The 8 Year Wait...

[FREAK]

2024 is shaping up to be a busy year. I drew the deer tag I’ve been dreaming about since 2008 when I read a couple articles online of some incredible MD bucks harvested in the unit. I somehow beat the odds and drew the tag with 8 points.

Lots of folks on the forum reached out with contacts and information, I really appreciate all the help and feel it’s only fair to keep everyone posted on how the hunt goes.

My hunting buddy drew a great Wyoming type 9 tag with just 3 points in the random! He didn’t check his results thinking there was no way, and the tag eventually showed up in the mail! I was able to make a quick trip to get in on the experience...

My wife and I added our 3rd kid to the mix this spring and with us both working demanding jobs it’s going to be a chore to do my deer tag justice but I’m going to give it hell. I’m used to long days and chaotic schedules, so I’ll make the most of whatever time I get, and I’ll have the biggest sh*t eating grin on my face the entire time I’m out there! No tent shanking, hopefully I can hold out for a good one but no promises!

The plan is to dedicate the first couple weeks of September to my general archery elk tag. Then I’ll transition to helping by budding in Wyoming for a quick 4 day trip Sept 20-23. After that it’ll be local hunts for elk mixed in with a couple extended trips on the deer tag focusing most of my time around the rut. I’ve got the 7th-14 of November blocked out on the calendar but plan to make a few additional trips before.

It'll be a little bit of live updates but mostly after the fact recaps.

 

[FREAK]

Scouting Trip Aug 25th:

Loaded up the truck. My daughter and I are heading out to meet the in-laws for a night of camping in an area close to the unit. The plan is to spend a night with them camping then head up into the mountains for a couple days of scouting. We’ll make the most of it and enjoy some time outside familiarizing myself with the roads and country. The weather will be hot, and I don’t expect to see a lot of deer on the trip.




Pellet gun, bow, bikes, sippy cups, ect., ect. frantically thrown in the truck. Got the ipad loaded up with a mixture of learning material and cartoons to help her get through all the drive time!

Managed to find a couple nice deer, nothing special but was nice to see some quality deer.



On the drive-up Sunday night we heard a pack of wolves howling, my daughter enjoyed that. Also heard another pack in the drainage I planned to glass the next morning. We parked the truck and enjoyed a show or two in the back of the truck and settled in for the night.

Morning two of the scouting trip I got up early and glassed off the logging road we were camped on. Didn’t see any deer but it looked like an area that would hold some nice bucks. We did see a group of bachelor bulls (5-6 bulls) that were starting to act a little rutty.



Lots of country, it was hot and smokey, but I could see how a guy could spend hours driving and glassing off all the road systems in the unit.

The country was diverse. Everything from low grassy/rocky terrain to dense mature forest. Lots of old burn with endless amounts of spots for deer to hide. Roads running all throughout the unit but also enough areas to get far away from people. As you head south, the unit become more of the lodge pine/grassy mountainous terrain. It seems like country that would hold a lot of MD but is much more open and visible from different vantage points and I think it’ll attract a lot of other hunters. Probably worth spending a day or two on some big through hikes. Overall, it was a successful trip. Learned a lot about the unit and areas I want to focus my efforts on.


Had to snag a muscle shirt on the way out of town.

 

[noharleyyet]

Cool beginning….following

 

[Nick87]

Definitely following along.

 

[rogerthat]

Yup. Following. Good luck @FREAK hope you find the buck of your dreams

 

[Wyhunter]

Awesome adventure!

 

[F250]

Looking forward to more of this one !

 

[Hem]

Hope you have good hunting with all of this @FREAK . Off to a good start. Savor all the moments.

 

[duckhunt]

Great stuff

 

[FREAK]

Sept. 7-8th

I took a couple Saturdays to chase elk around. For the opener I went to a spot I’ve had success the last couple years but it was absolutely over ran with people. I backpacked in the night before the opener and had elk bugling all over the place. Had a nice bull walk by at 60 with blood coming out of his nose around 11am Saturday. Would of put an arrow in him if I had a chance just cause I knew he was hit. Found the guys that shot him about 600 yards from where the bull walked past me. A couple guys from Wisconsin hit him high on a 30 yard frontal shot. Doubtful they find it; I passed along what I knew and got out of there.

Earlier that morning I got bluff charged by a mountain lion. I was sitting by this wallow working a bull and hear one of the wildest cat hissing/growling sound I’ve ever experienced. A big cat bounded out of the willows and luckily took a 90 deg turn about 15 yards from me and ran off. Crazy experience, the only thing I had time to do was hold my bow out in front of me. The bull quieted up and that was that.



Literally bumper to bumper when I got back to the truck Sat night.


Sunday night I drove to a different rage a few hours from the house and rode my dirt bike into an area to meet up with a buddy. Crashed the bike about 2/3 of the way in and it messed up my throttle. My handlebar guard bent causing my throttle to be sticky. I got ahold of my buddy to let him know I may be hunting the bottom cause I knew the dirt bike trail only got more technical for the last 3rd.



I stopped in a good spot and was able to use a rock to beat it back into place and continued to meet him.

Long story short, we got into a bull with a bunch of cows. The thermals were perfect, and he was on our side of the heard. We snuck into 250ish yards, and I slow played him acting like I had a hot cow as he didn’t seem to have any. Sure enough he walks 30 yards from the spot I had my buddy set up. I see him pull back and fire 3 times, but I can't quite see the bull just his rack above the edge of the hill. We eventually find some blood but he’s not sure where he hit him. Bummer deal, looked till dark with him then he spent the next two days looking with no luck.



Sept. 14th

The next weekend I left the house around 4am to try another spot. Had a close encounter with a real nice bull with 6 cows. Heard him bugling later in the morning and tried to intercept him on his way to his bedding area. He walked by me at 80 yards, thought it might work out and tried a couple cow calls to see if I could bring him in, but he wasn’t interested. He moved off with his cows and kept pushing away from my calls. I probably should have let him bed and tried to just sneak into a good spot but there was another hunter below me that was aggressively bugling at him even though he kept just working away. Sat till dark hoping he would start talking again but no luck. Long hike back to the truck, eventually got back to town around 11pm. Spent Sunday with the family.



Alright, kind of slow so far but should pick up here.

 

[typhoon916]

Following .. way to go with your kids and family

 

[FREAK]

Out of State Bonus Hunt

Sept 20-23rd

Decided to join my hunting buddy for a quick trip on his out of state tag for the 20th-23rd. As I mentioned above, he beat the odds and drew a hard tag with two points in the random. I’m trying to save as much time as I can for my deer hunt and would usually have 5-10 days into elk hunting by now but took it easy so I could swing a few days with him. I’ve only spent one day hunting Wyoming on my general tag in 22 and it was off the charts, I couldn’t wait to get back even if it wasn’t my tag. He wasn’t having a whole lot of luck, just wasn’t having much rutting activity for more than the first and last hour in the areas he was hunting. There was a full moon the 13th-14th so he was thinking the elk must have been more active at night. We met up at my place Friday Sept 20th around 5pm. It was about a 4.5hr drive from Bozeman to the wall tent.


Sat Morning Sept. 21st

Went into a spot he usually got into them for a quick morning hunt. It was a 5 minute drive from the wall tent and a couple hundred yard walk in from a gated forest service road (about as easy of a spot as either of us typically hunt). We heard a couple bugles, but I got the sense they had been pressured pretty good as we weren’t getting much for responses. We hiked a 3-4 mile loop trying to get one to play with no luck. It felt like we were wasting time and decided we should pack up and go explore some of the areas I had e-scouted a little further from roads that I had e-scouted. My buddy was ready for a change of scenery and agreed it was time to explore some new country.


Around 10:30 am we packed all our stuff to camp from the truck and headed to the new spot in the unit. We spent some time driving a couple access roads stopping to glass and call every now and then. Eventually we got way up on a ridge line that overlooked the area we were interested in hunting. Almost immediately we started hearing some bugles way in the bottom and spotted a couple different groups of cows and bulls scattered throughout the area.

Looking over maps we decided to drive up a road that got us on a reasonable elevation band and hike in the 2.5 -3 miles into the elk. It was about 2:30 by the time we started our hike in.

4:00pm we’re into the start of the area we saw the elk and we decide to sit and eat a little and let out a couple cow calls. As we’re sitting there eating, we suddenly hear a bull not more than 400 yards away start going off. It was about 15 minutes after we stopped calling. I told my buddy he should get to this little tuff of grass and get ready as I think he’s coming in. Sure enough I hit the cow call a couple times and he just comes unglued. I catch him trotting towards us and he eventually works to within 10 yards of my buddy. I’m unsure if he wants to be done as it’s a smaller 6pt and we saw some nice bulls from our vantage early in the day. The bull comes into 10 yards of my buddy, they have a little stare off and eventually he figures something isn’t right and heads back from where he came. My buddies’ eyes are like saucers, said it was one of the coolest encounters he’s had. He hasn’t killed on with his bow and is relatively new to it. I know the unit holds some big bulls and I’m excited we still have some more hunting ahead of us.

Elk Encounter 1 24

We’re sitting there talking about it and suddenly another bull starts bugling above us. Wind is bad, we try and quickly move, and he must have smelt us as he went silent. He had to only be 200 yards just out of sight as his bugles were loud.

We sit for a while and listen, do a little hiking and calling. Glass down in the bottom off the cliff band and catch a monster down there with 6-7 cows bugling his head off. It was cool to watch but no way we’re going down there tonight. As we’re working back towards the truck we try the 2nd bull again that was trying to come in. He responds hot and I hit him right back. We’re running out of daylight so we’re playing it aggressive. He sounds big and I just assume he has some cows, so I try and go the hot cow/get away from me route. We’re stuck in a thick area and catch him off to our right moving in fast. He’s a bigger bull with another small 5 with him. I try to back out a little, so he’ll come in closer to the shooter but with the fading light I think he catches me and holds up at 80 or so. He knew something wasn’t right and slowly walked off.

Fun night! As we’re hiking back to the truck, we hear 5-6 more bulls between the truck and the area we had the close encounter earlier in the evening. Tomorrow should be good!


I was really looking forward to wall tenting it but truck camping it was.

 

[FREAK]

Sunday Sept. 22nd

Alarm goes off around 5:30. Although it was a few miles to get to the good stuff, we heard a few bugles on the way out and anticipated getting distracted. Sure enough, we run into some bugles 1.5-2 miles into the hike. We work a bull in the thick timber but no luck. Never see him, he eventually worked off. We get on a timbered ridge line and start hiking in the direction of where we got into the action the day before. As we’re hiking we get into two more calling matches with a two different bulls but it’s super thick and I’m unable to convince either to come in close.



We finally make it to where the nice one was from the day before. We try a couple set ups and patiently wait hoping he’ll come in but it’s dead. We had a plan to explore a big bench that had a couple groups of elk we spotted from the road the day before. We hear the dinosaur bull in the bottom going off every 1-1.5 hours but again decide it’s a bit of a hike and the canyon walls are sheer cliff. With only an evening to get it done we feel it’s a low probability and decide to stay high.

We find some water above where we saw him the night before and decide to sit on the tank for the middle of the day and hope he and his cows come in for a drink.




I don’t know what these are called but my buddies MIL made them for us and they are a killer lunch for truck hunts. Has to take a photo to remind myself to make them for my next hunt.

From about 2-4 we sit the water, cow calling every 30-40 minutes hoping to pull something in or get a response. We hear the dinosaur bull going off below us every once and awhile, but he doesn’t sound like he’s getting any closer. I suggest we stick to the plan and do a quick walk through the big bench on top before we commit to dropping down the 800 feet to try the dinosaur bull. I like my buddies optimism and eagerness to kill the big one but I’m a realist and my experience tells me it’s a far fetched pipe dream. My buddy reluctantly agrees and we hike up to the bench. It’s a burned area and we get into a patch of trees that didn’t burn. It’s about 4:15 and I suggest we hold up and let out a lazy bugle to see if anything will respond before we blow something out.

 

[FREAK]

Instantly get two responses and they’re close! Not only do they respond but they seem to be going back and forth with each other. We move in slowly, thermals going up, so we work in slowly keeping the wind. They sound like they 400-500 yards off but with the wind and canyon walls it’s hard to say for sure. We cut the distance using their bugles to get into position. I tell my buddy to get to a specific tree, stand next to it so he has clear shooting lanes. I’ll keep it simple with the cow call and see if I can pull one in without getting winded.

He slowly gets into position and as soon as he’s set up I hit the cow call, instant response from both bulls. I keep working it and eventually I see a cow come running in. She stops about 80 yards from my buddy. Then the big boy comes sprinting in and holds up at 40. He draws and the cow catches him and the turns to head away. The bull runs down and crosses him broadside at 30 but is in a gallop. He chases down the cow and they return to the area he was originally, still bugling.



The other bull is still hot and since he hears the other bull is back in his area, he seems even more responsive to my cow calls. He continues to respond to nearly every call eventually showing himself. I see my buddy draw again this time well before the bull could have a visual of him (~60 yards out with his head behind a tree). He’d a dead bull as far as I’m concerned. He stops for a second and I hit the call again, he instantly lets out another bugle. 20, 10….My buddy lets out a grunt to stop the bull and pin wheels him at 10 yards mid bugle. He takes off towards me then turn uphill, as he turns, I see blood coming out his side with a perfectly placed entry wound….He makes it another 30 yards and piles up.








We’re high fiving and talking about the encounter. He says he was totally calm on the second bull after having the bigger one almost run him over. He’s thrilled with his first archery bull and to shoot him at 10 yards bugling his head off, what an experience!

Well as we’re starting to break down his bull, the big one decides he wants to take a second look at that cow and starts working his way in. I pulled my camera out and started recording to capture the moment.

Elk Encounter 2

 

[FREAK]

Had to make the most of my lunch break. It’ll be quiet for a while. Hopefully one more quick elk hunt then I’ll start focusing on the deer tag.

 

[seeth07]

sounds like that was a super fun hunt, congrats. Best of luck moving forward