St. Helens Area Quality Elk Hunts

[skywalker253]

Anyone ever drawn any of the rare St. Helens area quality elk permits (White River, Mudflow, etc?
What was your experience like?
Can you access the area long prior to the hunt to scout?
How many points did you draw with?
What are the positives and negatives to expect?

I hunt modern firearm and have 17 points.

[Whitpirate]

With 17 points I'd head for the Blues

[kentrek]

your looking at 250-280 inch bulls and your going to have to hunt hard...the bigger mudflow bulls are in the ugliest country st helens has to offer..i wouldnt waste 17 points on a hunt that is going to be that hard,you could go shoot a smaller 5 or 6 that would be pretty easy but the real big ones are in some pretty nasty country

id go to the east side or up north with 17 points..

[blacktail luv]

Do not waste 17 points. 

[sirmissalot]

I wouldn't call white river part of the St. Helens herd, but there are some truly giant bulls in that unit.

As far as St. Helens elk I agree with everyone else.

[scottfrick]

I drew the toutle muzzy bull in 2011. Saw one rag horn 4 point bull that was way to far to shoot. Ended up shooting a spike bull at 194 yards. Thank god for lots of practice. In the regs the toutle was under quality bull portion. IMO it's not that quality of a hunt. There were people every where (cow hunters/deer hunters). Was it a fun hunt? Yes. Would I apply again? I doubt it.

[Quarteredaway]

With 17 points I'd head for the Blues

[jackelope]

Great permit to draw if you want to waste 17 points on a raghorn. Apply for the public land units in the Blues or the Colockum. There's a couple elk in each if those areas contrary to popular opinion on here. Just be prepared to walk in the steep country and be in the best shape of your life if you draw. 

[Alan K]

Well, assuming you'd like the September rifle hunt in the Toutle, according to my calculations you're odds were less than 2% in 2012 with 17 points.

For the November Mudflow hunt, you're odds were less than 6%. 


The sad reality is that the odds of drawing a premium rifle tag with ideal dates or exclusive hunting areas are slim even with your amount of points.  Your odds of drawing a tag in the Blues is actually better albeit still low, and for better quality bulls.  Only thing about those hunts is the majority of them are dates outside the rut. 

[jbeaumont21]

tag

[RB]

I guess it depends on what you are looking for. If it is a giant rack east side hunting is where you should look. A nice bull can be had on the west side, but the east seems to produce bigger racks (Rocky Mountain Elk). I have hunted the White River and it is no where near Mount St Helens and have seen a couple nice bulls back when it was spike only. Looking at the pictures of Elk taken around St Helens they are nice Elk, but looking at the pictures of Elk on the east seem bigger just my 

[huntnphool]

Great permit to draw if you want to waste 17 points on a raghorn. Apply for the public land units in the Blues or the Colockum. There's a couple elk in each if those areas contrary to popular opinion on here. Just be prepared to walk in the steep country and be in the best shape of your life if you draw.

Just keep in mind that if you don't draw you are stuck only hunting the east side for spikes, might be a concern if you only hunt the west.

[Fullabull]

Avoid the dark side with 17 points!!!! Just look at other posts on here to see where the big bulls are taken

[bobcat]

I don't think it would necessarily be a waste of points. Maybe if your only reason for hunting is to kill high scoring animals. But to me if you can get drawn for a good area that has a lot of elk and relatively few hunters, that IS a quality hunt. So what if you had 17 points. The points are useless to you when you're dead. So use them! And to do that, you need to apply for hunts that have reasonable odds of drawing.

[BENCHLEG]

here is one thing to think about, if you decide to go east be in shape not many roads to road hunt on..