My experience with a spike tag- which is unfortunately significant- is that it's the BEST way to insure I see a big bull.
Mainly going up to hang with the guys since a couple are getting old as dirt, grin, but I know the mountain well and I'll get into some good spots where I've seen elk in past years.
It COULD be good. Things have really changed in this unit. We hypothesize that winter getting pushed back a couple weeks (apparently by climate change) means the elk aren't moving through this area during the season like they used to 15-20 years ago. Our unit is between the high mountains and the winter feeding grounds. We used to see ELK. Herds of the bastids. Last 5-6-7 years it's been just the resident elk, and not herded up yet. A local who gets in the woods a lot told me that the mule deer come through first, then the elk a couple weeks later, as the snows push them out of the high country. In recent years, he said, during elk season the damned DEER haven't even come through yet! The timing of the whole affair has changed, but ODFW hasn't adjusted the season to accommodate the new reality.
However, this fall has been very wet and cold so I'm hoping that at least some of the animals have started down and will be in our AO.
Just gonna bring my M7 .358 w/ 200 NAB's and Kimber 7 WSM w/ 160 NAB's. Keep it simple.
