Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Roosevelt Elk

Looking for books or articles specifically about elk on the wetside of Washington or Oregon.I've got allot of books about elk but most just give a passing mention of Roosevelts
Tim

look up Scott Haugen.

he is an Oregon based hunter who specializes in the Columbia Blacktail, but has numerous Roosevelt elk to his credit as well.

im sure he has books for sale on his website.

If you find one let us know. Does Scott hunt any public ground all I see him hunting is private ranches in SO?

I googled Scott,no books specifically about coastal elk.didn't see any verticals listed.
Part of my confusion is trying to figure out how they behave in different situations,such as ;
-during the rifle season would it be best to look for them down along river bottoms or up high ?
-since they have everything they need such as food,cover and water where ever they are always how do you come up with an effective strategy ?
Tim

They really like recently logged clearcuts, if pressured they will usually go down into the deep dark. They do not have unlimited supply of food, top many trees can shade out the grass. If the area as few clearcuts,look for meadows swamps etc. Ambushing them between food and cover can work, they are very difficult to hunt. There is usually lots of pressure that keeps them in the timber.

he did a hunt in Ashland with his dad, but that is the only one i know of that he did on private land.

he writes for Oregon Hunter magazine and does a lot of public land hunting on the coast for elk.

Larry D. Jones is a staff writter for Bowhunter Magazine who lives in Eugene Oregon (near JeffO). He has some older Roosevelts bowhunting videos I rented from the local archery shop years ago. Might be sorta what your looking for.

Larry D. Jones videos LINK

I've killed far more than the average number of Roosevelts Elk in the last 25 years with bow and rifle. If you have some Q's I may be able to help.

I know there are a other guys on here as well that have had success.

Mike, i wanna go hunting with you... lets go kill something.

Sounds good Marty,

Lets do some spring bear maybe turkey. If you're crazy enough to find another addiction I'll take you spring salmon fishing.

Tim,

The Cascade Rifle/Bow success rate runs around 7%.

The Cascade Muzzle loader season is a late season hair tag with a higher success rate that you can draw every 3 years or so. Though I think most elk taken with muzzle loader are probably cows.

If you want a mature bull with a rifle on public/timber ground the 3pt or better draw hunts are your best bet. Be in good shape and learn to breath under water. I killed my biggest bodied elk and my largest Roosevelt bull with one of thoughs tags.

I like hunting in the Cascades more but hunting pressure is high and results very low. Beautiful time of the year (mid October). If you want a Cascade Roosevelts bowhunting is my choice. Rifle hunting I put in for Eastern Oregon Rocky Mtn or the Coast Range 3pt or better hunts.

i love fishing, so salmon would be good. im only interested in big black bears, or color phase bears. i got one a while back and it was pain in the butt. i wouldnt know what to do with a big ol bear. or all that meat. it costs too much to have it processed into sausage and salami.

Boned out on the ground and only the meat is dropped off for sausage so it really keeps the cost down. I'm much more into bear hunting than bear getting myself. I just love hunting and spring bear gets you into the high country.

We'll go out even if we're only looking around and doing some plinking. Spring in the High Cascades is a good time.

In the area we hunt Saddle Mountain the bulls move into the reprod and I mean move into it. Even during archery season we have seen big bulls that would not leave the reprod until dark. I think they follow the herds until dark then come out to breed. But to answer you question I don't think there is a definate data it will depend on the pressure and the geography of the area they are in. Elk do like clearcuts its a great food source and you will find some smaller bulls in there with the cows but those 4 to 6 year old bulls like the crap in the reprod the thickest stuff you can find and you will need a head lamp to go in there. That is why there are always some exceptional bulls killed every year in the coast range they have enough cover to hide until they make a fatal mistake. I have no experience with elk in SO all most all the elk hunting I do is in the coast range is on Private Timber company ground because they have more closed road areas. It will very in the area your hunting. I remember the Larry Jones video took years to make. A well know writter and tv hunter commented that coastal elk are the hardest elk in the world to hunt because of the jungle. At least the big bulls. Another famous writter and bowhunter took at least 3 gudied trips to get a small bull. he has killed a lot of trophy animals.

Thanks for all the responses ,I wish I were hunting along the Oregon coast I think my odds would improve.I'm actually looking at an area on the Olympic penn.just east of lake Wynoocchee

Yes. Good food is tough for them to find, as there is little of nutritional value beneath a dense northwest forest canopy. Recent burns and clear cuts are primo. They are larger bodied than the Rocky Mt elk, but due to poor forage quality, they typically calve every other year.

They often have home ranges encompassing only 2 or 3 square miles, but in dense forest that is plenty of room to hide and move around in.

The "Elk of North America" is probably the best source around.

sounds a lot like their smaller brethren, the Blacktail buck. If you've hunted them, you know how hard they are to get. Sneaky, nocturnal little bastids that inhabit the thickest, darkest, wettest crap imaginable.

I read his book. Every other deer he sees is a 150 class buck. I need to hunt where he does.

timat46,

How long has Lake Wynoocchee been there? I used to canoe that river more than forty-five years ago.

I'm not sure how long the lake has been there,I've been in the area 15 years and its been around that long
Tim

I have hunted the Tioga, Siuslaw and Powers. They are tough units for sure. I liked the Powers unit for bears but the elk hunting was darn near impossible. What I started doing was hunting gated roads on my Mtn Bike. It is a lot of work but I did find elk. I did not kill elk but I found them. I was hunting with a bow and was calling. They did not respond to my calling efforts at all except at night. I think if you put a big Rosie on the ground you have done a lot more than your average elk hunter.