Starting a thread for our Wyoming hunts this year.
Going up to the ranch this weekend for opening day of archery season, targeting WTs we have on the ranch right now.

Setting elk camp on the 6th for 10 days of elk hunting in the Snowy Range.
Then back to the ranch for the rest of Sept for cow elk and WTs.
LO will be hunting Oct 1 and 15th with his family then it is ours for the rest of the deer and elk seasons.

This wall tent will be home for 10 days in the mountains, we're moving it to our hunting area next weekend. It is on our 1 acre mountain lot right now.

Nice.

Watch out for Yogi

There will be a bear tag in one of our pockets. We always see lots of sign; scat, tracks and broken off tree tops.
Just hope it is not near camp.
Grouse arrows are ready too, we also use a .22 for those.

Sounds like great time with nature

Miss that country.

God willing I’ll be back in 2025

Looks and sounds like a great time

Following. Good luck!

Good times ahead!

Woke up to 39 degrees this morning. Heater came on in the house, lol.


We're all set for this weekend of WT hunting. Talked with the LO and the ranch is ours for Labor Day weekend. Hope the cattle folks haven't run our WT bucks down the creek to the neighbor.
Apple trees were loaded so they may be a great spot to hunt near, unless a bear has already found them. We'll have a tag for black bear too.

"Woke up to 39 degrees this morning. Heater came on in the house, lol."


Nice. I wish we would wake up to the same.

Looks and sounds great!

Packing up and heading to the ranch for 3 days of WT hunting.
Spouse keeps saying maybe I'll shoot a doe or a 2 1/2 yr old buck if they come by.
We've been waiting for several years for this opportunity and now he wants to shoot a doe??
Men are so weird some times, just buy a doe tag I said.

Anyway we'll need some luck to get it done. If a cow elk wanders by she may get a sharp stick to the lungs.

Next Friday we move the tent for elk hunting. For this weekend we have a nice ranch house for sleeping and cooking.

Y’all hunting with trad equipment?

Had 2 days to try and get close with our longbows.
Bucks were spotted the night before but the dang horses, well one of them, decided to gallop through the corral where we were watching from and spooked the whole herd from the meadow down the creek !!
Had 2 cow elk and calf on our hit list too but they were not seen after the horse spooked them.

Had a nice little velvet spike buck about 10 yds opening morning but passed.
Buck rubbed off looks like on the 1st and broke up their bachelor party that night. We had 1's and 2's hanging out together instead of 7 bucks .

Hot weather on Monday had movement mostly at night.
One more chance we think in 2 weeks after our elk hunt.

Hard to tell from the pics, but those look like whitetail

Do they overlap with the muleys in that area ?

Moved down the meadows and creek and set up in ground blinds for the hunts.
I hunted over a timothy meadow they were using opening day.
Bucks were spotted down the meadows towards the husband that morning but no shots.

That evening I had the spike at 10 yds but passed.
Walking out the bigger buck, 4x4, was between the two of us in another meadow feeding with a funky 3 pt.

Monday morning they were out before light then bedded along the creek somewhere, no shots.

The creek is mostly dry or underground right now so water holes were good to hunt.

Good luck, thanks for posting!

No doubt Reata. Wytex, thanks for posting these pics, I am following.

Friday morning we're moving our wall tent and getting after elk on Sunday.
We have 7 days or so.
No cell phone reception in most of our hunting spots so few updates till we get back.

Elk camp is set. Moved the tent and on the way over saw a nice 5 pt bull right along the road.

Cool picture. What is the elevation there and if it snows send another picture.

We're hunting in the shadow of a 10.8500ft mountain, camp is at about 8,500 ft.
Varying terrain with some drainages, meadows/parks and thankfully some pretty flat areas to hunt.
We get into elk every year, been hunting this general are for several years now.

We are going to check out an area down the road about 3-4 miles that was logged recently. They left some beautiful open stands of aspen and cleaned up the slash.

spacejunkie we usually have 1 big, wet now in Sept but this year none is forecast while we are hunting. Maybe end of next week but not looking to get a big cold front as of now.
Thankfully we get a local radio station that has great weather forecasts for the mountains, the guy is a bow hunter also that does the weather and he gets it right most of the time.

Back from the mountains and no elk were harmed during our hunt, unfortunately.

Saw a total of 3 live elk and 1 dead cow elk.
Moose sign everywhere and saw a few moose.
Starting to think maybe a wolf was in the area affecting elk movement. Took a pic of a track that was too big for coyote but a little small for a full grown wolf.

Weather was too nice but got some cold temps ate night by end of the week.\
We were 1 week too early for rutting activity it seems.

Pics from camp and hunt.

We hunted some areas with heavy blow down , if you're patient you can find a way through without having to go over all the dead trees, the wildlife makes trails through the deadfall.



Husband loves the camp lights I put up, lol.



Managed to take one dusky grouse, blue grouse. It made for a great light lunch.



Thanks to our thoughtful on I had a nice privvy for mornings.


FS had th3 road graded while we were there, great job but no moisture to set it. They were hauling logs until about Wednesday.



Track that may be a wolf at a moose wallow.

Areas we hunted and some pics of mountains in the area, found the logging areas and we were surprised at the large clearcutting they have done and are doing.

We hunted this area for a few days. Found a dead cow elk but not much else, the wolf(?) track was along the creek below this large bench.


Took a drive down the road to see where they were logging, was easy to find. They clearcut a huge area, ugh !!


One of the THF members will be hunting this mountain I believe.


Couple of spots we hunted.




Some of the deadfall we had to navigate through.



Taking a break, not hard to find a nice log for a short sit.



Young bull moose spouse walked up on.

Elk sign was all around but no talking yet.
Lots of fresh tracks but little fresh poop.
Really wondering if a wolf has things stirred up in this drainage.
Maybe, maybe not. They have been documented here.

Great pics! Thanks for sharing and good luck!

Enjoyed the pics and stories. Keep it coming.

Looks like an awesome trip!

Got back from our hunt and found out a wildfire popped up next door to the ranch we work for.
No damage on us but next door and it is still active.
Might affect elk hunting but hoping not.
High winds and rain for today may help or hurt !

Cool pics Wytex. Beautiful area.

Hope you have help putting that tent up, had a 16x32 in Colorado years ago and took 5 guys

Thanks for the write up. Great pics.

I’ve been enjoying following along Wytex. Beautiful country. Thanks for sharing. Good luck to you and your husband.

It's a 12x14 and we can get camp set in about an hour, tent up and everything setup.

Great pics Wytex! Good luck to you and your husband this year. We're headed to Laramie Peak on the 8th of next month for 10 days. Not to hunt, just some R&R. Hoping I get a chance to tag along with a buddy while he's elk hunting. Can't wait to feel some cooler weather.

If you ever need a camp cook let me know. I spent 3 weeks last year in the backcountry of Idaho in a elk camp as the camp cook and I loved it!

Travel safe holliday !!

Hubby took a good friend and his 17 yr old son up for a cow elk and a look around at the burned area.
Only saw 1 cow/calf pair and could not get on them. We'll try to get him back up later going into Nov.
They did see some bighorn sheep.

Rattlesnakes were still active as I nearly stepped on one moving cattle out of the horse pasture.

LO will be hunting Oct 1 for about 5 days then we'll get to elk hunt before they come back for a deer hunt.

Not hunting but going fishing today.
Good friend offered last night at the bar to take us out again so of course we said yes.
Not sure where we are going or what we are fishing for, he supplies the tackle and the boat, we just go along to catch fish.
Pics later today I hope.

Good luck Wytex!

Beautiful day on the water but the fish did not cooperate.
Boated 1 crappie and 2 walleye. Release about 5 under sized walleye.

The lake we fished is a draw down lake for irrigation downstream, it was at 17% pool and should start filling til next June any day now.
The ramp was about 150 yd backdown to get the the water.

Lake pics:





No one could get the crappie to bite.

LOs threw a little monkey wrench in our hunting plans.
Found out this morning they are back next week with elk hunters and no deer hunters later, we think.
Elk hunt will be off by a week but maybe we get deer season to ourselves again this year.

Any fishing is better than no fishing!

Headed up today to see if any WTs are still around.
LO and family found 1 cow elk and the others are not coming out this year.
The wildfire next door really spooked the elk out but they should come back later in Oct, we hope.

Another monkey wrench in our plans though.
Cattle are getting gathered and removed today , pastures are in bad shape and LO is not happy.
We saw this coming weeks back, no grass and little water.
Might be changes to the guy's cattle lease next year.

No WTs were spotted but saw quite a few mule deer doe and fawn groups.
Had a herd of elk make it's way towards the meadows right at dark but they were no where to be found the next morning.
Cattle will be gone this week we hope, and then pretty quiet on the ranch for the rest of the hunting season, thankfully.

Nice pics! Hope you get some moisture soon. The winter wheat is struggling here.

Hoping when the cattle leave the creek will rebound a bit. It has very few pools of water and very little flow.

We have a ton of ducks around right now though. Might have to pick up a duck stamp and take some teal off the pools.

Heading up Friday morning for the weekend.
Hoping the cattle guys didn't run everything off but if they did we'll find them next week.

Little cool front late in weekend and then finally Fall is coming next week with a shift in our weather patterns.

Any of you heading up to the mountains around the 15th or a little after check the weather, it will be cooler and chances of precip.

Deer opens on 15th and spouse took time off so we have 6 days to hunt then and again last week in Oct with pre rut activity.

We need to find some elk though.

Filled two elk tags this weekend.
Took a small 6 pt and a nice cow, still have 1 cow tag.

Saturday morning we had a plan to get back about a mile form the ranch house where the spouse saw a raghorn, cow and calf the night before.
Stopped before we crested a rise to glass a low area that is state land we have to drive by.
Sure enough about 35 elk were feeding there. 2 spikes a small 6 pt and a bunch of cows and calves.
Luckily they turned around and fed towards the ranch fence and crossed over.
We let them disappear behind the ridge then took off on foot to try for a shot.




Followed behind the ridge thinking they may stop and feed in a bowl we know of, nope, off towards the creek they were going.



Once they got to the creek they drank and we made our move down the mountain to get a shot.
Couldn't find the bull with the group so I settled on a cow. Just about to squeeze off when the hubby says there' the bull.
Change of setup and made the shot, down he went.
Cows below in the creek just stood around and looked confused so I settled on a lone cow and took her.
Double down.

Looked around and realized they were right along a 2 track , thank the Lord !!
The hike back to get the side by side was warm and brutal. Straight up for the initial climb then rolling rocky terrain.

Took my shots from the left of the rocky finger ridge.

Was a brisk 38 degrees this morning, nice time for a little fire in the wood insert to warm up the ranch house.



Some tools used on the hunt and these tweezers came in really handy for both of us, good friend made them for me years ago.

Wow, way to go! Great shooting! And being able to drive to them is a huge bonus.

Congrats ma'am!

Well done ma'am!!! being able to drive up close makes a world of difference!

We had to pack the bull down the mountain about 75 yds, yes that was a big bouns !!

The climb out of the creek bottom was brutal though to go get the ride, lol. We're getting too old for such long stalks and walk outs.

Good for you Wytex, that is awesome!

Nice job.... Thanks for sharing as always.

Mule deer season opens in the morning, going up for a few days to look for good buck and a management buck.
Best hunting is usually last week in Oct. though, pre rut starts.

looked like a long shot?

350 yds on the bull, less than 200 yds on the cow. 300wsm, 165 gr grand slams, 66 gr 4350.

You did good.

Congrats two elk at same time is great, and like others have said getting them at the 2 track for packing out access is more of a wonderful thing the older we get.

Lots of great meat there and more to come.

Amen to that!

Well done on filling the freezer and taking us along for the ride, missing Colorado this year and not sure if this helps/hurts the itch lol

Love the photos and the play by play, well done.

beautiful county. Congrats.

No mule deer down.
Saw a few younger bucks but no big mature bucks.
Had a bunch of doe and fawns in the yard Friday and a young buck checking them out, pre rut may be getting underway but next week should be good.

Spouse passed on a young bull too, not going to pack it out of the deep crack they were feeding in, thankfully.

Processed the fronts on the bull and cow we had hanging so now we have room for a bull or another cow elk to hang.

Had a little surprise, sharp-tail grouse in the yard feeding for an hour.

Full moon was no help either, but pretty.

Saw a Texas truck last night downtown, black with thermal stickers on the rear window, anyone here in Wyoming last night?

Wytex, which town maybe one of the guys from my work. Surly that free range sharpie is looking for a frying pan?

Good shooting Wytex. Filling up the freezer. We just got back from Laramie Peak Friday. Went to Little Bighorn one day and fishing at Glendo another day. Saw these 2 eagles on Twin Pines ranch just as we were arriving

Nice, we fished Glendo about 2 weeks or so ago, was still low and not filling yet. Any more water in there?
Caught a few walleye and a crappie.
Try out Gray Rocks too sometime, no size limit on walleye.


Did that fire get close to you all up on LP?
We had the Bear Creek fire next door but not on us , thankfully.

Come through Laramie next time and grab a beer with us at The Library.

Congrats Wytex! Thanks for posting such nice pics, and taking us along with you on the hunt. I really enjoyed it.

X2 well done

I don't know how I missed this...


Congratulations on the Bull! Good luck on Mule Deer as well

Freaking gorgeous country.

Great pics and great bull!!!

Going back up Friday morning until the 31st.
Should have some bucks staging with the doe groups that last week.
Had about 15-20 doe/fawn in the yard and horse pasture next to the house last week, then they all disappeared.
Hoping the neighbor has seen the big buck again.

Thanks folks, all of you. He's a small 6 pt but what we had a shot at.

Hoping he got a little more tender , he'll have hung 2 weeks when we cut it up. The tenderloin was kind of chewy when we did a test cook. Cow is great so far !!

Damn nice walleye.. Some good eating there. Thanks for all the pics...

Sadly our fisherman friend may be moving to Oklahoma .
They just did a trophy trout trip to Nevada and slayed 'em.

Well it's time to buy a used boat...LOL. I bought my first one at 55 years old 4 years ago. They are a money pit but fun...

The sign at the boat inspection place said it was at 20% so it hasnt caught much water. No, it was on the other side of the mountain. We started to come to Laramie and and check out the tailgate scene for the UW football game but hotel rooms were just to expensive. Would love to meet up and have a few beers sometime!

I love using 4350 in my 270,excellent powder

X3. A lot of us are mind hunting vicariously through you and enjoying it very much

X4 Really enjoy the pics and write up. We should send some money to the Library in Laramie so your beer is on us.

Cow elk down, still looking for mule deer bucks.
Has some young bucks sparing in the meadow last night so we're hopeful the mature bucks will show up any day now.







Got the side by side right above her in the draw for an easy 175 yd caveman style pack out. She made it down to the bottom of the draw but not to the steep drop off, thankfully.

Cold front moving in this afternoon, pretty cloudy already but the wet stuff gets here tomorrow into Wednesday.

Nice work on the cow elk! Congrats!

Nice job thanks for sharing !

Way to go, you're stacking them up!

Back from the ranch.
Mule deer was slow and the spouse did not take a buck but passed on some this morning.
He took a nice cow elk over the weekend and I got my buck as the cold front moved in.
Both pack outs were pretty easy, about 175 yds on the cow and maybe 200 on my buck.

Congratulations to the both of you.

Nice mulie buck! Congratulations!

Congrats! Nice mature white face mulie…..

Heck of a buck!

That's a dandy buck! Congrats on all your successes thus far. My wife and I will be up your way in December chasing cow elk. I'm hoping there is just enough snow in the Wyoming Range to drive the herds down low.