Wyoming trip #2

[Frogman]

My Wyoming trip report continued.

Zylla suggested we try hunting an area South of Rock Springs where he elk hunted.  He met us late in the evening and led ust to nice place to set up the camper.  The next day he could not hunt with us til after noon.  So John and i went out to do some stands in the morning on our own.  Off in the distance we could see two heavy pieces of equipment.  We parked the truck behind the dozer and set up to call. 



Friends had told me about hunting prairie dogs, but I had never seen one.  While John was calling I started seeing these prairie dogs out in front of me.



They are too small to see in the above picture, but that is what I was looking at.   John wanted to call a little more before I took a shot at a prairie dog.  After about 20 minutes of calling we decided to take a crack at the prairie dogs.  What a blast that was.  We had stumbled on to a virgin prairie dog town.  We were shooting anywhere from 50 yards out to 300 yards.  The dogs just stood there even after a near miss.  You can adjust your aim and usually get a hit with the second shot if the first shot is a miss. 



After a couple of hours we had to head back to the camper for some more ammo and to get my .22 magnum to us on the close ones.  We had thrown a few of the praire dogs in the back of the truck to take a picture.  On the way to the camper we met Zylla coming out to meet us.



That ornery John told Zylla that we had enough prairie dogs to make a mess and we were going to skin  and cook them in a stew.  Zylla just about had a fit and said, "You crazy hillbillies, those things are nasty you can't eat them!  They have ticks and diseases!"  John had him going for a minute or two there!  After re arming we took Zylla and went back out to the dog town.  Zylla also had a .22 magnum and I was using my AR.  John was driving, Zylla was in the passenger seat, and I got in the back of the pickup and shot off the roof of the truck.  Zylla suggested we drive out in the middle of the town.  They were shooting the close ones and I shot the ones further away.



We had a great time and must have killed at least 100 prairie dogs.

On top of one of the mountains Zylla took us to there were lots of wild horses.



Kind of cool.  We did several more coyote stands in this area.



Zylla had to work the next few days so we continued to hunt this area and across the highway in the Thunder Basin area.  Here we are four wheeling this area.



We were still not finding much coyote sign.  I finally got a shot at another coyote here . . .



The coyote came from left to right in the photo above.  I lip squeeked him to a stop at about 175 yards.  Missed again?? 



Above is an old abandoned ranch house that we hunted near.

Unfortunately we had to head back to WV.  In Western Nebraska we got caught in a terrible hail storm with golf ball sized hail.  They really hammered my new camper and truck.  Here is the camper . . .



And one of the skylights in the camper took a direct hit . . .



I had a great time in Wyoming.  Got to see some really nice country, make a new friend in Zylla, some of those PM guys are OK!, and shot up a prairie dog town.  We only killed two coyotes which was way below our expectations.  The car trouble and hail storm were not much fun. 

Before i left for Wyoming my wife and son had planned a trip to Alaska for the last week of August.  I had a little over a week at home to try to get the damage to the truck and camper repaired.  So I worked with the insurance company and camper dealership and body shop to get my truck and camper fixed.  Didn't get that all taken care of til just recently.  It worked out OK and I ended up with an even nicer camper.  But all this stuff has kept me from being on line much.

Hope you guys enjoyed the long story of my Wyoming adventure.  I hope to go back again sometime.

Jim

[linemansteve]

Great pics Jim !!! that's some beautiful country. To bad you didn't see more yotes but the next trip you'll do better.  That's always a bummer when you have car problems but looks like you got that covered now.  Steve

[riverboss]

Jim it looks like you had a very interesting trip congrats on the yotes and praire dogs  :congrats:that hail looks like it was something i hope you were insured im looking forward to see more pics of your other trips.   Dan

[LBLDOG]

Frogman
I enjoyed the story and pics. My oldest and myself in a few yrs go out there for a Pronghorn Bow Hunt. That is are dream to do in a few yrs

[Frogman]

LBLDOG,

I forgot to mention in the story that we saw antelope just about everywhere.  The locals think they should have open season on them.  The pickup I traded for was the only one of four we looked at that did not have a heavy duty grill on the front of it because of the damage done by hitting antelope.  Seems it's worse than the similar problem we have here with deer.  Some of the antelope would run along beside the truck along the two tracks and seem to be racing with us.  Then they would suddenly dart across in front of us??  They veru numerous there.  Should be a great place to hunt them.  I think the bow season was just beginning in early August when we were there?

Jim

[Roundman]

Wow...That was a heck of a story Jim. Sounds like it was a lot of fun except the car trouble stuff. Gotta say I'd been all to pieces after the hail storm beat up my new truck.  Hats off to ya for keeping your cool.

[iahntr]

Wow, you had an eventful trip !
A lot sounds like it didn't go as planned,
but still sounds like a fun trip and some
great scenery too !
Thanks for sharin it all with us.

[LBLDOG]

Souds good Jim on the Antelope. My oldest is 10 . I told him when he is about 13 or 14 I want us to do a bow hunt for Antelope. Sounds like I need to be on BLM instead of paying outfitter $1500 a piece

[possumal]

Heck Froggie, tell your new friend out there in Wyoming that the Prairie Dogs make up a great stew.  It takes about 20 of them to have enough to feed three or four guys or gals.  The trick is to boil them for 30 minutes, hair, ticks, and all, and then let them simmer with some chopped up celery and onions, and a generous cup or two of Weedwalker Ed's coyote helper seasoning.  Let it cool down on its own over night, and then heat it up next day with a couple of cans of mushroom soup mixed in.  Yummy, it is great and makes you real quick at heading to the basement when you are home.  I'm suprised he didn't know about that, living in Wyoming and all. 

[Frogman]

Al,

Just imagining that stew recipe almost sent me to the basement, Yeeeuuchh, that doesn't sound appetizing, even to a Good Ol boy from WV???  And we eat lots of road kill here, so my stomach is pretty strong!?!?

"Hair, ticks and all",    are you sure about that??  Sometimes it's hard to tell when you guys are serious or not????

Jim

[JohnP]

Great story and pictures felt like I was there.