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I went into this hunt blind. I've never hunted Wyoming before. I've never been to this area of Wyoming. I picked the spot solely based on the probability of drawing a cow elk tag without preference points. When I saw these elk on the 4.5 mile hike in, it was an encouraging sign.

I'm in for your story!

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Beautiful country!!!

That makes for a good start!

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When I started hearing bugles on the first night, in every direction from camp, it seemed I had picked a good spot. Maybe too good. I probably should have picked a place to camp a little further away from the action to keep from pushing the elk out of the area.

    Waiting with anticipation for the rest of the story..! Good to hear from an old BTB brother.

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The season opened on Sept 1, the day after I hiked in to my camp. That morning, I woke up to bulls bugling and I could hear elk moving around close to camp. When it got light enough to see, some cows were moving up the ridge right behind my camp. They were too far away for a shot and it was dead calm. I couldn't move without them hearing me.

 

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I got close several times the first several mornings. This young spike nearly ran me over after a herd spooked and then were trying to get back together. He was running in to my calls and turned at 7 yards.

I was chasing the bugles/still hunting/calling in the mornings and sitting at water/wallows in the evenings. This was a makeshift blind I built at a wallow.[attachment=1]

Finally came together on the 5th evening when a cow came in to the wallow I was sitting. A 20 yard shot hit just a bit back and it got dark before I could track my cow.

A sleepless night. A 2 1/2 hour tracking job. Found her![attachment=1]

The coyotes found her before I did. They ate most of the hind quarters.

One cool thing about this hunt: I used the same Zwicky broadhead that I shot a bear with 5 years ago. After shooting the bear, I couldn't find the front end of the arrow. Almost a year later, a big wildfire had burned through the area. I found my broadhead. [attachment=1]

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Here it is after taking the elk

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Now, it's cleaned up, sharpened up, and back in the quiver.

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A long, hard pack out.

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Awesome!!

Congratulations