2009 Wyoming Public Land DIY Elk Hunt

[guntar]

I would like to give an attempt at a day by day story of our 2009 Wyoming public land DIY elk hunt. I am part of Scoot's elk hunting crew, and he has posted our stories the past couple years. So far we have had fantastic success elk hunting with our crew. We have gone 8 for 9 on filling our tags with the only unfilled tag going to my brother who could not make our trip last year. But he was able to draw a tag for the same area this year. So please hang with me as I relive the story of our hunt, it was an absolute fantastic time and should make for some good entertainment.

[guntar]

One disclaimer - I won't be revealing the exact location where we were hunting it is a long story, but it will have to remain a secret.

Randy is the only one who had a tag for this trip. So I was a caller/hauler/cameraman and it was just as fun as actually having a bow in my hand.

We arrived at camp just as the sunset on Saturday September 19th. Ran into a couple of nice local guys and got the scoop on what they had been seeing in the area for the last couple of days. We then got to setting up camp in the dark, which went surprisingly well.

The first morning we headed out from camp in the dark towards one of our favorite spots to sit, glass, and listen for bugling. We made our way down the mountain and glassed without much success, although we did hear a few bugles. We got down off of our perch and headed in the general direction of the one of the closest bugles. Before we could make it 200 yards a bull bugled much closer across a steep blow-down cut. I thought he was on the other side but I figured we should take our time through the blow-downs in case the bull was moving towards this cut. We snuck about 10-15 yards into the trees and stopped to glass the area and I spotted what I thought was a very nice looking rock but as I was taking a closer look I noticed that the “rock” had hair on it. Then the elk turned its head and the whole “tree” that was above the rock moved. I was then able to make out a 6x6 that was approximately 340”. At this point we were 80 yards from the bull and he was looking up in our direction in a heavily wooded area. I got very excited and turned to my brother Randy and told him that there was a huge bull only 80 yards out, we quickly scrambled to get ready. I couldn’t get moved very far as the bull seemed to be moving quickly so I set up about 15-20 yards behind Randy. I let out a high pitched bugle and the bull immediately screamed back and cut the distance in half in about 3 seconds. I bugled again and he was within 20 yards of my brother in the blink of an eye. This was going perfectly! As the big boy slipped behind a large pine tree Randy slid into a position that should have offered a better shot but instead of pausing behind the tree the bull kept moving and before Randy could draw was standing in the only opening that could allow for a shot. So with the bull staring him down Randy attempted to draw with the bull watching. He got to full draw and was trying to find a spot to slip an arrow into the beast when he whirled and crashed off through the brush. That was an intense start to the hunt and it was only 9:15 am on the first day!! We spent 15 minutes quietly discussing what had happened and what we could/should have done differently. The classic hindsight is 20/20 routine. When we started to move on I spotted movement ahead and suddenly we were in the middle of a herd of cows and calves. We quickly set up again and the cows broke up in different directions, we had one bull bugle but he had no interest in checking us out. After about a half an hour and with the cows still calling trying to get gathered up we decided to head out.

Here is Randy shortly after our first encounter, if you look close I think you can actually see him shaking from his first up close and personal encounter with a huge bull elk. I am not sure if he has fully recovered yet!

We then made about a 10 mile hike up and down the mountain to check out several areas since it was the first day I wanted to get an idea of where the elk were. We learned quite a bit on this walk as we didn’t find elk in any of the other likely locations we looked. The weather completely changed twice on the walk from hot and sunny to cold windy and rainy back to hot and sunny.

We had lunch and then at about 4:00pm returned to the same general area as we spent the morning. When we got back to that area there were bulls bugling everywhere! Looking of to the west we could see a massive storm system moving in, but since the bulls were bugling we decided slap on the rain gear and keep hunting. With darkness closing in fast and thunder, lightning, and rain coming down we moved in on a bull that was bugling his head off. We closed the distance on this bull by running full speed across 2 meadows, this brought us to a tree row along the edge of another meadow. Randy spotted the bull at about 90 yards but I could not see him even though I was only 5 yards to his left. The bull started moving up the meadow and I finally get to see it is a nice 300” 6x6 coming in to check out my location bugling. He stopped broadside trying to locate the bull (us) that is bugling to him and Randy is able to draw, as he is doing this I am trying to get my rangefinder on him. Just as I was about to say 47 yards I hear the bow string and see the sparks from the broadhead hitting the rocks underneath the bull. He shot for 35 yards – [PoorWordUsage]! Randy quickly tries to load up another arrow but just as he is about to let off a second shot the bull decided that something wasn’t right and took off. He ran to about 90 yards but I kept calling and kept him interested for about 5 minutes before he wandered off. We head back to camp in the darkness and pouring rain after a long but eventful first day.

Here are a couple of pictures of the major storm that was rolling in as the sun went down!

[wolfman-k]

I hope this tale has a happy ending! Thanks Guntar!

[ac777]

Sweet beginning of the story, I have a question for you or anyone else that would know. If you don't mind sharing, approximately what is the total cost for one person say for a 10 day hunt including tags food fuel, and maybe a few hotel nights and the rest camping? Just an estimate is fine, I would love to take my dad on an elk hunt sometime in the future, I think it would be awesome. Thanks for the story.

[SpitnArgueDuckClub*]

Yep thanks G, I'd rather read stories like these than watch the comercialized hunt shows on tv.

[Scoot]

Awesome start, guntar! I've been waiting for this to get posted- looking forward to the while thing. I know the hunt was a fun one filled with a lot of exciting, adrenaline filled experiences. This should be fun for lots of people. Thanks for taking the time to do this, guntar.

If you don't mind sharing, approximately what is the total cost for one person say for a 10 day hunt including tags food fuel, and maybe a few hotel nights and the rest camping?

Guntar can answer for himself, but my cost last year was actually under $1000. I don't count food (have to eat at home or on the hunt- so that's a wash) and we don't spend any time in any hotels. Cost of the tag was about $650 and you have to draw a tag in most states. However, CO and ID have a lot of OTC land in which a draw is not required. It'd be pretty easy to get closer to $2000 if you don't have all of the gear you would need/want to hunt elk though. Elk hunting equipment is fairly pricey and most of the gear most guys use for whitetails simply doesn't transer over very well to elk hunting. Packs are a great example- most whitetail day packs will do you little good once you've got an elk down. Arrows are another good example- you'll want at least a 400 grain arrow, but heavier is better (some will debate this, but 95% of the really knowledgable elk hunters will give you the same answer regarding this; same with expandable broadheads- leave them at home-- some states don't even allow them for elk). ... anyway, less than $1000 for me last year, but I had all the gear I needed when we left.

Keep it going guntar!

[ac777]

Awesome start, guntar! I've been waiting for this to get posted- looking forward to the while thing. I know the hunt was a fun one filled with a lot of exciting, adrenaline filled experiences. This should be fun for lots of people. Thanks for taking the time to do this, guntar.

Originally Posted By: ac777*

If you don't mind sharing, approximately what is the total cost for one person say for a 10 day hunt including tags food fuel, and maybe a few hotel nights and the rest camping?

Guntar can answer for himself, but my cost last year was actually under $1000. I don't count food (have to eat at home or on the hunt- so that's a wash) and we don't spend any time in any hotels. Cost of the tag was about $650 and you have to draw a tag in most states. However, CO and ID have a lot of OTC land in which a draw is not required. It'd be pretty easy to get closer to $2000 if you don't have all of the gear you would need/want to hunt elk though. Elk hunting equipment is fairly pricey and most of the gear most guys use for whitetails simply doesn't transer over very well to elk hunting. Packs are a great example- most whitetail day packs will do you little good once you've got an elk down. Arrows are another good example- you'll want at least a 400 grain arrow, but heavier is better (some will debate this, but 95% of the really knowledgable elk hunters will give you the same answer regarding this; same with expandable broadheads- leave them at home-- some states don't even allow them for elk). ... anyway, less than $1000 for me last year, but I had all the gear I needed when we left.

Keep it going guntar!

Thanks scoot, I didn't mean to Hi jack the thread, but was curious. I guess I have most of the gear necessary, Ive got a $600 Alaskan frame pack, and optics etc. I would need a few new things, and my dad would need to upgrade some things. But that price is encouraging. I was thinking upwards of 2gs, but. $1000 isn't too bad. Thanks for the help scoot.

[guntar]

Like Scoot said the big cost of the trip is in the tag and general licenses ~$650. After that gas for the trip was about $300 split between 2 guys. Also like Scoot said the gearing up for the trip can get spendy, but if you are savy about it and do some searching you can find what you need for decent prices: good tent (very important), general camp gear, and hunting gear.

[guntar]

Day 2

Overnight we noticed that the rain turned to snow and it sounded like it was sliding off the roof of our tent. We woke up in the morning to some violent winds and heavy snow. We decided to stick around camp and get a weather report because we already had 5 inches on the ground and it was still snowing. Once we found out that the snow was supposed to let up and melt over the rest of the week we decided we would leave camp at about 12:45 pm for an afternoon hunt.

We left camp and within 10 minutes we heard a bugle that was close, within 300 yards. We moved in on the bull and when we had the distance cut in half we spotted a beautiful scene. There was an awesome 7x7 grazing and raking trees in a park only 150 yards away in the snow. We watched him for a little bit devising a plan to close the gap. We found a way to get Randy up to the edge of the park undetected and I hung back in the woods about 30 yards. As soon as I let out with the first bugle he screamed back and came crashing in. Randy had positioned himself great but the bull stayed above Randy in the park and wouldn’t come down into the woods to check out the commotion. I began raking trees and stomping around. As he came in he walked through an opening at 50 yards and Randy drew but he stopped directly behind a pine tree to survey the situation. At this time the wind must have swirled and the bull bugled one more time before catching our wind and busting out of park never to be seen again. Foiled again…..

We regrouped and discussed the situation but before we could get everything figured out we had a different bull bugling not more than 400 yards away. Off we went for another adventure. We came around a nice bluff and spotted a herd bull with 10 cows bedded down and 1 lead cow patrolling a meadow only 150 yards down from us. We attempted to skirt the edge of a large open area to get behind the elk in the woods but during this process the lead cow spotted my movement and got the sleepy cows out of their beds. The bull continued to rake a defenseless tree and screamed his head off warning the intruding bull (us) to get out of here. The allure of the cows proved too much and he moved off with the 11 cows not knowing what had just happened.

Once again we regrouped and headed in a new direction. There was quite a bit of bugling going on so we didn’t think it would be long before our next encounter. We went by one of my favorite wallows to check for activity and there had been none since the snow.

We kept moving along the side-slope and came across a spike trying to stay out of trouble in a park, but behind him only by 20 minutes came a bugling bull. We set up about 90 yards from the bottom of the park. The bull came to the edge of the park and bugled, raked trees, chuckled, and screamed at us, but all we could ever see was his legs and underbelly. We never did get a good look at his headgear. We thought he had moved on, but as we started back up the mountain he suddenly bugled. We then raced to the bottom of the park to set up again, but that last bugle must have been him moving on because he never made another sound.

On the way back to camp we cut a fresh set of tracks in the snow from a herd of elk that passed by our camp only 200 yards away.

[Sifty]

Great story Guntar.

Sifty

[Scoot]

Thanks scoot, I didn't mean to Hi jack the thread, but was curious. I guess I have most of the gear necessary, Ive got a $600 Alaskan frame pack, and optics etc. I would need a few new things, and my dad would need to upgrade some things. But that price is encouraging. I was thinking upwards of 2gs, but. $1000 isn't too bad. Thanks for the help scoot.

One other thing you should be warned about-- this trip is VERY physically demanding. There's no way to be in good enough shape... I went in very good shape last year and got dominated by the mountain. My feet were torn to shreds, my muscles were sore as heck, etc. Guntar's almost a decade younger than me and you could sure tell! The other two guys on the trip last year had a tough time keeping up with him. I can't wait until he has kids and gains another 15 pounds...

Anyway, the trip is a ton of work and requires an incredible amount of physical exertion. You obviously can't drive up to your gutted out elk and throw it in the back of the truck. Hauling a deboned elk on your back uphill two or three miles is no small feet and something you'll have to be able to do. That's when I was really glad guntar was in such good shape!

Great work on the story, Guntar!

[ac777]

Originally Posted By: ac777*

Thanks scoot, I didn't mean to Hi jack the thread, but was curious. I guess I have most of the gear necessary, Ive got a $600 Alaskan frame pack, and optics etc. I would need a few new things, and my dad would need to upgrade some things. But that price is encouraging. I was thinking upwards of 2gs, but. $1000 isn't too bad. Thanks for the help scoot.

One other thing you should be warned about-- this trip is VERY physically demanding. There's no way to be in good enough shape... I went in very good shape last year and got dominated by the mountain. My feet were torn to shreds, my muscles were sore as heck, etc. Guntar's almost a decade younger than me and you could sure tell! The other two guys on the trip last year had a tough time keeping up with him. I can't wait until he has kids and gains another 15 pounds...

Anyway, the trip is a ton of work and requires an incredible amount of physical exertion. You obviously can't drive up to your gutted out elk and throw it in the back of the truck. Hauling a deboned elk on your back uphill two or three miles is no small feet and something you'll have to be able to do. That's when I was really glad guntar was in such good shape!

Great work on the story, Guntar!

Oh ya, whole different ball game than whitetails, I guess I know I could do it, Ive been on some hunts while working with an Alaskan outfitter and such, would just have to get my dad to build up that lung capacity and endurance, he's in great over all shape though. I get excited just thinking about it even though we havent even talked about it lol.

Storys going great guntar, and pics look good!

[guntar]

Day 3 Tuesday

We woke up to a cool morning, approximately 20-25 degrees. We spent most of the morning glassing and listening. The amount of bugling was absolutely insane. Unfortunately most of the ruckus came from private land. We were able to locate one elk that was bugling on public land. As we were moving in we spotted 2 cows through the dark timber. After the cows bedded down in front of us we got set up to start calling. I started bugling and a bull showed up within 10 minutes. I thought it was the herd bull, but Randy had a much better look and saw that it was a small 4x4 satellite. He came in to the bugling but then bedded down a mere 60 yards away. Randy tried to sneak up while the elk was bedded down but the cows were watching, and once they got up the small bull followed them out of the area. The herd bull kept his distance and never gave us a chance.

We headed back up the mountain to grab some lunch and a break. We then began searching the hillside for some more animals.

The snow was really starting to melt by midday and it was becoming difficult to discern fresh tracks. As we came to the top of a hill on the edge of a park I looked down and saw what I thought looked like a fresh set of elk tracks so I asked my brother to have a look and see what he thought. As we were quietly discussing the tracks I looked up ahead and there was a nice 5x5 standing not more than 75 yards away facing in the opposite direction with his head down feeding. I guess they were pretty fresh! Randy quickly set up and I moved back down the hill a short ways to try calling. As soon as I bugled the bull started moving farther away and left the meadow. Once we figured out he was gone we started moving across the meadow to catch up and then suddenly there was a slightly smaller bull standing in the exact spot where the first bull had left the park. Once he had followed the other bull we jumped on a trail that paralleled them and tried to get ahead for a shot. We didn’t get there in time so we then got on the set of tracks and started following. Since they weren’t moving that quickly we kept a good pace and I thought we would be able to catch up. They crossed a couple of meadows and started into some dark timber. There was a small draw just before we got into the timber and as we were approaching it all of my instincts were screaming stop but I was behind by 5 yards and wasn’t able to get myself to vocalize any concerns as we started into the draw. That is when the 2 bulls spotted our movement and made 3 or 4 big leaps to get out of dodge. I immediately began cow calling and the both stopped and turned to look. They were only 45 yards away, but of course there was no opportunity for a shot because of a few well placed trees between us and the elk. They hung around for about 2 minutes before they decided they had enough and bolted. We stopped the pursuit at this point.

We spent most of the afternoon glassing from my favorite spot again and spotted another nice 5x5 about 1000 yards away. Unfortunately light was getting low and there was no good way to close the distance in the time we had. Another eventful day in the books, and even though we hadn’t scored we were having a fantastic time trying!

[guntar]

Day 4 – Wednesday

The next day we went down to my favorite spot to glass and again spotted a bull bugling. This time he was about 1200 yards away but moving in a direction that had possibilities. After some discussion we decided we would try to put a move on this bull. It was a decent 5x5 and time was starting to run short on our trip. We side-hilled the mountain about 800 yards crossing several deep wooded cuts. Once we got where we thought we were above the bull we started moving down the mountain to where we had last seen and heard him. I bugled once and he returned from only 300 yards away! We closed another 100 yards and found ourselves nearing the line of public versus private land. We set up on the public land and tried calling to the bull who sounded like he was about 150 yards away, but after a couple bugles back and forth he started moving in the opposite direction. Foiled again!

We started our trek back up the mountain and on the way ran into a couple of extremely nice guys from Eden Prairie, MN. After talking with them for a while and sharing back and forth about all the joys of bow hunting elk my brother mentioned how he was just getting back into the archery game and that I had more archery experience. To which one of the gentlemen replied by saying you have more archery experience than your DAD! Now my brother is about 18 years older than me so it would be possible, but if any of you have an older brother you know that this became an immediate chance to start needling my brother. Believe me I took advantage! Anyway back to the hunt.

We decided to move down the mountain and check out a couple of wallows that we have seen elk on in the past. As we made our approach to the first wallow we found out we were already too late. I spotted a cow and a calf along with a 6x6. The bull hadn’t seen us and the wind was perfect. So we backed up about 15 yards. The cow and calf started moving away down the hill so I thought it would be a perfect time to act like an intruder trying to steal this bull’s cows. Unfortunately he was not interested in a confrontation and as soon as I bugled he took off up the mountain. So we kept moving because I wanted to check out the wallow we had named “Self Pity” on our previous trip. Once again we showed up too late as a small 4x4 was passing by the wallow as we arrived. He was not interested in coming in to check out the cow that had just showed up (me). So once he left we decided to sit down on the wallow and hope that a bigger bull would show up. We spent the rest of the day at the wallow listening to a chorus of bulls off in the distance, but we didn’t have any show up to the wallow.

A couple pictures of the wallow we call "Self Pity", this is where I shot my bull last year.

[Coach1310]

Great story Guntar. Thanks for sharing... I feel like I've been on a few Elk hunts already reading yours and Scoots stories. Thanks again.

[guntar]

Day 5 – Thursday

By Thursday the weather had warmed up and the snow was virtually all gone. We started out from camp planning to do some calling set ups on our way down to sit at “Self Pity”. On the way down we bumped into a lone elk that spotted us first. We never got a look at that animal. As we moved down the mountain we could tell we were closing in a bull that was bugling up a storm. We stopped at the top of a park and were glassing downhill to some aspens and dark timber at the bottom of the same park. We spotted 2 cows and a calf in a small opening right on the edge of the meadow and then a very respectable 5 or 6 point showed up. We set up about 100 yards from where we last saw the elk, but we couldn’t get any closer without bumping the elk out of there. I bugled and cow called and got several responses but could not get him to come out of the timber.

We headed over to “Self Pity” at about 9:30 am and decided to plant it right there for the rest of the day. There was a ton of bugling down below us and then 1 bull made his way within 100 yards screaming at 2 or 3 satellites that were screaming back. I was glassing where I thought the bull was and my brother was at the ready with an arrow knocked. I finally spotted movement. It was 2 cows moving towards a park off to the east. I thought they were going to vacate the area but just like that they came bounding back into the timber below us. Somehow the bull had slipped into that park and pushed the cows back into the dark timber. I spotted the bull next and I thought he was coming straight up the draw we were in and he was only 80 yards away! I told Randy to get ready but just like that he got hung up and started back screaming at the other bulls. After listening to this for about 1.5 hours a bull finally showed up from the west moving up the park and coming right at us! It was a magnificent 320” 6x6 with ivory tipped points to his long tines. My brother drew his bow as the elk passed behind a pine tree. I had the range finder on him the whole time. He stopped at 25 yards broadside staring up in our direction. I was watching through the range finder as my brother shot and there was a loud thwap as the arrow reached the bull. I saw his flesh ripple where the arrow hit him and as he turned to bolt I started cow calling and telling my brother that he hit the bull good! The bull took off but stopped about 65 yards away and looked back at us for about 10 seconds. I was looking for blood through my binoculars but couldn’t see any, and then the bull took off down the mountain. I looked back to my brother and he said, “I didn’t hit him I hit a tree!” I was completely confused because I saw the arrow hit the big boy, but thinking back on it I never actually saw the fletchings enter the bull. After a few minutes of discussion he told me how he had to lean sideways around a dead leaning tree that was half way between him and the bull.

When he shot he must have torqued the bow a little bit causing the arrow to wobble while in flight. The back part of the arrow hit the tree and the arrow broke into 3 pieces. Part of the arrow with the fletchings was sitting on the ground by the tree he hit, part of the arrow with the broadhead was sitting right next to where the bull was standing and we never recovered the other part of the arrow. What I had seen was part of the arrow hitting the bull and bouncing off, causing absolutely no damage. There wasn’t a stitch of blood on the bull as he trotted off and there wasn’t a drop on the ground anywhere we looked.

I immediately told Randy to get another arrow knocked and keep his head up, because we were on a hot wallow and who knows if one of the satellites would show up next. Unfortunately we didn’t have any more action that day.

Here is a picture of Randy about 30 minutes after the shot. The look on his face is quite deceiving, he almost appears to be smiling and I can assure you he was not in a smiling mood...

[mrklean]

sweet story man thats some killer public land you guys are on

[Sifty]

This is great it's like I'm on the trip with you.

Great Story

Sifty

[Scoot]

Great stuff, Jon. Sooooooo close!!!

[YellowOtter1]

Nice story Gunner. Seems like these last few years you have had dream seasons with deer and elk. You work hard though so keep the stories coming.

[SpitnArgueDuckClub*]

24 hours and no day 6 yet? More to come I hope; this is a good read, much better than the magazine articles published monthly.

[guntar]

Sorry for the late post tonight, I had to go check my trail camera tonight...Maybe another story for another time.

This will be the last post for this trip. Normally we like to make this a 9 day trip, but we planned for a slightly shorter trip this year.

Day 6 Last Day – Friday

During the wee hours of the morning with us still snug in our sleeping bags (about 2-3 am) a bull decided to wake us from our slumber. He was up on top of the mountain screaming his head off and he had to be within 100-150 yards, it was almost deafening. This got us excited for the final day of our hunt.

When we woke up there wasn’t any bugling on top of the mountain so we headed down to sit at “Self Pity” one more day. We showed up about 8:00 am this time so it was going to be a long sit. There was a ton of bulls bugling down low on the mountain and at about 2:00pm a bull started moving closer. He started off to the west and moved in directly below us on the mountain. We both thought Randy was going to get a crack at this bull as he came into the wallow, but just like that the bull turned and started heading back to the west only going up the mountain until he was even with us in altitude. This whole time he was within 250 yards and we hadn’t made a peep. When it became obvious that he wasn’t coming into the wallow we decided it was time to try some calling. As soon I as I cow called he moved closer and bugled. After about 3 minutes I cow called again and he had cut the distance some more, but we still couldn’t see him. This time he screamed for the cow (me) to come to him. After that his bugles started getting farther away, so I tried to give him a reason why the cow wasn’t showing up. I started bugling and painting the picture that a small bull was keeping the cow from coming towards him. This got the bull fired up and he screamed and chuckled but never made a move to get closer. This is the point where we should have tried to make a move on this bull, but where he was and where he was going it would have been very difficult. The blowdown hill he was going through would have made closing any distance on him nearly impossible. So we decided to wait it out and see if he would change his mind, he didn’t. He kept moving up the mountain away from us.

We sat at self pity as the day drew to a close and reflected on how much fun we had chasing this majestic beast and how many close heart pounding encounters we had. One could say that the Wapiti won this battle, but the hunt isn’t just about the kill, it is mostly the experiences you have along the way that make the adventure grand.

Sorry for not giving you the grand finale we were all hoping for but that is the way hunting goes sometimes. Thank you for following along and all of the kind comments. It has been a great time reliving this incredible trip with you!! Hopefully next time I can provide some better pictures as I am still learning about photographing wildlife.

[Scoot]

Great stuff, Guntar! Thanks very much for taking the time and effort to share your hunt with us. It's greatly appreciated!

I wish I could have been there with you guys. I wish you guys could come next year (if I'm lucky enough to draw, or even apply for that matter). Regardless, you guys experienced more opportunities at elk this year than most guys do in a dozen elk seasons. It was one amazing hunt! Congrats to you both.

[SpitnArgueDuckClub*]

Yep a great experience and a fun read. More proof that one really doesn't need a kill to make a hunt. Thanks

[Chef]

Yep a great experience and a fun read. More proof that one really doesn't need a kill to make a hunt. Thanks

How True. Great Story, fun read and best of luck to you on your next trip!