Wyoming cow elk

ksubuck

Handloader
Jun 25, 2014
365
64
Wow. Life has been busy for too long. 5 year old kid is growing fast, wife managing a big box store, COVID, and thriving small business. Makes it hard to spend time on hunting and shooting.

My old hunting buddies and I have tallied up a bunch of elk points in Wyoming. We usually are DIY public land hunters, but decided to take a guided cow hunt this year to check an outfitter over for a possible bull hunt next year. Off to central wyoming we went.

It's still hard to process the experience as we have guided hunts ourselves many years ago, but have never hunted with a guide before. Hard not to be critical of some things and easy to be complimentary of other things. They did show us a ton of nice bulls and were shocked we preferred hiking the heavier cover rather than driving around glassing. I guess we aren't your regular hunters.

The morning of the third day, we were driving back into some landlocked BLM ground and found ourselves in a narrow draw between two ridgelines. around 500 elk were coming down the right side, crossing the road, and running up the ridge to the left. needless to say, the adrenaline was pumping and it was a sight to see. Our guides gunned the engines and down the two track we flew at about 50 mph. come to a screeching halt, pile out of the trucks, try to make an ethical shot on running animals at 50 to 100 yards? Not what I was thinking about when I signed up. I did find a nice confused cow standing broadside at about 100 yards. With 2 tags to fill and one more day to hunt, figured why not. 7 STW, 160g Nosler AccuBond, IMR 7828 pushing it 3250fps. You know the result... elk meat in the freezer. Still feel a little dirty about it, but wow, what an experience, will never forget it.

Three hours later, we were hunting a Ridgeline at about 9000 feet. This is my style of hunting. Spotted 3 cows and a calf working down a ridge to our east. I worked my way down into the flat to cut then off. Still to this day it amazes me how much ground they can cover at a walk. Was able to lay prone on a little knoll with switchgrass to conceal me. They walked in from 800 yards to about 300 yards where they turned broadside and crossed a creek bed. Lead cow came up, held still, and is now living in my deep freeze. Now that is my style of hunting.

Both of my buddies tagged out as well. It was a good hunt
 

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Congratulations. It may not have been all that you had in mind, but you did connect. And the second cow afforded you the opportunity to actually hunt. Yeah, the guide probably has plenty of people who just want the meat regardless of the ethics of the hunt.
 
Congratulations. You got a two for one hunt. Meat and hunting your preferred style. Not a total bad experience. Good shot by the way. Dan.
 
Congratulations on taking a couple of elk. Sometimes unanticipated events just happen. That makes up for the times when even the best laid plans don't work out.
 
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