TheMadCatter
Well-Known Member
I'll type out the story of my 2019 Rifle Elk and you can feel free to watch my 2019 Pronghorn video on YouTube.
I ended up taking a job working for a hunting outfit in Colorado for the archery season. The outfit didn't align with my standards of hunting and general unsuccessfulness of the outfit not to mention being left on the mountain and having to walk back to town. After I left that job I went to Wyoming and interviewed for a few jobs including ones with Wyoming Game and Fish with no success. I decided to spend some time hunting or at least looking for elk since I had some spare time in between jobs.
I arrived at my elk spot and found two bulls a rag 5pt and a decent 6pt along with a few cows on public land! Rifle season didn't open for five more days. I decided to just sit there and watch the bulls and cows for those five days. I sat there morning to night watching them 12 hours a day for five days. The DAY BEFORE SEASON a ranch hand went straight through the BLM and scared all the elk off the entire ridge. I was upset, there weren't cattle on the BLM at all and the fence the ranch nad drove up wasn't their responsibility. What's the point of driving onto public land when there's a gate on the other side of the ridge to access where the cattle actually are? Anyway, after that happened the elk weren't anywhere close to the rest of the public.
I didn't really have a plan and checked everywhere else in the area. I couldn't find anything remotely close to public land. I ended up going back to that ridge and sat there opening morning and didn't find anything other than eight trucks full of deer and elk hunters on the same ridge that weren't there the day before. I figured I'd leave after that and started to leave and saw some elk on public land as I was leaving. I had never seen elk ALL the way out there and didn't even know there were elk there. I was able to get on a 340" 7pt bull and quite a few other elk. I went in after them (two miles in) and a truck stopped on the road and spooked them all off. I watched them and they went onto some public in a different spot I couldn't access where I was. I ran back to the truck but it was too late and they were walking back to where I just was.
I met a random hunter from Nevada and decided to help him out because there were a lot of bulls on the public land. He wasn't a very experienced elk hunter and when we went in that morning after them he walked on top of the ridge and skylined himself while I was crawling on my belly. He spooked every elk off the public...it was heartbreaking but it happens with inexperienced elk hunters.
I decided to just sit there and watch them and he left. They started coming back in the afternoon and an outfitter drove his truck through the public land and scared the elk...it wasn't looking good for me. The elk stayed there and just right over the ridge from the public. A ton of the elk come back onto the public, a total of nine bulls and twenty-two cows. I decided to tell the Nevada hunter who was about to leave because he couldn't find any elk (remember this is only two days into season) and I caught him before he left. We went back in and made a better plan and had him set back to where the elk ran. I walked in a mile and then crawled through the sage 1/2 of a mile.
I was able to get close enough and took a 392-yard shot at a smaller 5pt sage bull. This bull had never been to the mountains in its life was my guess and just lived amongst the cattle. The 6pt then ran to 100-yards and I had a shot at a cow but I didn't want to pack two elk. They ran right to the Nevada hunter and he shot a smaller 5x3 out of the group.
I ended up taking a job working for a hunting outfit in Colorado for the archery season. The outfit didn't align with my standards of hunting and general unsuccessfulness of the outfit not to mention being left on the mountain and having to walk back to town. After I left that job I went to Wyoming and interviewed for a few jobs including ones with Wyoming Game and Fish with no success. I decided to spend some time hunting or at least looking for elk since I had some spare time in between jobs.
I arrived at my elk spot and found two bulls a rag 5pt and a decent 6pt along with a few cows on public land! Rifle season didn't open for five more days. I decided to just sit there and watch the bulls and cows for those five days. I sat there morning to night watching them 12 hours a day for five days. The DAY BEFORE SEASON a ranch hand went straight through the BLM and scared all the elk off the entire ridge. I was upset, there weren't cattle on the BLM at all and the fence the ranch nad drove up wasn't their responsibility. What's the point of driving onto public land when there's a gate on the other side of the ridge to access where the cattle actually are? Anyway, after that happened the elk weren't anywhere close to the rest of the public.
I didn't really have a plan and checked everywhere else in the area. I couldn't find anything remotely close to public land. I ended up going back to that ridge and sat there opening morning and didn't find anything other than eight trucks full of deer and elk hunters on the same ridge that weren't there the day before. I figured I'd leave after that and started to leave and saw some elk on public land as I was leaving. I had never seen elk ALL the way out there and didn't even know there were elk there. I was able to get on a 340" 7pt bull and quite a few other elk. I went in after them (two miles in) and a truck stopped on the road and spooked them all off. I watched them and they went onto some public in a different spot I couldn't access where I was. I ran back to the truck but it was too late and they were walking back to where I just was.
I met a random hunter from Nevada and decided to help him out because there were a lot of bulls on the public land. He wasn't a very experienced elk hunter and when we went in that morning after them he walked on top of the ridge and skylined himself while I was crawling on my belly. He spooked every elk off the public...it was heartbreaking but it happens with inexperienced elk hunters.
I decided to just sit there and watch them and he left. They started coming back in the afternoon and an outfitter drove his truck through the public land and scared the elk...it wasn't looking good for me. The elk stayed there and just right over the ridge from the public. A ton of the elk come back onto the public, a total of nine bulls and twenty-two cows. I decided to tell the Nevada hunter who was about to leave because he couldn't find any elk (remember this is only two days into season) and I caught him before he left. We went back in and made a better plan and had him set back to where the elk ran. I walked in a mile and then crawled through the sage 1/2 of a mile.
I was able to get close enough and took a 392-yard shot at a smaller 5pt sage bull. This bull had never been to the mountains in its life was my guess and just lived amongst the cattle. The 6pt then ran to 100-yards and I had a shot at a cow but I didn't want to pack two elk. They ran right to the Nevada hunter and he shot a smaller 5x3 out of the group.
