Wyoming unit 100

seeker · Mar 12, 2011

Well one of us got lucky and drew unit 100 for elk. Its going to be a great time. Now the searching and gathering info starts. It might be a once in a lifetime permit with the way preference points work. Does anyone have any advice? Its a HUGE area and lots of it is not going to hold much value. It will be a DIY adventure and sorry but we aren't interested in a guide.

losthuntr · Mar 12, 2011

When I was out there a few years back we had real good luck at chicken springs and off of the east side of steamboat mtn. during the archery hunt, saw some great bulls the elk travel a ton we rarely saw the same elk in the same place twice.

backcountrylove · Mar 12, 2011

Congradulations on the tag. The area is almost all BLM land and has roads all over. Theres some good bulls probally avg. 270 to 330 with the exceptional 350+. Alot of elk but alot of broken bulls after rut starts. west boarder probally least pressure but still alot of people. pm me if you want more info.

seeker · Mar 14, 2011

Gotta love a place called chicken springs. Actually that was sort of the general area we first looked at. Thanks for the advice.

bpnclark · Mar 15, 2011

I have antelope hunted that area for the last 2 years. This year, I ran into more bulls than I did good goats. I'm a bad B&C judge but I would have been happy with at least 4 of them. We found one group with 2 bulls and around 8-10 cows running out in the middle of some open dry sage brush country. I have no idea where they got water, but they were out in the middle of nowhere.

Here?s a video of the first small herd we saw in 09. Last year I saw 2 that were bigger in the same area.

TOPGUN · Mar 15, 2011

Not your typical elk country is it!!!

dwalton · Mar 15, 2011

Hunted the area in 2006. Great hunt! You'll see tons of elk everyday. They really like the draws from Steamboat Mtn to Oregon Buttes. Lots of elk in Johnson Canyon. Get up high and glass. The elk will go into the draws with Sagebrush forest (Very tall, 6 feet +, and thick), to bed down.

You'll hear lots of stories about 350+ bulls, but most are 285-300 once they hit the ground.

My bull was aged at 7.5 years and was 295. After looking at literally hundreds of bulls, I'd say that is representative of the unit.

Good luck, and enjoy your hunt. It is truly one of those special places to hunt elk.

p.s. Make sure you have chains for all 4 tires. If you get moisture out there, the roads turn to gumbo!

SouthernWyo · Mar 16, 2011

dwalton,

It's nice to see someone knows how to score with a tape that's not rubber or metric and has the honesty to not "blow smoke." It's refreshing, honest, and realistic.

bpnclark · Mar 16, 2011

LAST EDITED ON Mar-16-11 AT 08:43AM (MST)[p]Here?s probably the biggest bull we saw. This group was out in the middle of nowhere. It would be pretty hard to hunt them since they can see you coming +2 miles away. We saw another group in the same area. They started running full speed when they saw us over a mile away. We saw something small running with them. I thought it was dog/coyote chasing them. It turned out to be an antelope running with them. I think they were teaching the goat to start running and don't stop. Freakn elk.

I dont know what it would score but if I had a tag I would have gave it a 300. A 200 grn Partition from a 300....

seeker · Mar 16, 2011

Yep he'd do just fine.

seeker · Mar 16, 2011

Cool, between the two of us I don't even have the tag (buddy does) and I'm geeked about the trip. I just don't understand the people that DON'T get excited about this stuff. Getting the tag, planning, the trip, the hunt, hopefully filling the tag, all good stuff......... hmmm its March, only 7 months to go.

Jbozahunter · Mar 16, 2011

Lots of elk in that area, not hard to find elk, just hard to find BIG elk. I spend alot of time out there, have hunted antelope, and deer, but only hunted elk with a camera. 100 is not really known for trophies, just a quality hunt, where you'll see alot of elk.

A few bulls.....

Biggest of the bunch...
Hope this helps,
Jbo

WhiskeyMan · Mar 16, 2011

Thanks for the hard-core insight into this unit, guys. Hard to get the straight scoop these days.

Dwalton......you know I always value your opinions.

muleyczy · Mar 19, 2011

DWALTON and JBOZAHUNTER,
I sent you guys a PM.

Thanks

muleyczy · Mar 19, 2011

Has anyone archery hunted the unit?
Muleyczy

dwalton · Mar 21, 2011

muleyczy,

Didn't get your PM. To answer your question; it's an excellent place to bowhunt. I was very limited on my time to bowhunt. I hunted Labor Day weekend. The bulls weren't rutting, but they would come check out a Montana cow decoy. The high bull/cow makes the bulls very competitive for cows.

I've been told the bulls tend to do the majority of their rutting at the end of September. My experience from 5 years of hunting antelope in the area shows this is typical.

One thing I'll always remember is the sight of 250+ elk on the south side of Oregon Buttes, showing signs of starting the rut!

muleyczy · Mar 23, 2011

dwalton,
Thanks for the info. Thats pretty much what I was asking in the PM, dont know why it didnt go through.

Was there allot of guys archery hunting when you where there. Seems that the majority of people Ive spoken to only rifle hunted with very few if any archery hutning, Is that what you experienced?

losthuntr · Mar 23, 2011

I have never been rifle hunting out there, but we did well archery hunting and my buddy with the tag was extremely disappointed when he went back on the rifle hunt the general deer hunt scatters the elk and he had a hard time finding a top end bull rifle hunting

wysongdog · Apr 15, 2011

Steamboat mountain gets quite a bit of pressure. The sand dunes north of Luman Ranch road hold a surprising amount of elk and are harder to see than other areas and you can walk and stalk on them without people driving around messing things up for you. Also the eastern side of the area gets overlooked and have seen a few good bulls there.