Wyoming opener, Moon and crowds...UPDATED with success pictures!

Knight.54

Knight.54

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So I bit the bullet and burned my points in Wyoming. I drew a rifle tag on the west side of the Bighorns, the season is over two weeks long and the full moon falls right at the beginning of it.
One person who I spoke to said they went with a buddy last year(same unit) the last week and saw hundreds of elk and very few hunters.
Am I crazy not to go the first week or so and try to avoid the full moon and some of the people. Or do you you guys think I should try to be there from the beginning?
 
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Knight.54 said:
So I bit the bullet and burned my points in Wyoming. I drew a rifle tag on the west side of the Bighorns, the season is over two weeks long and the full moon falls right at the beginning of it.
One person who I spoke to said they went with a buddy last year(same unit) the last week and saw hundreds of elk and very few hunters.
Am I crazy not to go the first week or so and try to avoid the full moon and some of the people. Or do you you guys think I should try to be there from the beginning?
Click to expand...
If it were me, I’d hunt every last day I could hunt and be there the entire time or until I filled my tag, regardless of moon phase.
 
I've never seen Elk "go to their beds before first light" and be able to pin it on full moon days. Seems to me every day is different, regardless of the moon; stop bugling early, bugle all day, don't bugle much but stay out till late morning, etc. I hunt every day I can.
 
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I'm told they are still out there if the moon is full, but I don't buy it..... sounds like fake news to me!
 
WapitiBob said:
I've never seen Elk "go to their beds before first light" and be able to pin it on full moon days. Seems to me every day is different, regardless of the moon; stop bugling early, bugle all day, don't bugle much but stay out till late morning, etc. I hunt every day I can.
Click to expand...

This. I see a lot more influence from weather patterns than moon phase. I'd hunt the entire 14 days if I could.
 
I remember one year the moon was getting debated on a forum with the usual “they bed early” talk and I was in NM sitting on a stump looking at a bull I’d followed all morning as he fed along and it was 11:00 am. The moon as full the previous night.
 
I agree with the other fella's on here. Hunt as long as you can. I drew Wyoming general this year and I plan on hunting two full weeks. Good luck to you!
 
The weather is a bigger factor. I drew that tag a couple of years ago. They had a big snow just before opener and a lot of the elk had already moved off the national forest. If the weather gets nice they will move back up.
 
robsev said:
The weather is a bigger factor. I drew that tag a couple of years ago. They had a big snow just before opener and a lot of the elk had already moved off the national forest. If the weather gets nice they will move back up.
Click to expand...
There are plenty of elk on the Nat Forest on the west side of the Bighorns year round regardless of snow/weather, especially bulls.

You WANT weather on those hunts, not 60 degrees and sunny every day, which is a real drag.
 
I figured I’d put an update on here as to how this worked out for me.
I got greedy.
I ended up with a first rifle tag in Colorado also....
I decided to go and do the Colorado hunt and then burn it up to Wyoming a couple of days late.
The tag in CO was not hard to draw tag and I always want to see new country. I tried to do a scouting trip to the CO unit in August but had some vehicle issues that really prevented me from seeing what I wanted. I did get the lay of the land and learned a few things.
Come October I was in position and feeling good about it all. Then opening day came, I knew the unit had a lot of tags and pressure, I took the road less travelled looking to avoid crowds. I avoided elk too. I was blown away by how many people I saw. I’ve hunted CO for over 20 years and I had never seen anything like it. The first two days had me feeling pretty negative about the whole thing, plus it was balmy, the nights were bright and I wasn’t finding elk. Then on day three I discovered an issue with my truck. It wasn’t going to stop me but I also wasn’t going to drive on to WY knowing I had a problem. Thankfully I have some great friends in Ft. Collins that I knew could help me fix it. My Wyoming tag was much more valuable to me so I saddled up, limped her to my buddy’s place and with the help of a couple of great guys had her back to 100% and ready to roll to the Bighorns less than 30 hours after I found out I had a problem.
So off I went. I had rented an air b-n-b in a neighboring town. I was prepared to do some camping too but wanted the place in case the weather got rank(ended up being the right call). I hunted pretty hard for a few days without much to get excited about. But then some weather came in and things changed. It snowed, quite a bit up on top, to the point where access became a bit dicey from the top. I had been spending most of my time in one area but hadn’t turned much up. I had one friend of a friend kind of a contact there, as my frustrations began to grow I reached out to him for some advice. He told me a few areas to check out, but he also told me what I had been doing was a good plan too. It was just the encouragement I needed.
I set out that afternoon and instead of driving in as far as I could and hunting I drove in about half-way up a forest road. I parked a began hiking up a pretty steep hillside, the kind most guys won’t go up without a reason. I was moving slow and glassing as I went. A couple of hours passed and I spotted a couple of cows moving down from a wooded draw. I only got a quick glimpse of them before they disappeared in the contours between us, they were about a half mile away. I could tell they were in motion, and I could tell they weren’t alone. I knew there was more there than I had seen. I took off down the hill hoping they’d keep moving in the same general direction and I would be able to see them again. I don’t know how far I went but when I stopped and sat again it took ten minutes or so before I caught another glimpse of them. This time I saw the whole herd. There was a nice 6x6, a five point, a small spike and about a dozen cows. They were on the same general line they had been on and it looked like they would cross just below and in front of me. I moved one more time, thinking they would pass through a clearing diagonally downhill from me at about 300 yards. It wasn’t long and they started appearing. A couple of cow passed over a knob and I ranged them at 307. Just a week earlier I had rang the steel at 300 on the range in Rifle,CO. I knew this was it. I saw the bigger bull’s rack coming and said to myself, “I’m gonna kill that f**ker.” The five point crossed the knob and I knew the six wasn’t far behind. He stepped up and into my scope. I squeezed off and the bull went straight down. I can’t describe the elation. I had killed my third absolutely solo, public land bull. There was still about a half an hour until sunset. I cleaned him and got the first load back to the truck by 10:00 pm. I slept there by the truck and had him completely packed out by 2:00 the next afternoon.

Literally a dream come true. I grew up and live in the east. I had never seen an elk let alone hunted one until I was 24. I make my living in the Atlantic Ocean. I am so blessed to be able to walk in these creatures footstep and see the places they live.

Here’s a few pics... I wish I was better at taking the time to take some good ones.
I hope everybody gets the tags they want this year, and I hope I get to go one more time...

View attachment 125508View attachment 125510View attachment 125508View attachment 125510FC2F579A-9B67-4C2D-92C2-791B70C2B8A2.jpeg
View attachment 125508View attachment 125510mFC2F579A-9B67-4C2D-92C2-791B70C2B8A2.jpegEFDEACB0-2F13-462C-B241-657C2E7DCCF8.jpegB6D29891-9773-4AFD-9534-B17987CD229D.jpeg9B5E0943-4098-4E24-82B3-AAE1628B34A9.jpeg0E3414C0-A6F7-4A2C-A999-6F9F035B4B86.jpeg75BD66D1-8C33-4783-9A11-6C823A9EF66F.jpeg
 
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