Observatory Modern Bull Tags... Check in!

[Mr Mykiss]

Dude sweet finds!! Not the buck of course...

[cooltimber]

nice find,how many points did u have..I have 11 pts for any bull, and get drawn for cow every other yr.What do you think? maybe not put in for cows/?

[trophyhunt]

Good friend of mine drew that tag with 20 points this year, I don't know much at all about it. He has very limited info as well, he is retiring in a couple years and moving to Oregon so he just threw his name in the hat for an easier draw.  Any advice I can give him ?  I'm hoping to help out if I can, PM's if you want to help. Thanks

[erk444]

So, would that cougar kill be a legal buck? I think not, but its pretty close.

[jjdavis2222]

nice find,how many points did u have..I have 11 pts for any bull, and get drawn for cow every other yr.What do you think? maybe not put in for cows/?

I drew with 11 points. Putting in for cow tags wouldn't affect your outcome on the bull tag. You could draw both but has no impact on the bull tag draw.

[jjdavis2222]

So, would that cougar kill be a legal buck? I think not, but its pretty close.

It wasn't a legal buck. That little point was only about half an inch.

[takethetime]

Getting amped!  Headed for camp in 4 days.

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[jjdavis2222]

One more day! camped 1.7 miles west of tamarack springs. One wall tent and a green and white cook shack. Gray F250 and a Dodge Journey. Feel free to stop in and have a drink and exchange info! Good luck!

[WAElkhunter89]

Will be over there for modern elk season. Our camp is on the left heading up the Manastash Canyon. My Opa always flies a confederate flag nice and high, have a gray GMC Sierra and blue Ford F350 with a white camper, anyone drives by and sees us there, go ahead and stop in and say hey. Always good to meet new people.

[Scottystyle]

One more day! camped 1.7 miles west of tamarack springs. One wall tent and a green and white cook shack. Gray F250 and a Dodge Journey. Feel free to stop in and have a drink and exchange info! Good luck!

Hey there, Ive been up in the area, I have a dark gray almost black Ram 1500.  Not seeing much sign, hope that will change.  Heared a pack of wolves off the 3330 opening morning of deer, have you heared them?  Not sure where we will be tomorrow but will swing in to meet you if we are in the area.


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[jjdavis2222]

Well now that the sting is wearing off I figured I'd give my update to this hunt. Things didn't pan out as I'd hoped. Going into this hunt I was realistic that there was a decent chance I wouldn't fill the tag. One of my best buds dad had the tag last year and didn't fill his tag. Last year only 47% filled their tag. But I was going in pretty confident that I would get it done because I would hunt harder then the 53% that didn't get it done last year. Which I feel I did.

I hunted the first week Oct 24 - 30th. Only seeing 7 cow elk during that time. Went back to work for 3 days and came back for the last 4 days. That Thursday evening I hiked into Keenen Meadows. Right around 4:30pm I was sitting atop the main meadow when I heard some crashing in the thick stuff behind me. So I got up and took 3 steps towards the timber when 3 cow step out into the open 30 yards to my right! I'm on them and hoping a bull comes out next, then someone shots BOOM!!!!! 2 more cows run out BOOM BOOM. Anyways there was a hunter not 60 yards from me just in the thick stuff shooting at the cows that first came out in front of me at 30 yards! Could of been bad for me if there wasn't a little knob there. I watched the cows run into the meadow and watched another one get shot and drop 150 yards in front of me. Their group got 2 cow both dead with in 100 yards of one another right in the middle of the area I was sitting on.  It was a cool experience and got to meet some nice successful hunters. But pretty much ruined my evening hunt.

So the next day I headed to another area I scouted and hunted hard the previous week. And found a shot dead bull with his antlers cut off. There just to waste! I hunted this area 3 days the week before and this bull was not 75 yards from where I have sat! Made me sick!! That could of been my bull or someone's. It was shot during the first couple days of general. Could of been a warden that cut them... who knows. Just sucks that I was hunting that area hard.



Got some intel on Friday night that there were a couple herds with several bulls running around down low right on the sage line between Robinson and Joe Watt all week! So I head down there on the last Saturday evening. Right at 5:30 I spot 3 cow that turn into a whole herd of 21 elk! I was thinking "wow this is going to happen on my last evening hunt!!" I watched them for over half an hour at 200 yards and every single one was a cow! I couldnt believe it! I would of shot a spike at that point! Headed back down there that last morning and didn't see nothing. Back to camp to break it all down. What a heart ache!! 11 years to draw the tag and not able to get it done! Not for lack of effort! Hunted 11 days, and at least 10 miles a day on the boots. 37 cow elk seen and a poached bull and 2 shot dead cow elk left to rot!

Since I drew this tag all of our deer hunting camp agreed to move our traditional mule deer camp to this area because we could leave our camp up till my hunt started. My brother was able to connect on this GREAT BUCK for this area!


And I guess the Elk Gods wanted me to get some antlers! Just not off a living bull! I found a total of 8 nice sheds because of this tag. I found 5 sheds scouting and 3 sheds hunting. Of those are 2 five point sets.



Ya it hurts that I didn't get my bull. But I had one hell of a time trying!!! Got to spend a whole week with just me and my dad which was awesome!

Anyways how did anyone else do? I seen only a few small rag horns in camps. I'm sure a few got lucky!

I hope I get lucky again and draw this tag! Until than I'll find sheds! LOL

[takethetime]

We had a fun year! Here's our story.
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php?topic=203899.0

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[ElkBOW79]

My buddy and I drew the tag this year and were blessed with 2 nice 6x6's...not monsters by any means...but definitely trophies in our book!  I'll write up our story and share a few pics.

[Muleyslyr]

Bummer it didn't happen for ya but it does sound like you had a good hunt. And that's all you can ask for when you finally do draw that tag you've been waiting for. It'll sting for awhile until you fill that next tag. Thanks for the update.