I’ve been looking forward to this hunt for a long time as I have never been elk hunting. I’m very lucky to have family in Jackson Hole and they took their time to guide me on a 7 day public land elk hunt. I bow hunted Sunday - Wed.
This year is unseasonably warm and the bulls just weren’t talking. We were in bulls each day but just couldn’t close the distance gap to get in bow range.
Today was opener of rifle season. I threw the 300WBY on the horse and we took off with one goal in mind and that was to put a bull on the ground. We ended up riding to 10k feet to overlook a huge basin. Right away we spotted some bulls but they made a disappearing act into some country that we couldn’t get into. We made a decision to ride over the ridge and check out another large basin. Once arriving at the basin we decided to ride the horses down to the bottom and do some calling. The ride itself was very difficult and sketchy with some shear drop offs and loose shale but we made it down.
This is where it gets interesting. Upon reaching the back of the meadow we hit the cow calls and immediately had 4 bulls sound off way down on the other side of a deep ravine. It was game on, my cousin and I abandoned the horses and took off on foot. We dropped several hundred feet in elevation down some steep drops and was able to close the distance. There was one bull we were trying to get to come check us out but he wouldn’t leave his cows in the thick timber. Finally we had one of the satellite bulls make the fatal mistake and I caught him slipping through the timber at 50 yards. Game over, not a big bull by any means but it’s my first and the fact that we took the hunt to him and chased him down in some very remote and rough country makes it all worth wild.
To add to the story I’m sure most of y’all know of the guide that was killed last Friday by a Grizzly. Well we were less than 2 miles from the attack site when I killed my bull. If that’s not enough we were basically in a grizzlys living room as there was fresh bear sign everywhere. Needless to say we were on our toes keeping and eye out. We had a 450 Marlin and bear spray at the ready.
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This year is unseasonably warm and the bulls just weren’t talking. We were in bulls each day but just couldn’t close the distance gap to get in bow range.
Today was opener of rifle season. I threw the 300WBY on the horse and we took off with one goal in mind and that was to put a bull on the ground. We ended up riding to 10k feet to overlook a huge basin. Right away we spotted some bulls but they made a disappearing act into some country that we couldn’t get into. We made a decision to ride over the ridge and check out another large basin. Once arriving at the basin we decided to ride the horses down to the bottom and do some calling. The ride itself was very difficult and sketchy with some shear drop offs and loose shale but we made it down.
This is where it gets interesting. Upon reaching the back of the meadow we hit the cow calls and immediately had 4 bulls sound off way down on the other side of a deep ravine. It was game on, my cousin and I abandoned the horses and took off on foot. We dropped several hundred feet in elevation down some steep drops and was able to close the distance. There was one bull we were trying to get to come check us out but he wouldn’t leave his cows in the thick timber. Finally we had one of the satellite bulls make the fatal mistake and I caught him slipping through the timber at 50 yards. Game over, not a big bull by any means but it’s my first and the fact that we took the hunt to him and chased him down in some very remote and rough country makes it all worth wild.
To add to the story I’m sure most of y’all know of the guide that was killed last Friday by a Grizzly. Well we were less than 2 miles from the attack site when I killed my bull. If that’s not enough we were basically in a grizzlys living room as there was fresh bear sign everywhere. Needless to say we were on our toes keeping and eye out. We had a 450 Marlin and bear spray at the ready.
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