A common theme around here is that everyone's favorite (or in many cases, only) elk country is as "rough as it gets". That got me thinking as to where the roughest and easiest elk hunts are, that folks go on. I am not talking about once in a lifetime draws on the southern Idaho desert or the Gila, etc. I am referring to general hunts or relatively easy draws a guy can get every few years. I am also not referring to dealing with bears, bugs, spiny plants, remoteness or late hunts where snow levels get dangerous. I am referring specifically to ruggedness.

I have hunted and killed elk in 3 states (plus Alaska, but that was a tough draw) and the terrain has ranged from rolling hills to cliff faces. For me:

Easiest----Palouse Prairie (Idaho), though there are some hellacious canyons there but luckily I never killed one in the bottom of one of those. Runner ups would be the Sapphires (Montana), the Wyoming Range (Wyoming) and the Wyoming side of the Uintas.

Roughest---The Bitterroot Mountains (Montana) with a close second being the Bighorn Crags (Idaho).

The Bob Marshall, Wind River Mountains, Salmon River Mountains, Selway, Sawtooths, White Clouds, Sierra Madres and a few others are somewhere in between these extremes.

Whatcha got?

Easiest would be the elk hunts in Eastern CO. Hardly a hill to speak of. Most rugged I ever hunted here in Colorado would be the Zirkel Wildernss area, east of Steamboat Springs. I wore out two mules in one season hunting there. 2nd would be the West Elk Wilderness, north of Gunnison CO

Roughest I ever got into in CO was on the Gore Range by Kremmling. There are some very steep and rough canyons full of dark timber with lots of blown down trees. Big bulls like to get into it and hide and you have to dig them out. It will be a running shot at close range and a very hard pack to get them out. Easiest I ever got into in CO was in Unit 2 for cows. Rolling sagebrush and cedar points. Nothing real steep or rough. Absolute huge bulls there but it takes 25 points to draw so I hunt cows there.

If you can get mules in it's not that rough... while funny it's true... Told Dennis about a canyon that always holds bulls, said you kill a bull at daylight easy, then two days packing it out. He said no problem, I'll use the mule, told him you can't get a mule in. He figured he could get the mule in anywhere, till we went scouting, then it was, nope, can't get a mule in there.

Ended up going in and killing one the forth day of the season as the easier spots weren't producing. No problem, hike in with headlights, at first light shoot a bull across the canyon at 250 yards, then the hard part comes, one guy has to go down then back up and find the bull, the other guy has to stay in place and guide him with a radio. I've done this multiple years in the exact same place and each time swear I'll find the bull without help, when I think I'm in the spot and close, I'm never even close. After Dennis guided me to the bull and it was his turn to come over, I guided him by voice, when he finally made it 30 minutes later he's like... that's the farthest 250 yards I've ever hiked.

Units 23, 27 and 8 have some rugged elk country in Az. I've hunted the San Juans, Dark canyon in Colo and unit 6 in NM that have elevation and steepness.

For pure meanness it's Az.





Some easy places up on the Mogollon rim to shoot a cow and get a truck to it.

Colorado was a nice easy walk, elevation was only bad part. Montana black tail was the same w a few grizz encounters. Toughest hunting was Idaho, 30 miles North of Salmon. You could roll a rock from the top of a moutain to the bottom. Only way to get around was on a 7” wide game trail.

I've had some really experienced elk guides tell me there is no place you can kill an elk that you can't get a horse or mule to. A couple of them guided in Idaho's Bighorn Crags. They may or may not be right, but I've seen and killed elk in places I sure as hell wouldn't be comfortable getting my horses into, but not many. Steepness is one thing, but adding deadfall jungles to it is another.

I was just there this morning, SE of Lost Trail Pass. That is steep country no doubt but not anywhere near the worst Idaho has.
Riding a dirt bike with a pack full of elk meat on that 7" wide trail with 5 inches of snow is......"interesting".

Do tell, eh?

Not much to tell, but riding out with the elk meat didn't happen yesterday if that's what you're asking.

It is technical riding. Not for beginners and if your tire slides off the trail you better know what to do.

I spent many years in Grand County. Always could see the gore range from some of the lofty perches I frequented.. Never got into that part of the state and it looks mighty gnarly from a distance! ...... Actually, when I think of a few SAR missions many years ago, I did spend a little time in em, but I don't recall getting into any serious elevations! Too much beautiful hunting grounds out there and I only got into a small portion of it over the course of 25 years! I wonder how much of that area is going to burn in the coming years as I hear that many areas are chock full of dead timber!

Gotcha. I thought maybe you had just whacked an elk and I was looking for a story.

Buddy got a smallish 6x6 on the Oct 15 opener, but I have not got an opportunity yet this year.
Luckily the snow had largely melted off the south slopes by the time we were getting that bull out.

Past years have been a bit different.

I hunt SBW very often and some say it’s rugged. I agree but wow what a gorgeous (and bountiful) place to hunt without all the traffic. I think the scariest thing most hunters ever see is fully equipped kit for 10 days without civilization at 8-9000k. Heaven to me. The easiest spots for me rely too much on luck or draw. Selway/Bitterroot offers awesome opportunity for the hardy soul. Just my .02

A few years ago I read an article by a guy who'd spent his life outfitting in all of the mountain states. He listed Idaho as being the roughest. His reasoning was that while Idaho isn't the highest (high point 12,660'), the valleys are the deepest and the slopes the steepest. When you get on top in many states, you can stay up there. In much of Idaho, it's constant up and down and it's a long way up or down.
That's his opinion. I know it's steep and rough here but I have no basis for comparison.

Many guys I hunted with who had gone to Idaho said the same thing about the ups and downs compared to where we mostly hunted , the Troublesome basin. There are some steeps there for sure, but there are a whole lot of ridges one can stay on all day without too much effort!

I’ve mainly hunted Oregon all my life.
Oregon coast, trying to get to the bottom of one those clear cuts is no joke. I gave up on the jungle.
One year we hunted hell’s canyon/imnaha and you might as well bring a fork and a knife if you shoot one in the bottom. Told my self I’m not going back unless I got horses/mules

Roughest spot I ever hunted was the Snake river unit at Hat Point. Deepest gorge in the US and we were young and stupid so we tried to hike it down to the river and back while hunting one day. We may have made it almost half way starting at dawn and barely made it out at pitch black dark thirty.... I was glad we didn't get anything that day....

I've been in some very rough and steep country several times hunting deer and elk, but what I found was even average country can be extremely challenging when you add in heavy snow and extreme weather. I've been in weather a couple times in some up and down country where I really wasn't sure I was going to make it back to camp....

Combination of altitude, steep, and thick timber. Probably a couple places in the Northwest portion of the San Juans, or a couple canyons on the Uncompahgre Plateau, but the canyons are less than 9k ft in altitude.

Easiest was the sagebrush and junipers out back of our old ranch, I did kill a couple elk there decades ago.

I grew up babysitting our cattle on our summer permit in what is now a designated wilderness area, while pushing cow ponies into places I would not do to a horse today. I try to tell people there are places a guy is not going to get a horse into.

Last year my son and I killed bulls on almost flat terrain, but the timber was so thick a guy could spend a day or more chainsawing a path for the horses back to the elk. It was a whole lot easier to don the backpacks and carry them out--luckily it was less than 45 minutes to the truck with each load.

Medium size mules or lamas can't make it over the downed timber without high centering even with the panniers empty, if they would even attempt to go over to begin with. Timber is too close together for loaded panniers to fit through. Been there and tried that in the past.

My llamas have saved my tail a number of times, getting my elk out of where I wouldn't have gone without them. Last year was an exception. We had cow tags in a wintering area and the elk like to winter in fairly flat land. I shot mine off the side of gentle ridge with a road down the top. I drove to right above the elk, unloaded my Razor from the trailer, and drove down to her. I dragged her back to the pickup and winched her up the loading ramps into the pickup whole. It took me longer to hike back for the pickup than it did to pack and load her.

Oh ya Ted, lotsa variables for sure. Without sounding like the bitch azz Alaskans, I’d have to say western Washington and central to NW Oregon coast. The horrid thick [bleep] underbrush, non stop rain can’t be underestimated. 1/2 mile in that shiit is like 5 in most areas. Every area has its struggles for sure, but the coastal shiit is just that, shiit…

Cover a lot of that ground in Sept. 118 miles in 9 days. Dang fire screwed things up. The. The NF idiots who closed it reopened it the night before rifle opened. Word on the street is many many bulls were killed.

To a flat lander kid headed out West with bow, black powder and center fire smokeless rifle, i remember Purgatory/San Juan, Uncompagre? Ellison Mtn out of Sleepy Cat/Meeker, all good tough hunts, nothing on earth was harder for me than 31 miles mule backed in to The Thorofare, when you got there, the work had just began, primitive camp being that close to Yellowstone, i became quite handy with a big cross-cut saw on that hunt, easiest by far was with my old buddy EddyBo in NM across the road from White Sands missile grounds, when i figured out my heart was going to catch up and that 6'6" 28 year old young man Wayne wasn't going to kill me chasing that group of bulls up the mountain the rest was cake.

If we're talking about the same area (North Fork/Gibbonsville area), they allowed folks in well before the day before the rifle elk opener. I was there on Oct 13 without any entry restrictions and several camps were already there that had been there for a few days. The burn was fresh and I could still see flames in a few drainages but the elk were still in the pockets that hadn't burned.

Some bulls were killed no doubt but I am not sure I'd say "many many". I didn't see many in the back of pickups nor did I hear anymore shots than normal.

I hunted the Olympic Peninsula back in college with some friends from Forks. Those mountains are no joke. Pretty comparable steepness wise to a lot of what I hunt in the intermountain west, though the vegetation takes it to a new level. Where I saw the elk there didn't have the jagged rock faces and scree slopes that I deal with in Idaho and such. They were more in the steep clearcuts with insanely thick reproduction and blowdown, which had it's own challenges.

Where I hunt is tougher than anything…20 mile days with 10,000’ of elevation. (Famous last words.)

Like mentioned, I think most areas have their unique “toughness”.

That coastal [bleep] doesn’t look fun.

One of the reasons I stopped hunting the coast here....

Anywhere on the snake/salmon river breaks too

Last week I had 3 days involving over 2,000 foot vertical climbs (verified via GPS) before first light, over a deadfall nightmare. Just to see cows and (I believe) a single spike.

It sucked....

Sometimes I think I’d rather climb.

We had a descent yesterday that about killed me. I ate sh it at least 5 times, only to find it was the same sow with cubs. Sometimes patience is not my best virtue.

Sometimes a straight line is not best.

Well that same climb I did for those 3 days also involved an equal descent after dark...all for what I suspect is the same few elk spotted.
I didn't fall at all but had my spikes on. I had my spikes on because the week before it was raining and during a similar climb/descent I'll bet I slipped and fell 20 times due to wet rocks and logs, but only once really hard. It is a good way to take a snapped off branch/dagger through an artery. That one bad fall ripped my pants and slammed my rifle onto a log. Checked it and it was dead on.

Mountain hunting sometimes takes a lack of brains vs anything else...

Correct.
About half way down that climb and within view of the pickup parked on the side of the highway, there is the end of an old logging road. I knew it had to start on the highway somewhere, as the other direction is designated wilderness so that road couldn't head or come from that way. I decided to hit the logging road after dark and follow it out to see where it meets the highway, as it may be an easier way to get into the spot. Well 5 miles of logging road and multiple switchbacks later it hit the highway 3 miles south of my pickup. I finally made it back at 11 PM that night.

All to avoid another 1000 or so vertical feet descent through that deadfall after dark.

If somebody were to ask me the 'worst', without any hesitation, I would nominate a lodgepole pine burn after about 3 or 4 years. The snags fall like kids jackstraws. And guess where the elk like to bed when they are heavily pressured.

About the OR/WA Cascade range - a few years back I read about 3 guys in WA who went down in some hell hole and shot a big bull. While they were dressing it, one of them died of a heart attack. It took a rescue team 3 days to pack his body out of there. How long would it have taken to get the elk out? Granted, the rescue team probably didn't have the option of boning him out.

Ya, how many times has the little guy on your shoulder said “this is not a good idea” and you think “ all I have to do is XXXXXXX and I’ll be there”. 3 hours after you started, you’re right back where you started cause you didn’t listen.

My gut feeling is usually correct, and that was no exception.

My example was kind of contradictory to your point about straight lines, as in that case the straight line was "better", but it often isn't.
Ridge spines are often your friend even if they are the long way out.

A couple days ago I was out in the desert hunting deer. It's fairly flat and there are quite a few 'roads', if you can call them that. The map showed a 6 mile long road labeled 'Old Bruneau Highway' that would save me about 5 miles. I tried it. It took me a full hour to drive that 6 miles. Its was 1 rocky SOB. They weren't big rocks, none would high center a decent pickup, but it was so rough that the pickup bounced all over the road. I would love to strangle the idiot who named that a 'highway'.

Rock, Show 'em a picture of the Bruneau canyon...now that's a place nobody would shoot anything, even a Democrat.

[/

Cover a lot of that ground in Sept. 118 miles in 9 days. Dang fire screwed things up. The. The NF idiots who closed it reopened it the night before rifle opened. Word on the street is many many bulls were killed. [/quote]

If we're talking about the same area (North Fork/Gibbonsville area), they allowed folks in well before the day before the rifle elk opener. I was there on Oct 13 without any entry restrictions and several camps were already there that had been there for a few days. The burn was fresh and I could still see flames in a few drainages but the elk were still in the pockets that hadn't burned.

Some bulls were killed no doubt but I am not sure I'd say "many many". I didn't see many in the back of pickups nor did I hear anymore shots than normal.[/quote


Yes sir that is the place I’m talking about. Been tromping around there since 1983

My gut feeling is usually right, I just need to be a better listener and more patient.

This is either the Bruneau or Jarbidge Canyon....can't remember which but they're pretty much identical canyons. That area is a nearly impossible elk draw, but a fair number of elk live in the flats up top and in the canyon itself.




Here's the Bitterroots that I cut my elk teeth in. Holy hell do I like it when I hunt easier areas these days...It isn't all this bad but once the pressure starts, the elk can and do go into those cliffs, right alongside the mountain goats.

Here's a shot of the Bruneau Canyon. It was getting dark and when I brightened it a bit, it got kind of fuzzy. There's a lot of water across the desert but it's all in the bottoms of those canyons. There are quite a few of them out there equally as steep as this one but not as deep. This is about 800' deep at this point. It's about 150 miles long and only a couple places to cross it.

Cow tags out there are pretty easy to get. Some hunts don't even fill. There's a lot of country to cover out there, though.

It’s all rough for a flatlander. 😊

I'm in Idaho bit I'd imagine Colorado has to be tough in some places with all those mountains and high elevation.

I'd nominate the wet side of Oregon and Washington elk jungles as tough going and the North Cascades are tough as well.

Seen some elk in the Crazies in Montana down low but also some up on top where the goats are.

I'm very family with the Selway Bitteroot. It's tough but I have the ability to do well there at times.

That’s some neat looking country.

Yes it is. That pic was a bit cherry picked though, I must admit...there are certainty easier areas of the Bitterroot Range but it is overall the most rugged I have elk hunted. That pic and the below are from the drainage behind my mom's house. I used to be able to ride my horse into it directly from our corrals but these days due to subdivided ranches I need to trailer them 2 miles to get to the trailhead. Love that country.

Incredible elk country and not a place to get yourself hurt.

Whole different deal than the country I was talking about.

Hells Canyon for the win.

Deepest gorge in N America. I hunt there. It’s not pleasant. Lack of water in a lot of places only complicates matters.

My son and I just extracted two bulls over 3,000 vertical feet on our backs. I’m sitting in chair icing my knees as I type this.

Dave

Dave,
I'll 2nd that - it's been a lot of years since I hunted Hell and I only ever hunted it for deer but not anymore. At 59 I wish I was still tough enough but hunting solo in that country just isn't doable:)

Hells Canyon. My god.

I've never hunted elk there but have fished Brownlee and chukar hunted it. It is as bad as it sounds. Add rattlers to the mix and I see why it was so named. I've seen some incredible bighorns there.

My days of hunting it are running short as well friend. At 49 I’m feeling every mile we just put on.

It was an amazing season and I’m grateful for the success,…..but man I’m a hurting unit.

Dave

Nice brother Dave, it is a steep/deep bastard for sure

Hunted it twice when I was young and stupid but in great shape and it still hurt for a week afterwards. The scenery is amazing looking across at the Seven Devils wilderness and down into the Snake river canyon, but I wouldn't dream of packing an elk out of there anymore... even with help...

The road up from Imnaha is insane and not one I enjoy. Made the mistake of taking my family up there one day on vacation just to show them the view. My wife is scared to death of driving narrow roads with a drop off on the side and that road is one of the worst I've ever driven... this is no exaggeration- when I got to the top and back down after there were footprints on my headliner from my wife screaming at me and hunkering down in her seat so she couldn't see the shear drop off on the road up... the view on top was almost worth it as it was in the spring and all the wild flowers just happened to be in bloom that day as far as you could see on the meadows on top .....

There are also spots in the Blue Mountains along the Grand Rhonde river that are pretty rough ... especially in the area around Troy...

Bob

Right on Judman western Wa. is wet steep slippery and thick.

I have been following a group who hunt there every year on America's Most Wanted. It looks brutal and probably would not have hunted it in my prime! I got spoiled over the years with the availability of a myriad of horses to use and forgiving terrain to use them in!

Roughest I have personally hunted elk is where TInman was hunting. Gave me a way to personalize the phrase, "Steeper than a cows face".

The motorcycle helps, but causes me a different type of anxiety. Used an ATV once in that country and about lost it off the trail. Luckily could winch it back on the trail. It was headed for a rolling stop to a place that would likely have resulted in it still being there.

Congrats.

The easiest deal was leadore Idaho.

We drove a half mile from cabin. Walked a third of a mile to a pit in the middle of a hay field. The feeding elk bedded by the pit in the hay. The muzzle loader shot cow ( 90 yard shot) jumped up ran with the herd ( about 75 head) and collapsed on the pivot service road. We took the gooseneck stock trailer and winched her in. I think the tire of the truck ran over one small alfalfa plant.

One of the toughest deal was near seely lake Montana. I got sucked into a blowdown area of timber. Even though it was slightly down hill it took it seemed an hour to get 100 yards. Even broke my bow sight in the snarly stuff.

Some years ago, a strong young friend hiked in to a high mountain lake in so. Idaho. It was a hellacious climb. He got a nice bull and spent 2 or 3 days packing it out 7 miles on his back. A few days later he got a call from the Fish and Game dept. They'd been watching that herd for a while with a helicopter and they'd seen him packing it out. They had a warden go to the trailhead parking lot and get his license number. They congratulated him on his bull and said he was the only hunter they'd seen that season with the gonads to go up there after them.

Mine can only be described as easy as regards a lot of elk country. Four bulls and a cow were all taken in generally rough country, but we’re shot on mostly flat ground or mild slopes in timber, brush, and even a big meadow, where we could ride to with horses.

A bunch more also — no deep canyons or mostly vertical slopes thankfully.

Probably the toughest for me was a Colorado bull taken across a canyon on a Boulder-strewn ridge where horses couldn’t go. We cut him up there and had to carry the meat (the packs were in the truck a couple miles away) in bags and over our shoulders most of a mile to a two tract where an ATV could gain access. But it was all downhill. Still a hind quarter balanced over the shoulder was a load.

Llamas are said to be able to go where horses and mules can't. I've had my llamas in some very rough places but I've never used them side by side with horses to know whether it's true or not. I likely won't ever find out. If it's too rough for a horse, It's too rough for this old fart.

Add to that the fact that it's normally 40 degrees and pouring rain so everything is slippery as hell the entire time. The only good thing you can say about that area is that it's not up in where the air is thin. Fortunately, the peaks top out around 2,500' above sea level.


Okie John

The one and only elk tag I got in South Dakota, I shot an old bull 1/4 to 1/2 mile from my house when I lived in the upper Black Hills. Drove a 4x4 pickup to the knoll he was lying down, dropped the tail gate which touched the ground and pulled him onto the back of the truck with a come along. He was too big to fit in the 8' box, I drove him to Belle Fourche with the tail gate down and his hind legs tied up. I took him to an old butcher (in his 80's) who said it was the largest bodied elk he had ever seen. One shot with a 338 Win Mag with a 250 grain Partition, shot him in the Texas heart, right through the center of the hole surrounded by the sphincter (AKA Pelosi lips). Found the bullet in the neck. Rack is hanging in my loading room. The rack is odd, it was deformed on the right side. There was a large herd near by. I think this old guy had been kicked out by a younger stronger bull. I've seen two other racks from elk that were shot in the same area with similar racks.
The toughest would be in the dog hair pine in Colorado, crawling and climbing and trying to get through. I was almost glad I didn't shoot one in there. It was the reason for my 350 mag on a 600 action.

I don't know what it is like for you guys but the very best elk country is private land in our valley bottem.
I do own some of this land and interestingly, very often when I have been out sheep hunting I return home to an elk herd in and around my place. Bulls chasing cows, bugling etc.
Up on the sheep basins I see a few but when I return home I see many. Even ( sometimes)shutting the windows to cut down the noisy activity at night.
I have killed a few here but it isn't hunting, it is shooting. I then picked them up with the tractor.
Might as we shoot a Longhorn- same difference.
Exactly why I cannot hunt from a blind...
In my world, hunting is about the pursuit, horseback or afoot. My way

I’m in no position to determine the “right” or “wrong” way to hunt elk…but I’ll just say you have my full respect for your thought process friend.

Dave

I find this interesting. I don't have the experience of most, but have spent a lot of time in the Bitterroot and selway hunting elk and consider it what elk hunting is. I consider it hard but am shocked to hear it called the roughest by one who obviously can speak to such things.

Cheers, my legs are burnt and I gotta head east soon. Thanks Montana.

There are "easy" and "rough" areas to pretty much any mountain range, and the Bitterroots are no exception. The adjacent Selway Wilderness too. Goat Haven Peaks (rough) and Selway Falls (easy) come to mind.

For a few reasons I hunt a specific few canyons of the Bitterroots---and it is the most rugged country that I have personally elk hunted. I am sure there are parts of the Bob, the Scapegoat, Gospel Hump and many others that are much more rough than the parts I personally have experience with.

One thing I have learnt over the years:

If you are bringing a pack animal down to the carcass and tie it off.

DO NOT TIE THEM DIRECTLY UPHILL OF WHERE YOU ARE BUTCHERING.

Unless you like dodging rocks. When they get to pawing.

If you can bring down two, they will be calmer.

The easiest elk hunting that I've ever seen is east of I-25 in southeastern Colorado. Hard to get a tag, hard to get permission to trespass, hard to find the elk since numbers are small, but easy to get out once you have one on the ground.

Although not had the opportunity to experience it I would say Tule Elk hunting in the Delta region of CA or Lake Pillsbury Tule elk if you want to include them. Pillsbury you can almost drive right up to a downed elk and in the delta youcan drive the roads looking for them then its stalk and shoot time. Could be a little hairy getting them out though.

There's some pretty easy elk country east of the Bighorns, but lots of private land. Also some places elk will not come out whole carcass.

In many places the hardest part of the hunt is getting the tag.

Hmm, my only experience is in your 2nd toughest. I'll agree, its a b*tch, I chose it because people told me not to go there ha. We've killed two bulls in three years, but each one took 3-4 guys 3 days to get to the truck. Just glad I didn't read it was an easy area in this thread!

Easiest Arizona......Unless you kill one in a canyon Toughest...Idaho panhandle

Killed a bunch on the north coast and you can say you’re very committed once it hits the ground in many places. I killed a few in the cascades and it’s got some rough ground as well but when we killed them in Hells Canyon the mules got them to the top once we got them to the animals

Headed to NE Oregon on Friday, for my annual elk hunt. Terrain is steep canyons and long ridges. Most of the elk I have brought out of there are taken out downhill, makes it much easier. Unless you count the 1200 ft elevation climbs every day to get up where they are.

I’ve been scouting up bulls on the Oregon Coast. Next Saturday starts our 4 day 1st season bull hunt.

Weather has been extreme, with high winds and enough rain and hail to float Noah’s Ark ~ Perfect elk hunting conditions!

I couldn’t tell you who has the worst topography to hunt and pack out a bull across the US. But, I know with 200% certainty, if you’re not driving on rubber tires, or riding on top of hooves right up to the downed elk, it’s gonna suck, in one way or another.

Rough elk county via your legs is a hard hunting experience. Add shítty weather to it, and the situation can become miserable.

After the trigger has been pulled, the suck begins. But, once you are done with the stack and pack. There is a sense of accomplishment knowing that what you have accomplished wouldn’t even be attempted by a lot of hunters. Call it pride in the accomplishment, or whatever you want. It’s part of the game that brings some of us back again and again, while it turns others away from ever wanting to experience it again.

Congrats to iddave and his son on their elk hunt. Dave, like myself, I believe, knows our time is coming to an end for these types of hunts ~ not because we want it to. But, because the areas we are successful hunting bulls requires more than our bodies are gonna be able to give at some point...This will be my 44th year doing this same elk hunt. I’m feeling a Groundhog Days situation knowing what may be coming next week for me.

Sending Pear 🍐 to myself....LOL

🦫

Take lots of pics beav’, that country is intriguing.

Will do....Located fur in three different areas. Hoping to pattern them between tomorrow and Saturday.

🦫

I almost felt like I was back on the Washington coast last week dragging my bull 150 yards downhill through oak brush and chokecherry crap in pouring rain and sleet in NW Colorado. Fell hard a couple of times but luckily no injuries. WA coast is the toughest place I’ve hunted. I never wanted to attempt coastal Oregon. NW Colorado is easier by comparison. My old wheels could not manage tackling the Idaho Panhandle these days. Happy Trails

Today is the only day that was forecasted for no rain all week. We had a relatively quiet night, with clear skies and little wind. Animals weren’t showing much in the first couple of areas we checked. Finally found a small pod of 7 cows that were bedded on a flat ridge facing the East sun. I couldn’t check the West portion of the ridge for more elk bedded just over the top without being busted....Will check this group Wednesday to see if horns show up.

Horrible picture of the elk resting on at the top of the ridge between the two dead pole trees.



Pictures of the areas that hold elk.



Picture is from the opposite ridge that gives me a better vantage point to glass up animals on this mountain side. It’s an elky spot where I’ve killed several bulls in the past. Finding them from here while scouting gives me a generous guessing idea where they would be opening day. We’d hike to the top, set up covering a couple areas of open spaces and hope I guessed correctly.



Here’s a view that gives a better idea of the “slope” of most of our coastal mountains we hunt...Roads you see are closed ~ Hike in only.
This might put into perspective the type of shooting distance we encounter regularly. Average is 400-450 yards, out to 700 (+) (-). As some can see you’re not really going to go springing down a steep, snag laced mountain to get yourself within 200 yards without being busted, or worse, hurt.

And I certainly don’t back up to make the shot more exciting or difficult....It is what, it is.



This is a common example of heading down a ridge to take out an animal. The reprod trees below are 60’ to 80’ ft tall for scale...I don’t know why there is often a nasty buffer of thick nastiness that you have to plunge through before you hit the cut. Not that being in a clear cut is mucho better. It’s still full of leg traps, and logging slash.



Just a walk in the park....Slash, deteriorated logs, and leg traps. Here’s your life, whether it’s scampering to something that you think will give you a solid rest to make a shot from, or again, just getting down to your meat. Make a path, cut a path... Lest not forget, you need to come back up.

In all fairness...I try to find a spot from scouting that would be a good place to set for a shot. But, it’s very likely the animals aren’t exactly where you are positioned, so you’re making haste as quietly and quickly as you can to find another position to shoot from while dealing with this type of stuff under your boot.

Easiest I have seen was was in Idaho on a farm owned by my family. Called a cow out of the cornfield and a youth hunter shot it. Took longer to go back and get the tractor to haul it back to the barn…

Some of you boys have done some amazing studly stuff. My hat is off to you.

That ground cover is some crazy stuff beav’.

I've hunted and shot elk in north Idaho, south west Idaho, Utah, and New Mexico. North Idaho was the toughest

Rough stuff there Beav. Congrats on having success in that.

I hunt deer on the Oregon side of Hells Canyon. It's hellaciously steep in the canyon itself, but the rims on top are much more reasonable.

I've seen elk very high in the mountains, such as not far below the summit of Fremont Peak in the Wind Rivers. Fremont Peak is 13,751 feet high and lower down (we were camped in Titcomb Basin) the mosquitos were ferocious, so the elk went up to escape the bugs. This was in July and we were climbing, not hunting.

West side of the Olympic Range of mountains is the toughest place to hunt elk IME. Terrible hunter success percentage. Tough on humans and gear.

I have hunted or helped others hunt elk in B.C.’s East and West Kootenays, Fraser Canyon, Toad River and Tuchodi areas, Blue Mtns. and Cascades of WA, two areas of Idaho including the Seven Devils country of Hell’s Canyon, plus explored some great elk country in New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado--- and none of those compares with the sheer misery and difficulty of the western Olympic Peninsula. Steep, wet, thick, thorny at times, almost no clearcuts in the areas we hunt, and the vegetation is too thick to glass anywhere but a clearcut.

Tracking animals in the wet moss and wood debris ground is extremely difficult. We followed a faint blood trail for 8 ½ hours and about a mile, and in that entire distance saw exactly two hoof prints: One in the moss of an old road he crossed and the other in a mound of mole dirt.

A good elk hunter from Utah was astounded at how hard it was to even find an elk here.

Opening days of elk season last weekend it sleeted almost non-stop for three days, never below freezing but building up three inches deep at times, while always melting, with violent wind and hard rain at times. Forecast calls for 3 inches of rain tomorrow. Our toughest pack out was 2400 vertical feet with rain at the bottom and snow above, no trail of any kind, sopping wet brush.

Very hard. A sane person would hunt elk somewhere else.

Easiest: East Kootenays in B.C. 40 years ago.

SLM,
Yesterday I found some horns in this group...This spot always plays hell on my nerves. Making the shot from the mountain side that I’m glassing from to the side where the elk are, is the easiest part. Depending on the elks position on the mountain ~ they’re in the 600-700 yard range. The extraction is just gonna be brutal. Without access from the bottom to work my way up to the elk, and then take them back down to the bottom and out.....It’s straight down from the top, then back up. You’re looking at 1800’ft of down and back up suck ! Because of it’s difficulty. This spot becomes Plan C.





I got on some more elk this morning at first light in an area that is doable. I didn’t get a picture since it was first light and I just backed myself out of the area as soon as I spotted the herd. Hour hike up, located animals within 15 minutes and shot back down the mountain. Got my Plan A for opening day. Hope the elk cooperate.

I received a weather warning update from the Sheriffs Dept this afternoon. Heavy rain and flooding through Saturday morning is expected. The rain just started dumping buckets as I’m posting this. Yeehaw !

🦫

I have heard the West Olympic Range in WA, is an absolute ass-kicker.

Embrace The Suck is the only thing one can do....Or, hunt somewhere else. Laffin.

🦫

Tinycock, would thrive in the Oregon and Washington Coastal range...He’s just that stubborn.

🦫

I have to agree with the gnarly terrain of the Olympic peninsula. Was able to hunt that when stationed at Ft. Lewis! A buddy and I got stuck in this huge freaking prehistoric looking swamp with moving ground. Our compass went boggy! We were very thankful to dump out on a logging road right before dark!

Good stuff beav’.

Get the Speedo dug out and the floaties aired up.

Tiny would appreciate some Speedo pics.

Bulls down....More to come



🦫

There's that much poon in the coastal range huh?? I thrive wherever the wimminz are, because I am a classy SOB and treat the bitches with RESPECT.

SEXY SOB!!!, even with the Sitka hat.

It goes well with his skin tone.

My hunting pard and I started heading up the mountain at 4:45AM to where I’d spotted a herd with bulls days earlier. It was a dry hike, which was nice after 3 days of non-stop rain and wind. I couldn’t have asked for a better morning to catch elk out eating after the weather broke for opening day.

We started glassing right before shooting light into the clear cuts and surrounding edges of timber. I didn’t see anything that looked like a log in the distance move ~ needing a little more light that 15 minutes would bring. I waited while thinking about my dad and the missing chain I’ve worn around my neck since he passed away 9 years ago that held a small stainless capsule with some of his ash.

In a freak situation where friends from out of town had stopped by for dinner, when they left, I noticed hours later that my chain was missing from the coat rack hook I would hang the chain on at night. Wifey and I searched the house for dad, but he didn’t turn up...A call was made to our friends to see if by accident they had grabbed the chain when they took their coats. No answer, as they had a 3 hour drive home with spotty cell service.

Feeling more than a smidge bummed that I’d lost dad the night before elk season. I finally had to come to terms that it was bound to happen at some point ~ maybe now was the time to let the old guy go; keeping only a memory of him and our years together hunting and fishing might be the path forward.

While waiting for better light, my hunting partner split off from me to check a different area. As the light crept into my binoculars, I spotted a round shape that disappeared in my glass. There’s one ! A focused Beav started tearing apart the small area with my bins looking for another large shape to move ~ saw another one move. Cool, I’m on them. I hit the range button on my Zeiss bins and got a 630 yard reading to their general area...

I took off down the Cat road, looking get to a higher position. Since the elk were feeding on the side of a dense clear cut, I figured I could easily close some of the gap by climbing up a small knob hill to look for a place to set up and launch a 180 grain Accubond. I found a spot to climb up, only hoping that at the top I would find an unobstructed opening, free of small trees and saplings that would interfere with my shooting path.

At the top I found a great spot, flat, with a wide opening and a log that gave some ground elevation for using my pack as a shooting bag. I got elk in my bins, that I ranged at 400 ish yards, dope on my scope is dialed, rifle set and ready, I’m looking for elk heads to lift, giving me some headgear to shoot...Then this happens. A strong wind kicks up and rolls the mountain side in fog. 22 minutes of 15 MPH wind and socked in, thick fog, covering all the elk ~ Come on Man !




Continued....

You’re killing me Smalls…

Been there. Done that.

Frustrating is an adequate adjective, preceeded by the F word. It actually happened with the sheep I got this year, though the fog also allowed me to cross an open area without being seen.

On the edge of my seat here...

Agreed.

Beav, that looks like my kind of elk country.

I got on one here a few years ago, then he moved, as I went down, low clouds set in and he was gone forever.....

Kinda like he knew what he was doing.

Beav is probably on a WhiteClaw bender and we will here nothing until it wears off…

deja vu...and God was hating on you and me then.

Laffin

🦫

Claws were going down fast and furious with no fun buzz. Sad 😞 face

😬🦫

Whiskey 🥃 then…

Continued....

After 22 minutes the fog began to slowly dissipate exposing the area where the elk had been. I felt like I was playing, and losing, at the game of “Where’s The Elk” with a mountain side. They were gone ~ vanished into the ether....

I guessed they had either busted over the top of the ridge or went South into a stand of dense cover that was another ridge away from me....I was almost certain it was the latter and I had an idea why.

After the fog cleared, the sun followed and lit everything up. As I was looking at the dense cover I figured the elk had dived into, I see the orange hat of my hunting partner, Dan. He’s on the top of the ridge that had the best angle for seeing the edges of the cover. I’m watching him through my scope ——-Kidding ! Through my bins, and I see him paying a lot of attention to that area, then he drops his pack, goes into Elmer Fudd stealth mode by starting to move down the draw slowly. He’s seen something for sure.

I got front row seating to watch my partner kill a bull....I’m waiting for the shot to break and ruin the mountains silence, but nothing happens. Dan, walks back to his pack, hoists it up, and starts climbing out to the top cat road. I ditch my hopes at my spot, climbing down to the bottom cat road to start the long walk up to meet with him.

It’s a little past 8:30 AM when we finally hooked up. Both of us are pissed at being cursed by the fog and we share our mutual feelings about it with F bombs, and other tasteful expletives. Dan, did confirm that the elk went into the cover, and he saw the unmistakable single beam of a bull through the trees as it was disappearing from view. #Winning #Sorta

Here’s a picture of the area that shows a portion of the small, but dense standing cover that feeds up on the right side with the nearest clear cut to the left.



Dan, asked, if I had any idea why the elk would hit the timber so quickly just from light wind and fog rolling in? I figured the elk, being pressed hard by the weather the past 3 days, had sensed it was about to happen again, so they took to cover. It was a guess, but a good one...

I knew the elk were hungry and wouldn’t have stopped feeding unless spooked. I told Dan, I believed they would pop out at some point today or tonight ~ we should stay on this cut, cover it from two positions, and wait.

Dan, agreed, but it was the waiting part of my plan that was going to be tough on him. I asked him to choose which side he wanted to be set up. (Position A) was on the opposite side from where I took the above picture. It had a bigger part of the clear cut to look at, and it was where the elk had entered earlier. (Position B) was the small cut area to the left of the cover in the picture...I really didn’t care where I was going to be ~ both had to be watched, it was up to the elk to decide where they would come out.



Above picture is basically the same pic, but now to be known as Position B that I was left to guard after cock sucker Dan, picked the better of the two spots. I did make some structural improvements by adding timber across the cavernous opening of the cedar stump to place my pack. #GoodHouseKeeping

Quick Footnote. Dan, and I have a standing agreement when hunting together. If either of us has the opportunity to umm, find a creek, we should definitely fill the others persons canteen. Especially, when clean water sources are hard to find on the Coast.

It’s now almost 9:30 AM. I suggest Danno might want to make his way over to Position A to see what it offers him for a place to shoot from. That suggestion was met with “Yeah, that’s a good idea, but it’s only 9:30 and if the elk don’t come out until tonight”...”I think I will check a couple of places before I go there”.

Dan, asks me what I’m going to do? I’m laffin at him, because he knows me, if there’s animals in an area, I have patience to wait them out. I said I’m gonna watch for them....My final parting words to Dan was “I’ve seen a lot of nice Bulls be a no show at first light, only to step out around 10AM”....Then Dan, left.



Continued.....




🦫

Cheers ! 🥃 🥃


🦫

I think I know Dan!

Funny shít there, Beav.

Continued...

Dan’s gone, and I’m standing there in the bright sun, wishing I had my sunglasses, knowing just how coolio I’d be looking in my Maui Jim’s, hunting elk in November. #VogueHunter

Ok, Beav is a planner, I like known things, if possible, especially hunting. I throw the Zeiss bins up looking into the small clear cut. I start snapping yardages out to the farthest point of the cut I could be shooting. Then doing the same with the closet point. 219 yards would be my longest poke. Closest would be 157 ish yards. I decide a 200 yard zero will be fine....So would a 100 yard zero. It’s really a moot point between the two, but 200 let’s me spin my turret, so, a 200 yard zero it will be.

I’m actually laffin to myself at this shooting situation before me....I’ve spent years telling anyone curious that 400 yards is a good baser starting point for shooting distances at the Coast, and here I am looking at half that at the very farthest edge of my shooting landscape. #2MuchGun

I’m hunting with one of my favorite elk rifles the MeanGreen Fist, built by APR in 300 Wby.

I have a large area to view away from the small clear cut I’m guarding against any Wapitis attempting an escape to their cafeteria. It at least keeps me entertained and feeling like I’m hunting by checking 180* degree of available clear cuts. I spot a couple of deer, Blacktail does ~ I wonder where the horny buck is? It’s still their rut. Damn, Beav, can’t even pull horns on deer during a rut. #Loser

I check the time, it’s after 10AM. So, much for my parting words to Dan, that bulls will show themselves. I’m looking naked eyed into my little world of clear cut hope, when I see the entire clan of elk fur dump themselves into my small cut somewhere between 219 yards and coming right at me.

Drafting behind one another into the open, one elk behind the next elk, they’re all coming out at once...I’m not counting them, because I suck at math, but I know there’s more than 15 and less then 20. Should you ask ~ did I have my scope covering them ? Absofuck’nlutely !

I’m just tracking each one, canceling cows, until I see bone. Something happened to the first bull, a small spike. He died from one shot from somewhere. That shot kicked the elk into a higher gear. Everything went to a fast pace with elk flying all over. I’m pretty calm behind a gun, not chest banging, I just don’t rattle very often...If I’m going to get spooked, it would be on a good sized animal, that’s running balls, stretched out, and tearing the ground up getting himself gone. I try hard to pass on those shots, simply, because I’m not good enough to consistently take a game animal at high speed. #NoShame

With most of the elk moving across from me, right to left, I also have several elk moving away from me. My scope is moving to cover each head, but I’m not seeing any racks. Eventually the splintered herd is starting to find one another out into a distant clear cut. I kinda got the impression that the lead cow was performing a head count to see who she had left in her group and who was missing.

Satisfied they were all cows. I turned my attention back to the spot where the elk started coming out from. Right there was a small 5x5 that decided to bring up the rear of this fur train. He was at a full trot, and closing straight on me, but he’s beginning to angle down and away when he hit a steep side hill. That hill stopped him from getting hit with a front chest cavity shot. Now a left broadside shot was available...

I’m just following along with him while the crosshairs are covering his vitals, waiting for him to slow up, or better, stop altogether. Finally, he held up, looked over his right shoulder. I let one 180g Abond go. Thawap!!

He dropped like a bag of concrete ~ hard....I already had pushed another round into the chamber and had the scope tight on him should he try to quickly jump up ~ somnabitch, he’s trying to get up. He’s digging in with his back legs while his shoulders are working to push himself up. I got a full neck shot in view. I took it, sending an ender into it. That laid him down for good.

Dan, showed up unexpectedly wearing a big grin... All I said to him was, that was a nice shot you made on that spike.

Two bulls down and it’s 10:45 AM.

Embracing The Suck is about to begin.....Continued












🦫

There’s a lot of them damn Dan’s around!

Grins

🦫

Thrive ?

🙄🤣

You are definitely one sexy and classy whore.

🦫

I use a Luffa and meat tenderizer for that skin tone and texture.

😝🦫

Love you, more !

🦫

Too cool, dudes!

Congrats. Great story.

Good stuff beav’.

Good job! "Embrace the suck" indeed...

Congratulations. The suck is always worth it.

Hell ya, great trip and write up. Pics never do extreme [bleep] we endure over here. It truly is miserable. 😂

Congrats and nice write up Beav.

Good stuff Beav! Hoping for details on the suck after you've had a nap and your third application of Ben-Gay!

Continued....

The Suck !

I go over the highlights of what transpired in the 120 seconds of elk hunting bliss I had with Dan. Then it was time to figure out the fur extraction. Dan, ask’s me if I have a landmark on the bull because you can’t see either one from where we are standing....Sure, pard, they’re right over there 👉 pointing my finger while making a circular motion in a down direction....I’m lying ~ I knew there about’s where we’d locate hooves.

Plan was simple enough...Hike to the lower cat road I was originally on before I was raped by the earlier fog. Find the correct side of the mountain, head up into the thick stuff and hope to get eyes on or smell dead elk.

Dan’s a hard charger and takes the lead by heading up first into the brush after I assured him this was the correct hillside. Little fun fact, I’m a survivor of Vertigo. I’ve had it more than I haven’t the last 3.5 years. It’s one of the main reasons I closed my house painting company several months ago. I’m functional, but walking on uneven ground can be difficult, even without vertigo. With it, it’s like riding in a boat on the open sea. Things under my feet can feel woozy? If woozy is a word.

Anyway, we drop our rifles and dump our packs out of all non-essential items on the top of the hill we just climbed. We’ll be passing this spot several times on the way out before the night is over. Danno, makes haste by climbing through the thick shît and down onto the side hill of the clear cut the bulls should be on...

I’m 15 yards behind, eagle eyed watching Dan’s progress while tending to the woman’s work of moving and throwing any and all slash, sticks, logs and rocks outta my fûck’n way! Call it making a path and making it wide. You can’t guarantee the first path you make to locate a down animal is going to be the same path you’ll take heading out with your first load. But, if it is, I’m ahead of the game.

Pic looks sorta flat, but it’s actually the low side of the cut.



Dan, hollers at me from somewhere ahead that I can’t see, asking if I think the elk are up higher than the course we are traveling? Yeah, maybe, is my reply...Big help the Beav is being, but I don’t really know. We’re down in the shît. My nose is sniffing the air like a hound dog hoping to catch the telltale smell of a dead elk ~ nothing.

I grab a handful of young Doug Fir bows to pull myself up higher on the side hill to continue my search. Boom, I see an elk leg sticking up! I shout to Dan that I got one. The spike has been located. Within minutes Dan shouts back from ahead and above me that he’s found the 5x5. Sweet Jesus, the search is over.

Dan, comes down to me at the spike. I’ve already looked over the death bed situation. As far as having good access to work on this bull ~ it’s not too bad, sorta flat, with no deep indentation ie....HOLE. Elk seem to get sucked into these natural voids after being shot. We made a couple quick adjustments to the spikes position and he’s good to go for separating hide and quartering.

I asked Dan how far up the 5x5 is? Maybe 40 yards up ahead, but 10 yards higher. Then he breaks the news to me. It’s in a tough spot, a HOLE...Well, Fûck Me!

I don’t even want to go look. Dan, had killed a cow elk back in February of this year that I helped him get. That whore died in a hole that turned her big cow body into a pretzel on the side of a steep cut. Both of us couldn’t get enough leverage to haul her ass out of the deep root pocket she died in. I worked that elk up for him while he held a leg here, and a snout there for me. I assumed the 5x5 would be in something just as ugly.

Spike...An easy spot to work on.




While Danno starts to work on his spike, I scamper up to my bull with dread hanging over me on what I’m gonna find...Meh, not that bad. It’s in a hole, but it’s a shallow hole and the bull isn’t very big. Very doable without much fuss. I prance back down to Dan to help.

Footnote: Prance and Scamper in context means (I slowly, made my way, looking at the ground the entire way)

5x5...Not as bad as I envisioned.



It’s interesting when you have two people who are experienced hunters, but go about things differently. Trying to reach a consensus on what is best practices can become, well, interesting. This wasn’t one of those situations. We both knew what needed to get done, and we went about it with an attitude of slow is slow, fast is fast. Break these bulls down, get the quarters off the mountain and to the cat road. Then start hauling meat to the rig parked at the locked gate 1.5 miles away....Rinse, repeat 3 more times into the night.

Pic is a dead giveaway of a meat hunter...grins



Meat stacked on the cat road, ready to be loaded and hauled up and out.



Dan, took the spike out first to the cat road while I broke down the 5x5. Our path off the mountain was right where the spike lay dead. Needing a clear path, the spike was moved outta the way first.

Pic of Danno, taking a breather packing out the 5x5 at the bones of the spike. It was a theme for us in this terrain. Make 40 yards of gain, then break for a breath. A lot more huffing and puffing met us this night. Not a lot of words were passed between us, either. Talking took effort and trying to stay upright was more important. We just freighted meat and drank White Claws and water that I dropped in the road on our way back in after the first load was taken out.



Me coming out with the 3rd load of the night. I’m carrying the horns in front of me, so when I’d slip and fall, the antlers wouldn’t impale me in the guts...When we got to the cat road, Dan, and I agreed we couldn’t do a 4th load. We had one shoulder and a ham that we’d need to come back for the next morning....So close, yet so, far away.



We started the hunt with a cool and clear morning. Then we got smashed with wind and dense fog, which lifted to a high sun. Then night came and light wind and rain was our fate for the remainder of the night. Footnote: it’s ridiculous just how slippery a coastal clear cut will become when rain is added to the adventure. I’m literally telling you that a 10” long 2” around stick that is on your path while side hilling it, will drop you just as quickly as hitting ice on your front porch step...Mother Fûcking Whore was screamed many times.

Here’s a log that we’d been using as a step up and down to the 5x5 until it decided to shît the bed and separate under my boot while I’m under load with a shoulder and a meat pack. It launched me face first, almost throwing me into a full somersault. MFW!



Pic of all the meat, sans a shoulder and hindquarter finally at the rig...I’d popped 8 Advil and 4 Tylenol’s this day. I couldn’t tell you how many White Claws I drank, because I suck at math, but it was more than 5 and less than 7.



I got to bed around 10:30PM that night after squaring away the meat in refrigeration. I didn’t sleep much, getting myself up at 2AM for coffee. My body ached, but I was thinking mostly about another pack in and out that we had to do this morning....

Why didn’t we just “Embrace The Suck” and make that one last push for the final load? Well, that’s the mind game ~ Wishing you did something earlier, that you absolutely didn’t feel like you could do at the time. This morning it was “Let’s Go Brandon”...We made it up to the meat around 10AM and back to the house by almost 1PM.

I’m tired, my back is sore, and my shoulders are hating on me, but I’m gtg. It was good elk hunt.

Now it’s time to make meat.




Thanks SLM, for your curiosity in my Coastal elk hunts, otherwise I wouldn’t have hijacked Tinycocks thread about both men and women never being able to feel him during sex. 😳


🦫

You're going to make me blush.

I must ask though....you made it to the rally point at 10 AM for the last load and made it back to the house by 1 PM? 3 hours is all it took?

You can pack my meat anytime.....

Doing a 3 mile round trip 4 times doesn’t even scale compared to your Sheep haul.

I doubt I could carry your meat farther than a city block. 😝

🦫

Nice write up Beav! Congrats on beating the odds. Those coast bulls are certainly earned.

Good stuff beav’…Great read.

I’m not going to lie, I laughed a little every time you fell etc.

TinyCOCK must sext you the same pics, it’s like a penis, only a lot smaller.

Great hunt and write up Beav. You probably could have used that WhiteClaw lip balm… Studly work packing all that out.

Cheers 🍻

About damn time you realize how the world works.

Nice bulls BTW. Elk made an absolute fool of me this year, though I was hunting new ground.

Hey Beaver. Why don’t you have one of those Quiet Kat ebikes and a trailer? Or can you not use those on those closed logging roads?

You would look good riding it with your Sitka hat…

Laffin at a handicapped hunter is always fun. I do it at retards every chance I get. 🤣


The first pic Tiny ever sent me of it, at first, I wasn’t sure if he wanted me to see his little muscle, or the sore that was covering it. 🧐



🦫

Thanks, Sc....I had no balm on me. Wished I did, but it was way past too late.



Anything mechanical is verboten. Animal, pedal power, or boots, is the only allowed form of transportation on these lands.

🦫

PS

I do look pretty sexy in my Sitka uniform...LOL

That’s what I figured and yes yes you do…😂

We will put you on the cover of the 24hourcampfire calendar…

Well, shît the bed and give details, dammit!

What’s the short and long on your elk hunt in new country?

🦫

PS

You being unsuccessful in territory that you’re unfamiliar with, probably has some education value to a few of us ———see my first sentence.

Question what is a Montana blacktail? The toughest I hunted would be Idaho side of Hells Canyon , the easiest the Oregon high desert!

I grouse hunted off of a mid 80's 49cc Honda Spree with a centrifugal clutch one time. It was red, but so badly faded it was basically pink. It had the basket to hold beer, birds and everything else.
That thing was SWEET!

I am guessing he means Blacktail Mountain area near the Flathead. Lots of griz in that country.

Maybe the Blacktail ranch near Wolf Creek? There are also some areas called Blacktail near Dillon.

Don't yell at me fücker....I have very sensitive feelings.

I hunted with a friend in his spot. I have hunted near there before, but not right there.
Some out of staters camped 50 yards from us the night before the opener...several miles in. Oh well but what can you do? My buddy shot a fair 6x6 opening morning, but that is nothing new. He's one of those guys who hikes 5-600 yards from the tent and stumbles into elk out in the open. Year after year-after year-after year.

The out of staters screwed up my hunts every day, despite me being in my spot an hour before light. Right at light here'd they come, tromping down the trail. They ended up shooting 2 smaller bulls out from underneath me which really wasn't a big deal. I had one decent bull come over the border from Montana and we locked eyes at 50 yards and then he spooked. There was no responsible shot I could have taken on him. I saw plenty of spikes and cows over the next 10 days but never another decent bull. I finally decided to take a spike on the last day I planned to hunt, but the group of spikes I had been keeping my eye on disappeared that day, never to be seen again. Hit and lost a solid mule deer 3-4 days into it.

Jerked it several times. Crashed my motorcycle a few times. Drank a couple of beers. That was my hunt.
Then I went to mommy's house and helped my niece shoot a dink mule deer buck.

Laffin...

I’m sorry, Tiny. 😞

You know how I get when I’m frustrated with you.

By the way, today is my birthday, and you didn’t even wish me a Happy Christmas.

Now, I’m going to read the important stuff I told you to post.

😬🦫

Now that I would like to see…😂

Happy belated BD beav’.

If I had known, I would have sent a 12 pack of Natural Light.

Did Tiny tell you I was dieting again and only drinking light beer?

😬🦫

Oh man Beaver, did I miss your birthday? Shame on me.
So does the Eagle fly on Friday?!

Double rainbow boy!!!!!




PS. I mucho prefer light beer, and I ain't on no diet.

Late to the party here, but that's now abnormal for a normal guy like me.

Cool stuff y'all, especially Beaver's takeover of the thread.

Beav, a question for you. Do you own any caulks? Maybe not for hunting, but for recovery. Set of Korker type goodies you could put on your hunting boots. I know for sure, it was awfully nice to have our wading shoes on when we came out of/went into a creek on the timberlands in NorCal. Them friggen wet stick, rocks, logs, and even puckerbrush are SLICK.

And who the heck goes outside without sunglasses. Sheesh.

Never used corks. Wished many, many, times I had them on my feet though.

🦫

Seems there's some screw in types you could put into your boots, but then you'd have to take them off when you get in the truck. (That's what romeos are made for, so tenderfoots have something easy to protect their sensitive tootsies. I just drive barefoot )

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=Wading+spikes&ia=web

I've thought about something like these too:

https://bestreviews.com/sports-fitness/snow-sports/best-ice-cleats

Except for maybe catching on brush and slash, these might work for more than one season also:

https://korkers.com/products/casttrax?variant=24522004660324

I hated slipping and sliding out there. Around here, it's ice and snow in the winter time, the rest of the year everything it DRY!

Glad you and Dan got some meat.

They’re magic in this country. Pair of extra tuffs with corks are great bang for the buck.

Never wore those. My feet hate rubber boots unless actually working in the water. Folks in the Juneau area loved them though. Caulked or plain.

Never wore corks myself, but Kahtoola K10s work wonders for wet logs and brush, let alone ice or snow covered frozen ground. Microspikes too in a pinch but the elastic bands don't last too long.

Roughest elk country would be the Salt River range between Etna and Alpine WY. Easiest elk country would be the Red Desert of WY.

Great thread. Reminds me of my younger days. My toughest elk hunting was done just west of Bondurant Wyoming. Steep! Lots of elk though, man I wish my knees were that good nowadays. So I now just glass the desert and put the sneak on em.

I like the look of those microspike thingies. Might have to get me a pair to toss in the day pack.

Seems like a reasonable accommodation for the type of hunting Beav is doing too. Keep 'em handy for the pack out.

Easiest is a relative word, never really had an easy one, but probably least strenuous is in WY in the Pacific Creek drainage, late season, deep snow, always on horesback.............spot elk, jump off with rifle, light 'em up if you can.

Toughest / hardest is the upper Selway around the Lochsa river area...............not all that high, not all that steep, mostly always wet, pure, dense jungle, pure hell on foot.

MM

It can't get much easier than where we got 2 elk this Tuesday. It was 10 miles north of Bliss, ID. Flat with a few low rolling hills. Some grass, some sagebrush, some small rocks. The trick is to find them where they can't see you from a mile away. I posted this pic a couple days ago. Look at the background. Most of it's 3500 to 4000'. Even sea level city boys won't be sucking too much air at that altitude. It's too much land and too open to walk around looking. That would be totally futile. Everyone drives the roads and glasses from high points. We spotted these elk from a hill top with a soaring peak of 3720' and shot them 1.5 miles away at 3600'. We walked 1.2 miles to get to them.

Nothing wrong with that meat on the hoof, and easy to get to!

Might have to start a new thread on this. But I was fortunate enough this year to hunt Elk in 3 different states. Utah, Oregon and Arizona, in that order. Seems like UT and AZ you can drive your quad/side by side almost anywhere you want. While in OR, it is only on main forest roads and all the side roads off of it, are closed off to motorized vehicle, majority of the time.
So not sure some of these UT and AZ boys know what putting miles on the boots and packing out really means.
I could be wrong, but I’m just going off what I’ve seen this year.

😂😂 this should be good.

I just wish all the ATV and Side by Side drivers would follow the rules... far too many times I've been a mile from a road and some a-hole in an ATV or side by side comes driving over to look over the canyon because he's too damned lazy to walk over and hunt.... and it seems they also have the gall to ask "seen anything" like I'm feeling generous enough to give them any information after they ruined my day's hunt....