# Post your Wasatch elk reports here..!..



## goofy elk (Dec 16, 2007)

This will be fun, all you Wasatch spike/antler less, LE hunters post up here..

Good and bad,,possitive & negitive.... Lets hear it..How did it go?

Any antlerless control cow permit holders score?

Anyone with a spike only tag pull the trigger?

Any over crowding probllems?...

And finaly, Mr Mcfly, how did your LE wasatch muzzy elk hunt go?


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## martymcfly73 (Sep 17, 2007)

I turned my tag in due to a death in my family. I lost my hunting partner who also had the tag. But the pics I've seen there have been some brutes taken off the snatch. Check out MM. The Hot Jim thread. I watched that one hit the dirt.


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## goofy elk (Dec 16, 2007)

Well Mcfly, Gotta say, I'm sorry to hear that!
Truefuly..............................Didn't expect that one!


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## martymcfly73 (Sep 17, 2007)

goofy elk said:


> Well Mcfly, Gotta say, I'm sorry to hear that!
> Truefuly..............................Didn't expect that one!


Thanks


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## goofy elk (Dec 16, 2007)

:O—–-:


REALLY sllow I guess ?


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## Igottabigone (Oct 4, 2007)

Lots and Lots of Hunters Goofy. More than I have ever seen. What's good though is that I only saw/heard of 1 spike and 2 cows killed. Almost no shooting. Saw lots and lots of elk though. Big bulls, rag horns, cows, but no spikes. Saw lots of spikes on the LE hunt.


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## silentstalker (Feb 19, 2008)

From what I have seen there has been a dramatic drop or change in numbers of elk both cows and bulls since '07 when I had a LE tag up there. Places I used to see literally hundreds of cows I now see a few dozen in a year. I have moved areas in search of elk. I have found more but not what I had hoped for. Im hoping the private ground will save a bunch of cows from the control slaughter. Im sure there are areas full of elk, but where I have hunted numbers are dropping. 
On a side not, some serious toads have come of the wasatch this year. I think that next years hunt will be very different after the late hunt. The lasttime we had a late hunt on the wasatch there was such a slaughter that they closed it. O how short our memories are.


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## Spry Yellowdog (Sep 8, 2007)

This is my Wasatch limited entry Muzzleloader bull.


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## N8ON (Oct 7, 2010)

We hunt a CMWU in the Wasatch Unit. Last year when we asked how the heard was doing, the operator told us there were lots of bulls on the property but not very may cows. I imagine with all of the cow tags this will only get worse. I am no biologist, but I am pretty sure we need cows for a strong herd.


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## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

I haven't even seen a cow on the wasatch for two years. I used to see hundreds! Its a shame they are pounding it like they are.

The bulls will definatly take a pounding afrer the late hunt.


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## cmac (Jun 18, 2012)

Got my spike yesterday. Saw about 5 bulls, 3 spikes and a dozen cows in the heard. Fun day in all


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## Mr Muleskinner (Feb 14, 2012)

Aside from when I lived in Cody Wy, just outside of Yellowstone, it was the most bulls I have ever seen and easily the most since we have been hunting in Utah (15 years) Very few hunters where we were at but there were quite a few just down the road. Hunted the LE Archery and LE Any Weapon.


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## meltedsnowman (Jun 1, 2012)

The Bull I posted is a Wasatch bull.


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## nateysmith (May 13, 2013)

Where we went there were more hunters than I expected. We saw about 12 raghorns, 1 herd bull, and about 16 cows. No spikes though, which is what we were looking for.


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

I helped my brother with his LE muzzy tag. It was my first experience on the Wasatch so I have nothing to compare it to. 

We saw and heard a ton of bulls throughout the hunt, only 2 of which were spikes. (Hanging out together close to a bigger bull with his cows) He tagged out on day 5 of the hunt. Each day we saw multiple bulls, the most in a day I believe was 9 different bulls. A bunch of those were rag horn 5's and a handful of small 6x6's. We saw a fairly nice 5x5 that went into the on-deck circle for consideration later in the hunt if we couldn't seal the deal on a good 6x6. Over the course of the hunt we saw multiple bulls, at least 3, that I personally would consider a shooter for that tag from day one. They were each 320-330 class bulls from the best I could tell. He tagged out on a bull that fit that description when it was said and done. Again, I have nothing to compare it to, but our first experience on the unit was a positive one. Assuming things remain the same, my other brother should be guaranteed the Wasatch muzzy tag next year and we look forward to going back again. :O||: 

I think we have gotten spoiled in Utah, and the advancement of the internet and these forums has made people to have fairly unrealistic expectations. When you can hunt and see multiple bulls that are pushing the 330 mark, that is not a bad hunt in my opinion. 10 years ago would all of those bulls been 350 or better on the Wasatch to make it significantly better? I don't know for sure from personal experience, but I doubt it. And like has been said, there have been some real toads come off the Wasatch this year that do go that 350 or bigger. If you are putting out a good number of 320+ bulls and then have people shooting a fair amount of 340+ bulls, that is a quality unit from my perspective. Maybe not a premium unit, but a quality unit. Take that with a grain of salt because I have very little experience hunting big bulls. I'm about as "Average Joe" as it gets in that realm. 

We saw a lot of hunters up there, but many were deer hunters doing the general muzzy hunt. Nobody bothered us in our hunting areas. Amazing how alone you can be if you are willing to walk into a deep, nasty canyon.


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## kstorrs (Oct 29, 2012)

My friend's 13 year old daughter tagged out on the spike hunt yesterday on the Wasatch. He said there was a rag horn 5x5, 2x2 and this spike running together. She shot it with a 30.06 from about 100 yards. He said they didn't see any other spikes and no cows all weekend.


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## alpinebowman (Sep 24, 2007)

during my scouting and hunting I saw 400 cows in willow alone and about 200 plus in the area between strawberry river and co-op. the cow sightings were more than I had 2 years ago and I saw hundreds of bulls. Most were small to large rags but there was no shortage of bulls. The biggest bulls I saw topped out in the 330-350 range and that was only a few. As most have said though the gaggers were were there but for the life of me I couldn't find them. I will say I would have been more than pleased if I could have connected on any of the big ones I was chasing.
Over all I had no shortage of elk where ever I went so as far as I am concerned I thought the numbers were great this year.


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## 10yearquest (Oct 15, 2009)

In three weekends of The bow hunt I saw about 30 cows, two spikes, a small 4 or5 point bull and on the very last day I called in and videoed a pretty nice 300-330 bull. I was into elk almost every trip out and I am still learning the area as this was only year two there... I also had another close bear encounter saw a pretty good moose and had a generally good time. Only bad part is I missed a cow!!


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## papaderf (Aug 24, 2013)

well Mr goofy seen two cow calve embarrassing my son had cow tag but baby would of died with big azz bear chasing deer and moose and elk all week. Wow .we hunted hard we were in the red creek area. What the he'll are they doing killing all the cows and bulls control the area not unit. And yeh we didn't kill the cow. Whoever doesn't agree whatever don't comment but wow unlimited we will be crying oh we have no more herd.


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## riverpack (Jun 7, 2013)

I took this bull on day 4, we were into elk everyday but did not see as many as expected. Saw very few spikes. Most of the bulls we saw only had 2-3 cows as did this one. We did see 3 bulls with one cow and calf which I found odd. Not too many hunters, I expected more and those we did see were mainly deer hunting. Only saw 2 dead cows in camps, at least that were on display. My son ended up eating his tag but did have a lot of opportunities. He did knock down a 6 point the same day I got this one but unfortunately it was not recovered.:smile:


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## Conner parry (Jan 15, 2010)

*Wasatch Spike*

I shot a spike on the general season archery hunt with my recurve bow. 48lb recurve and a 28 yard shot made for a double lung hit and the elk was down in 10 seconds. I was hunting up at strawberry near the marina turnoff.


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## outdoorser (Jan 14, 2013)

Nice job, Conner parry!


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## BugleB (Sep 24, 2008)

I saw a lot of elk on the Wasatch unit this year including some monster bulls. My son has good eyes and saw three spikes and got a shot at one. We saw dozens of cows opening day. It is hard for me to see them through my worn out eyes and cataracts, so I didn't see any spikes. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of hunters and hundreds of ORVs where we hunted. They had their generators and ghetto blasters going most of the night, but they really got the elk moving. We saw five cows dropped in one herd passing through a high basin.


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## goofy elk (Dec 16, 2007)

Some very good reports guys!

Nice details, for the good and bad.

Keep'um coming:!:


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## TAK (Sep 9, 2007)

This years hunt reminded me of some of my very first elk hunts on the Wasatch. The years before it was an Elk Petting Zoo as Ol TEX calls it. Some time back it was nothing to go days or an entire hunt without seeing an ELK! But you did see a ton of deer. Now ya rearly see either? 

Besides the fear of getting door dinged (I got a new truck) it was a great time. If ya think about it where else are you going to get to see the true population of the entire state of Utah in one place? But is it not always that way on opening Saturday? Then it calms down on Sunday when everyone is in church repenting for what they drank or did on Friday night? Hell no! They still was on the Mt, I guess they could get saved by watching the telivised TV show they could watch from the IPODS/IPAD/KINDLE! 

Elk numbers are way down, even from last year in my opinion. We didn't go without seeing elk but really not even a hint of what has been years past. I guess a possitive note is there was not a bunch of shooting either day?


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## Fishracer (Mar 2, 2009)

Me my wife and soon tagged out by 730 opening morning. The 2 spikes where with maybe 10 cows. Tagged the 2 spikes and a cow. Saw lots of elk running everywhere while packing out. Still have 2 more tags but no since in filling them, have all the meat the family can use. I was really nervous about all the extra cow tags over the last few years, Tho i have seen a decline in elk (both cows and bulls) it is not the decline i was expecting. My family has tagged elk 3 years in a row and have left the mountain with tags in our pockets but no need to fill them.


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## 30-06-hunter (Sep 22, 2013)

Fishracer said:


> Me my wife and soon tagged out by 730 opening morning. The 2 spikes where with maybe 10 cows. Tagged the 2 spikes and a cow. Saw lots of elk running everywhere while packing out. Still have 2 more tags but no since in filling them, have all the meat the family can use. I was really nervous about all the extra cow tags over the last few years, Tho i have seen a decline in elk (both cows and bulls) it is not the decline i was expecting. My family has tagged elk 3 years in a row and have left the mountain with tags in our pockets but no need to fill them.


Where was this at?


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## 30-06-hunter (Sep 22, 2013)

BugleB said:


> I saw a lot of elk on the Wasatch unit this year including some monster bulls. My son has good eyes and saw three spikes and got a shot at one. We saw dozens of cows opening day. It is hard for me to see them through my worn out eyes and cataracts, so I didn't see any spikes. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of hunters and hundreds of ORVs where we hunted. They had their generators and ghetto blasters going most of the night, but they really got the elk moving. We saw five cows dropped in one herd passing through a high basin.


I enjoy reading about a father and son hunting together, glad it went well for you.


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## COWAN (Oct 7, 2012)

30-06-hunter said:


> Where was this at?


It seems you ask this question a lot.


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## 30-06-hunter (Sep 22, 2013)

COWAN said:


> It seems you ask this question a lot.


It would seem that this is a hunting forum where folks exchange ideas and information. Information is typically acquired by asking a question, is it not?


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## MWScott72 (May 23, 2011)

Fishracer said:


> Me my wife and soon tagged out by 730 opening morning. The 2 spikes where with maybe 10 cows. Tagged the 2 spikes and a cow. Saw lots of elk running everywhere while packing out. Still have 2 more tags but no since in filling them, have all the meat the family can use. I was really nervous about all the extra cow tags over the last few years, Tho i have seen a decline in elk (both cows and bulls) it is not the decline i was expecting. My family has tagged elk 3 years in a row and have left the mountain with tags in our pockets but no need to fill them.


Good gosh, you guys had some work to do with three animals down. Nothing like elk steaks in the freezer though. Congrats!


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## Fishracer (Mar 2, 2009)

MWScott72 said:


> Good gosh, you guys had some work to do with three animals down. Nothing like elk steaks in the freezer though. Congrats!


WORK! yes it was. I had just bought us all new packs ( bandlands sacrifice) they worked really well for packing out the meat but many many trips back and forth. We where done by noon the next day.


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## USMARINEhuntinfool (Sep 15, 2007)

Hunted all year on the snatch so far. Seen A LOT of bulls, a decent amount of cows. Way more bulls than years past, a few dandy's but a lot of mediocre bulls. Didn't get to get on the spikes/cows on the archery hunt (wasn't healthy enough to chase them down but did see plenty). Helped my bro in law on his muzzy LE tag, on bulls pretty much every day. Couldn't make it happen until the last day last hour, despite many opportunities. Been with my old man on the spike hunt the last few days. Seen 2 spikes yesterday, couldn't get it done, old man is fairly crippled as well. See how the rest of the hunt goes. Haven't seen a lack of elk, but I do think the bull to cow numbers are off a bit and could probably stand to kill more bulls vs cows. Just my opinion though.


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## COWAN (Oct 7, 2012)

30-06-hunter said:


> It would seem that this is a hunting forum where folks exchange ideas and information. Information is typically acquired by asking a question, is it not?


Just a factual observation I made, not meant to be a smart-assed remark. I guess I should not have made that post.:O•-:-BaHa!-


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## fleetfoot7 (Aug 5, 2013)

Hey Goofy Elk
Due to some incredible friends who took me to their favorite haunt, my Wasatch hunt was sweet, but much too short!
I shot a 347 bull on the second day early a.m.--passed him up at first due to short main beams, but as he swung his head around just before he headed out of sight, I saw great character and mass on his nice symmetrical rack so I took the 320 yard shot and was fortunate to make a good shot as he quartered away. A really cool
thing happened that is almost unbelievable --as I was packing the cape, head, and antlers up a steep open hillside, I caught out of the corner of my eye, a huge bull with his rack skylined with an incredible mountain scene behind--this bull kept running at me from 350 yards to within 10 yards where he skidded to a stop just glaring at me like I was a rival --I reckon he saw the rack on my back and thought I was after his cows---we had seen this six point and a 6 x 7 fighting opening morning. Fun, fun!
I hunkered down, and with all the weight on my back, promptly rolled head over heels
backwards down the mountain--when I looked up, there he was just standing over me! Then he just trotted away with his rack held high to thirty yards and just stood there where I could marvel at his 370 long tined rack--something I won't soon forget!

I am happy, happy, happy with my bull, but disappointed my premium hunt is
over so soon--the Wasatch are beautifully steep and majestic mountains--I was so privileged to be able to hunt there--a month spent there would have been too short!! 

I will post some pics if I can figure out how!

My heartfelt thanks to great friends John, Jordan, Bryce, 
Jason, and Justin! You guys made this a hunt of a lifetime a reality for me!

Thanks you all you Utah hunters that helped me on this site with info about the Wasatch!


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## 30-06-hunter (Sep 22, 2013)

fleetfoot7 said:


> Hey Goofy Elk
> Due to some incredible friends who took me to their favorite haunt, my Wasatch hunt was sweet, but much too short!
> I shot a 347 bull on the second day early a.m.--passed him up at first due to short main beams, but as he swung his head around just before he headed out of sight, I saw great character and mass on his nice symmetrical rack so I took the 320 yard shot and was fortunate to make a good shot as he quartered away. A really cool
> thing happened that is almost unbelievable --as I was packing the cape, head, and antlers up a steep open hillside, I caught out of the corner of my eye, a huge bull with his rack skylined with an incredible mountain scene behind--this bull kept running at me from 350 yards to within 10 yards where he skidded to a stop just glaring at me like I was a rival --I reckon he saw the rack on my back and thought I was after his cows---we had seen this six point and a 6 x 7 fighting opening morning. Fun, fun!
> ...


You could always move here from Colorado like I did and have it all in your backyard, although there are a few things I do miss about Co.


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## AF CYN (Mar 19, 2009)

fleetfoot7 said:


> as I was packing the cape, head, and antlers up a steep open hillside, I caught out of the corner of my eye, a huge bull with his rack skylined with an incredible mountain scene behind--this bull kept running at me from 350 yards to within 10 yards where he skidded to a stop just glaring at me like I was a rival --I reckon he saw the rack on my back and thought I was after his cows---we had seen this six point and a 6 x 7 fighting opening morning. Fun, fun!
> I hunkered down, and with all the weight on my back, promptly rolled head over heels
> backwards down the mountain--when I looked up, there he was just standing over me! Then he just trotted away with his rack held high to thirty yards and just stood there where I could marvel at his 370 long tined rack--something I won't soon forget!


That has got to be one of the most amazing stories I've heard. You're a lucky man--lucky to have this experience and lucky to still be alive.


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## dkhntrdstn (Sep 7, 2007)

I seen more elk this year then I have in the pass. seen a nice little 6x6 and a spike with about 5 cows and calfs. talked to another hunter and he passed up a nice 6x6 bull. We ahd no elk tags this year. we was deer hunting and we seen the elk off the road.Next year I will have a elk tag in my pocket and hoping a cow tag as well.


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## dank80 (Oct 31, 2007)

I saw very few hunters on the LE muzzy Wasatch elk hunt. Most were likely deer hunters. Saw about 50/50 cows to bulls. I'm sure there were more cows around that I just wasn't seeing. Didn't see a single spike but saw probably 8-10 bulls. I got a nice 7x6. I posted a thread last week but I'll post pics again on this one. I am way excited for my first elk and 2nd animal ever.


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## Trigger (Sep 11, 2007)

General Deer hunted on Current Creek and bought a control antlerless tag just in case. In the past I have always run in to elk on the rifle deer hunt. Made big circles on horses looking for elk sign and elk north of the reservoir clear to the co-op road. Put over 65 miles all together didn't see a elk. I talked to one hunter that saw a rag horn. Most of the hunters I encountered had a control permit in their pocket also. A cowboy was up gathering cows and had been doing so for 10 days and said he had not seen any elk. He said they were either slaughtered on the general season hunt or had made it to the New Skin property. Will probably go for another horse ride this weekend.


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## RoosterKiller (May 27, 2011)

In my group we took 4 cows and one spike. It was a good year.


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## TAK (Sep 9, 2007)

Trigger said:


> General Deer hunted on Current Creek and bought a control antlerless tag just in case. In the past I have always run in to elk on the rifle deer hunt. Made big circles on horses looking for elk sign and elk north of the reservoir clear to the co-op road. Put over 65 miles all together didn't see a elk. I talked to one hunter that saw a rag horn. Most of the hunters I encountered had a control permit in their pocket also. A cowboy was up gathering cows and had been doing so for 10 days and said he had not seen any elk. He said they were either slaughtered on the general season hunt or had made it to the New Skin property. Will probably go for another horse ride this weekend.


Trigger... Can I suggest you contact TEX O BOB here. He has a brother named Bruce that can direct you to the elk! His last report was that he was over-ran with herds of them EVERYWHERE!!!! There is no cause for concern!!!!


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## Elkoholic8 (Jan 15, 2008)

Our group tagged out on cows first weekend. I saw 2 spikes but one was too far out, and the other got saved by a 5 point. I had him in the scope, and just flipped the safety when a 5 point walk up and stood right next to him so I didn't dare pull the trigger. 
All in all we saw a lot of elk, tons of bulls, and plenty of cows and calves. Maybe not quite as many calves as last year, but still quite a few. By the second weekend the elk had moved off somewhere else and didn't see much. 
I wouldn't say the sky is falling, but, I think the DWR needs to come up with a way to kill more bulls. In our area, I don't know what the bull to cow ratio is but it has to be somewhere near 40 bulls per 100 cows, maybe closer to 50/50.


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## goofy elk (Dec 16, 2007)

Elkoholic8, Just curiuos.
How many total cows/calves did you see?, over how many days?


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## trclements (Jan 17, 2012)

*Good year*

This year was a great year for me and my group up in the current creek area. During the bow hunt I got onto more elk than I ever have up there and I saw a lot more cows than I ever have during the hunt. Just didn't get it done during the archery hunt. During the rifle hunt I got a nice fat cow at 8 am opening morning at 30 yards. My dad and cousin got a cow and a calf around noon Saturday as well. And two more guys in our group got spikes opening morning as well. That made it so 5 out of 7 of us tagged out by noon Saturday. We left Sunday morning. Saturday afternoon we had another group of elk walk right behind camp about 100 yards away. 3 spikes and 4 cows. The only ones that saw them were those that had already tagged out. The herd has been better the last couple years than I have ever seen it in the 14 years I have hunted up there. Last year 7 out of 10 on our camp tagged out in the same area opening morning and we should have had 9 out of 10 but a couple chip shots were missed at under 100 yard.

The best part was because of all the rain and snow just before the hunt nobody without chains could get up there so I had my area all to myself opening morning. Usually I see at least a dozen people in that area during the opener.


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## Elkoholic8 (Jan 15, 2008)

Goofy,
I didn't keep an exact count, but I would guess we saw about 100 elk each day for the first 3 days, then they got a little nervous and started to move out of the area. By weeks end, we were only seeing about 30-40 per day. Like I said we saw a lot of elk, and a lot of bulls. Now, how many of those elk were the same elk each day, I have no idea. They all look a like. There were still some tracks in the snow, so I know there were still some elk in the area, they just got hard to see because they didn't want to leave the pines.
I would say we need some management hunts on the Wasatch to cut down on some of the mediocre bulls on the unit. Maybe run the hunt for 2 seasons every 5 years or so. Don't want to kill them all, but we need to thin them down a little. 
I also had a buddy who hunted the LE archery season up there, and he also reported seeing tons of smaller bulls. We saw a lot of small 5 points this year, a couple of small 6 points, then some of the bigger mature bulls. No 2's, 3's, or 4 points. I thought that was a little strange.


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## goofy elk (Dec 16, 2007)

THANK's Elkohlic, Great info!

I dont think there is any queston,IMO.

*THE WASATCH NEEDS TO BE DIVIDED INTO SUB-UNITS for LE bull....*


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## Springville Shooter (Oct 15, 2010)

goofy elk said:


> THANK's Elkohlic, Great info!
> 
> I dont think there is any queston,IMO.
> 
> *THE WASATCH NEEDS TO BE DIVIDED INTO SUB-UNITS for LE bull....*


I agree......and one should be open bull each year on a rotating basis right?----SS


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## goofy elk (Dec 16, 2007)

^^^^^That's funny suff-----NOT---Will never happen^^^^^^^^^

They could put double the LE archery tags in there though.....


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## Springville Shooter (Oct 15, 2010)

goofy elk said:


> ^^^^^That's funny suff-----NOT---Will never happen^^^^^^^^^
> 
> They could put double the LE archery tags in there though.....


So, let me guess your sub units.........Avintaquin, Wasatch West(Timp, Provo, and Maple), Strawberry, and Current Creek. How'd I do?------SS


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## troutmedic (Nov 1, 2013)

Springville Shooter said:


> So, let me guess your sub units.........Avintaquin, Wasatch West(Timp, Provo, and Maple), Strawberry, and Current Creek. How'd I do?------SS


Ya. Let's turn the wasatch elk into a turd like we have the deer. The wasatch is great like it is.


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## BugleB (Sep 24, 2008)

It took too long to fill my moose tag (14 hunting days) so even though I had a spike and cow elk tag, I couldn't concentrate on them. I could have shot some cows, but didn't want to interfere with the moose hunting. My son did shoot a cow and missed a spike. My elk tags and his spike tag went unfilled. I talked to one man that saw five spike together in one spot in the north part of the unit. We mostly saw lots of bigger bulls and cows out of range. By the way, my wife chewed me out because the moose is too tough to chew. She said I should have shot an elk instead.


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## bbford (Mar 28, 2012)

I've been hitting hard for 5 weeks and boy its been a tough one. I have a late tag so hopefully things will turn around come this weekend. So far I've seen close to 20 bull's and all about 8 cows.


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