2022 Wyoming muley supertag hunt

[Mossback]

What an epic adventure with my brother and a few friends than came and went throughout our time in Wyoming. We ended up leaving a couple days early to get there when some weather hit in one unit. That weather fizzled on us and that unit was pretty weather dependent. It was cool to watch the migrating herds come into the unit but the bigger bucks were holding back a couple miles according the the biologist we spoke with (matched what we were seeing). I think we spent 8.5 days in this unit and had spotted a great buck a cpl miles away in the closed unit and he was moving closer by the day with a herd of doe. We decided to sit on him and see if we could catch him crossing into the unit. This unit gets crowded with no weather. Everyone is in the same area and 15 tags turns into 75+ ppl/vehicles when everyone brings their buddies with their own trucks and outfitters have guys running around etc as well. One morning this buck was following his girls down to the river to cross before shooting light, we had picked him up in the scopes, he was 200 yards from the river. Here comes two trucks with headlights blazing right down to where the deer cross the river at shooting light. He rounded them girls up and moved into the next bowl and spent the rest of the season up in some rocks barely visible (we kept eyes on him the whole time). Was a cool hunt though, tons of glassing and watching migrating herds of deer was pretty cool. I could see this hunt being awesome with some weather just wasn't to be this year. We left a half day early to get into the next unit.

This next unit was the unit I wanted to hunt the most from my summer trip anyways. The first couple days were a little warm and no snow but it gave us a chance to familiarize ourselves and look at some new areas as well. Weather started moving in pretty quick on this trip and we hunted a total of 11 days in this unit with one afternoon off due to a snowstorm with winds in the 65-80 range (I don't think the wind ever blows under 30 in Wyoming). Temps ranged from minus 15 to 35ish on the few warmer days. We didn't have any doors on the ranger and were asked multiple times if we were crazy or just dumb (little of both) but we had the clothes and went at it hard. Up at 4 am and usually in bed by 8 or so every night.

Wild Wild country up in this unit, we cut some fresh sets of wolf tracks (blew those deer out), multiple fresh sets of grizz tracks, and plenty of lion tracks in the snow. We saw tons of Elk, passed on countless bucks, saw some stud moose, bald eagles, golden eagles, just tons of wildlife in general. We hiked into places, we covered ground in the ranger (put 450 miles on it in this unit in 11 days), we glassed so much my eye bones hurt but were not turning up anything to hang this tag on. Got the truck and trailer sideways somehow one morning on the highway and got stuck in the ranger a few times just all kinds of adventures. I had passed on 2 deer that I was starting to regret by day 10 or so in this unit (both were high 60s/low 70s deer but they just didn't do it for me. I was never hung up on score, was just looking for a big mature buck with mass, some width, and good forks. We had lost Deer for a few days at his point so with it getting into the single digits we went high again that evening after not seeing what we wanted low that morning on a 3 mile hike. We saw like 70 deer that evening with some decent bucks and finally we thought things were about to pop off.

Day 11 (Day 19 I think total) was cold cold. We had to drag each other out of bed at the cabin, we were wearing down pretty good at this point too. It was just my brother and I left hunting and we argued the entire way up the hill that morning on what to do and I think we were both saying the same thing to a degree (Brotherly love). We were a little late getting into this area so we decided to just roll in the ranger on the main road slow to get back to a glassing area. 5 minutes out of the parking area I caught a good buck on a hill, giant typical 4x4 but kind of spindly and no eye guards, let him go. We rolled up to our intersection where we were going to turn and I caught another buck on a hill, got the scopes out and one was a 5x5 with split g3s, good buck but didn't make it move. I stood on my tippy toes to look over a hill and all I saw was mass coming out of the bottom. I turned to my brother and told him "Get my sticks, this marathon is over, there's a shooter coming out of the bottom". It was nothing special stalk wise, closed the distance to about 250. had my brother whispering does he have eye guards the whole time, I didn't care so finally just told him yes and watch the deer I'm about to shoot. My first shot was not great, I had a little buck fever after 18 days and hit a touch back but put another one in him and pancaked him. Few high fives and hugs I told my brother man I hope that isn't like a 150 or something, He goes it don't matter now if he is he's a super 150.

We hiked the 300 yards up the hill and I happen to have service so I got to facetime my Son and wife of the yr when we first got up to him, it was pretty special moment for everyone involved. We facetimed the guys that came and helped and had to go back home as well. One thing about the snow, you can drag a horse in it. We moved him down the hill gutted him then drug him back to the ranger and quartered and caped him there. Couple residents that we had been talking to the whole time stopped by, we chatted, everyone was stoked for me. Couldn't ask for better hospitality up there. Sorry that was long winded but really it was short for this kind of adventure I could have went on for pages. We had a once in a lifetime tag and we took full advantage of it and did it right we think. We'll be back one day with our max points but next week we are off to Colorado for a 4th season deer tag my brother has. Hopefully we can find him a Stud as well.

[Mossback]

Still pumped and I’ll add more pics of the scenery etc later. Gotta go pick up my kiddo. Thanks for all the well wishes and good lucks from everyone. Appreciate it

[C.Read]

Congrats! That is an awesome muley!

[Flyway12]

Sounds like a great time and trip!

[unclefish]

Helluva buck Kevin! Lots of hard work paid off....congrats!

[jshouse]

holy moly, thats awesome

[Saltyag15]

Whopper! Way to stick with it. Congrats on a great deer.

[jaker_cc]

Congrats!!!! I’m glad you put in the work and earned the reward of a job well done. Tagged for later

[Gumbo Man]

Love the mass on that stud. Congrats

[ThisLadyHunts]

"Get my sticks, this marathon is over." Probably one of the greatest quotes I've seen here in a while!

Sounds like a great trip. Weird to see all that snow this time of year. Of course, it's weird none of us in Texas are having to run our Acs this time of year, as well.

[TKRanch]

Wow!! That's a fantastic deer! Well done!!

[wytex]

Beauty of a buck, congrats!!!
Wind and cold can dissuade the not so serious hunters up here, great job.
Great mass and like the kickers.

Wyoming taxi or down in Texas ? He'll make a nice mount.

[J Wales]

Congrats! Love the mass, the dark color, the kicker, the eye guards aka dog catchers, and the story!

[kenith_rowe2004]

Congrats on the awesome muley.

[diamond10x]

Congrats on a nice buck, nice to see things payoff when people actually put the work and time in.

Good luck in CO w/ your brother. Got back last weekend from hunting deer and it was quite heartbreaking after hunting the whole season and not seeing much quality after knowing the bucks that have come out of that area the last 35-40 years and they are no where to be found anymore it seems.

[roberts]

A lot of mass is an understatement. Congrats on a brute of a muley.

[7sdad]

Man that's a great buck, Congrats!

[160class]

Congrats!!

[eradicator]

That is one stud of a mule deer. Incredible mass!

[LWC]

Very cool!

[sling shot]

Congrats

[trophy8]

Oh I forgot you drew that. Congrats! Looking forward to more pics.

[Mossback]

Originally Posted by wytex

Beauty of a buck, congrats!!!
Wind and cold can dissuade the not so serious hunters up here, great job.
Great mass and like the kickers.

Wyoming taxi or down in Texas ? He'll make a nice mount.

Thanks everyone, it was the hunt of a lifetime w/o a doubt. The last 7 days was the coldest I have ever been day after day. That Wyoming wind goes through absolutely everything. The weather up there def adds to the grind but it gets em on their feet. I have him at a Taxidermist down here.


This was the deer from the first unit we were watching and waiting on. He was solid as well. Only took the safety off on 3 deer the whole time, one being mine.

Little cabin we had for the last leg



Bad day for this guy, all was good though. They had this thing stacked and rolling in like 2.5 hrs.






Was surprised the Ranger did so well, chained the back up after getting stuck and just left em on. Cpl more inch lift will be in order next go round and some doors. I won’t be doing it again w/o doors

[Mossback]

Woke up to this one morning. We saw a lot of deer that day and one of the bucks I passed on. I wish I would have gotten more pics but was just so busy, never really stopped.

[Mossback]

[Mossback]

Made for a long ride down a pass

This big ol forkie was migrating with a group of doe. They pulled up on this saddle and ol dude said we stopping right here in the sun and he immediately started watching the back of his eyelids. He was laid out like a dog. Funny to see

[stxbowhunter]

Congrats!

[Killer]

Nice

[basschump]

What an incredible experience. Thanks for sharing. Really cool that putting in the time resulted in a terrific deer.

Interesting note on the hospitality. I’ve hunted with some locals in NM and it’s amazing how they share info and are genuinely excited when someone gets an elk or deer.

[Mossback]

Originally Posted by basschump

What an incredible experience. Thanks for sharing. Really cool that putting in the time resulted in a terrific deer.

Interesting note on the hospitality. I’ve hunted with some locals in NM and it’s amazing how they share info and are genuinely excited when someone gets an elk or deer.

Everyone was beyond great we had interactions with, we were all sharing some info here and there early in the season. We were sharing where we were seeing cow elk with the residents who had tags as well. They were all looking for them and we couldn’t shake em. We still had the obligatory “go home” written in the snow in front of our truck when we got back one day. There’s always one. My brother wrote back “USMC this is my home”. We just laughed at the whole thing.

[DZM]

Just Awesome! Congrats!

[jbw899]

Congrats! Great deer and experience

[Jon B]

Great buck

[Mossback]

Originally Posted by diamond10x

Congrats on a nice buck, nice to see things payoff when people actually put the work and time in.

Good luck in CO w/ your brother. Got back last weekend from hunting deer and it was quite heartbreaking after hunting the whole season and not seeing much quality after knowing the bucks that have come out of that area the last 35-40 years and they are no where to be found anymore it seems.

Thanks, Ya I've heard 2nd season was pretty abysmal. Were you in the Basin? I got some buddies going up today somewhat close to where we are going to be at so I'll be getting some updates as the week goes on. Never hunted this unit and never a 4th season tag either so things should be interesting. We're going to give it our all and see what we can turn up. Brother is taking my ranger up this weekend to scout for a few days prior and I'll be heading up Monday or Tuesday to meet him.

[MooseontheLoose]

Sounds like some good old fashioned Type II fun

Well deserved trophy grinding it out like that. Congrats on a stud of a buck!

[PoppinPiggies]

What an adventure and helluva buck!

[mfarmer]

Very cool. Dream hunt one day.

[WyoBull]

Great job sticking it out and congratulations on a nice mule deer!

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[jmoore]

Great write up and buck. Congrats.