Wyoming Elk Unit 40

[blackveltbowhunter]

Looks like you guys got it done tho!! Congratz Nice Bull!

[Bean Counter]

Better than tag soup! good job 

[dromero]

Story of the hunt went like this: We had hunted 8 days straight, seen a few small groups of cows, some old wallows and rubs. A few distant bugles but nothing that seemed like we could chase. We would typically ride 3-10 miles on the ATV's from the main camp, parke 'em, then burn a few miles on foot before we started hunting. Found a decent sized wallow that looked fresh one evening scouting, decided to come back and check out the drainage the next day. Rode in late after hunting a different area all day, decided to just hang out and listen for bugles  on the atv. About 10 minutes before dark the quietness was killing me so I ripped out a locator bugle down into the drainage...no answer. Then as the light was almost gone, out of the corner of my eye I cought movement about 150 yds away on the edge of the timber...Big 6x6, F*ck me, sitting on an atv, no light, and the bull has me dead to rights out in the open, honed in on the locator bugle I had let out  , rookie mistake. Waited for 30 mins then idled it in reverse out the trail, cussing my self the whole time. Fast fwd two days, me and the buddy find another wallow 200 yds from the bull sighting so we setup in the evening for alittle classic soft cow calling. We were there about an hour when I heard antlers on a tree. Approx.  100 yds away on the hillside I see a big bull sidehilling, circling around the wallow. With only a few minutes of light left I tell my buddy there's a bull below us on the hillside, keep cow calling, as I sneek down hill hoping to intercept. I get to within 40yds of the spot were I seen the bull, it's intermitten trees and brush...I'm scanning all the open areas but I'm losing light fast. Finally I see the bull start to walk out of the brush, I draw...not enough light to see my pins.  . Next few days we locate to another spot...across the rimrock we spot a nice 6x6 bedding in heavy timber, we take a couple different azimuths, guestimate how far down from the top of the rimrock he his, and start booking the 2 miles out to the atvs. We get to the quads and put the hammer down, flattening the hills, straightening the turns trying to get around the rimrock to get above the bull. Once we to within a mile or so we park and start sneeking. The timber is a maze of deadfall, almost impossible to move without noise. We eventually sneek to the exact spot where the bull was bedded but 2 hours later he is gone.

[dromero]

The next day we decide to head into town to get a couple warm cheeseburgers and fuel for the atvs. Lose the transmission in my truck...no bueno. After a few hours on the side of the road in a downpour, wrenching on the rig, finally get a tow into the local Ford dealership. Truck is gonna be there for a week. Only rental available is a 2013 Toyota corolla. "We'll take it!!" Half a day of rain, we could only make it to within 7 miles of our camp and atvs. We rally-ed that rental til we were dragging the diffs in mud. We ditched the rental and hoofed it back to camp in shorts and flipflops in 8" mud and downpour. We find a decent drainage the next day per a locals tip and we're in the elk!!

[dromero]

We spend a couple days dropping down into the drainage (2k vertical feet over 3 miles). Each day we are into elk, at one point we had 6 different bulls bugling around us every 5 minutes for hours at a time. After all that intense elk hunting I remember why I lost the rifle and switched to archery!! We bump a few decent 6x6's, my buddy almost draws on a 7x7, and we both get more elk hunting experience in 3 days then we would in ten years hunting in Washington. It was intense. 3 days left in our 18 day stay, need to make it happen. We decide we can't make the hike down any more and relocate 15 miles to the bottom side of the drainage. We decide to hike up from the bottom and spike in, last ditch effort, bonzai attempt. The next day we load up and drive around, load up the heavy frame packs with gear for two nights and get alittle rest before we take off the next morning early.

Next morning at two am we set out on the ATV's to the trail head. While heading down the paved road to the access road I brake hard on the lead atv to turn onto the access road and, with the wet pavement, my buddy rear ends me at around 20 mph. Plastic/metal atv parts go flying everwhere and he takes a trip over the handle bars. F*ck,  , rookie mistake. We winch the bumper out of the back of my atv, it looks like most of the damage is cosmetic to both machine and man. After a half hour setback we start the hike in. Two days to fill the tag it's a quiet hike in. We find a nice place to camp 3 1/2 miles into the drainage. We make camp and start the evening hunt. No dice, no bugles, not much fresh sign, can't find an elk. Not looking good. We wake early the next day knowing it's the last chance. We are filling camelbaks when we hear a few distant bugles, time to grab overdrive.  We book it toward a small creek towards where we heard the bugles. By the time we get there we see a decent 5x5 bout 3/4 a mile away, charging up the adjacent hill side. There's no way we can catch him before he makes the top of the saddle, then 100 yds below I see a rag horn 4 heading up the hill towards us, my buddy splits up hill towards cover, I'm stuck with a few open trees as cover. Instantly I hear my buddy cow call, before I even have a chance to knock up, the raghorn is now on a beeline for the caller. I knock and draw as the bull is 40yds out. He doesn't see me draw, and closes to 20 yds, stopping broadside. I let fly and lose sight of my arrow in the excitement. I hear the wack of an arrow on tree and have a sinking feeling, the bull doesn't break stride. Not good, I knock another arrow as quick as I can, the bull is still walking broadside at 30 yds, I cow call to stop him and let it fly. I track it well right to a double lung shot. The bull angles quartering away and keeps walking. I knock a third arrow, cow call again, he stops 35 yds away, I let fly, and I see the vanes bury behing the ribcage, perfect quartering away spot. He takes a couple steps and rolls down hill about 60 yds (kinda steep terrain) Boom, tag punched!! As we quarter him up we find two double lung shots, and the quartering third arrow still in him. Tough sob!!  We finish quartering and get the elk up to our camp. We break camp and book it out, rough weather coming in...on the way out we do two call setups for my buddy, he draws twice but no shot on two seperate branch antler bulls!! Rain hits hard and we lose the light, gonna be a long night...We go back in for the rest of the elk and the rain stops, but thick fog comes in. So now we're navigating by compass, visibility is  about 5' with the fog. We find the elk quarters and head out. We make it about a mile out (with the elk in a game cart) when I realize my lightweight rain jacket has slipped out of the game cart, with my atv key in it. I spend an hour back tracking trying to find my camo raincoat in the fog and brush. Find it!! and my Surefire batteries die...I locate my buddy by whistling back and forth...we get the elk back to the truck at two am. $750 elk tag, $5k transmission, $500 atv damage, 18 days in great elk country, first archery bull=priceless!!! Can't wait to go back!!

[blackveltbowhunter]

WOW..... What an adventure! Congratz on the bull and the memories

[finnman]

Cool story! Congrats!
I will be over there hunting moose in October! I plan on looking around for elk while there.

Note to self: Never buy a rental car!!! LOL!!!

[dromero]

We only bumped into moose twice, in one drainage. One small bull and one cow.  And we didn't see very many deer either. At one point we were below the rimrock and ran into 3 150"+ bucks but that was it besides the random doe. Fish and Game had killed a large wolf 130 lbs a few days before we arrived. Two different hunters we ran into stated they had seen wolves and one heard a pack howling. We saw tracks a few times. Also there was quite the sheep herd with a dozen guard dogs and one cowboy roaming around. We asked him in the best Basque/mixed spanish/hand signals where the big elk were....he pointed to unit 38 lol. We tried to communicate for him to round them up with his horse but he was pretty addament about not leaving the sheep. I would say he had around 800 or so.

[WAcoyotehunter]

Hey- Awesome story.  I have 3 points now and am thinking of using them in that unit.  Would you suggest Archery or rifle?  It sounds like you found a honey hole in there during September, but mentioned that it was potentially a migratory hunt for oct season... thoughts on that?

Thanks!
Bart

[dromero]

That's a tough call. If I had to do over again I would probably do rifle. With all the rimrock in the area you could easily shoot a couple hundred yards across whereas with bow you have to backtrack around to get ontop of the elk. Most of the time it is miles you have to backtrack. Which isn't that big of a deal except usually by the time you get around the elk have left, with rifle just need to find the elk after you drop it. Several times we had elk in the binos and couldn't find a way to get close through the rim rock. Seems like you're either ontop and hoping the elk stay ontop or you drop aaaalot of elevation and hope the elk stay low, and you can find a way out the bottom. Hunting Solo?

DR

[dromero]

Also there wasn't as many elk as I expected in Sept. You can find alot of trails and old sign, but most of that is from the migration. Once snow hits up high they start moving into this unit. (Per fish&game and a few locals) Also you will need an ATV or horses. Where you can drive with a pickup to where the elk are can be a few miles to 7-12. That was in Sept. not sure how it works in later months. It snowed 4 days while we were there. Heavy rains a few days, hail/windstorm(almost lost the wall tent) another day. The rest was good weather. Almost couldn't get the truck unstuck when it rained, the dirt is some crazy mixture, it goes from dry to 8" of mud with about half hour of rain. Wait 8 hrs after the rain and it calms down a bit.

[GUscottie]

Glad you had a good successful hunt. I have to say it makes me more excited to learn about your hunt. I went after cow last year in 41. Unit 40 is awesome too...just north of 41. Can't wait to hear about your next adventure!