My WY Elk Hunt starts tonight!

[WhitewaterDuck]

he said he was camping high.

Well...

[WhitewaterDuck]

Good luck!! I’m just west of Laramie right now. They are talking but not quite ready. We’ve called in 3 small bulls so far and watched a smaller bull pushing some cows around yesterday evening. I still have 2.5 days to get it done.

Yup. I was up there with you. They were going off last night, but got quiet in a hurry this morning. As I was driving out there were a pile of people heading in. I'd like to think I could let a smaller bull walk, but the pressure I witnessed in 24 hours in the middle of the week makes me think I'll shoot the first legal elk that presents a shot.

[Tha Dick]

I’ve passed on 2 small bulls so far. After seeing several over 300” (one 350”), I’m holding out for my goal of 300+. Today was a total bust. They were shut mouth tonight for sure. Looking forward to tomorrow morning and seeing if they talk better.

[Luvin' Labs]

Dang man. I hate it turned out like that for you. Seems if you didn't have bad luck you'd have no luck at all sometimes.

[Sasha and Abby]

Solo hunting is just stupid dangerous in the mountains. I have not done it in 20 years... Crazy how fast things can go from sugar to shit. Glad you are on the mend

[JimmyD714]

Glad you're alright. From our visit to Colorado in July I was convinced I'd love to spend time in those mountains chasing deer, or maybe turkeys, but I'd have to have a friend or 2 with me.

One bad slip can leave you in a lot of trouble and in a place with no cell service. Even with a sat phone it could still take a while for help to arrive. Doesn't even have to be a fall, could be some other sort of freak medical emergency. It's best to have someone with you.

Rest up, call a friend to join you, and go kill an Elk!

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

[WhitewaterDuck]

Yup. The adrenaline carried me for another mile or so before the reality of what happened and what could have been set in. I’m sore as fugggg today, but ibuprofen is making me think I’ll be good to go Sunday afternoon. I’m not giving up. I just need to nut-up and drag my outa-shape azz back up there. Hope ThaRichard deflated one today.

[WhitewaterDuck]

Well, about the time the pain from the fall was easing up and I could walk around without limping, I started to feel feverish. For the next three days, I sucked down Tylenol and Ibuprofen and rolled around the bed miserable spiking and breaking fevers and soaking the bed in sweat. Felt like a horrible flu with no symptoms other than a high fever and the misery of the ol' skin crawling and hair hurting that comes with it.

I had run into a bunch of problems with a bunch of stuff leading up to this hunt, and I told Abby that I didn't know if God was trying to tell me to stop and concentrate on things other than hunting, or if God was testing me and my ability to persevere. I felt like giving up. Instead, I regrouped and headed back up to meet my friend at his camper to continue the pursuit. When I returned, there were about a hundred other campers in the area, and at sunset, there were no less than 5 different numbskulls in the back corner of the meadow the campers were in blowing their bugles in the direction of the elk I'd heard bugling my first night up there.

We all decided to do an 8 mile trek through the Savage Run wilderness area burn with a shuttle. This is the remote and roadless blowdown hell that I had face planted in earlier. We told the majority of the day to work through there, and we never saw or heard an elk or saw fresh sign. Upon returning to the campers and discussing gameplans over whiskeys and moonshine, we again noticed the heard of bugling numbskulls in the back corner of the meadow. There were actually people riding four wheelers while sending bugles into the woods. It was at this point that the proverbial light bulb went on for me.

So, we were still hearing bulls bugle at night from the camp...they were much further away than when I initially heard them, but they were still in the area. Nothing was bugling during the day. These yahoos that kept collecting in the meadow at sunset had obviously been hearing these bulls also, and despite their best efforts, they hadn't totally run them off. So, why the hell are we trying to find bulls where they are not? We know they are over in that huge block of timber somewhere, we just need to figure out where and hunt them in a manner that the numbskulls aren't. I looked at my On-X terrain map and found a spot that looked fairly obvious for pressured bulls to go. I talked the group...there were five of us hunting...into giving my plan a shot. They were reluctant, as this place was pretty much ground zero of the circus-like activity going on around us, but they got on board and we headed out with about 45 minutes of light left to get to a high point where I thought we might be able to hear a bugle to confirm my suspicions.

When we got to the listening spot, we got out of the truck and BAM...bugle 200 yards below us. We listened to that bull bugle with his cows vocalizing all around him and we ended up hearing two other bulls answering down in this deep hole. When looking at it on the OnX, it was like roosting a turkey that you just know you can kill in the morning. Most of the time when I roost a turkey, I know I won't kill it based on where he is, but every once in a blue moon, they roost where you know he's dead if you don't screw it up...this was one of those set ups. The guy I'm with has killed a pile of good bulls, and when I told him my gameplan, he was reluctant that it would work.

I knew these bulls were bugling near our camp every night for the last week despite the pressure around camp. They wanted to be there, but they got there late and left early. I knew these bulls were headed off toward our camp, and I suspected that they were on a fairly tight pattern and deviating from it very little...otherwise, someone would have killed one by now.
I figured if we got in there very early and got into the three main points of access back into that hole and just shut up and let them return to where they obviously felt safe, someone would get a close encounter. If they made it past us and into where they were bedding, we'd have them surrounded and could drop in from above with rising thermals and get close. The plan was on and seeing as no-one was seeing anything anywhere else, it was approved.

My friend I was staying with in his camper was the most doubtful and wanted to just go and find some more remote area to hike into away from pressure, but I kept on him and kept telling him that if he went in low while we went in high, he'd have a bull dead by 0730. Kept telling him not to leave a bull to find a bull. He was reluctant all night and all morning, but he did do his part and take the low trail into the hole working up toward the bedding while we took the high route in and stayed on the backside of the ridge until the sun hit the ridge top and thermals started rising at our location. I knew the bulls would not be talking due to the pressure. I had been set up and quiet (wasn't going to cow call until I thought they were back to bed down for the day) for 30 minutes listening for any vocalization or walking coming from the hole when I heard a bugle 200 yards down the hill in front of me. It was ultra quiet bugle and sounded like a person...but I knew a person could not be there. I was with another hunter in our group, and he was 50 yards away watching a distant hillside behind me. I got up to get him so we could go after the bugle, and it took ten minutes to realize I couldn't find him. In that time, the bull bugled once more a little further away, and I decided to head out after the bull. Before I could get to where I first heard him bugle, I got a text from my reluctant friend letting me know he had just put an arrow in "a dandy."

I made my way out to a main road and back to the truck and drove to where Scott had walked in. Once we talked, we realized that he had cow called one time on the way in, and a bull answered him immediately with a really weird, soft bugle! He cow called once more, and the bull bugled again at half the distance and was in his lap in less than three minutes. So, lessoned learned...if you are in the woods and think elk may be nearby...cow call or SOMETHING! I just sat there and listened to my buddy call a bull that basically ran 400 yards to his lap, and the bull was hanging out primed for action less than 200 yards from me the whole time. Oh well. I was just pumped that I came up with a plan and it actually worked. I have very little elk hunting experience, but using my turkey hunting experience and hunting pressured animals experience, I felt really confident in the plan that was in my mind based on what I could see on OnX. The best thing about it all...Scott shot the bull at 0705.

Bull was high double lunged with arrow buried to the fletchings. Bled great from 25 yards from hit to 250 yards from first blood with good bubbly lung blood...then nada. We looked for a few hours and naturally gravitated downhill toward the thickest stuff in the gulch. Nada. I contacted a dog handler and we all backed out. The dog and handler came up the next day at 0700. I had to go pick up my nephew at the airport in Denver, but I felt good about the dog finding the bull. I got a call that evening saying the dog couldn't work out the trail past last blood (most likely due to everyone spreading the blood that they didn't even know was on their feet throughout the entire gulch) and they could not find the bull. I felt horrible for my bud, as he said it was a great bull...especially for that area.

In the meantime, I wanted my nephew, who is like my own child, to experience the awesomeness of elk hunting, as he is contemplating moving out and taking a job in Cheyenne. I decided to take him into area 7 to tag along with a friend that I met and hunted with last year that was lucky enough to draw the tag again. I wouldn't be hunting, but I'd help my bud connect and we'd be into bulging bulls. That worked out well, and while we helped my friends newbie elk hunting "friend" from NY get on some elk, my friend ended up connecting with a nice 320" bull.

My nephew and I realized we didn't want to be around the yankee newbie anymore, but we did get to watch 120+ elk including a couple of 320-340 bulls we just couldn't make a play on...and we found a brook trout stream that looked like the bait tanks at Pack's in April. We gave Yankee boy some advice on what to do to get on a bull, and we went to work on the brookies...resulting in a two man limit of 7"-10" brookies in about 45 minutes...and we tossed back at least 30 under 7". They were dang deliscious. My nephew interviewed in Casper on Monday, received the offer, and will be moving here between now and the end of October...he is hooked on Wyo.

Got a text Sunday evening; my bud knew he had made a great shot, so he went back up and looked UP hill where no-one thought the bull would go, and he found him 300 yards away up the hill on a bench between two knobs. He is a dandy indeed. Monday, I get a text from my bud Austin, and Yankee Boy persisted and killed his bull also.

While I didn't let an arrow fly, I had a blast and feel much better about my ability to understand and hunt these beasts. It's not over yet, but I'm feeling very optimistic about next September...and I now know of what has to be the greatest brook trout stream on earth. In order...Austin's area 7 bull; Scott's Snowy Mountain Hammer bull; and Yankee Boy's bull.

;;

[murraywader]

Awesome write up. Bugling from a 4wheeler sounds like some Utah boys.

[scquackaddict]

When I lived in Idaho everyone referred to them as Utards.

[WhitewaterDuck]

I just got a call from another friend that just got a call from some friends of his up in the Snowys telling him that the switch flipped last night and the bulls are now on fire up there. Figures. I have a meeting in the am and will be off to NoDak Saturday to work for a couple of weeks. It's been a weird rut, and the warm weather has everything happening LATE this year. I walked into my turkey hole this afternoon here in Wheatland to poke around a bit and see if I could luck into some elk. It is still stupid warm down here. I almost left my pack in the truck, but I decided to tote it last second. After the sun set, I started walking out, and in less than 100 yards, I had run into two rattlesnakes. The last one coiled and was ready to screw up my world less than two feet in front of me uphill about dick level, After getting my light out of my pack, I killed that bastage and took about 45 minutes to cover the ground to my truck that usually takes me 10 minutes. I'm done walking around in sagebrush and rocks until it turns cold...screw that noise!

[Tha Dick]

Nice! My guide was telling me the 4th week of archery can be outstanding as well. Keep at it, I want to see you with a grip and grin photo! :bighthumb:

[PharmHunter]

Good stuff…sounds like a great experience.

[Simple Man]