Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 2018 wyoming elk hunt

After guiding one hunt this year and then my daughter's hunt my friend and I headed to a general unit. We'd put in as a party with the plan that if we didn't draw we'd hunt general together.

So we hauled some horses and camp over and set up camp the first evening. A wall tent for cooking, eating, and hanging out in and the other for sleeping. Pretty tough outfit.





We cut up some wood that night and settled in.

This first morning was several weeks into the season. And there were other guys around. We headed in 5 or 6 miles mostly in the dark and spotted elk pretty quick. That morning we put on quite a few miles on foot. Never could get real close to any elk. We did run into a real nice bear several times. He just kept showing up.

At lunch we were sitting down watching a basin and spotted some elk way off with no way to get there. My friend says "try your bugle." It was hopeless but I didn't think it would hurt. Well I let out a pretty bad call the elk we were watching stood up, then I look right below us and what had been an empty meadow now held elk. I pointed to my friend and he gets ready to shoot, 450 yards down a cliff on a bench that we have never been on. The bull was down pretty quick.

Now we had to figure out how to get there. We managed to work our way down the cliff the whole time wondering how we'd get the horses down here. We ended up finding a pretty nice way on the way back out.



We got him packed out the next day and back to camp by noon for a nap and lunch.

That afternoon we decided to go somewhere a little closer for an evening hunt. We spent most of the evening here.



With no sightings. We decided to give ourselves some time before dark to allow us some time to hunt our way back out. We were walking our horses down a hill and I happened to take this short video with my phone.



Not much in there except RIGHT after I put my phone away I looked down in the meadow and spotted a bull. The smaller christmas tree in the video in the little meadow at the end of the video is where I shot from. I spun around handed my buddy the lead rope and grabbed my rifle. I was able to shoot prone off my pack. Pretty much my favorite field shot. He was 260 yards. He was quartering away. At the shot he took off and I was able to shoot him once on the run, although that one ended up being a little back. He made it about 100 yards. I shot from up in the trees behind me in this picture. He must have been in those trees somewhere when we went through there several hours earlier.



I knew he was broken when I shot. But we were pretty much shooting any legal bull anyway.

Here is the rack at home in my barn.

We gutted him out that night. Finishing up in the dark and it started to rain/snow.

Headed back up in the morning and packed him out.



The entire bull is on that horse. She's a draft cross and doesn't seem to bothered by 4 quarters, steaks, and 2/3rds of a rack.

Pretty nice hunt, nice weather really too nice. And it's nice to live in Wyoming.

Congrats on the hunt! That’s the way to get it done!

Excellent!!! What calibers??

A most excellent adventure congrats to both of you!

Nice! I love it.....

My friend shots a tikka 300 wsm.

I shoot a 300 winchester with 200 Partitions. M8 6x36.

great choice!!!!!!!

Congratulations on a fine hunt.

Looks like you had one heck of a great time! Congratulations and thank you for posting your story...

Congrats!

When you guys who field dress and leave overnight to comeback the next morning to quarter/pack out; is there any issue with the animal being found by bear or other predators and worked over?

Congrats to you both on taking a couple nice bulls!!

Super cool! Congratulations! Thanks for sharing!

Yes. I was happily surprised we didn't have a bear on either of these elk. I try to get them out the day of the kill, but sometimes it just doesn't happen.

Looks like a fun hunt

I've had that happen twice in the last 10 years with black bears. I look at it as the cost of doing business, didn't lose much meat either time, once because the bear had just got there before me and once because the sow & cub went for the carcass first.

Very nicely done!! Congrats!

I seriously need to try an elk hunt off of horses. Only used stock for packing, never for riding.

Good stuff!

Ralphie is a good hunter, no matter what pointer says behind his back...ha, kidding, well done.