Schmalts' Wyoming elk hunt now on YouTube

Big Fin · Sep 9, 2016

Some of you may have caught this episode on Sportsman Channel when it aired. Some of you probably did not. This is a hunt with me and Schmalts in Wyoming last season.

One of the risks of waiting until the last few days of a season is that weather can wipe out a few days of your hunt and not allow for any remaining days to make it up. Such was the case here.

When you see how this happened, that is how it really went down. I thought Schmalts had developed a temporary speech impairment when he looked over my shoulder and started stammering about something. A few expletives later, the words "elk" and "bull" and "right there" filled the air and we turned our attention from an on-the-fly interaction to a shooting situation.

Good thing we left when we did. My drive home that night was one of the longest 420 mile trips I can recall, with blowing snow and icy roads. That last day of season would have been another complete bust, just like a few of the days in this episode.

[video=youtube_share;Zzi_42E7Q2Q]https://youtu.be/Zzi_42E7Q2Q[/video]

I did go down for an archery hunt two months prior and I should have filled my tag then. But, with Mr. Murphy making his regular appearances on our show, what can go wrong did go wrong. Link to that episode is here - https://youtu.be/0_SJUzOquSY

Thanks for watching.

ElkHunter11 · Sep 9, 2016

Thanks for posting Randy, looking forward to watching!

sneakypete · Sep 9, 2016

Great video! Thanks it's nice to now put a face to Pat.!

Schaaf · Sep 9, 2016

Thanks for posting this on YouTube, Randy. For some reason my DVR messed up on the recording of this and I was only able to watch the first 30 seconds or so. It was definitely one of the episodes I was looking forward to.

MT_elk · Sep 9, 2016

Thanks for posting! Great hunt!

schmalts · Sep 10, 2016

That's one ugly hunting partner you had with you Randy..

recon6036 · Sep 10, 2016

Watched it last night. Outstanding!

Flatrock · Sep 10, 2016

I saw it as well. Great episode. Couldn't believe you guys passed up that big 6 point on the first day though!

Big Fin · Sep 10, 2016

Flatrock said:
I saw it as well. Great episode. Couldn't believe you guys passed up that big 6 point on the first day though!

He passed it up. If I could have got out in front of the camera in time, I was going to shoot it. By the time Schmalts decided to pass, it was too long of a shot and a bad angle. I'm not as picky as he is.

fishing4sanity · Sep 10, 2016

I have to say my favorite part is when he spots those bulls over your shoulder, not just because it was comical (which it was), but because it shows the excitement that should come even to a veteran hunter when the opportunity arrives. Congrats to both of you, great show.

schmalts · Sep 11, 2016

Big Fin said:
He passed it up. If I could have got out in front of the camera in time, I was going to shoot it. By the time Schmalts decided to pass, it was too long of a shot and a bad angle. I'm not as picky as he is.

You had to be there to fully understand the situation. I was perched up on this big boulder and there was only small windows to judge the situation. The first day, hundreds of elk, whats the rush was my mentality. By the time Randy was able to get on that boulder the opportunity had passed. Randy summed it to me well saying he was there for good TV and I was there for a good bull. If you saw a little later when we split up I did see the biggest bull in the herd but the trees were too thick for more than a glimpse until he showed up out in the sage flats out of range. I would have shot him as a first day bull for sure. Then all the weather and screwing up the stalk on the last day I knew it was good TV mode for me at that point if I didn't want elk meat this year. It's funny how you see things when watching the show that I didn't during the hunt. The bull I shot was one of the smaller ones in the herd that day, where we're the 2 bigguns? Not sure but watch the footage right before I shot and look at the bull, he is always looking behind him. We never saw the big ones, my guess is they were just over the horizon for us out of sight because that guy was definitely looking behind him a lot. One of the things the footage didn't show is all the joking around and storytelling with us and the camera guys. It was a fun time. One moment was after I walked up to my bull we talked about loading it whole so we could strap it onto the top of the Honda Element I was driving. Previously I said I never had an opportunity to get an elk out whole and getting up in age I need that kind of hunts, well it almost went down that way, I could have rode that guy like a sled down the hill!

Backstrap · Sep 11, 2016

What a great hunt, Pat! Thanks for sharing

Flatrock · Sep 11, 2016

schmalts said:
You had to be there to fully understand the situation. I was perched up on this big boulder and there was only small windows to judge the situation. The first day, hundreds of elk, whats the rush was my mentality. By the time Randy was able to get on that boulder the opportunity had passed. Randy summed it to me well saying he was there for good TV and I was there for a good bull. If you saw a little later when we split up I did see the biggest bull in the herd but the trees were too thick for more than a glimpse until he showed up out in the sage flats out of range. I would have shot him as a first day bull for sure. Then all the weather and screwing up the stalk on the last day I knew it was good TV mode for me at that point if I didn't want elk meat this year. It's funny how you see things when watching the show that I didn't during the hunt. The bull I shot was one of the smaller ones in the herd that day, where we're the 2 bigguns? Not sure but watch the footage right before I shot and look at the bull, he is always looking behind him. We never saw the big ones, my guess is they were just over the horizon for us out of sight because that guy was definitely looking behind him a lot. One of the things the footage didn't show is all the joking around and storytelling with us and the camera guys. It was a fun time. One moment was after I walked up to my bull we talked about loading it whole so we could strap it onto the top of the Honda Element I was driving. Previously I said I never had an opportunity to get an elk out whole and getting up in age I need that kind of hunts, well it almost went down that way, I could have rode that guy like a sled down the hill!

Big Fin said:
He passed it up. If I could have got out in front of the camera in time, I was going to shoot it. By the time Schmalts decided to pass, it was too long of a shot and a bad angle. I'm not as picky as he is.

Makes more sense now. That bull was in and out of the trees awfully quick for the camera man so depending on what your guys' view was, I can see how it would have been a very quick decision to make. And like always, it is a lot different watching it on TV versus being there. Also congrats on your bull. Looks like it was a very fun hunt.

Young Buck · Sep 13, 2016

schmalts said:
You had to be there to fully understand the situation. I was perched up on this big boulder and there was only small windows to judge the situation. The first day, hundreds of elk, whats the rush was my mentality. By the time Randy was able to get on that boulder the opportunity had passed. Randy summed it to me well saying he was there for good TV and I was there for a good bull. If you saw a little later when we split up I did see the biggest bull in the herd but the trees were too thick for more than a glimpse until he showed up out in the sage flats out of range. I would have shot him as a first day bull for sure. Then all the weather and screwing up the stalk on the last day I knew it was good TV mode for me at that point if I didn't want elk meat this year. It's funny how you see things when watching the show that I didn't during the hunt. The bull I shot was one of the smaller ones in the herd that day, where we're the 2 bigguns? Not sure but watch the footage right before I shot and look at the bull, he is always looking behind him. We never saw the big ones, my guess is they were just over the horizon for us out of sight because that guy was definitely looking behind him a lot. One of the things the footage didn't show is all the joking around and storytelling with us and the camera guys. It was a fun time. One moment was after I walked up to my bull we talked about loading it whole so we could strap it onto the top of the Honda Element I was driving. Previously I said I never had an opportunity to get an elk out whole and getting up in age I need that kind of hunts, well it almost went down that way, I could have rode that guy like a sled down the hill!

I would pay money to see that bull strapped on top of the Honda Element!!!

Schmalts' Wyoming elk hunt now on YouTube

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