This story really started at the end of last year. Due to work, I was planning on doing but hopefully one out of state hunt this year with that being my son's youth deer hunt in AZ, as he should have enough points to be drawn in the max pool pass. So when I applied in Wyoming to a unit that had been requiring max points and me being 1 point back I knew the odds of drawing would be great. When the results were posted, to say that I was shocked that I had drawn would be an understatement.
I am not going into my methods for choosing this unit, but I had never hunted it, or even been in it before. I did quite a few searches online and the info I could find was very limited. I got the list of previous hunters from the HF, but being rather shy, didn't actually get any information from them. I did pm one user on here who told me it was a good tag and I should be happy about it. I ordered my maps and used google earth to get a feel for it, and then Jake and I took a quick trip to the unit over labor day. I guess the bow season was already open, as there were hunters and 4 wheelers everywhere. With that in mind we didn't do any real scouting, just drove the rodes a little and picked out a few camp sites.
Fast forward to Wednesday of last week, and my 80 year old father and I head out pulling my jeep and a trailer. We made it about 300 yards before my "Service Traction Control" light came on. Messed with the wiring a little and it went away. We made the 1250 mile trip and arrived at the area about 6:30 Thursday evening with little light left to set up camp but first we had to find a new area, because everywhere I had planned on camping was already full. Finally found a spot and opened up the trailer to find that everything had been bounced around pretty bad from the roads and 3 legs on the wood heater had been broken off. We set the tent up and red-necked the heater with spare tent spikes. Didn’t look real good but was effective. If I had been by myself, seeing how warm it was, I probably would have just foregone the heater, but Dad was cold and wanted it running at night. Here is a couple of camp pictures.
I finished setting up camp Friday morning and spent the afternoon looking around. I was lost, as I knew where I wanted to hunt from google maps but couldn’t translate that to where I was on the ground. I did find an area that had some sign and heard one bugle but the way the prevailing wind blew, I wouldn’t be able to hunt it from where I was. I went back to camp and then up on a high point overlooking some private land and was finally able to figure out exactly where I was on my map which ended up being 3or 4 miles from where I thought I was going to be. This was a big relief to know where I was, with that I was able to determine the area that I heard the bugle on the map and then found a way in to the opposite side so the wind would be in my favor.
My plan for opening morning was to drive to the area where it looked like I could park, be there before shooting time and then as it got light proceed to look for a glassing spot or maybe even an elk. I was in position about 30 minutes early, so I just sat in the jeep and waited for light. About 10 minutes before light I heard a bugle come from the same general area as it had last night. As soon as I could see a little I headed out from the jeep into the woods. I had been traveling for about 30 minutes when I apparently spooked some type of animal as I heard them making a retreat but did not see them. I saw a pretty big rock pile ahead of me, so I headed up on it to see if I could do a little glassing from it. I wasn’t on top more than about 5 minutes when I heard a shot from across the ridge to my east. Shortly after that I stared hearing a couple of bugles from that direction. 5 minutes later, I start hearing movement coming in my direction from the ridge then I could see elk running through the trees. I picked out two cows, a small bull leading a larger bull. They were moving at a pretty good clip through the trees on top of a ridge. A quick range put it about 200 yards, but there was no way I could get a shot, as they were moving and the trees were thick. Then the bigger bull turned down the ridge and was coming my direction, but still the thickness of the trees made it impossible to shoot and pretty difficult to just try to see him through the binoculars. I could tell he had six points on one side but never got a good view of him. That being said, I made up my mind real quick, that for a first elk ever, he would work if I got the chance to take him.
As he was coming down the ridge the other bull and cows turned to come down from a different angle and put them back in front again. The big bull went through an small opening between a couple of trees, but by the time I got my scope on him, all I could see were hind quarters. While looking in front of him I saw the other elk go through another small opening which gave me about 18” to shoot through. I moved around and got set up on the bipod and as soon as he appeared in my scope, the .300 RUM spoke and I saw the bull hunch up as he had been hit, he took a couple of stagger steps and rolled over. 5 years after my first elk hunt, this 46 year old had finally killed an elk. I did a quick range and found that my shot had been about 88 yards, so much for all of that long range practice I had been doing. It was 7:30, all of my planning and waiting, the long trip, the camp setup and all had been done for a mere one hour hunt.
I made my way down off of the rock pile and over to where he had fallen. It was then that I first found out that his driver side was broke off at his fourth point and his fourth point on the passenger side also had the tip broke off. Didn’t matter to me a bit, I am still very excited and thrilled to take my first elk and to top it off it was a bull. I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures, sadly that ended with six as the battery died and I had put a full charge on it the night before. Bad battery, should have listened to Jake when he told me that the last time he used it. I had my cell phone so I took a couple more with it.
Now, I was only a little over a half of a mile from the jeep, but was by myself and in a hole. The realization was starting to set in. I had a job in front of me. First elk means I had never cleaned one before, and it also looked a little bit bigger than the Texas whitetail I am used to dealing with. I tell myself “well you are not getting it done this way” and went to work. All of the time that I was taking pictures there were shots going off and bulls bugling all around me. While gutting it, I heard a noise and looked up and saw two cows and a small raghorn bull walk by at about 20 yards and never even look my way. By 1:30 I had all four quarters, back straps and loins hanging up with the hind quarters being boned out and had preformed my first caping job on an animal. I wasn’t sure if I was going to mount it or not, but figured I would get the hide out if I didn’t screw it up. I think I did a good job of the caping, but guess I will let the taxidermist be the judge of that. I loaded up all of my gear in my small backpack and headed back to camp to eat a quick bite of lunch, grab my big backpack and come back.
When I got back to camp I took a quick look at the map, and it looked like there was a small road that would take me a little bit closer to him. I drove it when I got back and when I say road that might be an exaggeration, once upon a time it was a road, but now it was more of a 4 wheeler trail. I was able to make it down it in the jeep with tree limbs rubbing the sides most of the way. When I got to about a quarter of a mile via the gps, I noticed a game trail heading in that direction. The trail ended up going almost directly to the bull.
I am not going into my methods for choosing this unit, but I had never hunted it, or even been in it before. I did quite a few searches online and the info I could find was very limited. I got the list of previous hunters from the HF, but being rather shy, didn't actually get any information from them. I did pm one user on here who told me it was a good tag and I should be happy about it. I ordered my maps and used google earth to get a feel for it, and then Jake and I took a quick trip to the unit over labor day. I guess the bow season was already open, as there were hunters and 4 wheelers everywhere. With that in mind we didn't do any real scouting, just drove the rodes a little and picked out a few camp sites.
Fast forward to Wednesday of last week, and my 80 year old father and I head out pulling my jeep and a trailer. We made it about 300 yards before my "Service Traction Control" light came on. Messed with the wiring a little and it went away. We made the 1250 mile trip and arrived at the area about 6:30 Thursday evening with little light left to set up camp but first we had to find a new area, because everywhere I had planned on camping was already full. Finally found a spot and opened up the trailer to find that everything had been bounced around pretty bad from the roads and 3 legs on the wood heater had been broken off. We set the tent up and red-necked the heater with spare tent spikes. Didn’t look real good but was effective. If I had been by myself, seeing how warm it was, I probably would have just foregone the heater, but Dad was cold and wanted it running at night. Here is a couple of camp pictures.
I finished setting up camp Friday morning and spent the afternoon looking around. I was lost, as I knew where I wanted to hunt from google maps but couldn’t translate that to where I was on the ground. I did find an area that had some sign and heard one bugle but the way the prevailing wind blew, I wouldn’t be able to hunt it from where I was. I went back to camp and then up on a high point overlooking some private land and was finally able to figure out exactly where I was on my map which ended up being 3or 4 miles from where I thought I was going to be. This was a big relief to know where I was, with that I was able to determine the area that I heard the bugle on the map and then found a way in to the opposite side so the wind would be in my favor.
My plan for opening morning was to drive to the area where it looked like I could park, be there before shooting time and then as it got light proceed to look for a glassing spot or maybe even an elk. I was in position about 30 minutes early, so I just sat in the jeep and waited for light. About 10 minutes before light I heard a bugle come from the same general area as it had last night. As soon as I could see a little I headed out from the jeep into the woods. I had been traveling for about 30 minutes when I apparently spooked some type of animal as I heard them making a retreat but did not see them. I saw a pretty big rock pile ahead of me, so I headed up on it to see if I could do a little glassing from it. I wasn’t on top more than about 5 minutes when I heard a shot from across the ridge to my east. Shortly after that I stared hearing a couple of bugles from that direction. 5 minutes later, I start hearing movement coming in my direction from the ridge then I could see elk running through the trees. I picked out two cows, a small bull leading a larger bull. They were moving at a pretty good clip through the trees on top of a ridge. A quick range put it about 200 yards, but there was no way I could get a shot, as they were moving and the trees were thick. Then the bigger bull turned down the ridge and was coming my direction, but still the thickness of the trees made it impossible to shoot and pretty difficult to just try to see him through the binoculars. I could tell he had six points on one side but never got a good view of him. That being said, I made up my mind real quick, that for a first elk ever, he would work if I got the chance to take him.
As he was coming down the ridge the other bull and cows turned to come down from a different angle and put them back in front again. The big bull went through an small opening between a couple of trees, but by the time I got my scope on him, all I could see were hind quarters. While looking in front of him I saw the other elk go through another small opening which gave me about 18” to shoot through. I moved around and got set up on the bipod and as soon as he appeared in my scope, the .300 RUM spoke and I saw the bull hunch up as he had been hit, he took a couple of stagger steps and rolled over. 5 years after my first elk hunt, this 46 year old had finally killed an elk. I did a quick range and found that my shot had been about 88 yards, so much for all of that long range practice I had been doing. It was 7:30, all of my planning and waiting, the long trip, the camp setup and all had been done for a mere one hour hunt.
I made my way down off of the rock pile and over to where he had fallen. It was then that I first found out that his driver side was broke off at his fourth point and his fourth point on the passenger side also had the tip broke off. Didn’t matter to me a bit, I am still very excited and thrilled to take my first elk and to top it off it was a bull. I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures, sadly that ended with six as the battery died and I had put a full charge on it the night before. Bad battery, should have listened to Jake when he told me that the last time he used it. I had my cell phone so I took a couple more with it.
Now, I was only a little over a half of a mile from the jeep, but was by myself and in a hole. The realization was starting to set in. I had a job in front of me. First elk means I had never cleaned one before, and it also looked a little bit bigger than the Texas whitetail I am used to dealing with. I tell myself “well you are not getting it done this way” and went to work. All of the time that I was taking pictures there were shots going off and bulls bugling all around me. While gutting it, I heard a noise and looked up and saw two cows and a small raghorn bull walk by at about 20 yards and never even look my way. By 1:30 I had all four quarters, back straps and loins hanging up with the hind quarters being boned out and had preformed my first caping job on an animal. I wasn’t sure if I was going to mount it or not, but figured I would get the hide out if I didn’t screw it up. I think I did a good job of the caping, but guess I will let the taxidermist be the judge of that. I loaded up all of my gear in my small backpack and headed back to camp to eat a quick bite of lunch, grab my big backpack and come back.
When I got back to camp I took a quick look at the map, and it looked like there was a small road that would take me a little bit closer to him. I drove it when I got back and when I say road that might be an exaggeration, once upon a time it was a road, but now it was more of a 4 wheeler trail. I was able to make it down it in the jeep with tree limbs rubbing the sides most of the way. When I got to about a quarter of a mile via the gps, I noticed a game trail heading in that direction. The trail ended up going almost directly to the bull.
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