I just got done guiding two elk hunts here in Wyoming. These two hunts were with different outfitters with quite a bit of difference in potential. One is a pack in wall tent type camp south of Yellowstone. The other is on the ranch I live on.

Here's my hunters bull from the pack in hunt. Bull had 10-12 cows and 3 other bulls running around bugling. We didn't even call, just moved towards all the racket. Finally the cows started moving through a meadow and then I did cow call to stop this bull. Shot was about 200 yards browning blr 30/06 165 NAB.



I don't like to wait until the next day to get the bull out but circumstances made us. My hunter snapped this picture on one of the switchbacks.


We found this varmint on the ribcage. I had moved the meat and horns a ways off. But he had carried the horns back up to the ribcage.




We asked him to leave and he was pretty good about it. Bull loaded on the mules.


Then I guided an older guy here on the ranch. We hunted the high country horse back some but his knees were having a hard time so we went down to some lower country and used the buggy to get around. He ended up shooting this bull at 404 yards, Blaser 300 RUM tipped Barnes. We happened to be watching the right spot at the right time and watched him come around the hill with 30-40 cows and several other bulls. I had my pup Ruby on her first elk hunt.


When I got done taking care of the bull it was close to dark and a little ways from where we could get the buggy so once again we had to come back the next day. 4 of us plus my son went back with backpacks. We usually use mules here too, but it would have taken all day to ride back in there for a very short pack out to the buggys.
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And there had been a bear here too. He had eaten one entire rear quarter and the back straps and tenders that I had so nicely cut out for him. While we were loading the remaining pieces up we saw him circling us for just a couple seconds.

Back to the buggy
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Very nice..Congrats to all.

Good times... thanks for sharing!

I wanna go with you.
Outstanding stuff and great pics.

nice work. sounds like yall need a bear tag or three!

Great photos, nice bulls!

Excellent - good work.
Great picts too, thanks for sharing.

Good job! Thanks for sharing, love threads like this.

Great bulls and greedy bears make for an interesting set of memories. I used a pair of solar powered driveway markers, set on flash to keep a bear out of camp. They are five inches long, about 1 1/2 in diameter and weight a couple of ounces.
They worked but it only was sample set of one. This area and camp has been consistently hit in years past with bears. Could be at least tried if forced to leave elk meat out overnight in bear country. The rancher thought it had promise and was going to use the idea in the future.

Ralphie, are you guiding by two ocean area, hunted there in sept pretty thick
With grizz, we had 7 dogs in camp and were up part of every night.

Very nice, Ralphie. Thanks for sharing.

That's awesome!! Love the packing pics! Guides get a bad rap a lot of the time but it's guys like you, Drummond, Ravenr, and Scenar that are making dreams come true!!!

Terrific photos, Ralphie.

High Adventure. Love it.

Continued success and safety to you all out there.

Nice pics!
I don't like to do it but I've had to leave meat in the field overnight many times. So far, I've never had a varmint get to it. Pure luck. Hanging meat 10' in the air is a trick recommended by someone who's never tried it.

Wow, awesome photos Ralphie. What a year!

Tanner

Thinking you should be on that list.

Are you offering hunts into the future?

Great pictures and a couple of very nice bulls! Thanks for sharing the fun.

Yes, shoot me a pm, we can talk.

We actually use strobe lights like that in camp too. Especially in our summer camps. We've had pretty good luck with them. In hunting camp we have solar lights set up that stay on all night.

I've never tried either with an elk carcass out overnight. The strobes might be ok to carry.

On that first elk the dang gray jays were on it before we even started taking pictures. I figured we were going to have a bear on it.

Sounds like some good hunting...great pics!

Great pics and bulls.

So far I've been lukcy on animals... I'll stay up until whenever, even to getting in at almost daylight to get the meat out of the kill area.

We did have to leave some in AK once... but we moved it probably close to a mile before hanging it. Got lucky on that one but I prefer not to do it that way.

Someitmes you have to.

Great report and photos!

Thank you for sharing the hunts with us.

Very nice Ralphie. Thx for posting. I take it you are in the greater Yellowstone area.

Super! You are having way to much fun. Got any horses big enough to pack me around?

Yep, not a problem.

Someday... I'm green with envy on you getting to live/work in that country doing what you do.

Would my horse have really long hair down around it's feet?

PS- I may have to steal your scope on a stick setup for doing tree survey's here. Looking up while walking a transect sucks.

That looks like a damn good place to hunt, If your taking clients for next year id like to talk to you. Im trying to put together my first elk hunt

Yes it might be a little feather footed.

You'll like the "canopyometer." The only mistake I made was not buying a leupold for it.

I figured that'd be the case with the horse.

I wonder if I buy the scope for the "canopyometer" and don't get re-imbursed for it if I could use it as a tax right off? Field work can be tough, so maybe a Nightforce version is needed...

Awesome pictures, man I love elk hunting. Throw in some horses and bulls, can't go wrong:)

+1

Good work sir!