Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Wyoming Wilderness Outfitters

Does anybody have any info on this outfitter and if there is anybody who has use them, what did you think.

Thanks

Yes, I went on a guided elk hunt with them in 2008. What would you like to know?

I guess the questions I would ask you would be like the ones I would ask a reference. I would like any info concerning their services that you can provide. Were you satisfied with the outfitter and guides and your hunt. Was this the first time that you hunted with this outfitter. Did they treat you as a friend or just another customer that they were getting money from. Were the guides knowledgeable in their job and did they do their job to the best of their ability. What was the time of year that you hunted with them and what was the suscess rate of the hunters in camp with you. How was the area that you hunted and did you see alot of elk. What was the caliber of the bulls. How was the equipment that the outfitter provided for you to use while in camp. Would you use this outfitter again and if you would please explain why or why not. I thank you in advance for any help that you can provide

Okie dokey, here goes. I am also gonna send you a Private Message with my email addy and we can talk more specifics. Since you are new here, there will be a little envelope flashing on the header up above. click on that to see PMs.

Was I satisfied? Yes. It was the first time we went with him. They treated us very good. As a friend? Not quite as we had never met at that point. But they did not treat us as just another schmuck with buck. They guides were extremely knowledgeable. You will prolly not find better guides. The only problem I had was our guide (who is NOT related to the owner) treated us a little bit like we were new to hunting, which we are not. he made a couple of questionable calls. It all worked out, but he had a tiny bit of an attitude. For example, it turns out he sold vacuums in the off season. I commented that we had just bought a vacuum and he immediately told me mine was crap. Not a big deal, but kinda one of those things where you kinda wonder why he would say that. having said that, he was without a doubt a very knowledgeable guide. The owner and his son and the other guide was absolutely fantastic on all levels.

We hunted in early Oct. My dad and I shot a raghorn on the very last few minutes of the hunt. No one else in camp shot an elk.....but, and this is a very big BUT.....we endured a helluva storm on Days 2-4 of our hunt. The first day was fantastic. Saw 15-20 elk, had a nice bull within 50-75 yards (couldnt see him because of a small rise between us) and saw another big one (it was a long way away). Day 2 was the storm and it was miserable for the next few days. I can send you some pics if you want. I felt that the outfitter went above the call of duty to try and make our trip a success given the weather and I can share details later.

The area is steep. I mean reeeeally steep. Do you know how to ride a horse? I asked him why he uses mules instead of horses and he said cuz horses cannot safely go where we go. And I believe him. We are not horseman and I was 120% impressed with his mules. Unbelievable. I can share more on this later too.

We saw 4 bulls. 3 were nice bulls....280+. The one a long way off was the biggest and it was over 300, but I couldnt even hope to guess how big. it had a big hoop. Our guide said the one we shot was the smallest bull he had seen. We saw a bull the previous hunters had gotten and it was a really nice 5X5.

Equipment? Fine. All you could ask for. No problems.

Would I use this outfitter again? I dunno. The only reason I hesitate is the terrain. If my dad was going again, I would not. He is 62 and it was tough on him when he was 60. If you are younger and especially if you have some horse riding ability, I would not hesitate to book a hunt with him. The odds of you shooting an elk are better with Jake than pretty much anywhere I believe.

The person I know that went on a hunt with them (2008) I believe this was his first guided Elk hunt. According to him the camp was first rate, the mules were first rate as was the food. They saw plenty of bear sign and only one spike at very long range ...They had a few snow days that kept them in camp. The Guides all alluded to the fact that the Elk were holed up on Private land to which they had no access. The previous week all the hunters had tagged out.

Interesting....If the elk were holed up on private land they couldn't have packed into the wilderness very far. Do they do elk hunts that are not in the wilderness?

Not sure how far they packed in . I do not know if they hunt private land.

I sort of know T.J. Clark. He's a heck of a hand. He's about as capable as it comes for horses/mules/hunting.

I don't exactly know where the camp in 63/64 is but I believe it's somewhere on the wood river and in this country you could easily pack in a fair bit and still have elk take off to private land. Those elk can travel miles pretty quick. This is big country and in some cases private land goes just about up to the wilderness boundary. It's very feasible to come in one way through the wilderness and have elk leave the wilderness a different direction to deeded land.

All that said I'd have no trouble signing up to hunt with them. Remember too that any camp can have bad weather and suffer from elk moving out. All they can do is provide a good camp, guides and country.

Absolutely..you cannot ask for anything more

Oldelkhunter,
I was on that trip in 2008. By process of elimination, I know who you must be talking about. a couple of points I will make:

I am not aware that anyone saw plenty of bear sign. Some sign, yes, but not plenty. One bear was sighted for the entire camp for the entire trip. I dont recall anyone seeing a spike. I think most hunters saw more elk than that. Yes, we had snow days and in my opinion, Jake gave 120% to make up for that bad luck.

There was absolutely NO talk of private land when I was around. We packed in about 3.5 hours from the trailhead and I really, really dont think private land was an issue. I would double check that.

Jake, TJ, and Matias are both as capable as anyone out there. Nothing but geat things to say about them.

Ok , must not have been the same week. I will check with MWarren or you can PM him and ask him what week it was that his brother hunted. I was under the impression that no one killed an Elk the week he was there.

Want to confirm that my brother hunted with Wyoming Wilderness Outfitters in October of 2007. 2008 was cited above.

He told me the Outfitter, guides, camp (accomodations and meals) and mules were first rate. My brother would definately hunt with Wyoming Wilderness again. There were eight hunters in camp. They booked as a group, so I don't know if eight hunters is typical. Two hunters shot bulls very early in the hunt (5x5 and either 5x6 or 6x6). A snow storm hit hard after a couple days into their trip. The pics I saw showed a complete whiteout. When visibility returned snow was at least knee deep.

Two hunters per guide, and my brother told me their guide worked very hard. They found elk toward the end of the trip after the weather cleared. They watched double digit elk in an opening that their guide told them was on private property.

His ride into camp was pretty long. It took several hours to reach camp. He saw one small grizzly while hunting early on, then toward the end of their hunt the guide and animals tensed up suddenly. They heard what they believed to be a bear and to quote the guide "I can smell him, do you smell that." We live in eastern US and don't have a lot of wetsern hunting experience, so two grizzly in the same week seems like a lot, but that's just opinion based on background.

According to my brother, his guide felt wolves were the bigger problem for elk in that area. As mentioned above, he felt the terrain was rugged and would not go back without getting in better shape. He told me it was tough keeping up with their guide once they stopped ridding.

Ahh, that makes sense now. WWO sold that area and moved to a new area in 2008. Less bears methinks. I agree with what has been posted, a solid outfit.