Hi Everyone, earlier this year I drew a tag for area 117 in NE WY, after 8 years of trying. I then contracted with Skyline Outfitters, LLC. I met the owner, Shawn Fricke a former Marine, at the Denver Outdoor Expo a few years back and we immediately connected. I knew he was the man for the job.
When I got up to the hunt HQ, last Sun a very comfortable rented house 10 minutes from Sundance, I couldn't believe how dry & warm it was (72 deg). Guides said they hadn't received any snow yet and were seeing only about a third of the elk as usual. The other hunter and I checked zeros and then we rang steel out to 519 yards, under the watchful eyes of the guides. The first 2 days were challenging. A lot of walking and glassing but we only heard 1 bugle & he never responded to follow-up calls.. On the 3rd morning, after talking to a local rancher, we changed out approach. We were also blessed with a frosty 27 degrees. We targeted an alfalfa field adjacent to a draw some bulls had been using to move into the dark timber.
We moved up a ditch, went under a gate, crossed a fence and kept moving towards the draw in the distance. We bumped some mule deer but luckily, with the wind in our faces, they didn't blow out the elk. At one point we herd some cow elk chirps to our right but with a bull tag in my pocket, we kept moving north. At 8 minutes before legal shooting time the guide crawled over the top of a low ridge that parallel the field. He crawled back and said the bad news is that 3 bulls just drifted out of the far edge of the field and up the draw, but there are 2 bulls still in the field. Since it still wasn't shooting time so we moved further down the ditch towards the draw.
The next time we peaked over the high ground to our left wr could see one bull in the field. He was focused on eating & didn't notice us crawl over the top & push the muzzle of my Gunwerks 7mm RM through the tall grass. I dialed up the magnification & counted 6 it's on each side: shooter bull. Then I looked at his G2s & G3s. Not a shooter for this GMU. There was still another bull feeding in the low ground. We waited and waited and finally a pair of antlers started to emerge. It was odd, he seemed closer but ranged farther than the 1st bull. We looked him over only to find 5 thin points on each side. Back to bull #1.
The 1st bull kept eating and slowly walking to our right. The 2nd bull was nearing the right edge of the field. I took my safety off...is this the bull I waited 9 years for? Then again this was the best, the only shooter I had seen this week. I put the safety back on. Phil, my guide, said " you're half way through your hunt, we can hunt harder the next 2 and a half days." But this was the coldest morning all week. It would be 62 deg this afternoon and not much cooler the rest of the week. Did I drive 18.5 hours from TX to not pull the trigger...
I pushed the safety off, told Phil " I'll take him" so he could plug his ears with his ring fingers as he balanced his Sig Sauer binos. Then I glance at the Viper PST's turret; 310 will work. The illuminated reticle formed a diamond & I placed it in the crease of the bull's shoulder. The bull had certainly moved farther right but finally looked in our direction. It was time, back to the diamond. I focused on the crease and exhaled. I applied the slightest pressure on the trigger and the 168 gr Berger VLD was on its way. Before I recovered from the recoil I heard the thwap! The impact sounded like a rubber hose hitting a sheet of plywood. The bull awkwardly stepped forward as I remembered Phil's admonition, "if the bull is still up, keep shooting." I cycled the bolt, put the diamond on the bull's ribs and before I registered the radial muzzle brakes report, the bull slammed down on his right side. The hunt was over!
