Wyoming Elk Unit 98

[Desperatehills]

Yes, I am brand new to Rokslide. But I promise you I am not another one and done poster looking for advise to not report back how things went. If you want to know for sure, I go by desperatehills on Monster Mulies and ifish and have a long history of positive post.

One of my best friends (best man in my wedding in 1988) hunted 98 with a bow from Sept 9th-19th then hunted with a rifle for 3 days. His son had to return to work so he returned home and I offered to go back with him and hunt the last week of October. My research says that is the best time to hunt the unit because the elk move out of the wilderness and towards the feeding grounds. Where exactly are the feed grounds? In my mind I was thinking they were down at the south end of the unit. One is called scab creek but that looks to be pretty far north maybe near Boulder. I picture this being a hunt where most the time is spent behind glass. My buddy thinks we will still be hunting the timber just outside the wilderness. He is trying to tell me that the wilderness is only slightly higher than area towards boulder and he can't understand how this hunt can improve with snow. How far is this migration? Is there any reason to look west of highway 191?

Thanks in advance for any advise. I deserve to get ripped on a little for asking for help in my first post here. I have thick skin, I can take it. For a little more history on my buddy. He has only killed one elk that I know of and he has never killed a branch bull. I hope to help him change that.

 

[Desperatehills]

With the general season in this unit coming to a close does anyone have any stories to tell? Hopefully this snow gets the bulls moving down.

 

[mrv5399]

Looking at possibly going to 98 next season. Any advise? How was your trip?

 

[Desperatehills]

Well I said I would come back and tell my story so here I am. First place we went and set up the spotters we found elk. Our excitement did not last long. While planning our route we discovered the elk were on private property. Since we could not hunt these elk we went back to where they found elk on the early hunts. It snowed 6" that day and everything seemed to be hunkered down. The next day we hunted the next meadow over. We called in a spike that my buddy passed. Then while calling we had a herd with a big bull sneak in behind us. My buddy got a shot off but he must have hit a branch. With fresh snow we would have found blood but there was none. That was the last elk we saw on public land. During the week the herd of 40 on private grew to over 300. In hind sight we should have worked our way behind the private ground.

 

[TERMINATOR]

Looking at possibly going to 98 next season. Any advise? How was your trip?

I hunted Unit 98 with an outfitter in the wilderness. Hunting the Type 1 Opener on Sept 20
Elk were bugling everywhere and all the hunters in our group tagged out. I would absolutely hunt Unit 98 again but only on the Type 1 tag and in the wilderness. And here is why.

From what I can tell/learned, you will really struggle if you can't get into the Wilderness UNLESS you get big early snows. We camped at 9600 feet and the elk were up close to 10,000 feet and above....to start on the Sept 20 opener. What happens in unit 98 is that after the Oct 1 General Opener, not only are the elk still in the wilderness area, but they actually go further back in/higher once the hunting pressure amps up towards the end of Sept and in Oct. They start deep in the wilderness and go deeper with pressure UNTIL snow forces them down.

To show the point, the camp I hunt had 100% opportunity (one hunter wounded one and never found it, rest tagged bulls) in the Opening week and were done after 4 days hunting. Same outfitter, same camp in the General Season was 1 for 6 killing bulls (albeit one hunter missed 3 times on good bulls). Lots of locals with horses moved in for the GEN season and the competition was high and the elk got pushed further back toward the continental divide.

So if I was to hunt Unit 98 on anything other a Type 1 tag on the opening week of Sept 20 in the Wilderness above 9600 ft, I would wait as long as possible into the season and pray for BIG snow and be able to hunt as low as possible on the public land and hopefully intercept them on the way to private land on the bottom of the mountains.

 

[Desperatehills]

Just curious, did the guides take you up scab creek or did you go in the south side by the lodge? Do you mind sharing the name of your guide?

 

[TERMINATOR]

Just curious, did the guides take you up scab creek or did you go in the south side by the lodge? Do you mind sharing the name of your guide?

I hunted with Todd Stevie (Thomson Outfitters) out of Pinedale.

We entered through private land locked gate that he had access to that bordered NF land then took SxSs up to the edge of the Wilderness, then packed in via horses from there.

So the answer is "neither" Scab Creek nor "By the lodge' (I assume you are talking about Big Sandy???)

It is a difficult unit for non-residents to hunt unguided and very tough without big snow. That is because there are limited public access points and for the most part the elk are in the wilderness then go further back in the wilderness with hunting pressure until snow pushes them down.

 

[Desperatehills]

Thanks Terminator, my buddy that had the tag wants to do the hunt again. I will share your story and which guide you used. You are right about it being difficult hunting 98 as a non resident unguided. It can be done but it is not near the quality of hunt that you experienced. Did you guys get any big bulls? My standards are low, 300 is considered big.

 

[TERMINATOR]

Thanks Terminator, my buddy that had the tag wants to do the hunt again. I will share your story and which guide you used. You are right about it being difficult hunting 98 as a non resident unguided. It can be done but it is not near the quality of hunt that you experienced. Did you guys get any big bulls? My standards are low, 300 is considered big.

Low 300s is a reasonable expectation if your willing to pass on 5x5s and even smaller 6x6 assuming your hunting opening week (Sept 20) We had multiple bulls working. I tagged out 2nd day on a 6x5. I could have been more patient. The one I could not get a shot at was a 6x6 that was easy 300" plus.

My experience and my follow up with my guide about the hunts after my hunt mirrors exactly what the Wyoming G&F web site says about unit 98 below

"Elk are common in the upper basins of the Bridger Wilderness early in the hunting season and typically do not migrate to lower elevation habitats near the Forest boundary and on BLM and private properties until late in the season (late October-November) following significant snowfall. Hunting pressure typically pushes elk back up drainage in the absence of continued weather events. Use of horses is advantageous in this hunt area due to presence of few roads and distances from access points to elk herds, especially early in the hunting season. Limited harvest opportunities exist for self guided non-resident hunters during the September and October portions of the hunting season."

 

[TERMINATOR]

Thanks Terminator, my buddy that had the tag wants to do the hunt again. I will share your story and which guide you used. You are right about it being difficult hunting 98 as a non resident unguided. It can be done but it is not near the quality of hunt that you experienced. Did you guys get any big bulls? My standards are low, 300 is considered big.

Besides his two wilderness camps in Unit 98, Todd also runs hunts out of two camps by the Green River east of Pinedale. I think it is unit 95 there.

Unit 95 has no GEN season but the season doesn't open until mid Oct so there definitely are few if any elk bugling. 95 is about 50/50 NF Land that is not wilderness and Wilderness. I suspect elk can be found there on the NF in Oct. They did pretty good by the Green but I honestly don't know if they hunt the wilderness or just NF over there. But you have to be prepared to share the woods with Grizz. Supposedly there are some Grizz in 98 but I never saw any sign of them and the guides in camp were not real concerned about them. One guide carried a 45-70 lever gun as bear protection and another carried a .454 Casull on his hip just in case. My guide didn't carry a gun and just said "if we see a grizz and it wants to eat us you will have to kill it" (with my .300 Wby) He wasn't real concerned about me having to LOL

But Grizz are definately more common in 95 than 98 per the WG&F