texastrophies

Seems like there is a story down in the exotic/big game room if you want to read up on the hunt,

I will try to keep it pretty short. This trip had a lot of issues, from my truck being in the shop and not getting out until 2 hours before I left, (and still not fixed), my father who was supposed to go with me having an aneurysm and needing a surgery a week before I left, so he was of course not able to go (he is recovering fine), to a trailer that the running lights would not work on it causing me to make a three day trip out of what should have been a two day trip (fixed them for the trip home). There were a few other smaller normal issues, that everybody has happen to them. On to the story, got to camp two days before season opened, after setting up camp I made it out to do a little scouting and found a decent bull with a small group of cows/spikes (about 10 total), went back out the next morning, same group, same spot. Steve B and his new bride Connie (who is just great) showed up during the middle of the day to spend the rest of the hunt with me, we went back out that evening and saw a few of the same group again. We then spent the first two days of the season scouting without seeing an elk. Day three starts with us in a new area. Shortly after sunup I spotted a small group of elk about 2 miles away. As we made our way over towards them, we see a second group not far from them. Bulls in both groups. We parked on the back side of the mountain and see an absolute whopper of a mule deer, before stalking the elk. We went around the mountain and over a small saddle when we spotted a few cows on a ridge and shortly after that a decent bull on the side of a hill (mountain to me) we sneak in and get to 560 yards of this broadside bull, with the cows being about 1000 yards away. As we set there studying the bull, we had two spikes come over the ridge behind us which effectively pinned us down. We set there for about 45 minutes before the wind changed and took our scent to the bull, who made a quick, but not spooked exit. During this time frame, a whole herd of cows & bulls (est. 75 - 100) joined the first group of cows on the ridge. We were finally able to backout even though we did spook the two spikes. We then went back to the truck and circled further around them to get the wind in our favor. As we snuck up over the ridge to take a look, we found the first group bedded and feeding on the ridge, a second group of around 30 -50 bedded in an old burn, both of these about a mile from us, and then we could see two bulls alone about 1.5 miles away. Of course, as circumstances dictated, the first ones we could check out would be the two bulls. We struck out after them around 10 or so, and finally got in position at about 12:30. They were both bedded down, the smaller raghorn was in plain view and the bigger one all we could see of it were it's antlers, that looked pretty nice. I got into position across the valley from them at a range of 353 yards and waited. About 45 minutes later the raghorn got up and started grazing. Still waiting. After a total of about 1 hour and 15 minutes the other one stood up, broadsided to us. About 30 seconds and one shot later, he laid back down for the final time. We got over to him, gutted him and started back to the truck. On the way we did go through the big group, saw some nice bulls, but nothing spectacular, with one of them letting us walk right out in the open to within 250 yards. We ended up getting to the truck right at sundown. Here are the pictures: As he lay A few more... Notice the hole? Not mine. I would like to thank Steve again, without him I am not sure if I would have been successful or not. It was a great hunt with a great friend. Just wish my dad could of been there. Hopefully he will be on the next trip.

I hope you have a VERY SUCCESSFUL trip Steve:yes::yes::yes:

Good eats!!!!! Congrats

Down to just a few hours now before season opens and I'm sure you see this before you go, but good luck in the morning and the rest of your trip

A couple of pictures I got over Labor Day weekend. One more week of waiting.

Good luck! Get us some pictures. One day I will go on a moose hunt. It is on my list

Sounds good. I might be wrong on this, but I think you have to buy the elk tag before the season starts. Although it seems like you may be able to do it afterwards if you go to a dept of wildlife office. Might want to check up on that and verify before you go.

Today is the last day to buy your preference points for Wyoming. If you are planning a future hunt in Wyoming, pony up and get those preference points. Here is a link https://wgfd.wyo.gov/elsapplication/ELSWelcome.aspx

Congrats on the draw, Dawg! I know you will bring us back some good pics and story. Is this at the same place you always hunt?

Glad to see you back Steve and Congratulations to you and Connie. You are welcome to join me in N.E. Nevada for my elk hunt in early November. It will just be me and hopefully my father will be able to make it, too.

That would make more sense to me than EHD or CWD. Hope they figure it out.

working good for me...now

will there be any NR permits? Good luck to you

Yes, I have the same issue and it sucks. My service is through an air card, which I am sure doesn't help, but every page it tries to load has to time out so I can stop the script from running and then read the page. VERY ANNOYING

Keep fighting Steve. Thoughts and prayers for you.

Not in the draw here. Do plan on picking up PP which become available between July 1 & Sept. something. Good luck to those who drew.

Sorry, no experience in 64/65, but welcome to the site. Hope you stick around and post up. Would like to see a post hunt report and pictures.

Very disappointing. I went into the draw thinking I would have about a 50% chance of being drawn with 7 points. I wasn't even in the draw. Ended up people with 8 points only had about a 40% chance of drawing. May have to rethink this again for next year.... If the applicants and tags stay the same I will have about a 25% chance next year and 100% the following year... and that is a BIG IF.

Here is a link. https://www.huntnevada.com/sci/draw/index.aspx After looking at the odds, I had talked myself into expecting either a mule deer or an antelope tag from Nevada this year. So when I pulled up the results on my phone, I wasn't totally surprised to see my name in the Successful category. As I scrolled over to the right to see what tag it was, I was shocked by it saying ELK. The hunt I drew had about a 1 - 2 % chance of drawing. Woohoo, the only bad part is if I kill, I have a 10 year waiting period before I can even apply again and 5 year waiting period if I don't kill. Historically the kill percentage is around 75%.:yes::yes::yes:

To elaborate a little more on the Colorado rules... Pelletized powder is prohibited. Only open or iron sights allowed, no scopes allowed. Sabots prohibited. Smokeless powder prohibited. For elk, min. of .50 caliber with a min. bullet weight of 170 grains. Def. need to read the regs carefully as PDR said.

Congrats CB! That is a good and bad thing with Colorado, Tony. Might as well take advantage of it. Me, I drew my PP as that is what I applied for.

Weighted points don't apply with elk & deer. I know they are used on moose, maybe goat & sheep also. With having 1 PP, you did not draw your first choice. You could have still drawn second choice though. Not sure right offhand on the mailed part, could either be referring to a tag if second choice was drawn or your refund.

Thats good on the weight loss, I started walking a little over 2 miles a day this week with hopes of being in better shape than I was last year. Work put a serious dent in my excersising last year and I paid dearly for it in Colorado. My local school locked down their stadium, so I am going to have to find a new location for climbing, but I found in the past that is something I really need to get ready. Just need to get me a tag now,also.

I got it from a pretty reliable source that Utah is hitting credit cards. Unfortunately, the source is not my credit card company, yet. :bang: