WY elk are cooperative
- Thread starter Big Fin
- Start date
MinnesotaHunter
Well-known member
Way to go Mark! Looks like the weather is cooperating. Good luck, Randy, on knocking one of your own down!
joelweb
Well-known member
Nice! Good to see Mark connect.
Bowhuntrben
Well-known member
Great job! Good luck filling your other tag!
MandM2012
New member
Nice Bull!
40+ mph winds this morning made it miserable for packing out the last loads of Mark's bull. Calmed down before dark. Glassed a lot of elk in the canyons just before dark. Now we have something to go after in the morning.
huntin24/7
Well-known member
Good luck. Can't wait to see more pics.
Hunter&Huntress
Active member
Wow That is a nice bull! I want to go hunting with you! I better start buys some of those dvd's.
ID_deerslayer
Active member
Great bull congrats. Looking forward to reading the full story !
This was a hunt we were doing for RMEF Team Elk. It was a ton of fun in an area of Wyoming that can be drawn with 1-2 points.
I wish I could say I filled my tag. Nope.
On the day Mark shot his, I had three bulls I could have shot. Knowing we were already over three miles from the truck, with one on the ground, I passed. I think it made for good TV to see me holding on a bull at 75 yards, but I had no intention of shooting another one. Having Mark's bull on the ground was enough work for two days.
I ended up passing on two other bulls and many cows (I had an either-sex tag). Last night, I had a very nice five-point at 180 yards. There was some grass slightly obstructing my shot. It was lower light. We were a LONG ways from the truck. We had no tracking snow, if something did go bad. So, I let him walk. The camera guy looked at me with the "All this work, and you're not going to shoot. What the heck we out here for?"
Earlier that morning, we were on a herd of 20+ cows, and one rag horn. I wanted to shoot a cow standing next to the rag horn. Thought it would be cool to show that there are some hunts where shooting a cow is better for conservation than shooting a young bull. Nothing wrong with shooting a young bull. Hell, my first three bulls were raghorns, as was my Colorado bull last year. But, I was looking more for meat and wanted to talk about hunters' role in game management.
But, it was all for naught. When I stuck my head out of the dark timber to set up on the herd about 150 yards away, I looked to my right and came eyeball-to-eyeball with three cows I had not seen. They were as surprised as I was, taking off like they were on fire, sending the entire herd with them.
Guess I should have taken the 254 yard shot when it was presented, rather than try to cut another 100 yards off the distance. Just wanted a really good shot and good footage. End result - no shot and no footage.
It was a great hunt. In the last three season, I have helped four guys shoot their first bull. That has meant more to me than punching my own tag. Mark has spent many years trying to kill a bull with his recurve bow. Now, with two bad hips and an aneurysm in his aorta, a rifle hunt seemed more likely to provide success.
Don't ask me how a guy with his conditions, who lives at 500' elevation, came to Wyoming, hiked over a 9,940' pass, with a pack, then shot a bull at 8,600'. Only to spend the rest of that day and most of the following day packing out loads. Somehow he did it and I couldn't be happier.
The crew that films Team Elk uses some crazy big cameras and tripods. Our crew would shoot me if I asked them to haul that stuff up and down mountains. Yesterday was over twelve miles, in some ugly nasty rock piles. Nolan, the camera guy, carried that extra 35# of unbalanced bulk the entire way. Good thing he is a hockey player. Not sure if that production company hates their camera guys, or if they just drive around on most their hunts, but they are going to get hurt if they send guys with that much gear on the next hunt we do for them.
Just home and only a few days to de-junk, so not much of a blow-by-blow story. If there is one great discovery of this hunt, it was taught to me by Mark.
I always do the wall tent, cold camp, etc. Mark suggested we look into this place that claimed to rent cabins to hunters. My liver giving me some fits the last couple weeks, I decided we would at least look. Well, it turned out to be the best idea of this hunt. In past hunts when my liver flared up the ability to rest and recover has been challenging in a wall tent situation. Just too much work, little time for rest, always cold, little sleep. All the things I'm not supposed to subject myself to when feeling poorly. Especially when hunting in this type of terrain.
I can honestly say, having a warm bed to rest in, even taking some afternoon naps, allowed me to get through this hunt. Having already done 25 days in tents this season, and facing another 40 days in tents, this cabin idea was a welcome break. Maybe I'm getting soft. Maybe it is due to the fact I am 17 days away from the half-century mark. Maybe it is that a fifty year-old body is not meant to spend 75 days each fall in tents. Whatever the reason, I am thankful for Mark's wisdom and insight on choosing the cabin option.
If ever you are hunting the north end of the Big Horns, you will be hard pressed to find a better situation for the self-guided hunter than the great folks at Wyoming High Country Lodge. Howard and Cheryl are top notch. Three hot meals are included in the daily rate, even though we were usually out too early or too long to enjoy such. The other hunters we met, all doing the On Your Own gig, were as impressed as we were. Here is a link to the website ---> http://www.wyhighcountry.com/
Thanks for the great time, Mark. Hunting with friends is what drives me these days. Hard to find a better guy with whom to share an elk camp. And surely no hunter will be more grateful than you were for the chance to shoot this fine bull.
Sun setting on another great hunt that will be one of the best elk episodes we have ever filmed.
Nolan, working his butt off, taking some great evening scenics from our perch at 9,820'.
I wish I could say I filled my tag. Nope.
On the day Mark shot his, I had three bulls I could have shot. Knowing we were already over three miles from the truck, with one on the ground, I passed. I think it made for good TV to see me holding on a bull at 75 yards, but I had no intention of shooting another one. Having Mark's bull on the ground was enough work for two days.
I ended up passing on two other bulls and many cows (I had an either-sex tag). Last night, I had a very nice five-point at 180 yards. There was some grass slightly obstructing my shot. It was lower light. We were a LONG ways from the truck. We had no tracking snow, if something did go bad. So, I let him walk. The camera guy looked at me with the "All this work, and you're not going to shoot. What the heck we out here for?"
Earlier that morning, we were on a herd of 20+ cows, and one rag horn. I wanted to shoot a cow standing next to the rag horn. Thought it would be cool to show that there are some hunts where shooting a cow is better for conservation than shooting a young bull. Nothing wrong with shooting a young bull. Hell, my first three bulls were raghorns, as was my Colorado bull last year. But, I was looking more for meat and wanted to talk about hunters' role in game management.
But, it was all for naught. When I stuck my head out of the dark timber to set up on the herd about 150 yards away, I looked to my right and came eyeball-to-eyeball with three cows I had not seen. They were as surprised as I was, taking off like they were on fire, sending the entire herd with them.
Guess I should have taken the 254 yard shot when it was presented, rather than try to cut another 100 yards off the distance. Just wanted a really good shot and good footage. End result - no shot and no footage.
It was a great hunt. In the last three season, I have helped four guys shoot their first bull. That has meant more to me than punching my own tag. Mark has spent many years trying to kill a bull with his recurve bow. Now, with two bad hips and an aneurysm in his aorta, a rifle hunt seemed more likely to provide success.
Don't ask me how a guy with his conditions, who lives at 500' elevation, came to Wyoming, hiked over a 9,940' pass, with a pack, then shot a bull at 8,600'. Only to spend the rest of that day and most of the following day packing out loads. Somehow he did it and I couldn't be happier.
The crew that films Team Elk uses some crazy big cameras and tripods. Our crew would shoot me if I asked them to haul that stuff up and down mountains. Yesterday was over twelve miles, in some ugly nasty rock piles. Nolan, the camera guy, carried that extra 35# of unbalanced bulk the entire way. Good thing he is a hockey player. Not sure if that production company hates their camera guys, or if they just drive around on most their hunts, but they are going to get hurt if they send guys with that much gear on the next hunt we do for them.
Just home and only a few days to de-junk, so not much of a blow-by-blow story. If there is one great discovery of this hunt, it was taught to me by Mark.
I always do the wall tent, cold camp, etc. Mark suggested we look into this place that claimed to rent cabins to hunters. My liver giving me some fits the last couple weeks, I decided we would at least look. Well, it turned out to be the best idea of this hunt. In past hunts when my liver flared up the ability to rest and recover has been challenging in a wall tent situation. Just too much work, little time for rest, always cold, little sleep. All the things I'm not supposed to subject myself to when feeling poorly. Especially when hunting in this type of terrain.
I can honestly say, having a warm bed to rest in, even taking some afternoon naps, allowed me to get through this hunt. Having already done 25 days in tents this season, and facing another 40 days in tents, this cabin idea was a welcome break. Maybe I'm getting soft. Maybe it is due to the fact I am 17 days away from the half-century mark. Maybe it is that a fifty year-old body is not meant to spend 75 days each fall in tents. Whatever the reason, I am thankful for Mark's wisdom and insight on choosing the cabin option.
If ever you are hunting the north end of the Big Horns, you will be hard pressed to find a better situation for the self-guided hunter than the great folks at Wyoming High Country Lodge. Howard and Cheryl are top notch. Three hot meals are included in the daily rate, even though we were usually out too early or too long to enjoy such. The other hunters we met, all doing the On Your Own gig, were as impressed as we were. Here is a link to the website ---> http://www.wyhighcountry.com/
Thanks for the great time, Mark. Hunting with friends is what drives me these days. Hard to find a better guy with whom to share an elk camp. And surely no hunter will be more grateful than you were for the chance to shoot this fine bull.
Sun setting on another great hunt that will be one of the best elk episodes we have ever filmed.
Nolan, working his butt off, taking some great evening scenics from our perch at 9,820'.
ashersdad
Well-known member
We were pulling for you Randy. As usual, your attitude comes shining through. You always seem to have a "successful" hunt whether you kill or not. Congrats to Mark on his first bull. Can't wait to see the hunt.
FloridaArcher91
Member
nice bull!! look forward to the story!
Duck-Slayer
Well-known member
Sounds like a great time...
Matt
Matt
Don K
Active member
Great bull cant wait for the episode. We where about 30 min east of that lodge last year. Great prices and a great place to stay with everything you get.
