Late season archery advice

[fishnfur]

 The guys that live local to the cuts down here seem to glass the cuts with spotting scopes from long distance at last light until they find a group of cows coming out of the timber to feed.  They confirm the cows are still there for the next night or two and make a plan to pick off  the cows as they leave the timber in the evening.  They do a lot of scouting and planning to have a chance to arrow one.  If someone goes in and bumps them, the plan goes out the window.  If I lived a bit closer, this would be the way I would proceed.  Since I don't, I plan to look for fresh sign and follow 'em.

[E35alex]

So, most of the conversation was for west side.

Does that same apply to east side? Going opening day, hoping for a cow 😁


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[Tbob]

I have a question. So when all of you guys say "gotta go steep and deep" what exactly does this mean? Do you follow a trail of some kind down a steep area? Are you just heading down some steep hillside in hopes that at the "bottom" there will be elk hanging out? I hunt south western Wa and I usually access the woods like most, on a gated logging road. I'm hiking or biking in.. So could someone give me a scenario where you park at a closed gate and end up steep and deep. So you pull up to the gate and.....fill in the rest.

[hogslayer]

When I was hunting peaches ridge a few years ago we heard cows and a couple bulls down this huge basin.  No official trials going down it just game trails.  So we descended and ended up hiking 900ft in .6 miles.  Very steep.  And very deep away from trails.  The scenario goes like this.  You find areas that are easy access and get hunted the hardest.  Then look around on a topo map and find where those elk would run to if kicked.  It's usually the steepest thickest stuff around and nobody wants to go down there. 

[blackveltbowhunter]

I have a question. So when all of you guys say "gotta go steep and deep" what exactly does this mean? Do you follow a trail of some kind down a steep area? Are you just heading down some steep hillside in hopes that at the "bottom" there will be elk hanging out? I hunt south western Wa and I usually access the woods like most, on a gated logging road. I'm hiking or biking in.. So could someone give me a scenario where you park at a closed gate and end up steep and deep. So you pull up to the gate and.....fill in the rest.

   Hogslayer summed it up pretty well, look for areas the elk would go to avoid pressure. In westside logging country I hunt the same areas early and late, right down to the same drainages. How I hunt them is quite a bit different though. In early season I am at the gate in the dark and riding into my spot at first light. Cover alot of country via bike and foot, hunting timber calling and glassing cuts to locate elk. While I will occasionally jump into a "hole" blind, its not the norm.  In late season its almost reverse, I rarely leave the truck before dark. Steep and Deep is a relative term for sure, not many areas in logging country where u will dump 2000 foot in elevation or hike in traversing several miles of ridgetop and swapping elevation. But its easy to find areas that look impenetrable, clearcut and reprod bottoms. But the biggest thing is I will spend much more time "blindly" hunting areas in creek bottoms, or thick reprod flats looking for sign. Rather than hoping the elk pop out in a cut or rip off a bugle.

If weather starts to become a factor and pressure starts to fall off mid week, I will start to switch it back to more glassing locating and less blind still hunting. As far as exposure goes I haven't observed enough definitive evidence to say it affects elk movement in any way. Except.... when it gets cold and clear. Then southern exposure has for sure seen much more action IME. 

[Tbob]

Great great thread! Thanks for the info!!

[kjbecker82]

Great great thread! Thanks for the info!!

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

So could someone give me a scenario where you park at a closed gate and end up steep and deep. So you pull up to the gate and.....fill in the rest.

Well I can give you one that applies directly to where you will be this late season.

1.) Park at gate, if it is almost daylight take road to the left and first spur that heads to the left.
When that spur ends, leave road and follow creek-bottom/game trails upstream still hunting as you go, until it is almost dark, or you find elk.
You will be in an area that is steep and deep, and a long way from the road at top of the ridge.
The climb out will be strenuous, and you will swear never to do it again (but you will) because you will have seen either elk, or enough sign to wonder why you did not see any elk..


2.) If you are there well before daylight, walk the road uphill until it stops on the top of ridge, and look down in the bottom, you will see it is steep, and deep.
Now, slip/slide/fall down this steep hill until you hit creek-bottom and hunt the head of the drainage and downstream and out...
Due to time restrictions you cannot make it in and out by the same path in a day (if you are hunting)
Most hunters wont leave the road, content to walk logging roads because the brush is too thick.
But when you are in the creek-bottom and away from the road, you will find trails through the vine maple and ferns. Elk love vine maple, devils club, just about any thick leafy growth, lots of grass and alder.  Once you get on the trails that are a couple feet wide, you will see where they go...

[Tbob]

Awesome man! I'll be doing exactly what you said! Can't wait to get out there! As always thanks a ton for the help/advise out there!! I'm praying to notch a tag this year. I know there out there.

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

Awesome man! I'll be doing exactly what you said! Can't wait to get out there! As always thanks a ton for the help/advise out there!! I'm praying to notch a tag this year. I know there out there.

As I said, I know the places you were planning, that is where I hunt.
If you take either of the gates, the road to the right is nothing but a huge clear-cut (yes BOTH GATES) cut, then sprayed by helicopter by Hancock 
But the elk like the "Thick stuff" so you actually stand a decent chance of finding them because there is less escape cover. 

[BABackcountryBwhntr]

I don't think cold calling will work at all as well as cow calling.  By late season most Elk have got kicked and called at so many times they are over it.  My experience has been that cows don't really talk that much outside of the rut except to warn each other of danger.  I have done some scouting and been baiting a spot with cameras in north bend.  Had elk coming in everyday to feed, then 2 bears came in and seem to have taken over.  Not 100% sure it was the bears or that modern started during the same week that kicked the elk out. I think they will be back in time for late season.  I have done good hunting the east side in the snow in years past.  But have a west side tag this year.  Thanks for keeping this going!

No lol elk talk year round.... calls work well in dec

[hogslayer]

I went out tonight and heard some elk talking.  Wasn't sure if they would come into a call or not so decided not to risk it and stayed put.  Had a cow come in and waited tell she started feeding and drew back and she saw me!!!! Turned around and slowly walked away.  Wasn't to spooked just saw movement.  Hopefully they come back?

[fishnfur]

Isn't the "thick stuff" all escape cover? (I'm thinking 7 - 15 year old unthinned reprod in SW WA.)