Made it down to Hells canyon to scout elk.

[huntnnw]

My girlfriend and I were lucky enough in the draw in ID to draw bull tags. We took a trip down to scout some areas I had marked on my maps to see if they are feasible to do on foot  what looks doable on a map becomes a reality when you see it and say "uh..no way"  as if any of you have hunted that area know what I am talking about.
We arrived at camp later than expected thursday evening after replacing all the tires on the Jeep As I get out of the Jeep I think I hear a elk cow call..then I hear it again there are elk 100 yards from us and there must be atleast 60-80 head of elk in 3 seperate groups! there is non stop cow calling, bulls bugling the whole time I set up camp, cut firewood, radio on and they would not leave they stayed the whole time we were there.

 The next day I decided to go check out a ridge that I had marked to see what it looked like, loaded up the packs and headed in, got about half mile in to a saddle as Im telling my gf this is a great spot to see animals moving thru I see movement running thru the burned timber at about 100 yards..what the is that? throw up binos..its a huge white wolf with a radio collar! theres another and another!! :yike:6 in total they move up the hill as we are in awe more than anything...I remember I have my vid cam in my pack! dang it, So I try to head them off and it get 2 of them at 75 yards and cam didnt turn on in time to film them. They get above us and start howling.

 Next day finds us walking into another area where people have cut a quad trail in the mt side to connect to a closed fs road..as we are nearing the road I see what looked like an elk laying in the road..no way its gotta be a rock..nope its an elk  big fork horn..then I realize why its laying there..there is a salt block for the range cattle...as I walk up to the the block I see somehthing red..its blood! tons of it..its on the salt block there was enough to follow a trail...it had to be from that fork bull as he walked right where the blood was, but we watched him for quite awhile he looked healthy and fine.

We continued into the area checking it out, found a cattle water tank and I blew on my Phelps call..the woods erupted! we had elk running at us! my gf has never experienced any of this with elk..called a cow and spike to 5 yards..never saw us and continued on. Then a bull sounded off..I think shes hooke on elk

 Later that night took us to a road where we can glass alot of area on the way we saw a huge 6 pt bull with 7 cows run across the road. Finally get to an area to glass and there are elk on almost every open hill..this happened at every spot we stopped..this is what elk hunting is like   spent to long chasing elk in WA


Also saw a 160" 4x4 muley and a 145" 5x5 whitey at 6,800 ft

Some pics







A taste of a local IPA



getting guns dialed in..As you can see its quite smoky

[bowhunterforever]

Sounds like a successful scouting trip and good luck on your hunt

[Bob33]

What Idaho unit are you hunting?

Thanks for the report and good luck.

[KFhunter]

sickens me that Washington could be like that with proper management.

[huntnnw]

unit 18...I have never been around so many elk in my life...it didnt matter where I went  you could see elk 

[Todd_ID]

sickens me that Washington could be like that with proper management.

What that unit used to be compared to now is what's sickening.  They put out 300 bull tags the last few years in a money grab trying to exploit a well-known trophy unit that in the past only had 100 tags.  Last year they shot 121 bulls, but in the past only 20-30 bulls would be taken that would all be monsters.  No unit anywhere can keep trophy status when you kill 120 bulls each year.  You can still find decent bulls in the steep-and-deep-way-back type of areas, but there are darn few BIG bulls left.

huntnnw---- Sorry for the off-course direction there.  It sounds like you had a great trip.  Thanks for the story and pics!  Remember those elk will high-tail it on opening day of archery season.

[huntnnw]

From what I have gathered there is still quite a few big bulls and they are not all in deep...they are hunting roaded areas and not the wilderness..this info was from locals that live there.. took a 360 and 335 last year all from roaded areas.
I met a guy last year deer hunting the unit and stayed in contact with him..hes been a huge help..they saw 38 bulls together last year. I personally know of a 378" shot 2 years ago..a 390" bull that was filmed and missed by a archery guy. I saw an east 340" bull while deer hunting and that was being conservative on score.

I agree killing that many bulls is to many.

[bullcanyon]

My cousin drew that tag as well. For archery. He and his wife went scouting there this weekend.  They found a 160+" cougar kill.  Nice looking deer.

[TG509hunter]

I have hunted 18 two out of the last three seasons.  VERY JEALOUS!!!!!! Be patient though, there are a lot of 350+ bulls in that unit.  PM me if you have any questions.  GOOD LUCK!!!!!!