01/06/2025
Congratulations Wiley! You and your family have had great luck/ success in drawing for your MI elk tags! I’m so grateful to be a part of the taxidermy work for this amazing animal.
Early this year in June I found out that I was drawn for a Michigan Elk Tag, I was so excited. I had been lucky enough to know a little bit about it since both my grandpa and mom had both been drawn as well in the past few years. My grandpa with a bull and my mom with a cow. I was also given a cow just like my mom. I was given the December Hunt, which started on my birthday and that made it even more special. In the months leading up to the hunt I spent some time with my dad and grandpa at the gun range getting sighted
in to shoot further distances. Then finally the day came. We woke up that morning at 4 to get ready to make sure we didn’t forget anything. We met our guide Jake Ormsbee and another hunter that was riding with us who was after a bull. That was the coldest morning of them all at -2, so it was hard to anticipate what to wear. We decided to layer up just in case. The day started off on a cornfield where our guide had seen a large herd the night before. When we arrived the had already taken off leaving a single
young bull by itself. It was amazing to watch. We decided to follow the herds tracks for another 4 miles, only to get a quick sighting of them without a chance of a shot. We worked on that herd most of the day but then we decided to move on. We moved to another completely different area and looked for tracks. Then my guide spotted a small herd on top of a hill bedding down. We moved closer to get a better look at them. There was 2 shooter cows in the herd, so I got all set up. We had to get them to stand up so my guide blew his elk call, which put them all on alert. I still couldn’t get a shot because they were behind a tree, but as soon as they started to move I was given a shot. Unfortunately I had missed, but we decided to keep following the herd the rest of the night to see if we could get another, but we were never given a chance. The next few days we spent chasing bulls for the other hunter that was riding with us, it was awesome to watch and experience as all the different guides worked together to try and get them a shot. The hunter that was with me was able to get one shot off but also unfortunately missed. The next day started off with us looking for more tracks in places that we had seen them throughout the week. We came upon this small herd with cows and bulls,
but only shooter cows, I got set up again but by the time I was ready to shoot they were already on their way. We really weren’t able to follow them being that’s they went straight into a thick swamp. Not long after one of the people that were working with
us, Jordan, called our guide saying that he had just watched a herd cross in front of his truck into the woods. With it being our only lead we made our way straight there. We circled the area around the woods that they were in, there were no footprints leaving
so we came to the conclusion that they were bedded down in there somewhere. Directly on the other side of the woods was a large clear cut where we would be able to see them exiting, so I got sat up there and we waited. As we sat there Jordan began to push
them slowly on foot. He got sight of them bedding down not too far ahead of them, so slowly he kept nudging them hoping to just get them to stand up and walk away. Eventually that’s exactly what they did, but they took a hard right away from us. We began moving quickly to try and get in front of them and at one point we were running, but we didn’t make it in time. Right when we had got to the place we thought they would go the spotted us and took off running. We stood there in defeat, trying to come up with a plan.
Our guide went back to get the truck and we stood there and waited for a while, and also giving the Elk some time to relax. When Jake arrived back with the truck he had came up with a new plan. He called another cow hunter so we could surround them together and hopefully get a shot off. When the other hunter got there they had spotted some tracks on the other side of the hill that looked very fresh. Jordan had been back on their tracks following the herd on foot again and it lead him right to those fresh tracks
on the road. So at some point while we were standing there waiting the Elk crossed right behind us on the other side of the hill. We then went to the other side of that woods to see if they had crossed there yet and they hadn’t so once again, we got set up.
There was only about 200 yards from us and Jordan at that point and the Elk were within that. Jordan began to push them again almost immediately spotting them bedded down again. It didn’t take long for the Elk to spot Jordan, but this time they didn’t walk away, they got up and ran. They ran right in front of me at full speed not even giving me a chance to shoot. At this point it had only been 3 cows, the other bulls had spilt off. Then a few moments later I spotted the cows on my right only about 30 yards from me, they were walking again trying to catch our scent. They wouldn’t give me a shot with all the trees, and once they got my scent they took off once again. Jake and I began to run after them full sprint but lost sight of them again. We knew they couldn’t be too far so we followed their tracks slowly. After about another 100 yards of walking I spotted the 3 cows together standing on top of the hill. I quickly got set up again. I could see the biggest cow in my scope about 120 yards away. I could see her head and then there was about a 5 inch gap of her body I could see that I thought was her stomach. But Jake looked closer with his binoculars and came to the conclusion that the gap that I could see was right behind her shoulder. He told me to shoot because if I were to miss I would hit the tree and if I were to hit her, I would kill her. So, I took the shot and she dropped in her tracks. It took me a second to realize what had just happened because I was so worked up, but as soon as I did I turned around towards Jake and started celebrating and high fiving him.
It was such an awesome moment and such an amazing thing to experience. Immediately I texted my dad and told him I got her, he was back at the truck and I couldn’t wait for him to see her. He then walked over to me and we walked up to see her together. It was amazing she was so beautiful and a lot bigger than I had imagined. It was the best experience ever and I am so grateful that I was able to share it with my dad. I will forever be grateful for that. I just wanted to say thank you to Jake and Jordan for making all of this happen. ~ Wiley G
