Wyoming elk

[Guy]

A few years back, in 2001, I went back to Wyoming to hunt. Drew a non-resident tag for a wilderness hunt up in the Wind River mtns and went with a friend of mine. We set up camp about 9 miles from the trailhead. He had horses and a couple of mules. Took this lowlander a few days to get used to the altitude. We were camped at about 9000' ASL, and hiked up to about 11,000' a couple of times. Located elk a few days before the season and left them alone. Fished, hiked, scouted the country until opening morning. It was September, and the bulls responded to a bugle. Great stuff! We were working a 5x5, when this bigger 6x6 showed himself, coming in to fight anything! I cheated and took him with a 175 grain Nosler Partition from my 7mm Rem mag.



Outside spread on this guy is 51", which I thought was pretty fair. It was apparently the biggest bull to come from that area in quite a while. I felt real lucky to get a shot at such an animal.

We spent the rest of the day getting him cut up and moved the mile or two back to camp, then the next day getting him out to town to the meat processor. Went back in and tried to hunt more, to get my buddy a bull, but we ended up getting snowed in for a few days and came out with just the one bull. I tried to get drawn for that tag another couple of times, but it didn't happen and now my buddy moved from Wyoming, so I guess that's a done deal. Back to Washington for elk these days. I've seen bigger bulls here in Washington, but have never had a branch antler tag in my pocket at the time. Have more photos from the hunt, but they were all 35mm prints and I don't have a scanner at this point, so can only share this shot another friend took with his digital on my return home.

It was one heck of a hunt. I'm not much of a horseman, but truly enjoyed that traditional "western style" hunt.

Regards, Guy

[Muleyslyr]

Nice!!  Sounds like my kind of hunt!  That's a great bull.  Have you been back since?

[Guy]

Never got back there. Tried a couple of times to draw the non-resident tag again - and didn't get it. Then my buddy moved to New Mexico. Where we were hunting in Wyoming was a designated "wilderness area" and as I recall the law stated that I had to have a Wyoming resident guide with me. Without him, and without drawing the tag, I was pretty well sunk for getting back in there.

Not to mention how nice it was to have his three horses and two mules to pack in a big heated wall tent, a couple of coolers of grub and to haul out the elk after I shot it... I can hike the 9 miles in no problem. Heck on our last day out I hiked and jogged the 9 miles out because my saddle horse was needed for hauling camp gear out. But... Packing out a big bull elk 9 miles without a horse is more than this fellow wants to try... I got nearly 300 pounds of meat after processing, and the head & antlers & cape were fairly heavy too. I think I'd have made a whole lot of trips out on foot with 75 pound loads w/o the pack animals. Of course I would have boned it out, but still, that ended up being a lot of meat, hide & antlers to pack out.

Would like to go back in there some summer, just for the backpack trip and the fishing... I had a fly rod with me and the fishing was really pretty good. Until it snowed, then I put away the rod and concentrated on feeding the stove!

Regards, Guy

[Ghost Hunter]

Very nice Guy!
I've got a brother in Lander - South pass area.  Have been trying for the same scenario, but no luck.  Point system is going to start changing the odds.  Hope to get lucky before I get too old.