Wyoming Safari 2013

[MinnesotaHunter]

Well, we leave for Wyoming in 3 days. This fall we again decided to make Central Wyoming the primary destination for our western hunting trips. Personally, I drew 3 tags this year: cow elk (this will hopefully be my first successful elk hunt after several tries), mule deer buck, and antelope buck. I am hoping three tags isn't biting off more than I can chew, but with a total of 14 hunting days between archery and rifle season I think I can get it done.

Our plan this year will be pretty flexible with a few areas that we think will hold some decent opportunities to get off the roads and see alot of game. We hunted this area for the first time last year, and had a great time bringing our dad's along. Trading our backpacks for truck camping was definately worth it for the hunting camp atmosphere and comradere.

This summer has been pretty busy with work, but I have made time to get out and hike with the pack on and have shot well over a thousand arrows. You can always do more, but I feel pretty prepared for the upcoming trips. This year I started laying things out in early august, and it is lucky we have a detached second garage, so I can leave my piles of hunting gear laying around without driving my wife crazy.

Garage disaster around the middle of August


I have a few new toys to try out this year too:
- I bought a Longbow bag from SpotNStalk101; it has been awesome so far. 90lbs has been riding well in it.
- I picked up a couple of Be The Decoy hats, and am excited to try them out during bow season.
- My wife bought me a Sierra Designs Zissou 12 bag for my birthday
- a few other odds and ends; Sitka Jetstream vest (thanks NPaden) and an FHF Bino Harness (thanks Paul at FHF)

This week I am actually out of town for work and will be driving home on friday morning, will stop at home to load the truck, hook up the trailer, kiss the wife, and will be off to meet up with the guys and continue the drive. With any luck we will hit Buffalo, WY around 5 am saturday morning for a short stop there to buy any last supplies, then we will turn south for the last leg, and be hunting by noon. Last year in 2 of the 3 areas we hunted I had pretty good cell phone reception, so I will try to update this as the hunt plays out out.

As normal, I ussually owe alot of guys on this site for the knowledge I have picked up over the last couple of years, so thanks in advance, and good luck to all of you who will be heading into the mountains in the next few weeks.

More to follow.

Ross

 

[idnative1948]

Good luck! Planning is half the fun.

 

[idahofishnhunt]

Looks like your gonna have a great time! Good luck!

 

[MNHunter]

Good luck Ross!

 

[noharleyyet]

Looking fwd to the tale.

 

[1_pointer]

Good luck! I need to be nicer to my wife to get another 14 day block for a trip!

 

[hunter47025]

Good luck with all your tags, don't forget to post the pics.

 

[havgunwilltravel]

All the best with the three tags in the pocket. Looks like you are loaded up with gear and equipment and have a pretty good plan in place.

 

[recon6036]

Good luck and be safe!!!

 

[big28hunter]

Hope you have an awesome and successful trip! Good huntin'

 

[MinnesotaHunter]

Well we made it to Wyoming. We met up last night in Owatonna, MN and drove through the night. We hit Buffalo, WY this morning around 9, picked up some last supplies (PBR and ice), stopped to see if we could weight our pack down anymore at the local sporting goods shop. In case any of you are going through Buffalo check out the "Sports Lure" awesome small town sporting goods store!

Anyway, just spotted our first Muley and I am going to drop down into a canyon to glass for elk.

I love hunting season. Good luck to all of you out in the field.

 

[WyOpitz]

Good luck, the sports lure IS awesome. Got my first hunting rifle there when I was 11 from my grandpa.

 

[npaden]

Good luck!

 

[Colberjs]

Following along.

Have a safe and successful trip!!

 

[MinnesotaHunter]

Day 1 went pretty well. Put on a ton of miles saw some deer and antelope. No shooter though. The evening of day 1 (last night) I found a group of 21 elk. I couldn't tell if they were public or not, but I had a few hours so I took off to try and get close. They were only about 400 yds away when I first spotted them but the walk to get close was about 2.5 miles. They ended up being on private, but I felt good that I knew where they had come from on the BLM land, so the plan the next morning was to try and ambush them on their way back into the canyons on public this morning.

Of course it couldn't be that easy. This morning.....no sign of them. I think they might be staying on the private land, more or less, just living out I the open. So, this afternoon I climbed up onto the highest vantage point I could find, and hopefully from here we can get a better idea where these elk are coming from.

Now it is time to get out of the sun and heat and take an hour snooze.

 

[MinnesotaHunter]

Day 2 has come to a end, and I a going to try and write something quick before my Tylenol PM kicks in. This afternoon, after a little catnap and thunderstorm, we located two bulls, unfortunately we only have cow tags. We though they might be hanging around a herd as they looked to be satellite bulls. one was a little 4pt and the other was a decent 6pt; maybe 300ish (i am not the most experienced elk scorer). We looked all over and couldn't find any other elk on the ridge with the two bulls. Oh well. The rest of the night was occupied with a seemingly endless supply of small Muley bucks and does. We haven't seen anything around here of any size, and with most of the elk seeming to want to hang out on private, I might hike into a little different area tomorrow and see what is happening up there.

Well, the eyelids are getting droopy. Time to press post.

 

[elkantlers]

Keep at it, Something will turn up.

 

[MinnesotaHunter]

Day 3 is in the books. I was on elk again today; which I can hardly believe with all the unsuccessful elk hunting adventures I have been on. I have never had this many encounters with elk on one trip. This afternoon. I found an open bench with sage, grass, and small pines down in a draw between two ridges. I checked it out and found a ton of fresh sign (dung, tracks, and ripped up trees), so I figured this was probably my best bet for tonight. It looked like they were coming up from below as above it was a big sage basin rim-rocked out from above. I found a game trail coming up to the bench and found some cover on the downwind side and set up to see what came out. I had a bunch of muleys coming up and through the bench heading up and into the sage, the biggest was a 130ish 4pt, so he got to walk. Then right towards last light I see two cows and a calf crest the ridge across the bench from me and start to feed down towards the bench. A little 5pt rag horn came running after them a minute later. At this point I was kind of pinned down as I was across the bench and was situated with my cover towards the downhill approach and not across the bench, so once they got behind some trees I started to make a move across the bench. The wind was good but I ran out of cover, and eventually light. My rangefinder read 73 yds to the nearest cow and 65 to the bull. 60 is my outer limit for elk to ensure I get enough penetration, so I backed out and will take another run at them tomorrow night. It was a log walk out as they were in my path to walk out, so I got a little extra exercise on the way out. It was an awesome night despite not drawing my bow back. I better get to sleep now.

Good luck to everyone else who is hunting this week.

 

[St52v]

Good luck! And keep after it!!

 

[kansasdad]

I love this time of year when we get daily updates. Thanks for taking me along. Great adventure.