general season stories

[face]

Ya , its been slow in 342. I guided my 14 year old nephew into getting his first spike        opening morning . This was an amazing hunt . A couple of hunters tried getting in front of us on the way up the hill, we stopped and started glassing and I spotted the spike and 4 cows way up in a big basin but heading our way. The 2 other hunters seemed to not    know where they were and headed back down to there truck. As they were heading back the elk were on the side of the hill about 200 yards away. Thank god they never looked behind them. Lol. The elk bedded and we made our move. I will post some pictures after the season is done. So I don't have any company in the coming days. Good luck all !!!

[runamuk]

Yesterday morning, my partner came across a 6x6 bull who was gut shot. He would turn his head, but did not move even though my friend was 10 yards away. He did get up once and move 50 feet.
There were quite a few hunters with big bull tags, but they had left.
A sad story.

Did you call wdfw? They often can put a tag holder on situations like this. 

[acrocker]

Just got back from 346 - been trying to fill a Peaches big bull tag and can't find any elk at all! I've been out in it for 9 straight days and it wasn't until today up at Mt. Clifty that I finally found 2 cows and 2 calves. Prior to that I had seen only 3 cows off the 1900 road while driving back to camp one night. I've hunted Clifty, Blowout, Gold Creek, and off the PCT south of the 1900 rd and just can't find any elk - heading back over tomorrow to go for my Hail Mary or it's tag soup for me.

One note - did find a bunch of wolf tracks on and around the PCT at Blowout Mountain, could be part of the problem...

[ghosthunter]

Figurativly speaking, 340 and 342, are ghost towns. Was not sure why, until I checked the game regs, the state cut the cow tags for those two GMU's 90%. Last year 340 issued 350 cow tags and 342 issued 200. This year 340, 35 cow tags and 342, 20 cow tags. There is probably half if not less, camps this year than in the last 14 years.

Good

We use to hunt 342 back when it was 500 tags, than the state raised the amount of permits and success went in the dumpster. So we moved out.

[Jpmiller]

Just got back from 346 - been trying to fill a Peaches big bull tag and can't find any elk at all! I've been out in it for 9 straight days and it wasn't until today up at Mt. Clifty that I finally found 2 cows and 2 calves. Prior to that I had seen only 3 cows off the 1900 road while driving back to camp one night. I've hunted Clifty, Blowout, Gold Creek, and off the PCT south of the 1900 rd and just can't find any elk - heading back over tomorrow to go for my Hail Mary or it's tag soup for me.

One note - did find a bunch of wolf tracks on and around the PCT at Blowout Mountain, could be part of the problem...

I cut a wolf track in the snow a little ways north of there. We also had a stalk on elk blown when a couple guys parked at a landing about a mile across valley. Not their fault, elk were just really spooky. We ran into alot of sign to go along with the elk and a few mulies too. Good season for just a weekend for us, even with no notched tags.

[treeclimber2852]

My son and I found several wolf tracks in Bumping on Sunday.  I think it's safe to say we have a wolf problem.

[Duckhunter14]

Heading up to the Colockum tomorrow through Sunday.  I have to say the reports I've been getting have been very poor.  I'll give it a good try, but to be honest, I'm not very enthused. The "true spike" rule seems ridiculous.  Anybody care to guess how many true spikes might be running around in the entire Colockum herd?  My feeling is not very many.  I'm hoping for 1 in the 25 square mile area I usually hunt, but frankly our advance party has seen no elk at all there this year.  I'm thinking general season elk is pretty much a lost cause unless you have a cow tag.  Good for beer drinking I suppose...

You'd be surprised.

[Stein]

Yesterday morning, my partner came across a 6x6 bull who was gut shot. He would turn his head, but did not move even though my friend was 10 yards away. He did get up once and move 50 feet.
There were quite a few hunters with big bull tags, but they had left.
A sad story.

What unit?

[HoofsandWings]

Yesterday morning, my partner came across a 6x6 bull who was gut shot. He would turn his head, but did not move even though my friend was 10 yards away. He did get up once and move 50 feet.
There were quite a few hunters with big bull tags, but they had left.
A sad story.

Did you call wdfw? They often can put a tag holder on situations like this.

I think I mentioned there were several tag holders, but they gave up the day before. We knew who they were, but they had left.

[lilshootergirl]

Heard ppl saying others were tagging spikes they claimed they shot! Pretty hard up! No pride in that, if I found one I would open it up let it cool, and maybe they would find it?better than it rotting?

[runamuk]

Yesterday morning, my partner came across a 6x6 bull who was gut shot. He would turn his head, but did not move even though my friend was 10 yards away. He did get up once and move 50 feet.
There were quite a few hunters with big bull tags, but they had left.
A sad story.

Did you call wdfw? They often can put a tag holder on situations like this.

I think I mentioned there were several tag holders, but they gave up the day before. We knew who they were, but they had left.

I know but did you talk to any wdfw representative? They can make judgement calls.  I also have another option to at least not see waste happen.  There are legal means to put down something like that.

[huntandjeep]

Heard ppl saying others were tagging spikes they claimed they shot! Pretty hard up! No pride in that, if I found one I would open it up let it cool, and maybe they would find it?better than it rotting?

Happens alot.

[steeleywhopper]

We had 1 Dayton Bull permit in camp and he hunted his butt off, didn’t see one bull until I spotted a 2x2 that he ended up shooting on day 11. Wolves were howling nightly and elk were non existent where we were at. I think we’re done hunting the Blues.

[elkchaser54]

Where did you hunt in the dayton unit and not see a big bull??? There is 3 wolf packs in the blues now.  FYI

[BigBuckBandit]

I ended up out on the coast looking for a big Roosevelt. Got some intel from some forester buddies that had eyes on a few legal bulls in a herd. Ended up hiking in behind a gate a few miles just to find that they had burned some slash piles the day before. That would have been fine except the fires got away from them and ended up burning into the tree line pretty well. Didn't see a damn thing except for a doe. I'm pretty sure every animal within a couple miles smelled that smoke and headed in the opposite direction  . Debating on dragging the girlfriend out to the coast again for another shot.