I spent 7 days in Unit 54-1 DIY with the help of my buddy from Colorado from 11/15-11/23. He hunted with me for 6 days and I harvested a nice 6x6 the day after he left on day #7...which was a real bummer as I wanted him to be there when I harvested. I owe him a ton of gratitude as having a partner on a cold, snowy, terrible access hunt meant the world to me. We walked all over the western side of Unit 54-1, from Pat O'Hara to the clark fork canyon, and many places in between. We saw some awesome elk country, found some country that looked promising on Google earth but turned out to be completely elk-less, spotted a few giants, passed on a couple nice bulls, and ultimately I took the exact bull I passed up on day 1 roughly 4 miles away from where we found him the first day...what are the chances of that happening!?!! I harvested a 328" bull out of a group of 7 bulls at 445yds. There were 3 bulls above this bachelor group that were absolute studs, but I had zero chance of getting through the saddle they were feeding in and past these bulls at 3:30pm with 1 hour of legal left. Let me say this: solo DIY in cold weather, with extremely short days, elevation gains of 2000', tough access, snow blown roads, and a minimum of 6 miles in/out isn't for the faint of heart. Thank god the grizzlies were denned up although we saw wolves and had their tracks inside of our boot tracks on the walk out...now that is an lonely feeling knowing wolves were walking in your boot tracks!!! Grizzlies need to be hunted in western WY, plain and simple. Secondly, the map-chip/GPS is awesome, and a new friend who I met on this very forum was a huge inspiration and help throughout this hunt. I'm sure he'll read this post, and I can't say enough for folks like him that help each other out on tags like this. My advice for anyone who draws a 54-1 tag: hire an outfitter!!!!! I personally can't do the guided thing for elk, and I may never go guided while I'm still young and in decent shape. I'd rather shoot a 328" on my own than a 365" with a guide. And $8000 isn't chump change either for a guide, but when the snow/drifted forest roads come, unit 54-1 becomes a very, very tough DIY hunt/public access hunt. Solution: battle the grizzly bears and plan on 3 separate hunts. Show up on 10/1 and hunt for an extended 3-4 day weekend in a few very, very specific spots, bring a 44 cal, do battle with the bears, and then come back in early Nov for a full week...you'll likely get it done then, but will still have to battle the bears, and then again in late Nov with a huge ATV/750cc with tracks on it if a 3rd trip is necessary. Skip Sept altogether. A machine with tracks makes 54-1 way easier. Snowmobiles can get eaten up with the occasional bare spot from wind blown dirt roads. An ARGO with tracks or ATV with tracks and you can go anywhere. Or a snow cat! I learned a ton, and also found out that my NM DIY spot is simple compared to Unit 54. It's all perspective in life, and I can now go virtually anywhere on foot in my NM spot without blinking an eye. Sometimes you need to go through hell to figure out that your yearly DIY spot isn't so tough and the barriers you place in front of yourself can be broken! Nothing is too far of a walk now, and burning my headlamp for 2+ hours in the pre-dawn morning is sometimes what it takes to get into the country you want to hunt in. To answer your question: Several 350-360" bulls were taken the week before thanksgiving by the guides, a couple studs were spotted, but nothing ridiculous was taken out of 54-1 to my knowledge. Several resident tag holders still hadn't tagged out either and they only had 4 days left.
Urge 2 Hunt
