I have been making good progress on the "information gathering" front, thanks to some very helpful Tradgangers and other bowhunters. I have been a Bowhunters of Wyoming member for several years, so I e-mailed some other members asking for help, and several have provided some tips. One NR bowhunter who killed a bull moose in unit 4 last year provided some great info and is even sending me his maps of the unit. I talked with wildlife biologists and game wardens from the Pinedale and Cody offices of WY game and fish, and rangers from the Shoshone NF and BLM people. Since the elk units are pretty big, I'll wait until I know specifically where I'll concentrate my efforts before buying those topo maps. I also have a lead on a very interesting fellow in the Pinedale area who might be able to help with the moose hunt, as well as names of landowners who may allow me to hunt moose on their land.
I really believe in scouting an area before hunting it, but that is not easy in this case. I did get lucky on a previous moose hunt in NH, when Tradganger David Kretchmar actually scouted my unit for me and joined me on the hunt for a few days. I do hope to meet some Tradgangers in person during this hunt, but for scouting I have come up with a plan.
Initially I tried to convince my family that our summer family vacation should be spent in WY moose unit 4 and elk units 63/64, but the girls voted for the beach instead. Since my son Daniel was recently accepted for the PBS youth hunt in Utah, which starts on August 15 and lasts a week, I decided that we would leave NC several days early and spend some scouting time in WY. I had always planned to drive to WY for my hunt anyway, so now my general plan is to take the long route to Utah in mid august, enjoy the PBS youth hunt with Daniel, then park the truck at Bill Allard's house in SLC on 8/21 and fly home. Daniel will start school the next week and I can catch up on the honey-do list, get some work done at the farm, and make some money at the office (I have a part-time job with very flexible hours and nearly unlimited vacation time - I just don't get paid if I don't show up for work!). By this time, I will have completed my scouting, taken Daniel to his UT hunt, and left my truck with hunting equipment relatively close to WY.
For my bowhunt, I'd like to concentrate on the last 3 weeks of September for several reasons. I know that the weather and rut activity will be better later in the month, and I do not want to bowhunt elk once the gun season begins on October 1. However, I'm told that I can bowhunt again after the first few days of the gun season for moose, due to the relative low number of moose huners in my unit. So my plan is to fly back to SLC around September 11 or 13, retrieve my truck and head to WY and hunt for the next 3 full weeks or so, before heading home. That will give me about 6 to 8 days to bowhunt moose before the gun hunters have their chance on 9/20. If I don't have a moose by that time, I'll head to the elk units with the hope of tagging a bull elk before October 1 and returning for a second chance at the moose, once the guns have quieted a little. I don't have a firm date in mind to return home, so I can (in theory) hunt moose well into October. However, I'm sure that I'll be missing my family by the first weekend in October (plus I'd like to remain married) and may have to go to plan B if my tags are unfilled by then....
Topic: Wyoming 09 elk and moose adventure (Read 7298 times)
