:D  
Sorry Huntnmuleys...couldn't resist.  That was awesome by the way.  Big Congrats!

Bring it on! That 1st pic has me tied in already.

Wow, what country is that? would not know what to do being able to see so far. Like Izzy I am hooked already.

 

Shoot straight, Shinken

 

 waiting patiently....

I'm missin elk country I'm in.  

just waitin....  

I started applying for WY elk 6 or 7 years ago...whenever it was they started the pref point system.  So, I've always had as good a chance as any out of stater to draw a tag.  I really thought I'd have one last year but it was not to be.  Switched units this year and got the tag.  I knew this unit would be a little different, but as mentioned above, I wasn't quite prepared for the openness of the country.  My previous elk hunts have looked more like this...

 

I'd hunted pronghorns and muley's in WY in the past.  It is my favorite western state.  But, in all my time there in the vast open sage country I had never laid eyes on an elk!  I was anxious to say the least.

I'm in the points game on a few western states.  Since I'm not interested in outfitters unless necessary, I'd always assumed this would be a solo affair.  However, a good hunting/fishing buddy of mine who had never experienced a western big game hunt said he would like to tag along.  He's one of my best friends and the chance to share something so special to me with someone that hadn't tasted it yet added to the trip before we ever left.

On one of my previous trips to WY, I'd bumped into a G&F guy who had given me his card and told me to call him when I came back.  Luckily, he was still around and really went above and beyond in helping me learn about the unit.  One of the first pieces of advice from him was to get a GPS that had the land ownership map capabilities. While we would be hunting public ground, the elk would be on both and needing to know where we were hunting would be very important.

So, with all of our gear and my research, my buddy and I drove straight through to WY (approx 30 hrs) and arrived the next afternoon.  One thing I'd sort of overlooked was actually how to enter our hunting grounds.  Turns out, we were blocked by private land and locked gates and wound up spending that night in the truck.  Got my contact on the phone the next morning and he told us how to get into the area.  I could've avoided that fiasco rather easily but lesson learned and we had camp set up by the next afternoon.

After camp was secure we drove up into the hills to begin orienting ourselves with the planned hunting area hoping to reconcile our maps, GPS, our minds and instincts.  As we looked out over the seemingly endless barren country, my buddy says excitedly.."JT! JT!...those are elk!" and there were. Lots of'em.

   

I think that first picture of you with the binoculars should be enlarged, framed, and hanging on your wall!  What a beautiful picture!  This is going to be interesting...

Bernie Bjorklund

NC Iowa/SW Wisconsin

hey hey, this is starting to look good!  i love that first pic as well, what area are you hunting?  if you had all the points im betting its a premier spot.  keep it coming!!

Heck, I am going to print that first picture off, hang it up and tell people it is   ME!

Then again, I think there will be a few more later I will want to get one of those computer savvy guys to photoshop my face into    

Man, I am so excited to read this...I have done the same thing with WY deer points and I hope it turns out just as good!

Steve,
That GPS is the shazizzle!  I actually left it with another trad bowhunter who was a few days into his hunt in the same unit.  You've been a huge help to me over the last few years and like all your advice, that GPS tip was spot on.

We saw a bunch of mule deer and two really good bucks.  We didn't get any pics of the big boys, though.  

We spent the afternoon watching about 100 elk through the glass.  We saw some bulls and a couple were big herd bulls.  They were out in the open for the most part but with that many elk in sight, we felt the prospects were great.  Heck, that was more than I'd ever seen in my previous hunts combined.  The other seemingly positive factor was that I'd heard I wouldn't have much competition until the weekend.  It was Monday and we hadn't seen sign of any other hunters.

The next morning dawned and we decided what end of the basin to enter from wanting to be downwind of as much of it as possible. We started hearing bugles immediately and knew we had a handful of bulls in the right mood. Once we got a decent bearing on most of the activity, we dropped down into the canyon and waited for the sunrise to give us some visibility. As the sun emerged, we had two 6x6's skylined on a ridge about 500 yards up wind of us. There were lots of cows with them and sparse cover between us and them so we stayed put hoping some scenario that we could act upon would transpire.

This is looking to be quite an adventure. Makes great lunchtime reading!