WY Elk unit 11

[Cahunter805]

Hey guys. Have a buddy with a unit 11 tag. Wondering if anyone has been in the unit lately and if the bulls are still fired up? Thank you.

 

[wytex]

pm sent

 

[Thomas11]

I just got back from the rifle hunt here. We had a cow tag and 2 deer tags. I’ve hunted a lot of places and this was absolutely the worse hunt I’ve ever been on. I’m glad point creep got me on the bull tag. I had 7 pts and didn’t draw. I can’t imagine spending those points on this hunt. The issues I found is the national Forest is so thick w dead timber it makes stalking or glassing impossible. It is futal. Further, I’ve hunted CO bunches of times, and the amount of hunters here is beyond anything I could have dreamed up. Now I know the fire south of there prolly pushed some deer hunters up there and concentrated ppl. We attempted to hunt some state land for deer and there were ppl everywhere and I mean everywhere. We also went real high in the southern portion. It was really some gorgeous country and u can glass. Lot of broken topography. But there just wasn’t any animals there. Like none. Not sure why. That was the only area we found w less pressure due to fewer roads. And it seemed to have everything the animals needed. They just weren’t there. The only way I’d consider this hunt is either very late season when maybe u could catch lower in some more open places or archery when they were bugling in the forest.

 

[wytex]

Not sure where you hunted but lots of wide open areas to hunt in 11.
It is well know to wait til after the deer season if you have an elk tag, as far as deer, they are there and nice bucks but you have to work for them.
This year was a cluster though I will admit, forest closures really concentrated some hunters.
Also the later the better on elk in that area. I bet the coming weather has elk heading down to the Wicke .
Sorry about your bad hunt but the area is a good one for elk, deer-well too many folks know about it now.
We've only hunted 11 once on opening day, not again. Just a quick glance shows the number of licenses that will be in the field on Oct 1.
Did you hunt on the Wicke ?

 

[Thomas11]

Not sure where you hunted but lots of wide open areas to hunt in 11.
It is well know to wait til after the deer season if you have an elk tag, as far as deer, they are there and nice bucks but you have to work for them.
This year was a cluster though I will admit, forest closures really concentrated some hunters.
Also the later the better on elk in that area. I bet the coming weather has elk heading down to the Wicke .
Sorry about your bad hunt but the area is a good one for elk, deer-well too many folks know about it now.
We've only hunted 11 once on opening day, not again. Just a quick glance shows the number of licenses that will be in the field on Oct 1.
Did you hunt on the Wicke ?

I can see later being better. No I didn’t hunt the wick. But there were literally 50 campers just what I saw camped all along the boundary of it. I talked to several ppl that hunted it and they didn’t have any luck. I regulated myself to hunting a small piece of state land that we saw a few deer on. I watched two forkies that I passed and both were killed within 30 minutes after I passed them by other hunters. There was some blm south of there that I wanted to hunt but fire restrictions had it closed. There were obviously some open park areas w/n forest but they were literally covered by other hunters on all sides. Like I say, I liked the southern end of the forest better where it was higher but I just didn’t see any sign of animals being there. Anyway, I’ll have to rethink my elk plan for next w yr w 8pts. I don’t see spending $1300 on a special license for that hunt. I kinda expected to hear some bugling more so than we did. We heard some opening morning and afternoon but they were all on private but nothing after that

 

[Thomas11]

We also met a local there but he indicated the elk really hated to be on the forest service and the trend was they have been staying on private yr rd due to the condition of the forest. I’ve never saw so much dead beetle kill in my life standing, fallen or somewhere in between. U couldn’t even walk or see in most place past a few steps. I could see the elk not wanting to stay in there. I wouldn’t

 

[HiMtnHntr]

Plenty of elk there but it is no slamdunk.