Just got back from my Wyoming elk hunt. Had an absolute blast. Gotta give a big shout out to a few guys here on the forum, Team Kabob, for insisting I borrow his trailer, so I could take every single piece of hunting gear I own, and Kiddwinner and MOHunter for providing some key intel on the unit.
Day one, we arrived in the afternoon, and headed off to a spot where we could glass into a canyon we wanted to hunt. We spotted 3 bulls before getting rained out. Decided we were tired, and went to bed at 7:30pm. Woke up the next morning, and glassed from the same spot, finding 30 bulls, including 2 pretty nice ones. To this point, we had heard very few bugles. We packed up, and headed off to drop into the head of the canyon. We reset camp, and then headed in for the evening hunt. Saw one bull moose, heard no bugles, and saw no elk. Bummer
The next morning, we headed back in to the same spot. Hunted all day, heard no bugles, saw 3 bulls right before dark. Hunting the same spot the next morning, no elk, no bugles.. These bulls aren?t doing anything.. Decided to head out and take a look at a few spots MOHunter had told me about. Hunted one piece of timber for a day and a half, tons of sign, saw one small 5 point, and a cow moose with her calf.
Moving on, we go check a spot Kiddwinner told us about. Winds were roughly 70,000mph. No bugling, no elk sign. Ugh. The last few nights have only gotten down to the high 40?s, it?s hot, and the elk really aren?t doing much. Bugling a bit around 10-1 in the morning, and then picking back up for a few hours in the morning, from 8-10 or so.
We?d given the original canyon a little bit of rest, and decided to go back in there, on the afternoon of day 7. We?d seen elk hanging out on this long bench that was basically inaccessible from above or below, and hiked into it early in the afternoon. We had just gotten to where we really wanted to be, when I looked down ?Elk!?, just as my partner looks up and says ?Mountain Lion!!? We watch the lion for a split second, slinking through the rocks above us, about 75 yards away, it disappears pretty quickly. Once we lose sight of the lion, I make a few cow calls. Not a minute later, I see tines coming up over the ridge! The bull is on a beeline to us, 50 yards away. At 30 yards, he stops to eat, but I can?t draw. At 15 yards, he stops again, still no draw. He makes it to about 15 feet away, and is about to bust us, so I just draw as fast as I can. He bolts, and I stop him with a cow call at about 45 yards. As he stops, I aim for 50, and shoot. I can see the shot is a touch high, and a bit back, but I know it?s got both lungs. He trots off about 75 yards, and we watch him lay down and die.
We got him quartered and bagged by 7, and dropped the last load at the truck around midnight, with each of us taking 2 loads out.
Overall, it was a great hunt, we saw a ton of elk, a total of 18 moose, including one giant, and countless mule deer. On the drive out at midnight, in the first 5 miles, we saw over 100 elk, including 4 stud bulls, all at least 350 or better, running cows, right in the middle of the road.. I ended up seeing another mountain lion cross the road in front of me, 5 miles outside Sundance.
Day one, we arrived in the afternoon, and headed off to a spot where we could glass into a canyon we wanted to hunt. We spotted 3 bulls before getting rained out. Decided we were tired, and went to bed at 7:30pm. Woke up the next morning, and glassed from the same spot, finding 30 bulls, including 2 pretty nice ones. To this point, we had heard very few bugles. We packed up, and headed off to drop into the head of the canyon. We reset camp, and then headed in for the evening hunt. Saw one bull moose, heard no bugles, and saw no elk. Bummer
The next morning, we headed back in to the same spot. Hunted all day, heard no bugles, saw 3 bulls right before dark. Hunting the same spot the next morning, no elk, no bugles.. These bulls aren?t doing anything.. Decided to head out and take a look at a few spots MOHunter had told me about. Hunted one piece of timber for a day and a half, tons of sign, saw one small 5 point, and a cow moose with her calf.
Moving on, we go check a spot Kiddwinner told us about. Winds were roughly 70,000mph. No bugling, no elk sign. Ugh. The last few nights have only gotten down to the high 40?s, it?s hot, and the elk really aren?t doing much. Bugling a bit around 10-1 in the morning, and then picking back up for a few hours in the morning, from 8-10 or so.
We?d given the original canyon a little bit of rest, and decided to go back in there, on the afternoon of day 7. We?d seen elk hanging out on this long bench that was basically inaccessible from above or below, and hiked into it early in the afternoon. We had just gotten to where we really wanted to be, when I looked down ?Elk!?, just as my partner looks up and says ?Mountain Lion!!? We watch the lion for a split second, slinking through the rocks above us, about 75 yards away, it disappears pretty quickly. Once we lose sight of the lion, I make a few cow calls. Not a minute later, I see tines coming up over the ridge! The bull is on a beeline to us, 50 yards away. At 30 yards, he stops to eat, but I can?t draw. At 15 yards, he stops again, still no draw. He makes it to about 15 feet away, and is about to bust us, so I just draw as fast as I can. He bolts, and I stop him with a cow call at about 45 yards. As he stops, I aim for 50, and shoot. I can see the shot is a touch high, and a bit back, but I know it?s got both lungs. He trots off about 75 yards, and we watch him lay down and die.
We got him quartered and bagged by 7, and dropped the last load at the truck around midnight, with each of us taking 2 loads out.
Overall, it was a great hunt, we saw a ton of elk, a total of 18 moose, including one giant, and countless mule deer. On the drive out at midnight, in the first 5 miles, we saw over 100 elk, including 4 stud bulls, all at least 350 or better, running cows, right in the middle of the road.. I ended up seeing another mountain lion cross the road in front of me, 5 miles outside Sundance.
