BUFFALO — More than two dozen vehicles lined French Creek Road outside the gates of Bud Love Wildlife Habitat Management Area in the final hour before opening on May 15.

The morning was crisp and cool and sunny, though rain was forecasted. Some toward the front of the line had camped out since 5 p.m. the night before, while others rolled in minutes before Game Warden Sarah Dugan opened the gate and led the convoy inside.

From there, people peeled off into different sections of the 7,900-acre Wyoming Game and Fish Department-managed parcel of public land.

Ungulates spend their winters there, eventually dropping their antlers that recreationists fan out to locate on opening day.

Dugan said that she’s heard in the days since the opener that hunters recovered fewer sheds than last year. Th

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