Planning 2025 Elk hunt

[wweaver79]

@RiverRatt this is good advice. Filling all those tags in one hunt will be really really difficult. Better off to make multiple hunts out of it and have helpers go on each hunt

Second this. I hunt with two others. We apply in 9 states all separately for all big game. We have multiple great hunts every year because of it. Someone draws we all go. Hunting especially elk is best done a team sport if you have the right people anyway. Elk are a chore. You all do not need or want tags especially in a new area where you will have more unknowns and variables -to much pressure to get all that done.

 

[Caseknife]

Agree, apply with one of them for either West or South and let the other two go and help and also learn the country for their hunt in a couple years when you two go as packers/spotters. If they are all good friends, split the meat equally than everyone has skin in the game.

 

[Laurel Highlands]

Sub'd, I am also considering an elk hunt in 2025 western Wyoming star valley (Afton/smoot) and the Bridger-teton forest. I hunted this area in 2018 with a guide and group, but did not get an elk then. I now have 5 points and am debating whether to try myself or go with the guide again. I have never hunted anywhere out west by myself.

 

[COraggy]

I don't know how WY draws/success rates are but I wouldn't share points? I live and hunt Archery elk in CO for 25 years now and hunt with my brother. 20 years ago we would fill both tags hunting weekends but it usually took the entire season. so maybe 10-12 days hunting... this year it took me 9 days to fill my tag in an easy draw unit that ive hunted 16 years. I was hunting solo for 7 of those days. if its easier to draw one tag id do that... one tag at a time and learn an area that on the hunt app looks like it fits your needs of glassing. after all these years I finally purchased a spotter but because I plan to cash in 16 deer points and 21 Antelope.

I find hunting timber mixed with aspens and some oak or other bushy vegetation allows for the best chances. I seldom use my binos . I would think if you are in massive glassing country
1. you are missing a lot of elk
2. other people will likely see the same elk?
3. you are missing a lot of elk
I dunno just my experience... beating feet cruising drainages and covering ground has always been more successful for me.
good luck! I have 2 elk points in WY and not sure I will ever accumulate enough to make it worth while for me to travel and hunt a foreign area just once? Ive actually kept scouting preseason to nothing or 1 day... once the season opens elk seem to just get bumped around and or change their habits.

 

[JAG]

My suggestion would be to set up a two-year plan to hunt this same unit in Wyoming.

Use the first two tags for year one and apply as a party. Have the other two come along and help. Then, next year apply with the other two and go again with the same four.

Have two guys with the most points flip a coin and be the party organizer. Then have the two lower point holders flip a coin on who applies first. That guy applies as a party app to combine the points for the application.

 

[JAG]

I don't know how WY draws/success rates are but I wouldn't share points? I live and hunt Archery elk in CO for 25 years now and hunt with my brother. 20 years ago we would fill both tags hunting weekends but it usually took the entire season. so maybe 10-12 days hunting... this year it took me 9 days to fill my tag in an easy draw unit that ive hunted 16 years. I was hunting solo for 7 of those days. if its easier to draw one tag id do that... one tag at a time and learn an area that on the hunt app looks like it fits your needs of glassing. after all these years I finally purchased a spotter but because I plan to cash in 16 deer points and 21 Antelope.

I find hunting timber mixed with aspens and some oak or other bushy vegetation allows for the best chances. I seldom use my binos . I would think if you are in massive glassing country
1. you are missing a lot of elk
2. other people will likely see the same elk?
3. you are missing a lot of elk
I dunno just my experience... beating feet cruising drainages and covering ground has always been more successful for me.
good luck! I have 2 elk points in WY and not sure I will ever accumulate enough to make it worth while for me to travel and hunt a foreign area just once? Ive actually kept scouting preseason to nothing or 1 day... once the season opens elk seem to just get bumped around and or change their habits.

CO and WY are different for points. As you may know, in CO you can combine them, but CO uses the lowest point holder to determine preference point status.

Wyoming uses the average and that is your point total- that point total is used for your party and if there's one tag left in the quota for the hunt code, the whole party each still gets a tag.

 

[Laxmanryan16]

Coming from a resident who has tagged out the last 4 years in a row, the south region does get hit very hard. Especially during rifle season, everywhere is a zoo. But elk do hide in areas close to the road at times. Just be prepared for lots of activity on/off the roads and be willing to go farther into a nasty area as with the burns, that's where you'll find the most of them. If someone in your party also wants to go after a cow tag, it won't eat any points and likely has better draw odds if they just want to hunt. Best of luck.