Laramie Peak Led Wyoming's 2025 Elk Bull Harvest With an Estimated 783

IThe Short List

Six areas kept top 10 rankings throughout

For every season spanning 2021 to 2025, we sorted all elk hunt areas in Wyoming by their estimated bull harvests to find the consistent leaders. Adding the state's area-level rows for the latest season gives 13,188 bulls, compared with 10,385 for 2021. Across those five years, six areas always finished among the top-10. The 2025 leader is Laramie Peak, numbered 7. Next comes Baggs, numbered 21, at 606 bulls; then the Non-herd unit, numbered 129, at 526; Wiggins Fork, numbered 67, at 478; Iron Mountain, numbered 6, at 321; followed by Upper Platte River, numbered 110, at 279.

Rankings among these six change. For Laramie Peak, the count increased from 568 during 2021 to 912 during 2024 before dropping to 783. Baggs declined instead, going from 630 down to 414 during 2023, then rebounding to 606. At Wiggins Fork, 292 bulls during 2024 became 478 during 2025. Some areas reached the top 10 in just part of that stretch: Steamboat in four of the five years and Shirley Mountain in three of the five. Their harvest totals are similar enough that a single year's results decide which areas make the cut.

The companion paper on Wyoming mule deer includes two familiar names on its mule deer list: Laramie Peak and Baggs. Hunt-area numbers differ by species. For elk, Baggs carries number 21; for mule deer, it carries number 82. You should not presume that the Baggs boundaries match across species.

IIA Leftover On The List

Understanding the Non-herd designation

A state-designated Non-herd unit placed third during 2025, accounting for 526 bulls. Under the regulation for elk seasons from Wyoming's Game and Fish Commission, dated April 22, 2026, area 129 includes Sheridan, Johnson, Campbell, Natrona and Crook counties in full except for ground within other elk areas that have numbers. This catch-all covers elk beyond the named units. In its 2019 forecast for elk hunting, the department described small herds spread around the area, with most elk on private property. It also said securing access mattered before heading out.

According to the elk harvest report for 2025, general-license holders accounted for all 526 bulls. Licenses sold for cows and calves in this area had no bull harvest recorded. Of the 526 bulls, nonresidents harvested 235.

Across the five seasons, this area's bull totals increased without a yearly decline: 226, 276, 344, 444 and finally 526. The final count exceeds twice the harvest for 2021. Each year brought more bulls killed, but the tables cannot identify the reason. Possible explanations include additional elk, more hunters with licenses, greater private-land permission or more complete survey coverage. For anyone seriously considering this area, getting permission comes first. Find guidance in our permission playbook.

IIILicenses Shape The Total

Five general areas, one with quotas

In that 2025 report, each hunt area's bull harvest is separated by license category. No row for general licenses appears for Laramie Peak. Two types of limited-quota licenses accounted for its 783 bulls: Type 1 produced 685, while Type 2 produced 98. Listed quotas are 1,500 under Type 1 and 350 under Type 2.

Licensing in the remaining five areas differs. The general-license bull totals for 2025 were 606 at Baggs, 526 in the Non-herd unit and 279 at Upper Platte River, covering the entire bull harvest in each. At Wiggins Fork, general licenses accounted for 447 out of 478 bulls; at Iron Mountain, they accounted for 300 out of 321. Limited-quota licenses covered the remaining harvests: Wiggins Fork had 31 under Type 9, and Iron Mountain had 21 under Type 1.

License limits change. For nonresidents, general elk licensing follows regions. Eastern includes area 129 along with Iron Mountain; Southern includes Baggs along with Upper Platte River; Western includes Wiggins Fork. Laramie Peak belongs to none of these general-license regions because general licenses are absent there. The regulation dated April 22, 2026 sets Eastern's limit at 1000. By comparison, the publicly available code, marked amended on May 23, 2024, gives 600. We did not locate the version effective during 2025, leaving us unable to identify the applicable limit. For Laramie Peak, the Type 2 quota appears as 350 in the report for 2025, versus 500 in the regulation for 2026.

Table 2 in the report shows Wyoming's statewide license count increasing from 74,523 during 2021 to 84,088 during 2025. Over those same seasons, the estimated bull harvest increased from 10,385 to 13,188. Both trends head upward together; the report makes no link between them.

IVWhat We Counted

What harvest totals leave unanswered

All harvest numbers presented here come from survey estimates. The department's surveys of hunter harvest are conducted by the survey center at the University of Wyoming. In the 2025 elk survey, a voluntary questionnaire drew responses from 25,355 out of 60,925 surveyed license holders. The department expanded those responses to represent 84,088 issued licenses. We sum bull harvests across every weapon, season and license category within each area. Under the state's definition, bulls are adult males with branched antlers; spikes do not qualify.

Published ranges of uncertainty apply to herd units; the department provides none at the hunt-area level. Without those ranges, similar totals cannot support confident rankings. Shirley Mountain at 229, Steamboat at 226 and Lower Hoback at 221 occupy positions 8 to 10, separated by only eight bulls.

A harvest total does not tell you the success rate. Upper Platte River ranks sixth at 279 bulls, but the department reports an overall hunter success rate of 27.5 percent there. Iron Mountain ranks fifth at 321 bulls, with overall success at 49.7 percent. Those percentages include all elk taken, including cows and calves. Neither gives a success rate for bulls alone. The report lists licenses sold and active hunters in its tables, but none includes applicant counts, so the report cannot tell you the draw odds. A high total shows that hunters took many bulls in an area. It does not show that more elk live there.

VUsing The List

How to choose areas for your list

Begin with whichever license you can obtain. For general-license buyers, recorded bull harvests point to the five general areas. A nonresident can hunt among those areas only as allowed by the region named on the issued license. For draw hunters considering Laramie Peak, check its quota against the regulation currently in effect rather than the previous year's report.

Judge annual swings across the five-year span. Baggs had a low of 414 bulls and a high of 630; Laramie Peak ranged between 568 and 912. Keep an area on your shortlist when it consistently ranks near the leaders. Remove any area that reached the lead once, then disappeared.

Make getting permission the focus for area 129. Its hunters harvested increasing numbers of bulls, while the department described most elk as being on private property in 2019.

A ranking for one species tells you little about a different species. In our Montana paper, Montana's estimates show a 17.2 percent increase in harvested elk and a 43.4 percent decline in harvested mule deer over 2004 to 2025.