Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Hunting Gear for Roosevelt Elk 2020

Last year after Bull season I had some members ask me about the equipment I use elk hunting on the Oregon Coast.

I got busy with squaring away my gear after hunting season and didn’t get the information out. So, I’m doing it before the opener on Nov. 14th.

This is a long thread that will cover both the mechanical equipment and some of the manual-overdrive equipment that I use depending on the type of hunt I will be doing.

Before I start, I’m including pics to give you a better idea of the items I typically use. A lot of my gear has evolved over the years both from learning from experience as well as others here on the Fire showing me what works and what sucks.

With that said, in the spirit of hunting gear, here’s what has worked for me and why.

First let’s start with my elk hunting country. Besides Jud, Fred and HeavyWalker knowing what I know. The Oregon/Washington Coastal Bull Hunt can be brutal.

For me it’s only a 4 day hunt on public land that starts on a Saturday and ends on Tuesday.

If the hunt weather is perfect it will have a good storm with 2”-3” inches of rain and high “yard sale” wind in the 20/30 MPH range for a full day...Then a reprieve with only rain, and light to no wind.

One storm for 1-2 days is great because it locks the elk down so they’re starving once the storm lets up and out feeding in numbers.

You get too many storms, one on top of the other is a train wreck for hunting them. The animals will head down deep into the thickest, steepest canyons to hold up and ride out the weather.

I’ve killed a lot of elk in 43 years on the coast and weather has usually been helpful or problematic - no in between.

The area we’re going into opening day.







Elevation is right around 1300’ft above sea level.

This years hunt is going to start out different than my typical elk hunts which are hiking up behind non-drivable gated areas for 2-3 miles to reach the hunting grounds...

because tomorrow, Friday, we are going to get smashed by a pre-opening day and night storm. I checked the area pictured above this morning. The general area typically holds a decent sized herd of 20-30 elk with several shootible bulls each year.

The spot is a large bowl with high walled cliffs surrounded by timber. It’s a natural wind break and holding spot the elk will go into to get out of a storm.

I’ve killed several bulls in this area...Experience has it’s advantages. The disadvantage is the area is drivable putting more potential eyes on this herd if they’re out when someone happens to be scouting.

The only help for us is the area requires special gear to get an elk out. With it’s shear rock cliffs, you can’t just casually walk down into the bowl...You either repel down with rope and harness or you take a long and brutal trek down a steep slope then transverse a couple more steep canyons that are full of logging remnants and ankle grabbing foliage. BRUTAL!.....So, Beaver is going mechanical for the first couple of days.

BULLS were seen this morning. 2 large bulls that I couldn’t see long enough to count points. Just the width and height of their racks indicated bigger bulls than this smaller 3x4 that was trailing the herd.



Here’s the gear that’s going into the trucks.

4 stroke Honda capstan winch. A couple of Gerber machetes, 1000’ft of 3/4 low stretch rope inside a military duffel bag. Several snatch-blocks, D rings, tree/stump straps to secure snatch-blocks, extra rope, roofers harness, and chainsaw.









The Capstan Winch is essentially a chainsaw winch except instead of the drum holding a limited amount of cable or rope, The Capstan has a clean drum that allows you to feed as much rope as you have through it continually by pulling the rope with light tension.

Advantage - You’re not limited to the length of the cable/rope on a chainsaw winch drum that can dictate when your pulls need to stop.

Continued