The trademark Wyoming wind whistled through my jacket as we sidled around a steep face. It was opening morning of the 2017 bull elk season in the unit where I had drawn a limited non-resident tag. To say my anticipation and excitement were running high would be an understatement! We were en route to a ledge where we would stop and glass the canyon below as legal shooting light approached. Already, the magical sound of bugling bulls broke the morning silence and the occasional antler clash made my hair stand on end. As the sun peaked over the ridge, I began to think about the journey for me as an Australian resident to finally have an elk tag in my pocket.
I began building preference points some eight years earlier in the hope that one day I would draw a tag in a unit to harvest a real trophy class bull. However, the wait was met with my impatience and my hunger to experience elk hunting in the West.
I had traveled to Montana in October of 2012 for a self-guided over-the-counter elk hunt with friends on public land. It was a great hunt, and I was successful in harvesting a nice 6x6 representative bull of around 280-300 B&C class. I elected to keep the antlers as a Euro mount in hopes that later down the road I would get the opportunity to take a larger bull that I would turn into a shoulder mount for my wall.
In the second half of 2016, I started researching areas that would offer good odds of drawing with my preference points in Wyoming and provide an excellent opportunity to secure an exceptional bull. I also wanted to hunt early with a rifle to experience the bugle. I contacted several, folks including resident hunters, landowners, and wildlife biologists, but it was Kevin Marshall from Extreme Outfitters who gave me the best option. He had guided a couple clients in a particular unit that year, both of which had harvested great bulls, and also sighted quite a few others. Better still, that year it was 100% draw odds with my number of preference points. Kevin and I discussed and agreed on a trade deal that would see him render his assistance and local knowledge to help me find a trophy bull elk in return for me hosting him in Australia the following year to hunt water buffalo. I had undertaken this arrangement with a number of folks in the past, and it was a great way to meet like-minded people and make lifetime friends.
In January, I was elated to discover that I had been successful in the draw for my chosen elk unit. Plans were made for my partner, Indi, and me to make the long haul from our land down under to meet up with Kevin and his son, Chance, in Wyoming and spend nine days hunting elk in early October. After four flights and a day and a half of travel, we finally found ourselves perched on the side of a hill listening to the wonderful sound of bugling bulls on opening day. We were hunting an area of public land that had a very healthy elk population. The elk velveted high in this basin, utilizing the good feed and water available, and stayed there throughout the early part of the bugle until hunting pressure pushed them over the border to a private ranch that did not allow hunting. Kevin and Chance were familiar with the patterns of the elk, and they knew the area well. The plan was to focus on this country for the first couple of days and then move out to some pockets in the unit that saw less attention from other hunters.
We hunted hard, climbing ridges to glass, and covered loads of country hiking. We had encounters with plenty of elk but just nothing that was the next level we were searching for. The biggest bulls seemed to be holding their cows on the private ranch outside the area we could hunt. No matter how much we bugled and cow called at them from a distance, they weren’t leaving their harems to come and investigate.
On day three, we relocated to another area and concentrated on working the timber. We moved slowly on foot, glassing the opposite faces as we contoured around. We spotted a group of cows and patiently sat and watched them. They emerged from a bush edge followed by a huge wide spread bull. There was no question he was a shooter. The group crossed a ridgeline, and we moved quickly over to where they had disappeared. Approaching the location, we sighted some of the group standing in some small timber approximately 150 yards away. I took a rest and prepared for a shot once the bull appeared. Of course, as luck would have it, a resident hunter came down the draw and blew out the entire herd while we waited. No shot opportunity presented itself, and unfortunately, we were to experience this scenario more frequently as the week went on. Cow tags had been added in the unit and there was increased hunter pressure on the public land, pushing the majority of the animals onto the private ranch and also making the hunting much more challenging than anticipated. Despite our best efforts after nine days in the hills, I made the long journey back to Australia with an unused tag burning a hole in my pocket.
Debating what to do after returning home to Australia, it was Indi who encouraged and convinced me to go back and give it another shot before the season closed in December. Whilst I had chances to harvest decent bulls, I really had my heart set on something special. I had waited eight years for the opportunity to draw, so I needed to make the most of it and take up Kevin’s invitation to come back. He hoped that late season and post rut the bulls would have split off and spread out with a bigger portion moving back onto public land. He suggested that the hunting pressure would likely be at a minimum with snowfall and cold weather keeping those away that hadn’t already filled tags.
It was finalized, and I made the long journey back to hunt the last week of the season. Kevin again showed me a very hospitable greeting, and I was also welcomed to the hunting area by a somewhat different landscape than in October. Everything was white, and temperatures were below zero. Traversing around proved to be very challenging. We got the truck stuck countless times in snowdrifts and had to take running repairs on broken snow chains sometimes multiple times a day. However, the hunting was much more productive. Kevin’s predictions were correct, and we saw many more bulls on the public land. We did quite a lot of hiking and searched high and low for the right one, but still, the big boys remained concealed. I was determined to either find what I was after or go home eating tag soup.
It was on the second to last day of the season that the stars aligned. We were watching a group of bulls with a reasonable one in toe when I noticed movement lower in the canyon. He emerged carrying his long main beams and big tines, quartering up the slope after possibly catching our wind. It was a hectic few seconds, but I got in a prone position and dialed the scope to take the 617-yard shot. The first shot missed, but Kevin’s son, Ryder, was there to call the impact. It was calm where we were, but a considerable wind was funneling down the other side of the canyon and drifted the projectile over the back of the bull. I adjusted to suit, and the second shot hit its mark. The bull ran 50 yards and stood in a thicket, only showing the tops of his antlers. We waited for him to present himself, but whilst watching, he either bedded or fell down. We attempted to get a visual so we could determine the outcome, but snow came in thick and fast, lowering visibility to around 50 yards. Not wanting to risk bumping him in thick cover, we decided to leave and come back in the morning.
It was a sleepless night, but the rest is history. The bull was located right where we had lost sight of him the afternoon before. On the approach, my eyes nearly fell out of my head. He was even more impressive on the ground with beams in excess of 56", long tines, and a great spread. He was everything I had hoped for, and I can’t thank Kevin, Tammy, Ryder, and Chance Marshall enough for giving 110% effort to help an Aussie get it done. If you want to hunt big game in Wyoming, I recommend you look up Extreme Outfitters. The logo says it all - size matters!
Wyoming Elk
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