After diligent research, I contacted Dax McCarty of Wagonhound Outfitters and told him I had max points for elk. It was time to use them, and he booked me for late October 2022. Before I knew it, the time was at hand. My wife decided she would like to see some new country, so we spent two days driving over and went through the Tetons. They were spectacular and well worth the drive.
We arrived in Douglas on October 21st and grabbed a motel for the night. The next day, we had about a 45-minute drive out to Reid Creek Lodge. The place was incredible, and my wife would hang there and relax while I was hunting. Soon, the crew was assembled and Dax paired me up with his right-hand man, Cougar Sanchez, as my guide. Although my hunt didn’t start until the next day, Cougar told me to change and grab my rifle. We took a couple shots at the range to verify that it was dialed in, and then we took off for a two-hour drive to look over a bull one of the ranch hands had seen on a patch of winter rye. When we got there, it didn’t take Cougar long to spot him and his cows. The bull was a dandy and looked pretty big. Cougar looked him over for a long time and finally said, “Not a night before your hunt begins bull. We will keep him in our back pocket for later, maybe.”
Day one, everyone headed to different parts of the 300,000-acre ranch. We covered a lot of country and saw a couple of bulls that Cougar looked at pretty hard, but they were not what we were looking for. I had told him what kind of bull I wanted and that if I had to go home empty, I was OK with it.
On day two, we headed to a different area. We were seeing bulls, just not what we were looking for, so on day three, we decided to go back and look at the bull on the winter rye again. We scoured the country from every angle for several hours but could not turn him up. Later in the day, we were going across a big prairie, glassing the mountain ranges, when Cougar spotted the back of an elk far away and up in a draw. Half an hour later, he had picked out a big set of tops behind what turned out to be a big, broken bull. I could tell Cougar was interested. The bull stood to reposition, and it was game on! The wind was blasting up the draw at 40 mph, so we drove way past, parked, and started up the ridge on an old two-track. We then left the two-track to remain covered and soon gained our elevation. The ground rolled away, so Cougar parked me where I could see the other side of the draw, told me not to shoot the wrong one if they came out, and went to figure out their exact location.
Cougar came back about half an hour later and said the elk were straight below us! We started down, and then Cougar peeked over and mouthed “125” to me. The broken bull was bedded and looking right at us. The big one was underneath him, looking down the hill. I crawled up on the rock and got in position. Cougar told me to be ready and blew his cow call. The broken bull was already nervous, and at the third mew, he stood and whirled downhill. The big one stood up, and I hammered him behind the shoulder. He soaked it up and headed down the hill through the brush. I shot once more as he hit an opening and hit low neck. The broken bull was gaining ground on the big guy, and when he stopped, I heard Cougar calmly say, “250. Shoot again.” At the shot, the bull dropped and lunged forward into a heavy brush thicket.
We made our way down to the bull, and he was huge! We took a few pictures and got to work just as it started snowing. Cougar took the head and cape, I took the straps and loins, and down the hill we went.
Thank you to Dax, Kelly the cook, and the rest of the crew, especially Cougar. This was my 32nd elk and by far the biggest bull I have ever harvested. It truly was the elk hunt-of-a-lifetime!
Wyoming Elk Hunting
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