My General Tag

[TOGIE]

I started methodically checking all spots I found the bulls in before. In this snow I could tell even from this distance that there were plenty of tracks criss crossing the landscape. Good sign.

I had gotten up there decently early in the day, like 3 pm, as I really didn't have anything else to do and didn't want to just sit around waiting.

The day had warmed a bit and the snow was starting to get a bit soft. My boots were soaked by the time I had started glassing and it was already starting to cool off a bit. I could tell I might have a problem here. Seven seasons with these boots, probably time for a new pair of hunting boots.

I could hear that some of the SxS and ATV army were starting to make there way up the road to look for elk as well before the opener. Steady hums in the distance. That road would look very different tomorrow midday I presumed. My glassing spot was tucked away and would require some hiking from the road, I was never too worried they'd come over to this spot, but you never know.

My feet were starting to get cold after about an 1.5 of sitting there; soaked to the bone it doesn't take much. Where I was sitting the snow was about 1.5 feet deep. Generally I'd say it was about a foot of snow, but it seemed to vary quite a bit depending on things like slope and trees.

I had laid my trekking poles across a sage brush and put down my glassing pad on them to prop me up out of the snow.

Frick my feet were getting real cold.

Looking at all this snow, in some places even topping 2 feet on northern slopes I secretly started hoping I wouldn't turn up any elk. It was gonna suck to go up there to shoot an elk with no snow, but plenty snow? Snow that was going to start turning to slush and mud over the next couple days? Ugh.

As it would be, two drainages over they emerged. (sorry, repeat picture)



A respectable (surely subjective though) raghorn and a cow. Heck yes.

I should make clear, my brain has largely settled on fully utilizing the "any elk" aspect of this tag in this unit. Call me crazy on what it takes to get an NR General tag these days. But I decided I will be very happy to take home "any elk." My wife would appreciate me not dragging this out. Life is busy, she still works full time and while we have grandma help, our little just over 1 year old boy is a handful right now.

She would not be happy if I keep looking for a solid raghorn or bigger bull while passing up cows and spikes and come home empty handed. This bull was more than enough, and even the cow might do.

Meat truly is a huge part of why I hunt and my wife loves that I hunt. Yes, I eat McDonalds and the occasional Costco pizza from time to time, but we're overall pretty hippy when it comes to our food and holy shit we love wild game. I think we're going on two years now without buying any beef at all. As much as it's become such a tired and over used thing to say, we truly love nothing more than having freezers full of some of the wildest, most organic, free ranging red meat on the planet and that is extremely important to us.

Hunting for me is about fun, adventure, and meat, in no particular order. Everybody wants cool antlers on the wall, including me, 100%. But fun, adventure, and meat can be had in their fullest without big or, honestly, any antlers.

Any elk will do.

 

[TOGIE]

These elk filtered into the timber at the top of the ridge. I started spending time on my phone looking at all the routes I'd hypothesized over to this area and just continually hated the idea of having to navigate the timber and steep slopes to get there.

I'm sure, that if I had a physically reliable partner I wouldn't even be thinking twice about it. I did start thinking about the many other spots I had in my back pocket, some of which I suspected would hold less snow.

The highest priority spot I had after this area was going to be a bit of a driving excursion from where I currently was and would be quite remote and in a particular corner of the General units that held what would be some particularly beautiful and elky country. My plan all along was to make a play on the bulls in this spot and if it didn't work out after day one I'd likely be packing everything up and heading in deep. My mind was already starting to mentally hang out in this spot.

But, I have elk here. I have give it a shot one way or another.

Tangentially, next comes a really frustrating thing for me. about midway down this hillside and to the left I notice some mule deer. I see two does. I watch them for a bit and realize there are 4 mule deer.

Yeesh, two rather respectable bucks. Quite respectable. Especially for this unit. Several years ago I came to this exact spot with a buck tag in my pocket and looked hard for bucks. Quite hard. Many hours of glassing.

I turned up zero. Zip, zilch, nada. I think I saw two does the entire time.

And guess what? In this exact moment I'm watching these beautiful bucks start making their way up to eventually top the ridge, it is the last day of the mule deer season. For some reason this just made me mad. But I really enjoyed watching them.

There's something about mule deer. Maybe it's the fact that I didn't actually have a tag for them in my pocket or the fact that they are so much smaller than an elk. But I could just tell my brain was wrestling with this tension of how much the idea of trekking over there for a buck did not seem to bother me one bit, but for an elk, I just didn't want to deal with it all that badly. I was scared I was teetering on the edge of being a "quitter."

 

[TOGIE]

I have a resident contact I sent these pictures to. She is an older woman, in her 70's, that over the last 20 some years has shot 20 some elk in these or other nearby general units. I know her and her husband through the fact that they were neighbors with my grandmother while she was still alive. I've known them nearly my whole life, me and my family see them regularly and in some ways she's like my other grandmother. These two folks are a part of what make Wyoming so special for me.

I was sending her these pictures more because she's just getting to really enjoy following along on my hunt and I of course wanted to keep her updated on the progress.

She's never had to go far or high for elk. Partially because she has never been super capable of such and partially she just knows how to kill them without having to do so. She reminded me that they might filter lower overnight, and even more importantly, tomorrow is a new paradigm - the aforementioned army will be out in force and this road can take them higher than this area. Elk are gonna be getting pushed around.

I remembered a time tested strategy: play the pressure... and pressure this area was certainly gearing up to have.


I'd seen all i needed to see and my soaked feet were absolutely killing me. I decided to call it and get back, even with a couple hours of light left.

I eventually made it to the bottom and started working over to where my truck was parked off the side of a legal two track. As I was hiking up a short hill to get there I noticed a "road closed" sign off to my left on a two track that heads up a big ridge that runs perpendicular to all the ridges and canyons I've been glassing, only, on the other side of the road that I had hiked up. I had always ignored this because I did not realize this was a closed road, I had always known it was there looking at the maps but purposefully ignored it. I became very interested in it and kept thinking about it.

This closed road could provide vantage into an area both devoid of legal two tracks but bounded by legal two tracks, containing a pocket in the middle that amounted to roughly 3/4 of a mile minimum from any legal road, from one end, well over a mile from one end, and would require a solid hike from the bottom to gain good vantage into any of it. For some both rational and irrational reason my brain was obsessed with this; obviously, perhaps, only irrational because I had not even confirmed elk would be in this area. Along with that, it would provide a much better vantage point into more canyons and little to be concerned about from the ATV Army, so I assumed.

I don't think I realized it at the time but my mind was made up that that is where I wanted to go in the morning.

I think I was also starting to recognize that maybe I am a quitter. I was gonna be leaving elk because I didn't like where they were. I was sold on the idea of getting those elk before I had to hike the road, now that I had to add those miles and elevation from the bottom? Ugh.

As I was packing up the truck to leave, one ATV and SxS after another were trudging up the road I had just hiked down to go see if they could find an elk before tomorrow. That was at least starting to make me feel better about where my brain was landing on going in the morning.

 

[TOGIE]

Rejoining this story while eating a homemade breakfast burrito, courtesy of my second grandma, on opening morning, just before shooting light, on my knob, while I am greatly stressing about what to do about my morning poop that seems to always be such a horrendous poorly timed inconvenience while hunting.

 

[TOGIE]

I went where I wanted to go on opening morning.

I think you can distill some parts of hunting down having to think about doing what feels right and being okay with being uncomfortable.

They don't have to be mutually exclusive. Yes, success is often going to be uncomfortable and if you only do what feels right you may be subconsciously straying from what feels uncomfortable. But, being uncomfortable does not mean you're on the road to success.

Climbing up this old snow covered closed two track to gain a high ridge overlooking multiple canyons in front of me felt right, it just felt too right to ignore it. I kept asking myself if it felt right because it wasn't going to be nearly as uncomfortable as where the raghorn and cow were or if because it looked like a good area to play the pressure. To be sure, finding an elk in here was going to be an uncomfortable place to shoot one, comfortable places to shoot elk are few and far between on this planet. Nonetheless, the feeling of being quitter lingered in my brain.

Regardless, I was excited to get up there and look into this succession of canyons that stretched up into the bigger mountains above them.

I was also reminding myself, that I have A LOT of other spots in the back pocket. Between my resident contacts and discussions with others who have hunted the general tag, I had no shortage of leads and I was certain I would be filling my tag somewhere, if not here. But here was where I wanted to fill it. This was my spot, I had found elk here on my own, no leads, no tips.

Not least was that these hills were a part of my intangible goal - the special nature of Wyoming, the nostalgia of my youth spent in this area, getting to share this hunt with my "second grandma" made me want to do it here. It was special for me.

So, here, is where I was. It felt right.

 

[TOGIE]

I had brought a small thermos of coffee too to sit in the morning cold awaiting first light and the hopeful sighting of elk. It was indeed a chilly morning and I shivered in the breeze up here. But the day was going to be bringing clear skies and low/mid 60 degree weather. It may have just snowed over a foot, but winter was not here yet.

During my hike up, the stream for SxS's and ATVs up yesterday's road was quite the spectacle. Not less than 20 hummed there way up the steep slope. Some of those SxS's can hold 4 people as well. Some late sleepers were even making there way up as shooting light close approached during my sit.

It's so easy to get judgmental in hunting, it's all over the place. And I'm not negatively judging these people... I think. However, the ATV thing is just tends to bother me, not that people use them, but that I truly view them as a disadvantage. When people drop substantial coin on OHVs they are hamstrung into using them, whether they realize it or not. You can't drop that kinda coin on a tool/toy and not use it, what a waste right? Here I sit on this ridge watching the OHV's climb the hills like a line of ants a mile off to my right and 3/4 a mile off to my left and here I sit, all alone, in the quiet and the breeze glassing for elk. So, maybe I should be thankful for them, perhaps.

I dunno, make of that what you will. I just think buying an OHV is more often doing yourself a disservice than a service in a lot of western hunting.

I was real curious how many shots I was going to hear in the hills way above me once the clock rounds shooting light.

 

[nrpate05]

The agony of the morning poop is always in the back of my mind while hunting. Seems like I can't really start my hunt until that is out of the way!

 

[Flatbrimmer]

I hope they scare em all RIGHT to you- leaving a band of respectable bulls staring you in the hairy eyeball through the reticle of a rifle scope. Going from possible “quitter” to down right WINNER in the time it takes to gently pull the trigger. I enjoy reading your posts. Keep em comin

 

[TOGIE]

The agony of the morning poop is always in the back of my mind while hunting. Seems like I can't really start my hunt until that is out of the way!

during archery I turned around after driving for 20 minutes on my first morning there to get to a gas station to go poop.

however, I had chipotle the night before. the urgency was.... different, if you will. it was either going to be on the side of the road or back at a gas station. i ain't having a chipotle poop on the side of the road.

no way in hell.

 

[2rocky]

I've dropped trou with a bugling bull less than 300 yards away and morning light getting close. Luckily I was in a good range on the Bristol scale. . 30 minutes later I was looking at a dead bull in the trail.

 

[TOGIE]

The clock rounds shooting light. No "pops" were heard in the hills above me.

In handful of places I've been in Colorado during the 1st rifle season the clock will round shooting light and the hills start reverberating with gun shots. I really didn't think of this as good or bad though.

10 minutes pass and finally a shot pops off in the hills above me then another, another, and another. All the same shooter in this instance it seems. Shortly after another volley pops off way way off to my right, much quieter. I count this as only two different shooters. Then, back to quiet.

I'm glassing the canyons pretty intensely, particularly the one directly in front of me that just felt like the better one - more trees, more cover. But the desire to see fully up the others was strong and I had to argue with myself to keep from getting up and hiking further to see up the other ones. I'd only been here about 15 minutes since shooting light hit.

I glance further off to my right at one of the hill sides in a canyon I had been arguing with myself about wanting to re situate on and lo and behold, there's an elk climbing out of it, on the hill side facing me.

It's a spike. Perhaps there are others filtering up after it, but that didn't matter.

Any elk will do.

 

[Deleted member 52098]

during archery I turned around after driving for 20 minutes on my first morning there to get to a gas station to go poop.

however, I had chipotle the night before. the urgency was.... different, if you will. it was either going to be on the side of the road or back at a gas station. i ain't having a chipotle poop on the side of the road.

no way in hell.

I call those "panic poops"

 

[BackofBeyond]

during archery I turned around after driving for 20 minutes on my first morning there to get to a gas station to go poop.

however, I had chipotle the night before. the urgency was.... different, if you will. it was either going to be on the side of the road or back at a gas station. i ain't having a chipotle poop on the side of the road.

no way in hell.

You did that to yourself. You can’t blame chipotle for that, it’s all on you.

That McDouble I had in antelope season did the same thing to me. Got awkward there for a minute, but I got through it.

 

[TOGIE]

It's not even a question of if I'm going to make a play on this elk. I'm immediately packing everything back up and getting ready to head over there to try and get on it.

Straight line this elk is 0.6 miles away with a very steep, albeit short, canyon with a stream in it to drop into off my perpendicular ridge to gain the other steep ridges I was looking at that 90 degree off my current ridge.

I've debated sharing this photo. But I will.

En route.



I had to start making my move while still visible to the elk, I didn't see too much in the way of options. This canyon in some places dropped off more like a cliff and I had no interest in attempting that in the snow. So I carefully trudged forward looking for a gentler spot to drop in. The elk never seemed to notice or be bothered.

It turned out I was following someone else's tracks who had also dropped into this canyon. Yesterday, coming out of here a guy had a decent mule deer head sitting on his trailer. My suspicion and theory is he had been in here just yesterday and shot that deer. He seemed to have already found an okay way in.

I dropped into the little canyon and out of sight of the elk, with a hope and prayer that he will still be on this hillside, or others, upon my gaining the ridge opposite.

 

[TOGIE]

I've been very candid about some of my serious shortcomings as a hunter. Bordering on being a quitter, if not a quitter. I have some very serious issues with having mental fortitude at times. To put it more bluntly and blatantly I am often mentally weak as a hunter, particularly as a solo hunter.

So, please allow me to be candid about some of my strengths. I am fit. I am a rather physically capable hunter. I'm cool as a cucumber on the trigger and have consistently been a very good shooter when I get on animals. That doesn't mean I haven't had a couple bad rodeos that were the result of poor and rushed shooting. But I consider myself rather good on the trigger.

I dropped into this canyon and HUSTLED my way across and back up and I mean hustled.

I gain the long sloping ridge that drops down into the perpendicular canyon maybe just under halfway under it and get a look. It had been less than 15 minutes since I left my glassing knob and holy shit I was breathing hard.

The spike was still there. Nearly at the top, just under a tree.

I range him and he's 307 yards away. I look at it again with a naked eye and say to myself "that can't be right." He just looked far, too far. I range him again and stuff around him.

311, 312, 305, 308.

I slip my pack off, settle forward on a rock, pull my glove off with my teeth and rack a round. I'm still breathing very hard after hustling up that hillside.

He's facing away from me so I use this opportunity to try calm my breathing, gain my breath a little, and pop in my ear plugs that are around my neck. Not 6 seconds later he turns broad side, I settle the BDC reticle right where it should given my cartridge and squeeze.

He hops like he's been hit and scurries to the top of the ridge and slightly beyond and stands there. I can only see the top third of his body and his head. And then just suddenly, almost comically, there are legs in the air and dirt flying up.

Yes, @Bluffgruff the tape is blown. The ambiguity of this photo with zero elk visible felt the perfect teaser. The barrel is pointing up towards the tree he was just under and to the right.

 

[TOGIE]

I gathered my things, un racked the fresh round I had put in and started picking my way over there.

I start at the tree and find blood. Roughly 25 yards away he lay.

He's a young one. But he's an elk and he's my elk. And I shot him in a place that is special to me.

I'll admit, I had very brief moment of "ugh, I really shoulda waited for at least a raghorn." But it was brief. I was internally beaming.

Any elk will do.

 

[Dsnow9]

I gathered my things, un racked the fresh round I had put in and started picking my way over there.

I start at the tree and find blood. Roughly 25 yards away he lay.

He's a young one. But he's an elk and he's my elk. And I shot him in a place that is special to me.

I'll admit, I had very brief moment of "ugh, I really shoulda waited for at least a raghorn." But it was brief. I was internally beaming.

Any elk will do.

View attachment 297819

Love it man! Way to go! If it’s brown it’s down is always the mantra I have lived by! Puts a lot more elk in the freezer, or at least that is what I tell myself.

 

[Deleted member 40728]

Hell yea. Way to go!

 

[jvanhoy]

I gathered my things, un racked the fresh round I had put in and started picking my way over there.

I start at the tree and find blood. Roughly 25 yards away he lay.

He's a young one. But he's an elk and he's my elk. And I shot him in a place that is special to me.

I'll admit, I had very brief moment of "ugh, I really shoulda waited for at least a raghorn." But it was brief. I was internally beaming.

Any elk will do.

View attachment 297819

Hell yea! Congrats buddy!

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

Awesome. Going to be great eating.