Moose Madness & Opening Days of Elk Hunting | HW Field Report 9.5.2025

Foreign. To the Hunt west podcast, here's your host, Jaden Bales. What is up, everybody? Welcome to another episode of the Hunt west podcast. This one's another one from the road. This is your host, Jaden Bales. And I am just getting done with basically the first week of September doing some elk hunting and some cow moose hunting. I had a cow moose tag and a whole bunch of friends who wanted to be part of it. And we just got camp broken down and I'm headed off to the next thing. So I wanted to give you all a field update to basically let you know what's been happening this week and also set you up for what you can expect in the next week of hunting. We did these when we very first started the podcast and I don't know, I didn't have a lot of feedback. So let me know if you like these. They're going to be pretty ad hoc. I don't know if I'm going to get one out every week, but I'm going to try to keep people updated as there's things to be talking about. In particular, I've got kind of like a 10 day break here where I'm going to be working hard on the computer and not doing as much stuff in the field until another big stretch out in the mountains. So again, I'm not going to have much to report on next week, but I'll keep these field reports coming throughout the fall and kind of keep you thinking about how things are changing and how the weather and animal behavior is adapting and what I'm seeing on the ground, because I think that can help really either give people motivation or give people some ideas as to how to change their game plans based on what's been happening and how to adapt to what's coming. So without further ado, let's dive into this week's hunting camp story. So take us back. Taking us back to spring of 2025. I put in for basically all the tags I put in for, for the trophy species. The species that are really hard to draw are oftentimes just wherever the best odds are. And I did that with moose. The best drawing odds for moose in my home state of Wyoming are for the antlerless moose. Cow. Moose, right. Those drawing odds still are like 3.4% for the best chance of drawing a cow tag. So when we got draw results back, I was absolutely shocked to see that I ended up with a cow tag. So that basically set in motion trying to figure out how I wanted to plan my fall and make good on this cow moose tag while also fishing, fitting it in around other times that I wanted to be hunting. So normally in the first week of September, elk hunting is pretty slow. And I usually like to archery deer hunt at that time. But with the cow moose tag, I was like, you know, that's not a bad spot to, to put the cow hunt and I can go try to chase them around with my bow. And I was starting to talk to some friends as soon as I drew and I realized I had a whole crew of folks who wanted to come and help and, and be part of the hunt. So there was a ton of folks who were like, really supportive and it was actually, it was so cool. I think maybe just because moose hunting is not a common thing, a lot of folks want to be part of it. And I wanted to say thank you to everybody who reached out, who wanted to. We ended up with a camp of. On the first day, we had my friend Anna, Matt Hayden, Maddie Trent, and at another point down the line, our friend Travis came to camp too. And even before that, I had friends of mine who were coming into the unit that I'm that I was hunting and they were keeping an eye out for moose for me. So like my friend Chad, he found a lone cow moose and told us kind of roughly where it was and that's actually where we wanted to start our hunt. So like, from his information, from some conversations I had with the biologist who's also a friend of mine, basically we had all this great intel and we knew right where we wanted to be for the opening day of archery season. Plus, we had an awesome crew to do it with. So this was all. This is sweet. The one thing that I kept telling everybody, I was like, okay, I don't mind if you come to this camp, but you got to promise me if you have side quest opportunities that you'll take them up. Where we were, cow moose hunting was a general deer tag and a general elk tag for residents of, of Wyoming. So I was like, anybody who comes, bring your bow and try to make something else happen while we're out here, because I don't want people, just six people just hanging around, like over my shoulder the whole time. I want everybody having fun and enjoying themselves too and possibly getting meat for their freezer. So let's fast forward. We drive out there Sunday before Sunday before season, and we meet a bunch of. A bunch of our friends and set up camp. And then we go out to a glassing knob and we kind of split up. And that first night we glassed up a bull moose, a cow moose with a calf, Possibly two sets of cows and calves. We weren't super sure. It's so thick where they like to live. They'll, like, dip into the timber and then dip back out. And it's hard to know if you're looking at two different ones or if it's the same one. But I think after we spent some time in here, we realized it was probably just the same one that came in and out. But regardless. So we saw three moose that first night. We saw some deer and we saw some elk, and it was like, awesome. This is. We're ready to go. There was actually a nice six point with a cow and a calf, like on the glassing knob that we were trying to get to, we accidentally bumped. And that was August 31st, so they were already pretty, pretty interested in cows on August 31st. So we get out there to that glassy knob the next morning, and it's really slow, actually, like the. At first light, it was really slow. But then like 30 minutes after first light, basically right around sunrise, things started picking up and it was kind of a bugle fest. Like, there were. There were multiple herds of bulls that we could see from this glassing knob. And all this stuff is burnt, so it's like really good glassing conditions if you have the right angle. And we were looking around and saw some elk that Hayden and Maddie went and chased, and there was some elk kind of behind us. And it was just. It was awesome. There's a lot of things going on. So as we're sitting there glassing, me and my friend Trent are sitting there on the glassing knob while people are off kind of chasing elk. And Trent glasses up, he's like, hey, I got some elk or I got some moose. And so we throw the spotter on them. We're looking at them, we're looking at them. It's like, bull, bull, bull. And then we find one. I'm like, dude, I think that's a cow. And they're like 900, maybe a thousand yards away at this point. So, you know, pretty good distance. And we're just seeing them move through this burn, headed to this marshy area that's kind of like a hanging basin. We're like, okay, they're going to go down into there for sure. And it's very obvious, like, this one cow is with a bunch of bulls and she's by herself. So I'm kind of talking to everybody, and you know, my friend Matt and Anna, they wanted a grouse Hunt during the middle of the day with their bird dogs. There was some elk happening and people wanted to take a nap. So I was like, okay, I'm just going to go in there. And everyone, just to be clear, everyone was like, we'll do whatever you want to do, Jaden, but just let us know what you would like to have happen and we'll go from there. And I was kind of like, I know they have other things to do and I'm sneakiest by myself. It was pretty dry and crackly in there and the burn. So I was like, yeah, I'll just sneak in there by myself and see what I can make happen. So we part ways mid morning and it takes me a while. I get up and across the canyon and then up the other side and I'm looking for these moose and I'm realizing like I can't be more than 150, 200 yards from the bottom where these moose were at without looking, being able to look into it. So I'm basically slowly hunting along the edge of this marshy area 150, 200 yards off the bottom so I can look down into it. And I go up the first side of the canyon and I'm glassing and I'm glassing and slowly picking my way and I don't see anything. And I'm like, man, they gotta be right here. Like it was late morning when they were getting ready to go to bed when we saw them, so they probably didn't go very far. So I swing around the other side. The wind was good. I was on a south facing slope as I was moving up the drainage the first time and, and it gets sun first. So I got good thermals, winds pulling uphill. The first pass I get around to the back end of the marsh and then I'm like, okay, I'm gonna sit here and wait for thermals for a little bit. So about 11 o' clock or so the wind, it's. The sun's come up high enough and it's gotten warm enough during the day that the wind is blowing in my face pretty good on the north slope. So I'm like, okay, wind should be all right, let's work. I'm going to work my way down this other side. Just, it's so thick in there when it's marshy like that, you got tall willows, you've got some live stands of timber and you've got some little jack pines that are in there as well. I was just like, I know, I can't see Everything on one pass. So let's try it again. So I start working my way down the ridge and I creep up on this one thick stand of timber. And I'm looking in there, I don't see anything. And I'm trying to, I'm trying to stay positive and trying to stay in the game. But this happens every time you start starting to look for something is you start second guessing yourself. You're like, well, maybe they left, maybe they're not here, etc. So I'm like sneaking along, I'm still in my boots, but like going slow, trying not to make a lot of noise. And I start walking down the drainage a little further and all of a sudden I see these satellite dishes poking out of the willows. I'm like, oh, they're right there. I glass or I threw my rangefinder on the satellite dishes, which was a bull moose. And he's like, at 90 yards, bedded in the willows. And I'm like, oh, crap, I've found the herd. So then I slip my boots off at 90 yards and I'm slowly working my way in there. And as I'm creeping down in there, I start seeing more and more antlers sticking up above the willows and some are tucked underneath pines. But basically I'm like realizing, oh, this is a whole party of, of bull moose down here. So I get close and I get to like 40 yards of the closest bull and I'm like, I think I can get a little closer. So I started scooting on my butt down there a little closer. I get to 30 yards of the. These big satellite dishes sticking up out of the willows, and I'm like, I think this is probably good to park it for a while. So maybe 11ish when I finally just kind of sat there and was glassing them and I'm picking up. I picked up six different bulls bedded there in front of me. There was a seventh that I found later, but that's another part of the story. But there's six bulls in front of me and I can't find the cow. And I'm like, I swear we saw a cow early this morning. So basically the, the cow is bedded and I can't see her. And the bulls start getting up, and they start getting up and feeding on the willows. And they're getting up anywhere from 30 to 50, 60 yards away from me. And all of a sudden, like, there's a bunch of bull moose that are just, I'm in their bedroom, I'm like, holy crap, this is. This is sweet. I've never spent this much time, this much in this close of proximity to bull moose. And it was so cool just to sit there and watch them. They're feeding, they're glunking, they're sneezing. They make some weird sneezing noises, like they're clearing their nose out. And I'm just watching these moose, and, gosh, I'm realizing, like, these are some big freaking animals. I do not want to be on the wrong end of one of these guys. For those who don't know, moose in particular, I think are on the average, more aggressive than even most, like black bears and grizzly. And they probably give grizzlies, like, a run for their money, just how often they'll charge people. And it's one of those things where, like, Hayden and I, last September were getting. We're getting followed by a bull moose in September, and it was like, oh, buddy, I don't want this guy to think that we're, you know, a threat to him. And we ended up, like, jogging out of there because we didn't want this bull moose to come after us. So regardless, the point is there's. There is a chance these bull moose, like, or cows for that matter, especially cow with calves, are a kind of a dangerous situation to be in. So these bull moose are up feeding all around me, and I'm just sitting there watching them with arrow knocked, rangefinder ready. I'm like, where is this cow? So, sure enough, like, 45 minutes or so goes by. So it's about 12, 15, and the cow moose finally stands up. And she stands up in the middle of some thick stuff at, like, 40 yards. I'm like, God dang it. So I was just thinking my. I kind of got excited when I saw her stand up, like, holy cow, this is gonna happen. And I was like, no, no, no. Like, don't force a shot through some crappy timber. Like, this is the kind of stuff that grabs arrows. Just wait till she clears for a really good shot. Also, don't get so amped that you don't make a bad shot. So I'm like, talking myself through this. So I'm just sitting there watching this cow feed, and she stands up on my left, and it's kind of feeding diagonally away from me to my right. I watch her for about 30 minutes, and finally she steps into this lane, and I'm like, all right, time to make. Time to make the shot. So she's feeding. Doesn't nobody. None of these Moose know I'm here, she's feeding, and I arrange her at 59. I'm like, perfect. Roll the. I roll my sight. I kind of get my seat feet set, ready to stand up, take a deep breath, stand up, draw, settle my pin, let it go and go. Hear the. The pumpkin, like, thunk. I'm like, oh, man, I just shot a moose. So then I, like. I'm all excited, and then she, like, runs a little bit behind the tree, and I can't see her. But then I look down to my left, and there's this giant bull just staring at me at 30 yards, and I'm like, oh, crap. Like this. I forgot that that was still in play. So I, like, slink down behind the tree, and I'm just, like, waiting for him to go back to feeding. In the meantime, though, my cow steps out, and I see there's blood running down the top of top of the back. And I'm like, ah, that's not good. That's pretty high. Maybe I caught top of lung, but that's. That's not exactly what I wanted. But then you start going through the mental gymnastics of, like, well, you probably caught top of lung. And I gotta wade through seven bull moose to get to the other side to get another shot in there. So I'm kind of just at the mercy of waiting to see what happens. She steps back behind the tree for 15 minutes, and she steps through again out the other side. And I see that the blood is already drying. Like, 15 minutes later, I'm like, oh, boy. And she has not, like, clearly not coughing, hasn't tipped over. But I'm trying to stay optimistic. I'm like, dude, you know, there's a lot of lung space for that to fill up with blood. Like, she's probably just gonna take some time. Don't. Don't get all stressed about it. But obviously, there's. There's the mental. The mental game is, like, killing me right now because I'm like, is that a good shot? Is it not a good shot? I, like, really couldn't tell. So I back out. And we have radios. So I radio out to the folks. I'm like, all right, guys, I got an arrow in a moose. I'm gonna need folks either to help me track or to pack her out, so would love some help. About an hour goes by, and they come in on this closed road. I meet up with everybody. It's about a mile from the drivable road to where I shot. And I'm just like, man, I. This Is what happened. Let's go look for my arrow. I haven't even tried to get in there because things were. There were six bull moose in front of me, and I like, seven bull moose in front of me. And I was. I was not going to be pushing the envelope by myself. So they all walk in with their. In there with me and the bulls. The majority of the bulls have left. There was one that hung around the cow Even when she was hit, and that bull, we found out, was still there. But we go across, you know, replay the shot. We're looking for my arrow, and it's just tall willows and grass, and it's like, holy crap, this is going to be damn near impossible to find this arrow. So we're looking on the ground, and not really. It's not very promising, but we can see tracks where this cow moose was standing. And it's like, okay, let's follow the tracks out. And we don't take 30 steps. And we see two moose get up from the upper section of timber, and they trot up and over the skyline. I'm like, shoot. And I like. Once they get over the skyline, I take off running to try to see if I can catch them, Come over the skyline. And I don't. So we go back. I go back to the crew, and we start looking through the grass for blood. We find, like, in the bed of the cow that got up, we find, like, a nosebleeds amount of blood, and we're like, God dang it. This is definitely, like, not a fatal hit. And it would have been two hours since I shot when we went in there and bumped her. So I was like, okay, that's not good. So we basically all just were like, okay, let's track this moose out, See if we can find her again. So we get in this burn, and we're tracking. You can see clearly the bull moose track and the cow moose track Walking through this dusty, sooty burn. And so we just track them for, like, a mile and go into this other willow creek bottom kind of thing. A good spot for moose to hang out. And me and my friend trent were like, all right, let's hang out here and watch this for the rest of the night. The other four folks were like, okay, we'll get out of your guys's hair and go do something else. Like, Matt was gonna go make dinner. So. Sidebar. My friend matt, he absolutely crushed it as camp cook. Kind of the camp lackey he was. His whole shtick the whole time was, I want to grouse Hunt with my dog, and I want to be the camp cook. He's killed a bunch of elk and deer himself, and he's been on this podcast, but he was like, you know what? This one, I want to be camp. Camp lackey. So he was like, I'll go back and make sure we get food ready. Anna had to go to work. Hayden and Maddie went back, and they were going to chase some elk. So me and Trent sat there and we glassed that. That willow bottom, basically, for the rest of the evening, no dice. Nothing came out except for a calf. Elk also saw some deer, but no moose. So at this point, we get back and we're talking it through, and prior to this shroud on the moose, I'd been part of three animals where they've been shot with an arrow. And then you come back and you keep hunting for that one animal, and you find them the next day or the day after two of them were found the next. Or two days after one of them was found the next day. So. So I'm like, guys, we gotta just keep hunting this spot. Like, that cow is gonna show back up. She was not hit well at all after what we saw. And everyone's really super optimistic. They're like, yeah, whatever you want to do, man. We're here to support you. Which was so cool. It was one of my favorite parts of this whole hunt is like, everyone was just whatever I wanted to do, they were going to support me on it, and they were going to be there as, like, a crew to help however they could. And I just. I can't thank those guys enough. I mean, I'm gonna probably say it a bunch of times, but it was really, really cool. So we go back to camp. Next morning, we wake up, and we get to the glassing knob that we were on the morning and evening prior. And we get out there, and it is an absolute bugle fest. It is for September 2nd. I don't think I've ever had so many elk bugling. We had at least three different herds of elk that we could see from the glassing knob. We could hear another one down to our left that we couldn't see, and then we could hear bulls bugling behind us. So as we're sitting there, Trent and I are still glassing for moose, but Hayden and Mattie go after one herd. Matt runs back behind us and is going to chase bugles. And I basically just sat there and cow called, trying to keep enough activity that things would keep talking so that both friends, both sets of friends could Go get in on elk. While we were glassing for moose. So I'm sitting there looking through my binos and like every now and then letting out a cow call. And bulls would be bugling and they're trying to get in close, trying to cut some off. Matt ended up getting to about 50 yards a couple times, but it was just none of them ended up working out. Peyton and Maddie were getting in on this elk herd and they spooked for some reason, and they thought maybe it could have been wind. But regardless, everybody else was like, on elk and having a great time doing it. Trent and I, as we're sitting up there, I'm cow calling, and all of a sudden goes, trent, get your bow. I'm like, what? And just for context, I have a general elk tag too. He's like, yeah, dude, get your bow. I see antlers. I'm like, oh, crap. So I dropped down, grab my bow, knock an arrow, and we're like, frozen, basically. And he's like, okay. He just turned around. He's like, go get to that next knob. And I haven't seen this bull yet, but he's like, it looked like a good bowl, like coming into a silent. And so I creep over the edge and I don't see him. But then after a little bit, we start hearing some bugles further down. And I was like, okay, that must have been that bull. But basically this. This bull came into my calc silently. And I'm like, oh, that's just such classic, classic, like early season September activity. Plus we had other bulls bugling and just like doing the thing too. We realized, like, a lot of them were just kind of searching for cows. And then there were the three main herds in there too. So we basically sat there and we're glassing until mid morning. And then Trent, he glassed up. He glassed up some. Some bull moose on the far, far end, kind of closer to where we ended the night before of this basin. And we're looking at them and we realize, like, man, that's a herd of bulls. Maybe that cow is with that herd of bulls. Because that just. There's not very many herds of bull moose together. You'll see one by themselves or one or two, but six or whatever. That's really uncommon, at least in my experience, just running around the woods. So we go back to camp, we make a good breakfast, and then drive around to this other side. Or no, we actually left from there and we went to the spot we called the island. We had two names for the places there was the hornet's nest, which is our favorite. Glassing knob just had the most activity. And then there was the island, which you had to go through really good habitat to get to the island. So we tried not to push it too hard, but because we didn't want to blow a bunch of critters out getting to the island. But basically the island is as it sounds, just like a rock pile it in the middle of the basin so you can see 360 degrees. It's freaking awesome for glassing. So I go out to the island after lunch with Trent and we're going to keep looking and we find those bull moose. And we're watching and we see one move through the timber. And we're like, I didn't see antlers on that. He's like, I didn't either. So I was like, let's get a closer look. So we drop down, get to another closer hill that's across the drainage from them. And again we see these, these moose moving through the timber. But it's burnt timber. So you just catch glimpses of them and you can kind of see bodies, but you can never see a full moose at a time. And if they're facing away from you or towards you, you really can't see them when they're behind a tree at all because they're so skinny compared to when they're, you know, lengthways in the timber. You can at least catch some but our back or antlers moving through the timber. So I basically look at trend. I'm like, well, let's just go get closer. I think that if, if that there's a cow in there, it's my cow most likely. And let's go get a better look. So we drop down, cross the canyon again and get up to the other side. And I slip my shoes off at like 200 yards. And I'm sneaking in, sneaking in. And as I'm sneaking in, I get to like 100 yards and I look and all of them are bulls. I'm like, oh no, there is no cow in here. And then as I'm like, well, maybe I'll crest over this ridge. And maybe that cow that we thought we saw, maybe she went over the ridge. And as I'm doing that, I walk up on a bull at 50 yards, a nice bull. And I'm like, holy crap. Bull moose. Just to clarify, I'm a holy crap. He's staring at me. And I'm like, okay, well I guess I can get to 50 and they don't care. And Then I go to crest the ridge, and I see a elk hunter with his bow just marching it back to the truck. Keep in mind, this is like 7:15 ish, 7:20. And I'm like, holy crap. He's, like, headed out of the. It's just now getting good for elkhonic. So I turn around and I go back down, and I'm like, I'm gonna test something out. And I just basically walked right at the bulls that were feeding. And I was curious, like, how close can I get just not being sneaky. And I walked up to 50, and I chickened out before they did. Basically, I got to 50 yards, and I was like, damn, I can get to archery range without even sneaking. They're just like, standing there watching me. I was like, good to know. So then I slink back to Trent, and it's like 7:30, and it's basically shooting light is over at 8pm so then I go, all right, Trent, those are all bulls. We're kind of bummed about it. They're like, well, we have 30 minutes of shooting light left. Let's see if we can't, like, work up a bull elk. So we'd see some out this ridge in the morning. And it's like, let's just go run this ridge and bugle. So we take off at a pretty quick pace, and every time we come over a rise, we're bugling into the basin, seeing if we can't get something to respond. Keep in mind, this is right behind. Like, this is the same ridge that we just saw a dude walk out of 30 minutes before. So we crossed the first one Bugle nothing, across the second one Bugle nothing, cross the third one bugle. The freaking bull pipes off right below us, and we're like, oh, holy crap. Like, this is game on. Like, he might be able to come up to us. So Trent and I slink down there. Halfway down the hill, we get to a rock feature that I think would be good to call from because we could be hidden, but still, he can hear us well and can come in there. And so I'm just bugling at this bull, and there's only a few minutes of shooting light left, and he's responding every time. And then he pops up over the top of a sub ridge just 400 yards away from us. And I'm looking, and I. I look at Trent, and we still have five minutes till shooting light. I was like, what do you think? Is he gonna make it? And I look down to my pins, and I can't see my pins. It's dark in that burn. And on the slope we were on, I was like, man, I think. I think he was just a little too late. But that bull was fired up. He was coming in to our bugles just like he wanted to pick a fight. And we could. We couldn't make out great tines, but he looked like a mature bull, a heavy bull. Didn't have cows yet and was seeking. And that's just. That's exactly what you'd expect for, like, that first week. A lot of raghorns and smaller bulls with the cows. And then like, the big bulls, they're just now starting to. To find their herds, and they're cruising around trying to pick up cows. So basically, we slip out of there. We don't want to blow him out because we're like, well, someone might be able to get a chance at this guy tomorrow. And we back out of there without him finding us or smelling us or anything. Get back to the camp kind of late. And then the next morning, we go back out into the hornet's nest again. Well, actually, I went to the island after going to the harness nest first because we wanted it to get light enough that we didn't blow any elk out on the way to the the island. So after it gets light just a little bit, we leave half the crew on the hornet's nest, and then me, Hayden, and Maddie go to the island. Once we sitting up there, we're looking, we're glassing. There's a bull bugling below us that we can't see. There's a bull across the drainage from us that we can see at like 500 yards. And there's another bull further down the ridge that I didn't get eyes on, but I heard was pretty nice from the. The guys who saw him. So we're sitting there, and I'm. I'm calculing, trying to see if we can't. I'm back off the ridge, so I'm not that bull. Can't see the one in 500 yards. Can't see what's happening. I'm back off the ridge. I'm calculing, trying to see if he'll come into the calls. And then I see this cow moose walk in front of the island. I'm like, oh, crap. So I run over to Hayden. Hayden also had seen the cow moose. And we're looking at it, and we're like, gosh, this thing is headed right towards where I shot that moose from. And so keep in mind, this is the second day after I shot my. My moose high, we're like, man, that's gotta be. That's gotta be her. We've only seen one other calfless moose in this whole trip, and it was kind of further to the west, not really in the same area. So we're watching this. This cow moose, and she's headed right for that hanging kind of marshy area where I shot her, the one from on Monday. So I was like, all right, guys, if I go after this, I'm going to blow out that bull that's across the drainage. And they're like, yeah, go do it. Like you're. We're here to hunt moose, not hun elk. And I was like, okay, okay, fine. So I bail off the island, blow that bull out, but then I dip into the timber and some unburnt stuff, and I'm running along the creek bottom thinking I can cut her off if I'm fast. So I'm like, jogging, and then I pop out of the timber thinking I might be in front of her, and she's 100 yards uphill from me, staring at me. I was trying to move fast, so I wasn't, like, very quiet. And so she just knew I was there. So there's this moose staring at me, and I'm like, God dang it. And I was thinking like, well, last night when they were staring at me, I was able to walk to 50. So let's see. See what we can make happen. So I start walking at her. She lets me get to 70, then kind of trots off and then stops and looks back, and I'm like, well, just keep. Keep sneaking. So I get a little closer. She bumps at, like 60 something before I can get any sort of a shot. And she keeps doing this, and I keep dogging her. So every, I don't know, 50 yards, 75 yards, she'd stop, turn back and look and let me get another 50 to 75 yards closer. So we're basically just riding this buffer of my archery effective range. And then she's also in the timber where it's burnt and there's just limbs everywhere. So I'm like, man, there's not a good place for a shot in here. But I keep going, keep going. She eventually gets up onto that kind of bench, and I run to the base of it. So if folks don't know how this might work in. In the field, basically, once an animal crests over, they can't hear you super well, but they definitely can't see you. So that's kind of your opportunity to strike. So you got to move fast and like get up over the rise and you can come over the rise and, and have them in archery range before they know you're there. I've killed two bull elk doing it that way. Basically, they crest over rise and then you run up it and then you pop out and they're just right there in archery range.

Hey, not to freak you out, because.

I know a lot of you haven't.

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All right, back to the show. You're listening to the Hunt west podcast. So she did that, and this time I get to like 50 and there's no shot. But now we've kind of like closed the distance. She trots off a little bit and I keep dogging her. And then she stops one more time and I range at 50 and I'm like, perfect. There's a, there's a window here. I draw back, settle my pin shoot, and I see her pick up the offside arm or offside leg. I'm like, okay, good. That, that's a good sign because usually that means you went through the body cavity and then hit the offside leg. So she's Kind of like limping, and I'm like, all right, I'm not gonna let this one get away. So I reload another arrow, get up to about 50, shoot again. That's a good shot. And it's basically, like, right in the pocket, but on the shoulder a little bit. But upon further inspection, that one went into the. Into the body cavity. So then both of her front wheels are out. She can't go anywhere very fast. I get to 30, drop another arrow, she beds down. I have my last broadhead in my quiver because I've got four broadheads and the judo point, and she beds down, and I put one more arrow in the boiler room at like, 20 yards and then back out to let her. Let her expire. So I get on the radio, and I call folks, and I'm. I call the crew, and I'm like, hey, guys, does anyone have any broadheads? I'm out of broadheads. They're like, oh, shoot. Like, clearly, he's got some arrows in this moose. And I'm like, yeah, we're going to need a packing crew, and I need some broadhead. So Hayden and Maddie run up there. I basically dogged that moose a half of a mile. So it takes them a little bit to get up to me. But by that time, it's been about an hour since I shot. And we walk up to her, and she's dead right there in that second bed. And, boy, that was incredible. That was exciting. We. The boys came in, and so Hayden and Maddie are there. The other guys drove around Anna, actually, I texted her, and she drove in and was. And ended up helping pack out, too. So we had a huge crew. It was Hayden and Maddie, Trent, Matt, and then Anna all helped pack me. So there's six of us total. Hayden did a load. Once we got the first side done, he took a load out to the truck. So we were able to. Most of us, five of us were able to take one trip out to the truck and just get her all out in one go. Man, those animals are so dang big. It's incredible. I was sitting there taking photos behind her, and Maddie had to tell me, like, yes, get. Sit on your knees a little higher because it just looks like your head is poking up above of her back for some sire's reference. You know, our giant bull elk, you know, maybe is a thousand pounds, and this was every bit as big as a big bull elk. So we figure there's probably 350, 400 pounds of meat that we were able to get off of probably closer to the 400 mark off of this moose. And the kicker of it all, this moose had a hole through the top of its back. So it was the same dang cow that I'd shot on Monday that I shot on Wednesday. So that was excellent. That was just such a relief. I, I figured that was the only one that was in there. But just making sure that that was the case was so awesome. It was just such a relief. We, I shot the same cow twice. Really. It was five total arrows. But that's, man, that's just a testament to how tough and big those, those moose are. So the guys get there and they all have a corona. We crack a Corona at like 9 o' clock in the morning and then take a whole bunch of group photos and then get to work. Such a, such an awesome experience with everybody there. Everyone knew how to butcher really well so it wasn't like you were having to coach anybody. So, you know, you also could rotate in and out so nobody was getting tired and bent over the whole time. Like Matt, for instance, he did a ton of the work on the quarters. Him and I, we all really worked on it. But for instance, Matt did a ton of work on the first half and then he took a break and other people jumped in. Trent was always lifting legs and like putting them in bags as we're doing this and it was awesome. We used the meat on vone elk game bags from Argali the guide series which is their second season of me using those. I had a couple of elk in them last year. Those worked really good. Hayden also brought mystery ranch game bags which I didn't know they made them. They have these cool handles on the side. So those were nice to have. Again, kind of a meat on bone big, big bag. And we ended up with eight bags of meat of varying sizes. There was a couple loose bags that were a little less, but essentially Hayden took out loose meat from the first half and a rear quarter on his first trip. And then the rest of us split up the rest of the loose meat. A front quarter for one person, a front quarter for another person, a rear quarter. And I caped that out and had the head in my backpack. So it was a, it was a heavy, heavy load for everybody. So it was awesome. Everyone just chugged right along though. No one had any issues. It was also pretty flat mile out. So I mean, anytime you're putting that much weight in your back, it feels pretty heavy. But it wasn't too awful bad as far as just keeping one foot in front of the other keeping momentum going. And it took US maybe, oh, 30 minutes to get back to the truck, maybe 40 minutes. So we started butchering on the moose at 9:30 and we were back to the truck by 1pm that was just awesome freaking teamwork. It was so cool. It was, it was everything I could have hoped for out of that kind of a group atmosphere and that kind of a group dynamic where everyone was just pitching in. No one had any complaints, except maybe me that I was kind of hot. But other than that, it was just an awesome, awesome time. So we all get back and we fried up tenderloins. Matt put caul fat around that tenderloin. And if you ever thought that like, sometimes like a deer tenderloin or whatever is not very big and you know, you only get a little bit out of it. We fed like six people with one tenderloin off of this, off of this cow moose. And boy, it was so tasty. So it was awesome just being able to shoot that cow in the morning and then eat it for lunch, late lunch, albeit, but just a great, great time. So then a couple folks had to go home. Anna went home. Matt and Trent went home. Maddie and Hayden wanted to, wanted to keep hunting, and there had been enough elk activity. We figured it would be worthwhile. So I stuck around. We got the meat hung in a. On a meat pole and in the shade. So we went out that evening. We left at like 5pm and we went out to a glassing knob kind of where we'd seen some of the elk or heard some of the elk from the morning and definitely didn't expect much for bugle activity. It was hot that day. And we're just like, man, we'll see if we can glass something up. And we're glassing, we're glassing. We glassed up a dude, we glassed up a pickup. Like were just kind of. They had heard a dude on two dudes on radios kind of in the local area the day before. So we're expecting elk to be pretty quiet. So we're sitting there and not seeing anything. We see some deer, see some mows, AKA just cattle, and not seeing much. Finally we go, all right, let's just go do the run some ridges and see if we can get what bull to play. So it's probably 7 o'. Clock. And again, shooting light's about 8 o' clock. And we bail off and we go run this ridgeline. And we don't go 200 yards. I bugle and we get a response right away. I'M like, holy crap. All right, game on. So Maddie, she hasn't shot a big game animal with her bow yet, so she's up. I don't even have my bow with me. Hayden doesn't have his bow with him. He drew a limited entry elk tag, so he doesn't have a tag. And so Maddie's up. Hayden and Maddie, they dropped, by the way, if you didn't know, they're husband and wife. So this is. This is a good combo. They drop forward, and we kind of. I'm bugling, and he's responding every now and then. And I was like, you know, I'm gonna try some breaking. So they drop and get set up. When we're maybe 200 yards from where we're hearing this bull bugle, and I just grab a stick, and I just get to beating the crap out of dead trees and. And we're right on the edge of this little marshy area, right on the edge. Some live trees in the burn, and they're by this rock that's kind of like they can drive, draw behind, and then stand up and shoot. And I'm down below behind them, so out of sight of where the bull will be coming in, but still kind of in line. And the wind is perfect. Wind's in our face. So I'm back there just beating the crap out of trees, raking, raking, raking, raking, raking, raking. And every now and then, I'd bugle, and that bull would bugle back. And then, as I found out later from them, they could see him raking at, like, 70 yards. So this bull got to about 70, and then was just raking trees and raking in response to my raking and raking and then bugling in response to my bugling and raking. And we went back and forth. That bull was just fired up for, I don't know, it felt like an eternity, but maybe it was 15 minutes. Finally, we hear this. I, like, hear some steps, like, almost like the bull's running off. And I'm like, oh, no. And I stop what I'm doing, and I'm listening, and all of a sudden I hear whack, Boom. And I was like, oh, that's not good. That's not the sound of a pumpkin. That's the sound of an arrow hitting a tree. And unfortunately, Mattia just pegged a tree, but that bull still stood there. And she drew again. And the bull's at 40 something yards, and she shoots and hits another branch as the arrow is going over there. So that bull walks off. He was totally unscathed. And we had a great call in. Apparently what had happened is, and this is me regurgitating what Matty and Hayden told me. That bull was coming straight on a line and he was at 15 yards or 12 yards somewhere in there and kind of pegged them sitting there behind that rock or next to the rock. And he kind of like spooked out. So he was like right in their lap and they didn't. He was almost. He was too close to get a shot without him drawing or without him seeing them draw. So when he spooked kind of at a closer distance, Matty drew. He bumped out to 40 something. And Hayden ranged. And that's when those two shots came. Let me just say, though, for the 3rd of September, the side quest elk hunting had been so dang good. I called bull in the night before. He just was too late. Called that bull in for Matty. We saw elk every day. I was really impressed. If you're someone who's looking for midday activity and just bulls, you know, bugling their face off all day long, like, it wasn't that, but it's also the first few days of September, like you don't expect that. Also, the most mature bulls hadn't really gotten with herds yet. We saw one mature bull that was running a cow herd, but really, besides that, it was. It was kind of like raghorns or Sean and the mature bulls were just starting. So on the backs of all this. First of all, I wanted to say again, thank you to everybody. I. That was one of my favorite, like, hunting camp, community hunting trips that I've ever had. It was just incredible. So I hope everyone, I. I tried to share, meet with everybody. I did share meat with everybody who was on the trip and hope they enjoy it. It was just such an awesome team effort. And just one of my favorite things about hunting is how it can bring folks together. You can have a lot of laughs, you can hunt hard, but still have a good time. You can get up early as heck every day, stay out late and be working on very little sleep and still have a good time together. And everyone also is there to support each other, which is just super awesome. It's one of my favorite parts about the hunting community and the friends that I have in this. In this community. So again, thanks to those folks. Okay, let's get down to business as far as how elk hunting is going to be shaping up. The full moon is coming right up. I think it's on the 7th of September. We were noticing that very much so, like the moon was bright, there was a lot of night activity. And coming into the first week of September or coming out of the first week of September and into the second week, I'm gonna expect there to be a lot of night activity. You're probably only gonna have the first hour or two and the last hour or two of daylight to really get much bugle activity going on. That's where having some really, really good, some good glassing areas found is going to be beneficial. Because that way when things are quiet and you're not really getting into the bugle activity you want to call stuff in, you're going to be able to still find elk because they're still there and you're going to be able to make plays. The weather gradually got a little warmer as the week went on and I think that didn't help us either. I think folks will really want to be paying attention to where water's at and how they can use that to their advantage. Either cutting elk off as they're going to a water feeding area combination or sitting on a wallow or doing those kinds of things. Middle of the day, where you're going to catch something. Cruising this next week until about the 15th or so, the big bull should be starting to cruise around more and you should find more mature bulls like running around, picking up cows and starting to build harems. I really like this next time frame if you're someone who likes to bugle a lot because you'll still find bulls by themselves who are willing to come into a bugle session and do the thing just like the bull did two nights ago and last night for that matter. So as you're thinking about it, be thinking about how you can manage some hot weather. I looked at the long term forecast for the next week or two and it looks like it's going to be. The west side of the Rocky Mountains is going to be pretty wet and you're going to have periods of thunderstorms and things like that are coming through. They're going to keep things cooler. But on the east side of the Rockies of the Rocky Mountain Divide, you're going to have a little bit warmer temperatures and drier temperatures. So let's say you're in Oregon or Idaho or far western Colorado, you should have some thunderstorms and be thinking about how that might mess up your wind as you're sneaking in on elk. I think a lot of evening plays are going to be important. You might glass up a herd first thing in the Morning and then figure out how to get them killed that evening and make it an all day plan. The other thing to think about is hunting pressure. We had gobs of hunting pressure. There was guys basically all around us every day, but there were still elk and they were still doing elky things. You just kind of had to be creative with how you're approaching it. We spent way more time sitting and listening and sitting and glassing than we did running ridges and bugling. Though the couple of times we did that, it worked well in the evenings. So I would highly recommend that if you're finding a lot of hunting pressure, find ways to sit and be quiet and listen for bugles or sit on a good glassing knob. Ideally do both because that will keep you in the elk. For me, I'm looking forward to this next week. Like I said, I've got about a week here where I'm going to work on some hunting sessions, hunting plans for folks. We're also booking folks for 2026 right now. It was one of the biggest things that happened this year that I didn't expect was we got enough interest in the same units that I had to start turning folks away. So if you want to schedule something for 2026, it's better to to put down a deposit with me now and get you on the books before somebody else takes a tag that and hires me for a session or plan before then. So if that's on your radar, get a hold of me, we can figure it out and I'll get you on the books for 26. I didn't think it was going to happen this early that people were reaching out, but they started doing it. So I just want to let everyone know before they contact me in January or March or whatever and realize that their favorite unit that they're planning on for two years is gone. I am happy to work with folks too. So just let me know what your plans are. I should be again, I should be around and in communication here this next week. But I'm headed up for the September 15th deer opener in Wyoming. So going in on the 14th, gonna hunt that for a couple days. We got a basin we know there's some bucks in and gonna make a quick trip out of that. Maybe three hunting days, two and a half hunting days. And then I gotta pop smoke and come out and guide a archery elk hunter in one of my favorite kind of desert transition units in Wyoming. It's like it's my favorite unit probably. I would say I just know it real well. I'm really comfortable out there. And there's a lot of elk. It's not like there's giants running around, but there's a lot of good bulls. And I think it's just. It's going to be a blast. So that's coming up for me. I hope that folks who are getting ready for their elk hunts are all excited. It just is one of those things that even in the middle of hot temps and a lot of hunting pressure, you can still have good hunting as long as you keep an optimistic mindset. Figure out how to hunt smarter than the folks who are just bumbling around, blowing on their bugle tube and sounding like a silly flute running around in the mountain. Don't. Don't let that be you. Unless you just know, like, hey, this is the plan we're running. If you're running that plan and not having success, I would highly recommend mixing things up or trying to be a little bit more creative with your approach. One of my favorite things about this whole last hunt was the furthest you can get from a road in this unit was about a mile and a quarter, maybe a mile and a half. And we were down in there. That's not too far from the island, really. And we were still in elk. And I know oftentimes, like, even if we worked on hunting plans, I'll talk about getting up and leaving an hour before daylight. But we were only hiking 15, 20 minutes to our glassy knob every day from camp. And in elk. So be sure that you're thinking about ways that people are using it and ways you can find those elk, even though they're getting pressured, because it's the kind of creative thinking that's going to keep you in elk and keep giving you at bats. Lastly, it's one of the things that my friend Cody Rich talks about is getting at bats. Doesn't matter. The critters you're on, but especially for elk hunting with the bow, just keep, keep in it. It's going to take some at bats, but it all comes together in the end. And the more opportunities you get, the better you can be prepared for the next one. And the better, more you're going to learn on the some OTJ on the job training, some on the job learning so that you know how to anticipate what elk you're going to be doing when you're doing these call in setups. All right, that's going to be it for this week. Again, I don't expect there to be a good field report for you guys next week. Unless I get out, do some hunting in between. But I should be on the computer this next week. You'll hear another one towards the end of September, most likely, and we'll update you on how high country deer went, we'll update you on how guided elk hunt went, and we'll kind of set the stage for the next phase of this hunting season. Good luck out there, everybody. I just know I'm, I'm really rooting for you. And so if you have a good hunting story, you've had a good experience or a bad experience and you want to share it with me, feel free to do so. You can always reach out jaden huntwest.net and email. And if you have me on Instagram, you can also DM me there. All right, everybody, thank you again for listening and I hope you enjoyed this show. Thank you for listening to the Hunt west podcast. If you like what you heard today, the best compliment you can give is to share the show with a friend. We will see you on the next episode and we hope one day to see you Hunt West.