Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Wyoming Unit 11 Advice

I have a cow permit for WY elk unit 11. I did quite a bit of pre-season scouting and decided to hunt in the Sand Lake area. This weekend I hunted two and a half days and did not see a single cow. I did have a bull at 15 yards broadside looking away from me; very exciting as this was my first elk hunt! I also saw a couple of other bulls, but not a single cow.

When I was packing up camp today I spoke with a couple who had exactly the same experience, four bulls, no cows, and they had cow tags. They have more experience than me and they thought the cows may have already started to move into lower elevations. Does this sound right? It makes sense to me, but again, I am new to elk hunting.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

No they have not left the forest. It hot,dry, and a full moon. You just have to go find them,

Aliens didn't beam them up. Go find them. Down lower in 11 means the Wick. Did you see any out there in the sage in this frigging heat?

Pfft! Typical. Have a cow tag in your pocket and you have to elbow the bulls out of the way. Look in dark timber in the coolest places you can find. They will turn up eventually. Like wyoelk notes, elk are not generally sunbathers.

I hate 11. Biggest bull I have seen in my life and I had to shoot the cow standing next to him.

Lhook... Timber. Hunt harder. It's a postage stamp area.

Thanks for the advice. I think I will try the same area this weekend.

I had no intention of hunting the Wick, I was considering moving about 2,500 feet lower and hunting the Rock Creek area. I don't think I can hunt much harder, I walked a little over 17 miles by GPS in 2 1/2 days in the little area of the postage stamp I was hunting, I think I need to hunt smarter rather than covering a lot of ground. I spent some time in the deep timber, but clearly not enough, most of my time was spent on the fringes of the timber 10 to 20 yards from meadows.

Thanks again for the advice, I'll post my results.

You walked 17 miles and didn't see a single cow elk in 11? See above.... Dark timber

That is a lot of walking fringes - where they can see you from the darker deep timber. In the dark timber, walk slower and look a lot more using binocs. Look for elk parts - whole elk are often difficult to see, but ears, legs, rump patches, etc can be seen among trees and blowdown in timber. Yes. Hunt smarter.

Good luck.

I can't decide if I am the luckiest or unluckiest SOB out there! Did not see a single elk this weekend and only heard one faint bugle in a neighboring area....but... I have a bunch of great pictures of two bull moose fighting at about 20 yards! I will post them tomorrow or Tuesday.

So for those of you keeping score at home, I have seen deer, bull elk, moose, fox, coyote, rabbit, squirrel, and grouse. The only animals in the area I have not seen since season opened are bear, mountain lion, and #%*+��% cow elk!!

When it is this hot, they will bed down all day or stay in green timber up high. North-facing slopes are cooler.

Thanks again for the advice. I am going out again this weekend, then that will be it for my bow hunting.

Here are some pictures of the moose.

Dude! What an opportunity! Now you know where to put in for a moose tag.

And, what CO said. North-facing as cool as you can find. Sneak slowly and use optics very liberally. Watch those thermals. Look for shaded ridge pionts and cool benches. Try to be above them or at least on the same level. Uphill bowhunting under those conditions is wasted effort.

Good luck.