Tips for roosevelt elk?

[Irish_hunter93]

I've been "hunting" the east side of the state for elk during the modern firearm season for the past 4 years and I think it's time to change things up a bit. I'm tired of going elk hunting and getting animals shot out from underneath me and seeing nothing but people. So I've decide I'm just going to stay on the westside and see if I can kill a elk. Looking for tips and advice as I have never hunted for roosevelt elk at all, and the only time elk hunting I have had is with 1 million other people just all over the place.  Advice appreciated thanks!

[Rainier10]

Year one you will have to get  a little lucky and hopefully catch them on the move.  It has been a few years since I have hunted westside but hunt all day, go where nobody else is and listen to hear there coming.  West side is way thicker and the elk can sneak right up on you if you aren't paying attention.

Good luck.

[washelkhunter]

Dont cheat yourself. If you want a rosie make sure youre hunting on the westside of I5. All elk east of I5 are classified as Rocky Mtn.

[JimmyHoffa]

what weapon are you wanting to use?  It can get pretty competitive in some of the areas on the westside too during modern.

[deerhunter_98520]

  I won't hunt modern because is a zoo....don't be afraid to wear out a pair or 2 of boots during a season....get off the roads...even though there are tons of roads you still need to hit the timber patches between them...find the little secluded benches or push through reprod....if you think it's to thick for elk you better head in there...its amazing how fast they move through these patches that look like a green wall

[deerhunter_98520]

Oh and don't be afraid to make noise....elk are huge animals and are not quiet...its when you go quiet and snap that one branch out of place that alerts them

[Firedogg]

 Doen't matter which side of the state you are on, if there are elk in any kind of numbers in the area you will be competing with other hunters. I've had elk in my scope in brush where you could see 50 yds at the farthest shot out from under me (actually had to do a double take to make sure I hadn't shot, but tgat's another long story).
  You have to be willing to get into spots where others won't go, but also make sure there are animals there. When you find that spot, keep your mouth shut, don't even tell your buddies until you need help packing meat out. Yapping too much can ruin a good spot.

[Trapmark]

Don't bother with clear cut one can drive too.  Even if you are first there many others will drive in shortly.  Any thick place that looks nasty and hard to move through has potential.  Even close to roads.  Elk will travel along roads that have heavy brush along side than.  Trucks can go by 30 yards away and never see them.  I often hunt and see Elk and sign just behind the road side cover.  If you move fast, you will walk past many Elk that are bedded.  I like to work an area in a pattern and often jump Elk in thick stuff that I never see.  Have a good scope that can be set on low power and gathers light.  It can be very dark mid afternoon in the timber.  Enjoy being wet too.

[Irish_hunter93]

I appreciate all the replies. I'll be going during the modern season and I don't mind getting wet. The couple deer I've killed have all been here on the west side, but elk-less to date. Thanks  again.

[BABackcountryBwhntr]

I appreciate all the replies. I'll be going during the modern season and I don't mind getting wet. The couple deer I've killed have all been here on the west side, but elk-less to date. Thanks  again.

if you are going modern your experience will be the same... IMO the first 2 days are your best chance.... I took a buddy who has never hunted before to a area i bowhunt so I knew it well.... showed them the area and what cut I would be at first light.. he killed a 5x5 2 hyears ago, killed a 5x5 this year and our other buddy missed a 6x6 the next morning.. after that elk vanished and we beat the crap out of the brush. If you scout and know a area cuts are great.. but the elk move off into thick stuff after day 1 or 2.

[JimmyHoffa]

I appreciate all the replies. I'll be going during the modern season and I don't mind getting wet. The couple deer I've killed have all been here on the west side, but elk-less to date. Thanks  again.

if you are going modern your experience will be the same... IMO the first 2 days are your best chance.... I took a buddy who has never hunted before to a area i bowhunt so I knew it well.... showed them the area and what cut I would be at first light.. he killed a 5x5 2 hyears ago, killed a 5x5 this year and our other buddy missed a 6x6 the next morning.. after that elk vanished and we beat the crap out of the brush. If you scout and know a area cuts are great.. but the elk move off into thick stuff after day 1 or 2.

Yeah, seems the first day is best on modern.  This year some of the guys I know set up elk camp on Oct 1.  Rotated someone in to camp to have people there the whole time scouting and checking trail cams.  Had seven legal bulls near their camp.  They didn't take shots on the first day and the elk just hunkered down.  They were still near the area (on trail cams), but would go into stealth/night mode.  Last year they were going steep and deep creek bottoms under pressure, this year they were going up high into the shale and snags.   

[WAnoob]

Wish you the best of luck, I'm new to Washington as of last month and have hunted a lot in Alaska. I'm looking to go on the west side and try to bag an elk. If you ever want to scout together or compare notes you can shoot me a pm. I have proper gear and don't mind hoofing it into rough country. I'll be hunting modern rifle too this year.

Randy

[RadSav]

Maps, maps, maps!!  For modern season I don't try to scout where elk are before the season.  I want to find those spots where the elk go during the season.  A good set of topo maps will help you do this more accurately.  I like paper maps much better than Google or similar for this type of thing.

[WAnoob]

RadSav, where can one acquire topography maps in this state? I live in Bellingham and when I lived in AK I could just swing by the college and pick them up for any area I wanted.

thanks

[RadSav]

I used to get them at Joe's or REI.  But these days I'm not sure.  Maybe mytopo.com   I think there may be a map advertisement in the game regulations too.

[RadSav]

Not sure if what the WA gamies have in their trucks is available to the general public.  But a few years ago during turkey season I asked a gamie if he knew where some turkeys were headed.  He pulled up a sweet topo map on his dash computer and we figured it out.  That was the best digital map program I've seen!  It even had the Indian reservation boundaries accurate...that was a first

[RadSav]

Back when we could shoot bulls on the eastside I hunted the Manastash a lot.  Along with about a thousand other hunters!  I was new to WA and had limited knowledge of what to expect my first year.  So I scouted and scouted all summer finding a hot spot with a lot of bull sightings, plenty of rubs and overall great country.  I talked CL into going with me to my new HOT spot opening day.  We had a bull hot to trot right at first light.  All we needed to do was get him to cross a small opening and he would be in bow range.  About half way across he stops and jerks his head uphill.  Three hunters are running across the skyline trying to get between us and the bull.  After he busted hunters started running from everywhere chasing that bull like kids after the ice cream truck!

OK, off to spot #2...same result, spot 3...repeat!  What the heck?  Didn't anyone in Washington know the difference between an elk bugle and a hunter's bugle?  If they did they just didn't care and relished in trying to beat us to the elk whether they were successful or not...and in all cases - NOT!!  We knew there were elk here, we knew there were bulls here, and we knew hunters were chasing these elk with vengeance.  So we spent the rest of the afternoon driving around marking down on my topo all the trucks, camps and hunters we could see in the area.  We then drove to the highest ridge top we could find, laid the map down on the hood of the truck and asked each other, "We are scared elk.  Where are we going to go to get away from Romper Room?"

That evening we dropped down to the edge of a hole and I made a few loud cow calls down into what later became our Hell Hole.  There was an immediate response and before we could even get off our perch we had a bull directly below us!  We had found "The Spot!"  And for the next three years we would hunt it exclusively all to ourselves experiencing some of the best elk hunting Washington State has to offer.  All because of a little thought, observation and a good map.

[huntingbaldguy]

Great story.

[mrgoodwrench]

Learn what a fresh elk track looks like, and which end points forward.  After that, just follow the damn things until you get a shot.  They'll take you through every type of brush and timber around, but if daylight doesn't run out, you'll see them.  If it does, come back the next day and pick them up again.  If the logging roads are open for driving, you can cover lots of ground watching the ditchline for tracks.  It is amazing how many 'serious' elk hunters you'll run into who don't notice fresh tracks.  If they don't see elk in the clearcuts they can't figure out where they are. 

[grade-creek-rd]

Pick up the Dec/Jan issue of Successful Hunter Magazine (if you do the electronic suscription you can get the last back issue)...it has a well written feature article all about Roosevelts Elk and highlights Washington State.

G-C-R

[grundy53]

Like was said before, if there is a good population of elk then there will be a good population of hunters. However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. The more a herd moves the better the odds you have of running into them. Also, if you think about it would you rather hunt an elk in their normal stomping grounds where they feel comfortable. Or would you like to hunt them where they get pushed to and they are unfamiliar and maybe not so comfortable. The group of guys I hunt with hunt hard and are usually pretty successful and honestly opening weekend is our least successful period. We usually do better the week after opening weekend. When they have been pushed a little bit and they are out of their comfort zone. Also, don't get to worried about getting away from roads. In the logging areas of western Washington the road systems are so intertwined you can hardly get away from one road when you hit another but that isn't a big deal. Most of the elk we kill you can hear rigs driving by.

[RadSav]

Like was said before, if there is a good population of elk then there will be a good population of hunters. However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. The more a herd moves the better the odds you have of running into them. Also, if you think about it would you rather hunt an elk in their normal stomping grounds where they feel comfortable. Or would you like to hunt them where they get pushed to and they are unfamiliar and maybe not so comfortable.

Give me comfortable elk in there safe zone and zero hunters any day over elk out of their comfort zone and a bunch a yahoos messing up the enjoyment.  Just like fishing...I'd rather catch one fish a day on the river by myself that a dozen fish a day in a crowd.  There's more to life than filling a tag.  But luckily elk are stupid enough you can kill one either way you choose.

[grundy53]

Like was said before, if there is a good population of elk then there will be a good population of hunters. However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. The more a herd moves the better the odds you have of running into them. Also, if you think about it would you rather hunt an elk in their normal stomping grounds where they feel comfortable. Or would you like to hunt them where they get pushed to and they are unfamiliar and maybe not so comfortable.

Give me comfortable elk in there safe zone and zero hunters any day over elk out of their comfort zone and a bunch a yahoos messing up the enjoyment.  Just like fishing...I'd rather catch one fish a day on the river by myself that a dozen fish a day in a crowd.  There's more to life than filling a tag.  But luckily elk are stupid enough you can kill one either way you choose.

That's all fine and good but very hard to find hunting modern elk season in western Washington.  Especially if you have never done it. My point was that you can still be successful despite of/because of hunting pressure.

[RadSav]

That's all fine and good but very hard to find hunting modern elk season in western Washington.  Especially if you have never done it. My point was that you can still be successful despite of/because of hunting pressure.

Agreed