WY Elk Unit 98

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beerandpork

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Hey everybody. I'm going to Wyoming for my first elk hunt this fall and so I've been reading a ton and listening to podcasts (and that's how I found this forum). Sorry in advance for my first post being a "help me!" post, but I'm a newbie so I don't have alot of knowledge to share yet :)

I drew a cow tag in unit 98 and I'm not planning on hiring an outfitter, so wilderness areas are a no-go. From what I can tell from older threads (1, 2, 3, 4) it's not going to be an easy hunt, but I wanted to see if anybody could help me out with a high-level question of where I should focus my efforts:

- The area west of Big Sandy seems to have the most non-wilderness national forest land.
- I'm planning on arriving late on Sept 18, scouting all day on the 19th, and then hunting up until the 25th if necessary.

Is focusing on that NF land a good idea, given the time of the season and that I've got a cow tag? Or should I be thinking about spending more time in the BLM land on the lower elevation sage flats?
 
I've hunted the Big Sandy area. We had no trouble finding elk outside the wilderness area. Killing them was the difficult part.
 
You'll want to be on Forest that time of year. Some of the highest elevation BLM will have elk but not for the most part.
 
jtm307 said:
I've hunted the Big Sandy area. We had no trouble finding elk outside the wilderness area. Killing them was the difficult part.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that's exactly what I was hoping to hear! Gonna plan on hunting that area for the first three days at least, and if we just don't see anything, maybe trying to bail down to the lowlands for the last couple days. It sounds like they had a pretty rough winter so I'm hoping the herds are still relatively prosperous. Thanks again!
 
It was a rough winter for the deer and antelope in that area, but the elk are doing just fine. If you bail on Big Sandy, check out Irish Canyon and Muddy Ridge.
 
Plenty of elk by campground with a little hiking.I had a few opportunities there but was a little slow on the draw.Follow the bugles to the herds or get on fresh tracks and still hunt.I'd be alot more helpful but I plan to return in a few years so that's what I got for u.I did hunt the other side of unit for a day and only found moose and ALOT of deer.
 
I here guys see alot of bucks in that area also. You might wanna try to draw a deer tag if your budget allows, before times up at end of the month.
Region H can have some heart stopped deer.

You might not draw but it won't happen if you don't try. It does normally require 2-3 points to draw. So with the tag cuts, a guy with zero points doesn't have much hope.
 
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Millsworks said:
I here guys see alot of bucks in that area also. You might wanna try to draw a deer tag if your budget allows, before times up at end of the month.
Region H can have some heart stopped deer.

You might not draw but it won't happen if you don't try. It does normally require 2-3 points to draw. So with the tag cuts, a guy with zero points doesn't have much hope.
Click to expand...
Good to know. I've got zero points so I doubt I'll be able to draw a buck tag, but I applied for a doe/fawn tag in deer unit 130 because it's just on the other side of Big Sandy and it's super-cheap ($48, only $14 of which is nonrefundable). Also, that way if I spend all my time trying to get an elk and I fail, I won't feel too bad about not punching the deer tag. Thanks!
 
Up there, if I were mainly hunting elk and had a "just in case" deer tag, I'd spend all my time looking for elk. If I were mainly hunting deer and had a "just in case" elk tag, I'd spend all my time looking for elk. If I had a moose tag and a "just in case" elk tag, I'd have to leave my elk tag at home in order to avoid the temptation to focus on elk.
 
jtm307 said:
Up there, if I were mainly hunting elk and had a "just in case" deer tag, I'd spend all my time looking for elk. If I were mainly hunting deer and had a "just in case" elk tag, I'd spend all my time looking for elk. If I had a moose tag and a "just in case" elk tag, I'd have to leave my elk tag at home in order to avoid the temptation to focus on elk.
Click to expand...

Fair point. I was thinking of it as a "if I get an elk super-early, I'll have something else to pursue afterward" thing. But I'm an idiot and didn't check the season dates first...deer doesn't start til Oct 1 and we've gotta start driving back to CA on Sep 26th or so, so that's out. Looking at antelope tags now since those are also cheap for a doe tag. Or maybe I'll just buy an upland bird license if I get an elk early and go try to kick up some sage grouse?
 
I saw a bunch of sage grouse between Farson and Big Sandy Road. I also saw several ruffed grouse in the mountains. If you call around, you might find a landowner in the pinedale area looking to thin the doe antelope herd. If I'm not mistaken, a fishing license is included with your elk tag. I'd definitely plan on fishing the Big Sandy. I had some down time and was really kicking myself for leaving my fly rod at home.
 
Yes, fishing comes with big game tags. Alittle fishing is good for the soul and gives a guy a break from pushing hard on a hunt.
If you tag early or arrive early it will be great to pass some time catching some sporty fighting trout or even sunnies.
 
I am moving to that area this summer. Where do you catch sunnies? I am assuming you mean sunfish? Just curious about fishing in the area and hunting.
 
I did my first ever elk hunt in 98 on a "come out west and learn the lay of the land without spending 700 bucks" cow tag. I also went the 3rd week of september. I ran into a bunch of different people and learned a lot on that first hunt. For areas, the places that were recommended were also Irish Canyon (for some reason I remembered it being called Irish Meadows???) and Big Sandy since they were out of the wilderness zone. I never did see an elk but saw a TON of sign. One guy I ran into said he had been hunting since the opener (Sept 1) and hadn't even heard a bugle. A lot of people told me that because it was warm the elk were up high in the wilderness area. Looking back on it, I think some people could spot the 'greenhorn' midwestern whitetail hunter in me and gave me a little bit of a hard time ("i saw a couple of cow elk 3 ridges that way" after the first ridge and 3 hours of walking through crap I looked at the map and realized there were only 2 ridges until flat BLM and when i went back to where i started i saw the same hunters where i originally told them i had intended to go).

But long story short, i saw plenty of sign outside of the wilderness area and it was indeed a good way to learn the ropes with elk hunting. If I had it to do over again I would probably have picked a unit where I could have gotten a general tag in the future and been able to hunt the entire zone. That way I could start to learn a specific unit and come back to the same place every couple of years. Maybe a zone on the other side of Pinedale? But since you already have your tag I would recommend starting on the south side of the zone. But this is only based on the SIGN i saw, not on actually getting an elk. I did see a bull moose at 5 yards and that was pretty darn cool though.
 
Have hunted 25,27 a couple times. Its not too terribly far from 98 and includes the same mountain range. My advice is be bear ready and maybe even buy a tag if you are into that and money allows. In 2013 we were into bears almost as much as elk but it was a pretty tough year that year as far as the hunt goes. Rained more days than not in the 11 days I spent there all in September. In 2008 I had friends with tags and saw zero bears and plenty of elk during September. They ended up going back on the rifle hunt in October and filling 2 out of 3 tags in only a couple days of hunting.
 
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Update:
We went up on the 18th, got camp set up. I bought one of those electrified bear fences but we didn't see any bears or bear sign. The night of the 19th (before rifle season opened on the 20th), I managed to cow-call a 6x6 bull in to ~24y. So, so cool. If I wasn't hooked before, I absolutely am hooked now.

The forecast for this weekend is for 4-8" of snow and my buddies were worried about getting snowed in, so we came down off the mountain yesterday (after only 48h :(). I'm planning on going back up after the snow stops. A couple follow-up questions, if anybody has thoughts:
1) The road that we're using is really rough and I've got an un-lifted Tacoma (with 4wd). Those with more snow driving experience than me: should I plan on going up right after the snow stops? Or give it a day or two to melt away? I can't decide if it's better to go up the road when it's snowy/icy and I can't see the rocks/dips as well....or better to wait til it's melted down a bit and it's just a muddy road but I can see the rocks/dips. For melting reference, the forecast has the high in the nearest town as 40f on Monday, 45f on Tuesday, 50f on Wednesday.
2) I was trying to do some "lost calf" calling but never got any response from that. Our main strategy that we used in our limited time up there was just hiking around and checking open meadow areas. The timber is much thicker than I anticipated, it's almost useless to try and glass. Any other strategies for finding cows? Or should I just stick with the "hike a bunch and do the lost calf call in the early morning and late evening" approach?

Thanks so much for your previous advice, folks! I did get lucky and snag a couple sage grouse in the days before the season started. I don't know why everybody says they're not good eating. Tasty bird.
 
Final update: I got a cow! I still had no success cow-calling. I think maybe I was going too loudly or too frequently? Anyway, I was heading to a spot I found that I could actually glass from when I came across a trail with some fresh scat, so I decided to just sit on it. Set up 30 yards away and sat against a log. 45min later, cow comes walking by me at 5 yards and I pulled the trigger. Easy blood trail, she ran maybe 50 yards before expiring. Turned out she had an ear tag from WY game&fish...they tagged her in '08 and estimated her at 2-5 years old then, so she was likely in the 11-14 area when I shot her. Perfect age to shoot one imo, when they're a couple years away from dying of natural causes anyway. AND when I was about halfway done with the pack-out, I ran into some guys with horses and they offered to haul out the remainder of my elk on horseback. Saved my not-quite-in-the-physical-shape-i-should've-been-in ass. From the forum to the field, I've just been blown away by how helpful everybody has been! Already talking about going back to the same unit next year :) Thanks again, everybody!
 
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