Unit 038 (Tongue)
Wyoming Hunting Guide — Elk
Elk Hunt Area 38, which Wyoming Game and Fish names Tongue, covers about 564 square miles in Sheridan County. It belongs to WGFD's North Bighorn elk herd unit. WGFD's 2025 harvest survey put elk success here at 36.2%, with 1,125 hunters taking 407 elk at about 22.5 days of hunting per animal. Federal land covers about 74% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 038
Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Wyoming Unit 038 guide around your hunt: three ranked spots with morning, afternoon and evening plays, a day-by-day plan, topo maps with every pin numbered, a camp and access plan, the legal and retrieval rules for this unit, shot discipline, a meat-care and pack-out plan, and a pre-trip checklist. Every coordinate sits on land recorded as public.
Free accounts get one report a year with the top spot unlocked. ProHunt Pro includes unlimited reports, all three spots, the full camp plan, and GPX/KML downloads for onX and Google Earth. Prefer to see one first? Open the builder and pick any unit.
Elk Hunting in Unit 038
Elk Hunt Area 38, which Wyoming Game and Fish names Tongue, covers about 564 square miles in Sheridan County. It belongs to WGFD's North Bighorn elk herd unit. WGFD's 2025 harvest survey put elk success here at 36.2%, with 1,125 hunters taking 407 elk at about 22.5 days of hunting per animal. Federal land covers about 74% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Elk in Elk Hunt Area 38
The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission names elk hunt area 38 "Tongue". It runs to about 564 square miles, entirely in Sheridan County. WGFD reports these elk as the North Bighorn herd unit, which also takes in elk hunt areas 35, 36, 37, 39 and 40. What WGFD publishes for the area is its boundary and its harvest; where the elk stand inside it is our reading of the ground, and the two are kept apart below.
The line: Black Mountain, Woodchuck Pass and Bighorn Mountain
WGFD's 2026 Chapter 7 walks the line around elk hunt area 38 corner by corner. It starts where Interstate Highway 90 crosses the Wyoming-Montana state line. On the way round it follows Interstate Highway 90, U.S. Highway 14, U.S.F.S. Road 16 and U.S.F.S. Road 26, and Black Mountain, Woodchuck Pass, Bighorn Mountain and Granite Pass. It is the description your license is good inside, so it is worth reading once in full before you go. The full text is in Section 9 of that chapter, with this year's season dates and license limitations in Section 2.
Not the same ground as the other hunt area 38s
WGFD numbers each species' hunt areas on its own grid, so the number 38 also belongs to its antelope and moose hunt areas 38. None of them shares a county with this one. A license is good only in the hunt area of its own species, so this page is about the elk area, and the cards at the foot of the page link the others.
Ground WGFD opens: Kerns and Amsden Creek
WGFD administers 2 Wildlife Habitat Management Areas inside or across the line, including Kerns (4,943 acres) and Amsden Creek (3,772 acres). Public Access Areas such as Tongue River Canyon (144 acres) are public ways onto water and land; check what each allows before you count on it for hunting.
High ground inside the line: Bruce Mountain, Little Bald Mountain and Boyd Ridge
Named high points inside elk hunt area 38 include Bruce Mountain at 10,336 feet, Little Bald Mountain at 9,905 feet, Boyd Ridge at 9,576 feet, Burnt Mountain at 9,484 feet and Rooster Hill at 9,418 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Elk want timber to bed in and open ground to feed on, within a short walk of each other.
Holding ground: Dry Gulch, Fool Creek Basin and Sawmill Flat
Below them sit Dry Gulch at 8,014 feet, Fool Creek Basin at 7,946 feet, Sawmill Flat at 7,868 feet, Shutts Flats at 7,762 feet and Bull Elk Park at 7,481 feet. That is the low ground — where animals drop when they are pushed or when the weather turns.
Water: Red Spring, Willow Spring and Whedon Spring
Named water inside the line includes Red Spring, Willow Spring, Whedon Spring, Hidden Spring, Crater Spring and Bear Spring. Nothing in the data says which of it runs in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.
Unit 038 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up · figures are for GMU 38
The lay of it
- 3,944–9,324 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 7,284 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
- 563.2 sq mi inside the boundary.
Who owns the ground
- National Forest — 60%
- State Trust — 8%
- Private / Other — 32%
Roughly 68% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.
Water on the ground
- 18 tanks
- 104 springs
- 59 stream segments
- 4 lakes
Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.
Named features inside the unit
Glass from: Bruce Mountain (10,336 ft), Little Bald Mountain (9,905 ft), Boyd Ridge (9,576 ft), Burnt Mountain (9,484 ft)
Holding ground: Garden of the Gods (9,039 ft), Schuler Park (8,371 ft), Bull Park (8,317 ft), Kerns WHMA, Amsden Creek WHMA
Every one of these was tested against the unit polygon before it went on the map. They are starting points, not agency recommendations.
How to Hunt Elk in Elk Hunt Area 38
Elk Success Rates
Wyoming Game and Fish's 2025 harvest report estimates 36.2% elk success in elk hunt area 38: 407 animals taken by 1,125 active hunters over 9,156 days of hunting, or 22.5 days per animal. By residency, residents 30.4% (285 taken by 937) and nonresidents 64.9% (122 taken by 188).
These are WGFD's own estimates from its hunter survey, for this hunt area and season only — not a statewide average. One season isn't a trend, so check the current report before you read one into it.
Elk Draw Odds
| Season | Tags | Applicants | Draw % | Pts (n/p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rifle — General Type 1 either sex (resident) | 334 | 1,049 | 31.8% | — |
| Rifle — General Type 1 either sex (nonresident) | 9 | 360 | 2.5% | — |
| Rifle — General Type 4 antlerless (resident) | 459 | 489 | 93.9% | — |
| Rifle — General Type 4 antlerless (nonresident) | 19 | 53 | 35.8% | — |
| Archery — Type 9 either sex (resident) | 210 | 1,047 | 20.1% | — |
| Archery — Type 9 either sex (nonresident) | 6 | 413 | 1.5% | — |
Data from 2026 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number. This agency publishes no point thresholds, so the Pts column stays blank and these are pool odds, not what a point total draws.
Open in Draw Odds EngineWyoming Game and Fish's 2026 demand report for elk in elk hunt area 38, residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different license pools:
- Type 1 (any elk), residents: 1,049 first-choice applicants for 334 licenses, 31.8% drawn
- Type 9, residents: 1,047 first-choice applicants for 210 licenses, 20.1% drawn
- Type 4 (antlerless elk), residents: 489 first-choice applicants for 459 licenses, 93.9% drawn
- Type 9, nonresidents: 413 first-choice applicants for 6 licenses, 1.5% drawn
- Type 1 (any elk), nonresidents: 360 first-choice applicants for 9 licenses, 2.5% drawn
Wyoming residents draw elk licenses without preference points; nonresidents draw part of their quota on points, highest balance first (Chapter 44, Section 19), and the nonresident figures above are from WGFD's random draw. WGFD publishes no preference-point level at which a hunt draws, so none is given here. There are 1 more type-and-residency rows for this area in 2026. Every figure was checked against WGFD's demand-report PDFs on 2026-08-10.
Unit Logistics & Expectations
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Wyoming elk hunt area 38?
What is the elk success rate in elk hunt area 38?
Is elk hunt area 38 the same ground as antelope hunt area 38?
Plan Your Hunt with ProHunt Pro
Unlock advanced tactics, the Tag-to-Trail Planner, AI hunt strategy assistant, and personalized camp and trip execution plans.
Upgrade to Pro — $49/yrSources & Verification
Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-10-25.
- Chapter 7 — Elk Hunting Seasons (2026) — Wyoming Game and Fish Commission · supports: Name and legal boundary of elk hunt area 38, Season dates, license types and limitations by hunt area · accessed 2026-10-25
- Elk 2025 Harvest Report — Wyoming Game and Fish Department · supports: Hunters, harvest, percent success and days per animal for elk in elk hunt area 38, The same by license type and residency · accessed 2026-10-25
- WGFD draw results and odds — demand reports 2021-2026 — Wyoming Game and Fish Department · supports: First-choice applicants, licenses and percent drawn, by license type, residency and year · accessed 2026-08-10
- Chapter 44 — Regulation for Issuance of Licenses, Permits, Stamps, Tags, Preference Points and Competitive Raffle Chances — Wyoming Game and Fish Commission · supports: Which licenses are drawn on preference points (Section 19), When preference points are deleted · accessed 2026-10-25
- Chapter 2 — General Hunting Regulation (2026) — Wyoming Game and Fish Commission · supports: Mandatory CWD sample submission (Section 17) · accessed 2026-10-25
- WGFD ArcGIS feature services — hunt areas by species, CWD sampling areas, WHMAs, Public Access Areas, Hunter Management Areas, Walk-In Hunting Areas — Wyoming Game and Fish Department · supports: Mapped outline of the hunt area, Herd unit and square miles, 2026 CWD mandatory and priority sampling areas, WHMAs, Public Access Areas, Hunter Management Areas and Walk-In Areas inside the area · accessed 2026-10-25
- TIGERweb State_County — Wyoming county boundaries (used only to measure which counties a hunt area lies in) — U.S. Census Bureau · supports: Which counties the hunt area lies in, and in what share · accessed 2026-10-25