Good luck on Wyoming elk

I just got back from a great elk hunt in Wyoming.
Even though I had max points in Wyoming, it still took a lot of luck to draw a Type 1 elk tag for unit 124 southeast of Rock Springs. Much of that unit is BLM. But I got even luckier by drawing one of the 5 access passes to hunt the Tipton Hunt Management Area in that unit.
If you’re not familiar with that area, most if it is high desert so it’s really interesting country to hunt for elk. It’s not the usual habitat we think of for elk. Most of us would think more about antelope being in that type of country and I did see some terrific antelope bucks too.

While I’ve been fortunate to get to guide quite a few people on elk hunts in California over the years, I’d never drawn a tag for myself. The unit 124 rifle season is long, about 6 weeks, so I packed up my gear and was planning to stick it out until I got a good bull.
I arrived at the unit a few days before rifle season and got a rough feel for the parts of the unit I wanted to hunt. Once season opened I got more serious about my chosen areas. My streak of luck continued when I spotted what looked like a bull sneaking into a small draw at first light one morning. Even though I got the spotting scope on him just before he went out of sight, the light was poor and the distance was great so I couldn’t completely assess his antlers. He sure seemed to warrant a closer look. In that open country it was a pretty long stalk and I fully expected the bull to pop out of that draw somewhere and spot me before I could get within range. But he didn’t.
Of course I assumed the worse and couldn’t picture that a mature bull would hang around in that shallow draw long enough for me to close the distance – I figured he must have worked his way up or down the draw and stayed out of sight.
The wind wasn’t good so I had to loop around downwind of where I’d last seen the bull. A coyote was on the edge of the same draw and since he hadn’t winded me I figured if the bull was still in the draw he probably hadn’t winded me either.
As I looped around and came back up wind I spotted the bull feeding in the very bottom of the canyon. The bull had his head down and seemed calm. He was at around 350 yards and the edges of the draw were in the way for a clean shot so I needed to keep closing the distance and get a better angle.
But I probably got a bit greedy and the bull looked up and caught me flat-footed at what the range finder had just said was 228 yards. I froze for what seemed like forever while he stared at me. At that point I had decided he was a good bull and I should take him… but had I blown it now that he’d seen me? He turned his head for just an instant and started to trot away – that was my chance to hit the dirt as the hill I was on was perfect for a prone shot. The bull was quartering away and the opportunity was quickly evaporating.
While preparing for the hunt I thought I should probably get a cow call in case I needed to slow or calm a bull, but I thought that since I was hunting so late after the rut it would be a wasted piece of gear. As the bull was trotting away I was thinking, “I should have brought a cow call!”
I’d never tried making a cow call before that moment and I’m sure my impromptu attempt was terrible… but it stopped the bull just long enough for me slip a 225 grain Barnes TTSX through the back of the bulls ribs and allow it to exit through the opposite shoulder.
From the hand full of elk hunts I’ve guided I’d learned that bulls seem to take a while to realize they’re dead. The shot felt good, but the bull kept running away. He switched directions about 90 degrees, but was still showing progress at leaving what I was hoping would be the “kill site”. While I probably could have been more patient, it dawned on me that if I was guiding - and wasn’t exactly sure where the first shot hit on an animal running away - that I’d be telling the client to shoot again. So I took my own advice and put what turned out to be a second bullet through the lungs from the bulls other side.
He went down and stayed down after the second shot. What a sense of relief as I’ve wanted a bull for myself since I was a kid.
As I approached the bull the awe and appreciation set in. While I’ve been really happy for all my clients approaching their animals, its different when you get to put your own tag on an animal, the meat goes on your BBQ and the antlers go on your wall.

Going alone on a hunt really frees up your schedule for how much time you can devote to the hunt, but on an animal of that size it makes the task of boning and packing out the meat pretty ominous. The “hunters high” of getting to harvest such a great animal carries a person through, but I’d forgotten how much work it is to process an elk.
The rifle was a Sako 75 in .340 Wby. The scope was a 3.5x10 Leupold and, of course, the Barnes bullets were handloads.
The meat is at the butcher, the negotiations with my wife for where to eventually put the head in our under-sized house are nearly complete… and the memories will always be in my mind.
My good luck carried me through every part of this hunt and I really appreciate the experience, adventure, trophy and meat that Wyoming provided this October. My thanks go to the good people and sound game management in Wyoming.

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Posts: 2508 | Location: Central Coast of CA | Registered: 10 January 2002

Mike_Dettorre

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