[petey]

The morning was spent glassing our mountain for traces of elk that may have migrated on the property through the night. My first morning into the hunt we had spotted 3 bulls over 300” on neighboring private land and saw near 1000 deer on our property (yeah, that’s not a typo) Thank the lord I did not have a deer tag, as my hunt would have ended that first day on a nice 150” whitetail which would have turned into a bad choice as I had an honest 180” mule deer within 50 yards later that week. Accompanied by me was a couple other hunters, one a Fish and Game Warden from Florida, another lovely lady from the state of Indiana, with her non-hunting husband (at least this week) and a good old boy from Wyoming. My guide was a knowledgeable fellow my age that killed one of the most famous wolves of the Yellowstone region, during the first ever hunt. The antis used the killing of this wolf to help raise money to once again place the moratorium on wolf hunting. Let me tell you that the stories that were published in the national news were somewhat skewed of what actually happened. We spent a lot of hours glassing and telling stories and just enjoying “being there”. After the morning hunt, we would all gather at a wall tent camp, eat lunch and tell stories about our morning hunt or just BS about whatever came to mind. In the afternoon, we would head back out to glass, put stocks on potential animals that raised an eyebrow or get a little closer to get a better look.

In the evenings, I would see herds of 100 deer at a time. No guff either, as I watched from horseback one night a herd of 99 deer, 98 of which were does and small bucks and the 99th being a dandy buck that the lady hunter shot. I was amazed at the amount of animals that would come off this property in the evenings. It only made sense as the farm fields below were stacked against the Yellowstone River and this mountain was the only cover around.
The accommodations were awesome, true log cabins right there in Bill’s back yard off Jardine Road, with a view of Mammoth Hot Springs to the South and Sheep Mountain to the North. Peggy, Bill’s wife always had a great supper in the evenings, large breakfast before the morning hunt and had packed bag lunches every day. We shared plenty of stories, that’s for sure.