'Easiest' WY Cow Hunt?

Elkoholic307

Elkoholic307

Banned
Feb 25, 2011
1,217
1
Base of the Bighorns
With it being the last day for most late season cow hunts in the Bighorn Basin, I thought I'd see how everyone did this year.

Was your cow hunt tougher than you expected or did it turn out to be relatively easy?
 
NE69

NE69

Active Member
Jan 6, 2013
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Southwest Nebraska
Bro in law and I had cow tags in the Bighorns. We went the Sunday before Thanksgiving and we both shot ours first morning. We had the type 6, within 1 mile of irrigated. It was more an elk shoot than a hunt but filled the freezer.
 
NE69

NE69

Active Member
Jan 6, 2013
372
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Southwest Nebraska
We shot our elk right away but what I saw after that left with a bad taste in my mouth. With so many bunched up on private and so much pressure on them that I saw several instances of what I considered harassment and unethical behavior going on. I respect the animals so much it bothered me to see it. Doubt if I will buy a tag under those circumstances again.
 
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shootbrownelk

Veteran member
Apr 11, 2011
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Wyoming
NE69 said:
We shot our elk right away but what I saw after that left with a bad taste in my mouth. With so many bunched up on private and so much pressure on them that I saw several instances of what I considered harassment and unethical behavior going on. I respect the animals so much it bothered me to see it. Doubt if I will buy a tag under those circumstances again.
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Do you care to elaborate NE69? You kind of let us hanging there. Unethical behavior in what way? Trespassing?
 
NE69

NE69

Active Member
Jan 6, 2013
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Southwest Nebraska
Didn't mean to leave you hanging. There were a few land owners using vehicles to push the elk herd to areas where they could be shot. The one herd of maybe 150 elk would stand in the middle of a center pivot with a bunch of angus cattle on the field. They knew if they moved that they would get shot so they were really hesitant to go in any direction. Once they decided to make a dash for BLM then the shooters would try to cut them off. Three cows didn't make it that time. We didn't know any of the people involved but was questioned by the GW afterwards. The way we understood it from him was that they didn't have permission on that property. Also saw a calf elk that some other guys found that had been shot and not found by who ever shot it. They dressed it out and was making sure it didn't go to waste. Pretty easy to lose track of an elk in a herd of 150 to 200 that is on the move and shot at several times. I just didn't like the whole situation but also understand the land owners problem when they have 600 head of elk on them every night.
 
T

Topgun 30-06

Banned
Jun 12, 2013
1,353
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Allegan, MI
laxwyo said:
Hey, who's to say the ranchers weren't out ranching? ;)
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Not funny at all and the same garbage got some a bunch of tickets down at Jackson near the Refuge a couple weeks ago. One person who witnessed it all took a picture and posted it showing a cow with her lower jaw dangling down from a gunshot. That beautiful animal will die a horrible death due to some jackass that was doing exactly the same thing that NE69 witnessed where he was. We need to police our own and this kind of stuff has to stop! The ranchers can work with the G&F to run the animals off or put up a fence to keep them off the fields. Either that or allow legitimate hunters to take animals properly so as to not violate the law which they certainly were doing when they were harassing those elk with vehicles. Disgusting , absolutely disgusting by a bunch of slobs that are not hunters in any sense of the word!
 
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NE69

NE69

Active Member
Jan 6, 2013
372
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Southwest Nebraska
Kind of hijacked this thread with my first post. Apology to 307. Maybe start another to get some more responses to your original post as I would like to know how everyone did?

TG, do you know if the cow that was shot in the jaw was taken care of? That is terrible to have that happen. If I would have seen something like that I would have put her down immediately and called the GW. Then field dress her out so she doesn't go to waste. If I received a ticket for shooting her then so be it but she had no chance to survive it sounds like. I am all for any changes that would eliminate these type of "shoots" going on. We didn't see any other wounded elk that day but there sure could have been. Both our cows were clean kills with shots taken at broadside with no chance of another elk behind them. Thanks guys.
David
 
Elkoholic307

Elkoholic307

Banned
Feb 25, 2011
1,217
1
Base of the Bighorns
No problem. I saw a similar thing happen in 61 last year. An 80+ year old guy took several shots from 200-250 yards and one of them connected on the jaw of a cow. It ran off with it literally swinging side to side. Thankfully, I was able to keep the glass on it due to the country being wide open. G&F also saw what happened and told me to take care of it because the older gentleman wasn't able to. Score one for long range hunting because that's one elk that didn't starve to death.
 
T

Topgun 30-06

Banned
Jun 12, 2013
1,353
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Allegan, MI
Good for you 307! This shooting into herds is despicable, as is running them around with vehicles and the like to make it a turkey shoot and up the wounding possibilities. From what I read it sounded like the cow I mentioned got away with the huge herd and they couldn't keep track of her to have any chance of putting her down. I just can't see how anyone that is a true hunter and conservationist like we all should be would be making any kind of a joke or downplaying this.
 
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shootbrownelk

Veteran member
Apr 11, 2011
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Wyoming
TopGun, I have seen the same thing 20 years ago in area#79. Several older gents took shots at running elk that were 400+ yds. away. Usually they emptied their guns, and later we's see elk with lower legs shot off. They never went to check for hits, they just crawled back in their truck and wait for the next bunch. The sad thing was, they were not the only ones doing it. You probably know exactly where I mean TG....It's a big hill in GrandTeton park.
 
T

Topgun 30-06

Banned
Jun 12, 2013
1,353
1
Allegan, MI
shootbrownelk said:
I think that's what they say to the wardens, who look the other way.
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Yep, I'm sure Tom and Matt know what is going on out there and they may well turn their heads unless they get a complaint called in to them. Tom has told me a couple times in conversations over the years that he enjoys the biologist part of his job much more than the GW part and has to get along with all the ranchers in his area in order to do all the game counts and other stuff they're involved with. I'm sure if he wrote a ticket on a rancher that it would spread quickly and he could get locked out of all the private property because they don't have to let him on if they don't want to. I think that's why the Carters got away with all those violations for years out there where they were using all their landowner tags for guided hunts and putting their nontransferable tags on them. It finally caught up with them even though there were many who suspected what was going on when someone contacted officials about a bull a nonresident illegally tagged with one of their cow tags several years earlier. They were up on state charges, as well as a number of NRs that had done the same thing and charges were also filed for Federal Lacey Act violations for interstate transport of that bull.
 
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