I was discouraged from elk hunting by all the talk of wolves out west and a lot of negative hunters complaining of not seeing anything after hunting for a week. I just sat back and read up on it. I hunt in Northern MN and WI, we have wolves and bears. You just have to work hard and you have a pretty damn good chance of getting a quality animal. Last year I told my dad to get his gear ready we are going out West. I bought him an antelope hunt in WY for his birthday. We both got a speed goat and then we were off to Idaho. I purchased us the Selway A tag. After some good ole fashion google scouting I took us to unit 20 south of Elk City. Ill be damned, I some how put us in a position to shoot an elk. We were eating breakfast one morning and heard a bugle. My father was 59 years old but he out sprinted me up the mountain side. We were in the perfect position. In between a bull elk and heard of cows. I couldn’t see the cows but I could hear them calling across the valley. Hearing an elk bugle and chuckle sends shivers down your spin. We ended up hitting some hell brush, don’t know what it is called but it grows down then straight up. Sucks to try and walk through. All we could see as the elk walked into this stuff was his antlers. Long story short my dad missed the first shot and I couldn’t connect on a running elk. Turned out to be the only elk we saw but I was able to find a bunch of rubs and a wallow that seemed to be used pretty frequently. We both ended up taking a whitetail on our last day, they are thick as rats around the area we were in. I AM NOW HOOKED ON ELK. That was such a fun hunt!
We are going back out this year to hopefully put one down with the bow. I have so many questions though!
-How do you approach calling elk? I think if I would have had a bugle with me or wouldn’t have been so hesitant to use the cow call I could have pulled that elk in closer.
-Is it even worth hunting over a wallow?
-I really want to put down a mule deer. Is there a cut off in the state as to zones where I have an opportunity at a muley and elk?
-Hell, I would buy someone drinks for days if I could pick their brain!
We are going back out this year to hopefully put one down with the bow. I have so many questions though!
-How do you approach calling elk? I think if I would have had a bugle with me or wouldn’t have been so hesitant to use the cow call I could have pulled that elk in closer.
-Is it even worth hunting over a wallow?
-I really want to put down a mule deer. Is there a cut off in the state as to zones where I have an opportunity at a muley and elk?
-Hell, I would buy someone drinks for days if I could pick their brain!
