Hunted for 10 days in the Forks area during archery looking for a good Rosee bull. Was within 100 yards of about 100 elk. Saw 5 legal bulls, two where large 5x5's, one 4x5, one 4x4, and one 4x3. Was within 60 yds of all but one of the large 5x's. Passed on all - not quite what I was looking for ( I have a decent 6x7 Cascade Rosee from Winston from 2004 and I will not shoot an animal that is smaller than the previous one - just my own self imposed requirement). The largest 5x5 which I now think I should have taken, was called in to 25 yds, he was pretty close in size to my last bull.
My main reason for the post is to discuss something that really turned off the season for me.
I try to hunt as hard as I can and cover as much ground as I can. I choose areas that have looked gates so that I can get away from the crowds and then ride my bike in/ hike to cover as much ground as possible stopping every so often to call/ glass. This year had one 21 mile ride/ hike, last year I did 22 in one day, ending up with close to 100 miles covered in the 10 days. One of the primary areas that I chose this year has roughly 7 miles of main road running through it with a half dozen long spur roads running off of it. The main road is gated at both ends with no motorized access allowed ( Rayonier Timber/ DNR). Typically with this type of road system, I can ride through the main road until I make contact( either calling, spotting, or cutting tracks), hunt that group, and then hit another spur or spurs later that day or the next as needed, giving animals that get pushed a bit of a break for a day or two. I had hunted this same area the year before and not made any contact of any kind for the three day I had been there. It seemed strange because it had everything the elk should be looking for - quite a few clear cuts spaced out through the road system with some reprod and a good amount of large timber in between, plus good water. All that and combined with the closed gates had me really puzzled last year as to why I didn't find any animals. This year when my brother in-law and I went in after hunting another similar system for three days, we made contact the first day. We ended up tracking the a heard through the reprod and into their bedding area - bumping them twice but not too bad ( I am a big believer in the UV killer sports wash and an absolute fanatic when it comes to scent control - in fact the closest thing I do to cooking is heating up hot water for oatmeal in the morning, all in the name of minimizing scent ). The animals had seen something moving, but weren't real sure what was going on. I was really kicking myself for following them into the bedding area, so we ended up backing out, leaving them for another day later in the week. I ended up calling in that big 5x5 that I mentioned before and passing on him later that evening further into the road system. My brother in law only got to see the tips of his antlers or he would have tried for him.
The next day we covered a lot of ground but no real luck, we closed the day on the largest clear-cuts and did not see any animals coming out to feed - which we thought was strange. On the third day in this area we were headed to a different spur and checked the large clear cuts on the way. The elk had been there over night but were long gone at sun up.
Later that day we came across a very isolated small clear-cut in the middle of miles of big timber. It was a bit windy and overcast and I had run into situations before where the elk were out in cleacuts during the middle of the day during that type of weather. Sure enough - 10 head right out in the middle feeding at 14:00. The problem was that it was a small raghorn 3x4 running the heard..
?? We ended up jacking with this bunch for close to 3 hours hoping that a big boy would show up. That 3x4 though he was tough stuff and really put on a show. We ended up walking to within 50 yards of him with my bow held on top of my head like antlers - I had heard of other folks doing this, and it worked for the tough guy. We were really puzzled as to why this raghorn had this heard.
We headed back through the big clearcuts during the witching hour and once again, nothing. We agreed that the next day we would check out that first group we had bumped and then maybe see if that big 5x5 was still home.
The next morning we head in and find nothing in the cuts. Fresh tracks showed that they had been there during the night, but nothing moving or talking at 1st light. We headed in further, getting closer to the bedding area where we had bumped the animals earlier in the week. We were four miles from the gate when it suddenly became very clear why the animals were only moving at night and why a little raghorn 3x4 could be running a heard. Off of one of the spurr roads just ahead of me one of the good old tribe boys turned onto the main road - on his quad, with his rifle.
About 30 seconds later, his partner showed up on his quad with his rifle, scanning the timber for elk.
Now I must say that I am not all that thrilled about "subsistence hunting" but do feel that they have some rights to do it. However, they had no right to be behind locked gates on quads and they knew it. They nonchalantly drove past and asked if we had seen anything. They went about a hundred yards down the road and stopped to talk the situation over. My brother in-law and I were not happy, but there wasn't anything we could do. Four miles from the gate and the only area that we had cell service, bikes vs quads, bows vs guns. We just sat in the road and watched them. After a couple of minutes, they ended up turning around and heading back out towards the gate at the far end. I had heard about unscrupulous tribal hunters shooting bulls and taking nothing but the heads, even getting caught in ONP doing it without any consequences, but had never considered that they would ride around the gates in this area. If you would hunt in a National Park, what the hell is little old locked gate and trenching going to do?
Like I said, this really ended up turning me off - we weren't seeing animal movement because those guys had been in there taking all the big bulls. The one descent bull we did find just hadn't been found by them yet. I ended up calling DNR, Rayonier Timber, and WDFW the next day (no cell service until late that night), but of course it was too late to do anything. I gave them descriptions of our two new friends but all that Rayonier and DNR could do was go check the gates to see how they were getting around them. WDFW stated that tribal hunting was open (6 month plus season) and that rifles were fully legal for them to use. I was asked by Rayonier if I had got their license number or other information, or where their rifles loaded which is illegal while on quads
. I stated that I had a bow, they had rifles – I wasn’t going to confront them 4 miles in and outgunned – (another archery CWP/ carry discussion point………
)
We ended up bagging that area that evening. I checked out a couple other areas over the next two days that I had found the year before and found gates with lock flanges cut off.
>:(This did not help my attitude.
The one capper' that did make me smile a bit on the end of the trip though was that on my way home on late on the 20th, I ended up passing the store where the cops had just shot the A$$ HOLE who had killed the forest ranger. One less dirt bag in the world made me smile a little but I would rather still have the ranger and retired corrections officer around that he killed that day. The dirt bag did bite it at the tribal gas mart. – don’t get me started on boycotting tribal cassinos – that’s another thread maybe.
I added the pics of my 03 and 04 bulls in for the hell of it.
PS
The folks buying horns from the tribal boys should be drawn and quartered in my opinion - (they're supporting the demise of the herds along with the meth habits of these A$$ HOLES!)
