Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 2012 General Cascade Elk Season OR

I'm definitely doing this ass backwards but I wasn't sure at first how folks took to people posting a long story of a hunt on here... I can't edit my first post so I'll just put the story of my entire hunt here... Give's a little more insight into the struggles I overcame to finally take an elk...

I'll start off by saying I work on the road between 240-280 days a year keeping the transmission powerlines in good repair across the country. I haven't bee able to come home for 3 years during elk season. I got the chance this year and what a great experience. I've been missing out since my uncle, cousin and good friend have been doing very while I've been away taking what I consider some very good size roosevelts.

The hunt was at first very frustrating for me as my cousin and good friend were working an area that I couldn't get to easily for day hunts and be able to come home and tend to the house at night. I was on my own but luckily found some private ground I was allowed on that was known to harbor a herd of 40+ elk with 6 bulls in it... The first day was a mess, pushing through thick second growth timber, in pouring rain and lots of wind, seeing lots of fresh sign but no elk... I was soaked and frustrated. Came back to the same property second morning and was repeating my steps until I got on top a of powerline right of way (about 2 miles of brush to reach) I started glassing some clearcuts from this open ground and then I finally spotted the heard pop out from some brush into a clear cut. 3 large antlered bulls and 3 spikes... They were unfortunately about 950 yards away and moving farther away as I watched... Nothing I could do in this big terrain and there was no way I could take a shot like that with my shooting capability. There wasn't time to move in on them so I called it a day and hoped to return the next morning.

When I got back to the truck that evening I had a message on the phone saying my cousin had killed a 6x6 at 500 yards which thrilled me but also made me want to push even harder to get one myself... A bomb was dropped when I called the land owner I had been hunting and said his family would be hunting it the rest of the week. I respected what he said and was greatful he gave me the oppurtunity there but all that hard work was for not.

That night my cousin called and said he heard that some of the larger timber land owners had finally opened areas to hunt since the fire danger was lowered. I hunted the 3rd day on my own here and was unsuccessful in finding fresh sign though I did see 6 legal bucks to take, which was a plus for when deer season kicked back on after elk season. My cousin called that night and said our good friend had taken a shot at a big bull that evening and missed. We re-grouped and planned to hunt as a group the next morning.

FINALLY I WAS GETTING CLOSE... My cousin and friend had a general idea of where the elk were, we split up ( cousin took friend and I was with my uncle) and decided each glass clear cuts so we could cover some big clear cuts nearing a 2mile radius... Light just started to hit the land on my big Swaro binos and what I at first thought were old whitened stumps began moving about 1,000 yards out. The game had begun, we ran back to the truck and hauled over where the elk were, hoping to jump out and surprise them. No avail, by that time they had worked into the timber. The timber they moved into was a pie shape and they were tightened into it near the point, we drove around to the other side of the pie on a clear cut and at first saw nothing. I was glassing land away from the timber/clear cut away from where we saw the elk, my uncle was on the phone telling cousin/friend to come over so we could push through the second growth and hopefully kill one. As it happens I turn around and look uphill only to see the heard of elk starting into the clear cut ( couldn't believe what I was seeing as they were about 100 yards away)

My uncle dropped his phone and I dropped the hammer on a bull, bull didn't even flinch ( keep in mind a rarely get to shoot anymore), I believe missed the first shot, second shot I THOUGHT I hit paydirt... I saw the elk buckle and then take off, ... We got up there and couldn't find anything at all, I thought I had missed my chance and didn't know how I could miss at such a close range. We searched for 30 mins and nothing, so we pushed through the timber, I saw 2 cows, no one else saw an elk. My uncle was insistent on continuing looking for blood so we went back up and sure enought... 1 drop, then 2 then ferns brushed with blood in the timber... followed the blood for 1/4mile in the timber then it just stopped. We decided to split up and I'd try to follow where it went. About 1 hour in and I was following skid road I caught movement down to my left and see a bull try to stand up at about 40ft. I took the elk I had hit earlier and was ecstatic.

The biggest thing I took from this is that if you shoot, never stop looking, look and look some more, especially with an animal this size... My first shot hit just below the back with my 300 weatherby and didn't hardly bleed considering damage we found under the hide from the first shot (though it was a clean pass through, not hitting any bone, 1/2 in any direction would have drilled spine or rib cage bones). The 2 elk I've killed before this didn't move 5ft from when hit so this was new for me.

Hope I didn't ramble on but this season was just such a blessing I wanted to share my experience.