Host Jim Nicklas tells the story of his recent Wyoming mule deer hunt with his brother-in-law, Andy Riddle, and outfitter, Dan Dody.Resources:

Dan.Dody on Instagram

Diamond Ranch Outfitters

1. Andrew Riddle, MD at Georgia Bone and Joint Surgeons

Christensen Arms

6.5mm Creedmoor

Nightforce scope

Swarovski binoculars

Zoom

Riverside.fmSummary: Andy Riddle had been antelope hunting and he wanted to go on a mule deer hunt. He invited his brother-in-law Jim Nicklas, to go with him. They applied for their tags and got drawn. Everything was on target.

Andy and Jim departed from Atlanta, arrived at Denver airport, and rented a truck from Alamo. They planned to drive north through Fort Collins and stop at Laramie to pick up supplies. Their destination was just outside McFadden. They got off the interstate onto County Road 13. They met their outfitter, Dan Dody, with his truck on the side of the road. Following Dan’s white truck through a cattle guard, they took off down a gravel road and traveled through the small town of McFadden, basically an old-school gas and oil exploration company. There were jack-up rigs along the way pumping oil into a storage tank. A coyote ran across the road in front of them. Jim wanted to shoot it but they didn’t stop. Before long, they saw a second coyote, and Jim said this was going to be a good hunt.

 

They crossed a couple more cattle guards to get to Dan’s ranch. The house had a tall flagpole with a large American flag flying in the breeze. In the house, they made introductions, petted the dogs, and organized their gear. Jim tells of Dan’s guns. Jim invites you to email him at [email protected] if he doesn’t talk about the guns correctly. Jim, Andy, and others are building the website www.menbuildmen.com and Jim invites you to look at it. Also, visit them on Instagram @menbuildmen. Dan brings out the guns and suggests a Christensen Arms and a 6.5mm Creedmoor with a Nightforce scope. They took the guns behind the house for some target shooting at wood cutouts. They practiced and sighted the guns at 200 and 300 yards and felt good about their shooting prospects.

They went to dinner, then to bed. After breakfast, Jim sent out his daily Bible verse email, prayed over the day, asking the Lord to bless their time, and got ready to hunt. The objective was to go to the western part of the ranch to the breaks, ditches, draws, and couloirs. They were in the high Wyoming desert, which was a new experience for Jim. They got in the truck and drove out. Along the way, they stopped for a break, and immediately saw a buck! It was close, so they decided to let it go its way and they would hunt it later. They drove in another direction and saw a lot of sage and rocks. Jim was anxious to get back to that buck. He was scheduled to take the first shot. They worked their way through some of the breaks and didn’t see anything. They moved close to where they anticipated the buck would be bedded down.

 

As they walked to the edge of a ravine, Dan took a couple of steps, looked through binoculars, and took a couple more steps. Finally, Dan said he saw one. The hunt was on! They belly-crawled toward the edge. Jim tried to control his breath; his heart was racing. As they approached the lip of the ravine, they saw the deer had the sun behind him and would be able to see them before they were in place to shoot. Jim rolled onto his back, but then rolled into position, and the deer didn’t see him. The buck started walking with another deer along the ravine. Jim thought he had a shot, but Dan said the muzzle would shoot into the dirt. So they let the buck keep moving. Dan was range-finding it and at about 260 yards, Dan said to shoot. Jim shot it just in the back of its lungs. The deer mule kicked and ran off. All three of them saw a solid hit. Jim chambered a second cartridge but couldn’t get a clear shot. The deer got up to the top of the ravine when Jim fired at 260 yards just as the buck was clearing the ravine. The deer bounded off into the next ravine or draw. They started to track it by following the blood trail. A smaller 3x2 buck showed up. They expected Jim’s buck to be behind a sagebrush. Breathing heavy, with his heart racing, Jim held his crosshairs on the small buck when Dan whispered, “There he is!” Jim turned and saw his 4x4 buck walking down the couloir to a huge expanse. Dan glassed him at 480 to 520 yards. It was too long to shoot. They start to walk after the buck down the draw. Dan glassed him again at 700 yards. Dan said he wouldn’t be able to make that shot. The 4x4 buck hopped a fence onto someone else’s property. Jim was distraught. The blood trail had thinned out. Jim had expected to find the buck dead but it was still going strong and walked out of binocular range.

 

Dan had called the adjacent neighbor and gotten permission to continue the hunt on their property. The neighbor said to finish what they started, so it was on. The blood trail had stopped and Jim asked his surgeon brother-in-law, Andy, why it would have stopped. They walked the 8oo yards to where they had last seen the animal. Dan and Jim went in one direction. Andy went another way and found a track.It had not rained in the area for 30 days, until the day Jim and Andy arrived. As they drove up through Laramie, a tremendous storm hit. The ground was still wet the next day, the day of the hunt. They were able to follow the animal’s tracks. The three of them working together, one stopping at a track and the others spreading out to find the next track, tracked the deer to a river. Near the river, there were cattle tracks everywhere but they could still find the buck tracks. Jim was in the lead. The tracks led right to an oxbow bend in the river. Dan found a drop of blood near the tracks. Another 30 yards around the oxbow, they found another track and another drop of blood. Going upstream, the river was getting shallow. At the most shallow part, the tracks stopped and Jim proposed that the deer crossed the river at the shallow part. Jim started wading through seven inches of water. A part of the bank jutted out and as Jim crossed it, he found himself staring through his binoculars face-to-face with the wounded 4x4 buck bedded down in the shrub cottonwoods. He pulled up the rifle and shot the buck at four or five yards. Then he loaded another cartridge and shot again. The deer bounded away and crashed through the cottonwoods. Andy and Dan caught up to Jim where he took the shots, to be safe. They found more blood and some tissue and tracked the animal through the cottonwoods. As they came out through the shrubs, after a few yards, Dan spotted the animal on the ground. The second shot had gone through the lungs. As a team, they had harvested this big buck. It was a wonderful experience working as a team. Jim says there’s no way he could have done it by himself. Andy and Dan had their eyes down, tracking. Jim had his eyes up, ready to shoot, but without the trackers, he wouldn’t have been prepared to shoot. It was an incredible experience. They field-dressed the buck there and harvested the heart to eat.Jim and Andy made some videos they hope to post on Men Build Men, to mentor young men and teach them skills. Jim says, “We want boys to grow up to be men. We want males that are not acting as men to behave as men. … Men build others into men. We affirm each other. We support each other. We encourage one another: We transfer our skills and traits and things to teach and instruct others. … All the other skills of Dan and my brother-in-law, they were there; helped me succeed. Not a solo effort; total team.”

 

It was a big animal and it took everything Jim had to drag him for a while. Then his brother-in-law helped.It was a great story and adventure. You can see some of the pictures on Instagram @MenBuildMen and @jimnicklas_live323. Jim says he hopes you enjoyed this story and, “If you’ve got some things that I need to change and/or correct; I need to tighten up on, as I indicated, you guys are always welcome to email me: [email protected]. You can direct message me on social media platforms.”Call to Action: You are welcomed and invited to be involved in the Men Build Men organization in Cartersville, Georgia, and www.menbuildmen.com. Once a month, we have a sports outreach where we play the most competitive ball that we can. The group is B4: Boys, Bible, Burgers, and Balls. We’re trying to make a difference, mentoring boys into men.If you’ve got some men it would be productive for me to interview to share their experiences, insights, and skills with others, please reach out to me. I’ll be glad to interview them in person, or by Riverside. There are no sponsorships. I’m not trying to monetize this. I’m about the Bible. I believe the Bible. I believe it’s the best book ever written. I stand for the Bible. I want to live it. I pray over it daily and I want other guys to know it, too. And so that’s what I’m about. I’m a believer in Jesus and I believe that Jesus is the most masculine man that ever walked the face of the earth. He sets the example for us to follow. He’s built me up. He strengthens me with the Holy Spirit living inside of me. That’s who I am. That’s what I’m about. I hope you guys are, too. I’m always available for you guys who have questions and I try to encourage you. Until next time, let’s be strong. Let’s follow Jesus. And let’s be about it, man. Let’s be the Mark of a Man. Email any questions about the show to Jim at [email protected].

 

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