2025 Wyoming Elk Draw/Questions

[Mr.Ktm]

Look into epic outdoors or huntin fool magizine. Lots of good info on there once you sign up

 

[ThorM465]

Dumb question but how do you hear gun shots if you’re road hunting?

Yes the majority of that unit is void of elk. I hope you didn’t spend any time on the eastern half.

How would we not hear it? We were scouting not hot rodding or rocking out. I should have specified 1 of those days was spent in a UTV.

No we didn't. I never considered that they would be so difficult to find on the west side with all of the "great" spots I had e scouted on onX/GoHunt. We did spend a little time in some BLM in the central section.

You need to look at total mass not animal numbers....here we have all kinds 75-100 lbs does....7 or 8 of those probably eat the same amount as 1 cow elk.

That's probably true. They also have 100x the land mass to forage compared to what our deer have. At least they would if they would do something about all of the deadfall.

 

[Mojave]

How would we not hear it? We were scouting not hot rodding or rocking out. I should have specified 1 of those days was spent in a UTV.

No we didn't. I never considered that they would be so difficult to find on the west side with all of the "great" spots I had e scouted on onX/GoHunt. We did spend a little time in some BLM in the central section.


That's probably true. They also have 100x the land mass to forage compared to what our deer have. At least they would if they would do something about all of the deadfall.

The deadfall will get taken care of on the next burn. We don't sit around crying about deadfall, it is part of western hunting.

We have low quality food sources, zero mast or fruit like acorns or persimmons, grain crops are pretty uncommon in Wyoming. The majority of the agriculture is alfalfa (which is great) but lots of issues with food quality. We have ok minerals, but nothing like what Arizona and Utah have for wildlife.

We also have a lot of totally worthless creosote, Russian olive and cottonwood.

 

[Sccritterkiller]

At least they would if they would do something about all of the deadfall.

It will burn in the next fire...I already know a few units where there will be less dead fall next year.

 

[wyosam]

Just finished hunting Unit ** (South Piney) where we came up empty. Unless you're a world class endurance athlete, have horses, or use an outfitter you can forget about this unit. It's an extremely dense and rugged unit with far to many hunters for to few elk. Covered over 50 miles on boots with regular ascents to 9k+ ft and 10k+ feet a couple of times. Over 1k miles road hunting. All that and didn't see the first living elk in this unit. We saw enough signs to know they were there, but the closest we came was seeing the rack from 2 bulls that had just been packed out. We saw ~15 moose and dozens of mullies, just no Elk.

I was astonished at how little wildlife we saw in most of the bridger national forest. If it was managed properly it would be teaming with wildlife. The only thing more astounding was the amount of dead-fall. The amount of dead-fall has to be a significant contributor to the struggling ecosystem. Something desperately needs to be done about cleaning up this mess, so we can get the undergrowth necessary for the wildlife to thrive.

I like that the unit number is blocked out but not the other easy identifier. Sounds like you walked a bunch to places you wanted elk to be, not where they are.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[wyosam]

No I haven't, this was my first trip.

One point I should of added was how few gun shots we heard. Not that we're going to hear every gun shot within a 10 mile radius, but if it was just our shortcomings as hunters we would of heard people around us firing at Elk. Between the 21st and the 25th we didn't hear a single gun shot and we spent 2 of those days road hunting all over the unit.

Your odds of success as a first time elk hunter aren’t great even in a really good unit. Look at successful percentage then cut it way down. Those numbers include locals that know the area and the elk that kill an elk (or 2-3) every year. Guided hunters drive the numbers up. Experienced elk hunters that haven’t hunted the area are somewhere in the middle generally. Just covering ground doesn’t mean success. At any given time, the majority of an area has no elk in it. Archery hunters have the benefit of sound to help locate, but during rifle seasons elk spend a bunch of time holed up in places that people aren’t. Doesn’t mean they are a horseback ride from the road, or require packing a long ways- they just have their spots. I killed multiple elk a year for a long time before I moved to AK, 99% solo without horses.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[FAAFO]

Capabilities of hearing gun shots while driving around is superhuman powers. With such skills I would recommend listening for bulls peeing mid day. Get the wind right and sneak in there and kill them. I’m jealous, wish I could do the same.