Wyoming Elk: 3 tags to fill

[ScottR_EHJ]

Bull down. Pictures to come tomorrow, i am beat. Not big, but weird so i had to have him

 

[Ryan Avery]

Nice work!

 

[robby denning]

Great! We like "weird", in fact, Ryan A. is pretty weird himself.
Good job sreekers.

 

[7mag.]

Congrats, can't wait for pics. Now go kill a cow.

 

[ScottR_EHJ]

Ok, back in town. Going to spend the rest of the weekend butchering. Yesterday was close to 10 miles in snow with 2 elk. The cow my buddy shot had a bigger body than my bull!

 

[Ryan Avery]

Pics??

 

[ScottR_EHJ]

Ryan, pm me some contact information. I have a couple phone pics on me that i well pass along before i can post good ones.

 

[Ryan Avery]

sreekers sent me these pics.

 

[ScottR_EHJ]

Thanks Ryan for posting those pics.

I have a few more to post, and also have some thoughts on how I could have made the live hunt a little better.

This year has been a challenge to say the least. Mule deer are what haunt my thoughts year round and two opportunities at great deer were missed. One was living less than 200 yards below my camp in hiding, and a buddy got lucky on a fluke and put the hammer down. The picture below is of me with the buck.

The second buck was one of the biggest bodied deer that I have ever seen on the hoof. So big that we started referring to him as Santa Clause, he had cankles, no joke. Plain and simple I blew the shot, no excuses at all. I didn't miss by much but not missing by much doesn't put him on the ground.

That leads me to elk season, I want a monster bull on my wall. General season rifle in Wyoming for elk has the potential to kill a big bull but it's never a gaurantee, especially when the season often runs as early as it does but post rut.

This past weekend was supposed to be a Thursday to Saturday trip, which actually ended on Friday, much to the relief of my wife. I am truly blessed to have a newly wed bride who has been ok with me being gone just about every set of days off that I have had. Not only did I marry up in the looks department but in the patients department as well.

 

[ScottR_EHJ]

This brings me to Thursday. My buddy and I left town early that afternoon and drove the hour and a half to our hunting area and quickly unloaded the ATV's to get to the trailhead that you normally can drive your truck to. Per usual there had been a few guys who had used the shut down road for some illegal use, but there hadn't been anyone there in close to 3 days.

From the trailhead we could see over a dozen elk, on the trail about 2 miles from our location. With the cow tag burning a hole in my pocket my partner and I decided we wouldn't have an easier meat pack out than this one. The elk stayed on the trail for close to an hour as we worked our way up the and through the trees to keep ourselves concealed.

When we arrived they had all worked their way over the hill and away from our line of sight. So we decided that we would work our way to a hill where we had seen two bulls feeding and see if there was anything with them. Once the hill was in view we were again disappointed and about ready to call it a night when my partner saw the "Baseball Bat" bull.

He didn't want him, but like I said, the weird ones have a place in my heart. First shot was a direct hit that would have proven fatal. Fatal or not it didn't knock him over so we headed to the other side of the small drainage and found him from the top to finish him off.

 

[ScottR_EHJ]

I will be back a little later with the story of Friday morning and the cow my partner got. 1 down, 2 tags to go!

 

[DWarcher]

Cool bull...

 

[ScottR_EHJ]

Ok, on to Friday morning. We got to the trailhead right as the sun was breaking and immediately found elk. Truth be told though, with 6 inches of snow on the ground it is pretty easy to find elk in this area. The elk were only 100 yards from the kill site from the night before, which played very well into the final pack out that was going to be necessary for the rear quarters that were cooling in a pile of snow.

The elk were about 2 miles away and my partner was pretty set on a bull. In glassing them I was pretty sure that at least 3 of the 40 were branch antlered so it was time to get a move on. It took us just under an hour to get to where we needed to be for a shot. Only problem was that to be in place for a shot we had to ridgeline ourselves. A bull was quickly located and shot at, but nothing down. I took a shot at a cow as well but didn't have any blood to follow either. In due dilligence we tracked for a while making sure we hadn't missed something, and then I headed down the hill to start loading up the rest of my bull.

As soon as the carcass was in sight I heard 2 shots from where my partner was. He had stopped to take care of some business in a patch of trees and happened to have 2 stragglers come out of the trees below him. One was this cow, collar and all. He decided that he shouldn't turn away a gift that close to the trail, flat head or not. The other piece of his logic was that he had missed a shot at a decent bull, so he couldn't say he hadn't had an opportunity.

All in all a very good weekend, with over 100 elk spotted. It's pretty typical in this area to see that many during the rut, but it doesn't happen as often during the general rifle season. Hoping to make it happen on Friday for one of the cow tags and close the door on this area. My third tag has a December season that I will be getting in on.

Next post will be some things I learned that could have made this "Live" hunt a bit better.

 

[ScottR_EHJ]

Live Hunt Lessons

Here are some things that I plan to do better for next year:

-There is an added element of pressure to put something on the ground when there are people reading the play by play. This can and does make it a little emotionally tough at points.

-When people are reading how your hunt is going standards for what you plan on pursuing can become harder to meet. Case in point would be that my standards for deer are much higher than for elk, no matter what. Elk is our meat in the freezer type of hunt and it's really nice to have a LOT of it. When you are posting on a regular basis there is pressure to have decent pics, a good animal, and overall good presentation.

-Send updates to someone who can post for you and edit the stupid auto corrects that come from a smart phone. Some of my spelling was horrible and it could have been avoided had someone been editing for me. If I do this hunt live next year I will be doing posts from a laptop or some type of 4G tablet to help with this.

-I should have also lined up someone to send pictures to on a regular basis to keep things even more interesting. Seeing 100 elk in a day is exciting, and pictures would have made the experience that much better for all involved.

-Whatever technology you use for a live hunt make sure it will perform in whatever conditions you are hunting in. With the cold my Droid Razor decides that the touch screen is going to freak out and its pretty tough to update.

-Because pictures are so important, make sure that you have plenty of batteries for everything pictures require. When picture sessions are rushed you have to rely on your ability as a wordsmith to paint what happened. When you have words and PLENTY of pictures to go along with the day of hunting its a better experience for all.

I have more, but have some work obligations to take care of. I may try and swing a couple day trips to finish up the second cow tag.

 

[ScottR_EHJ]

2 for 3

Here is a picture of number two taken this year. This should close out my attempt at 3 elk in one season until next year. Took this yearling cow/calf at about 40 yards. We found the elk bedded in some bare aspen trees and the stalk was on. One snowy climb up the ridge later and a short hike to their feeding area then boom. Season over.

If the tags are available I hope to make it happen next season.

 

[Slim Jim]

Young elk meat is great eating! Congrats

 

[lorneparker1]

Here is a picture of number two taken this year. This should close out my attempt at 3 elk in one season until next year. Took this yearling cow/calf at about 40 yards. We found the elk bedded in some bare aspen trees and the stalk was on. One snowy climb up the ridge later and a short hike to their feeding area then boom. Season over.

If the tags are available I hope to make it happen next season.

Hes still got yolk on him!! Gonna be a tastey bugger for sure

 

[WyoBowhunter21]

That's a nice one. Gotta love the wierd ones and our great state!