2023 OFFICIAL ELK MEAT POLE THREAD

After 3 days of crazy rut action and multiple close encounters on some bigger bulls, this funky looking guy came in bugling right before dark and stopped at 20 yds. I was hunting solo this year and it was only 1/2 mile from the road so that was a bonus.


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Got on elk every day despite nothing talking during daylight hours. Rut activity was near zero, so I wasn’t going to let this whitetail sized cow pass 😆, even if the tag took 4 years to pull. The 30 yard frontal was a bit longer than I told myself I’d allow so a little more selfcontrol is in the training regimen for next time. Good luck to everyone still out there!
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I filled my Nebraska bull tag Saturday morning! I hunted 14 days and saw very few elk while actually hunting (mostly nocturnal) and very little bulging activity, except for one morning on the 19th. We were getting ready to pack up and I happened to look up and saw this bull running out of the corn looking for the source of our calling. My buddy stopped him with a cow call at 150 yards and I made a great shot. To say I'm relieved is an understatement!
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Took my duck hunting buddies out. Both had never gotten elk with a bow, we tagged out on day 12 or 13. I’m the middle photo with the black horned 5pt. So glad we got it done early and had the full weekend for meat packaging!
 

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What started out as a very challenging trip, ended up being the best trip my Dad and I may ever have in North Idaho. We were both blessed to take our best bulls to date.
 

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Took my duck hunting buddies out. Both had never gotten elk with a bow, we tagged out on day 12 or 13. I’m the middle photo with the black horned 5pt. So glad we got it done early and had the full weekend for meat packaging!
My goodness that's amazing. You guys are all an inspiration for me to get one beautiful beast like that one day. Awesome work!
 
My goodness that's amazing. You guys are all an inspiration for me to get one beautiful beast like that one day. Awesome work!
Took the guy with the weird three point/spike 5 years to get one. You’ll get there! Practice your shooting more than you think you need to and save yourself the heartache of having to track a gutshot bull. Luckily he clipped the liver and we found him but blood trailing for 9hrs with no blood is no fun.
 
Took the guy with the weird three point/spike 5 years to get one. You’ll get there! Practice your shooting more than you think you need to and save yourself the heartache of having to track a gutshot bull. Luckily he clipped the liver and we found him but blood trailing for 9hrs with no blood is no fun.
Thank you! I know taking one with a rifle will certainly be a challenge, but I refuse to have my first one be with a rifle lol. I really want to be up close and personal for my first one lol. Congrats again!
 
2nd elk hunt. Day 7/8, heard this guy bulging like crazy way off the side of the mountain. Was getting to be crunch time so I bailed straight down off the side after him. Crested several knobs in the basin and finally got close. He was absolutely screaming up in the trees 60 yards away and I was screaming back. After about 4 challenge bugles back and forth I cut him off, and he marched right down into a clearing. Stopped him at 40 yards broadside, squeezed, and saw him fall <20 yards later! An experience I will never ever forget.
Tremendous, congrats!
 
Hiking an average of 16.5 miles a day in the steepest, nastiest, grizzly infested, beetle killed, burned, horse country Wyoming has to offer we finally were able to fulfill what has been 3 years of the hardest most physically demanding activity I have ever done.

Gaining over 40k feet of elevation since September 1st, a few 20+ mile days, pulled hamstrings, blisters, nasty falls, sliding down scree, getting stabbed by blowdown we finally did it, in the pouring rain, soaked to the core, I killed my first ever elk. We called him in to 25 yards, bugling, chuckling and screaming in our faces.

A perfect double lung shot and a dead elk at the end of a 70 yard search. It made it all worth it.
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Hiking an average of 16.5 miles a day in the steepest, nastiest, grizzly infested, beetle killed, burned, horse country Wyoming has to offer we finally were able to fulfill what has been 3 years of the hardest most physically demanding activity I have ever done.

Gaining over 40k feet of elevation since September 1st, a few 20+ mile days, pulled hamstrings, blisters, nasty falls, sliding down scree, getting stabbed by blowdown we finally did it, in the pouring rain, soaked to the core, I killed my first ever elk. We called him in to 25 yards, bugling, chuckling and screaming in our faces.

A perfect double lung shot and a dead elk at the end of a 70 yard search. It made it all worth it.
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Congrats on a great bull! How in the hell do you pull off 16.5 miles/day? I hunt the breaks dam hard every day and don't come near that close and I don't have deadfall to deal with.
 
Congrats on a great bull! How in the hell do you pull off 16.5 miles/day? I hunt the breaks dam hard every day and don't come near that close and I don't have deadfall to deal with.
That’s not too hard, I often hit 12-16/day durning bow season. Hell, I hit 13 this week with a hunter I was guiding, and he was not in shape.
 
That’s not too hard, I often hit 12-16/day durning bow season. Hell, I hit 13 this week with a hunter I was guiding, and he was not in shape.
Maybe I cover more ground than I think. That seems like an insane amount of miles for a day.
 
Congrats on a great bull! How in the hell do you pull off 16.5 miles/day? I hunt the breaks dam hard every day and don't come near that close and I don't have deadfall to deal with.
Does sound a bit far fetched I agree. 16.5/day day in and day out? Through the country you describe? With a pulled hammy? But I know people like him and they live to toot their own horn so 🤷‍♂️
 
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