. Antelope were everywhere. We'd stop to glass them and watch the bucks fight over does. Whenever a buck with high potential was spotted with the binos, Brad would pull out his spotting scope and have a more detailed look. Since this was to be a 3 day hunt, Brad wanted to know how serious I was about shooting something on Day 1. I told him I had no problem shooting something good on Day 1. Since I already had a really nice pronghorn buck handing on the mancave wall. I wasn't planning to mount whatever I took on this trip. Soon after, we spotted a decent buck and decide to make a stalk. The buck was in a group of does and bucks and was about 500 yards away. There was a dry creek bed that we could use to close the distance so that's what we did.

We got into position and Brad ranged it at 240 yards. The buck was looking straight at us, but standing still. I thought I would wait for the buck to turn and present a broadside target, however after looking at it through the scope for several minutes, boom............missed.

The buck took a few steps and stopped. Boom........hit. The 270 with a 130 gr Hornady SST did the job. Two nice bucks taken and we still had several hours of daylight. Might need to try our hand at a coyote or two.

 

[gillettehunter]

Good job. Pretty buck.
Bruce

 

[Ragman]

Two nice bucks! Congrats to the both of you!

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats and thanks for sharing!

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Our last part of the adventure in Wyoming was to see if we could get a coyote. Our guide, Brad, does quite a bit of predator control and is good at calling. We set up on a high spot and since the wind wasn't blowing, the calling should be heard from quite a distance. We'd call and wait for 10-15 minutes and then pick up and drive to another location and do it all over again. On the third location, Brad spotted a pair of coyotes, a long ways off. We got into position with Elise set up for the shot. Brad started calling and the pair of coyotes came a running. They went out of site for a while, coming our way via a dry creek bed, similar to one I used to get my buck. Brad directed Elise where to set up, thinking the coyotes would pop out at 15-200 yards from us. The first one came back into sight right about Brad thought and was still closing on our position. Brad made another call and the coyote paused and a shot rang out. We never spotted the second one.

I will neither confirm or deny any actual results. Let's just let that sleeping dog lie.

 

[WyoBull]

Great hunt all the way around!

 

[Nyati]

Congrats to both of you !

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

Congrats to both of you. I hunted a little further north of you around Gillette a few years ago. Need to make it back out that way for a Merriam in the future.