Blue MT elk herd info-Dayton?

[dvolmer]

Last year I drew a Quality Modern firearm bull tag for the Dayton area.  After a hard hunt I was lucky enough to fill my tag on a small 5x5 bull towards the end of the hunt.  During the two week hunt I saw one nice big bull and one other small 5x5.  I know of only one spike shot last year in the unit over on Newby Ridge and I visited most of the camps in the unit and talked to many hunters so I doubt many if any others were taken on public land and the National Forest. There were many wolf sightings by a lot of hunters last year also.  In my two weeks of hunting, I saw a total of about 50 cows and they did not have a single calf with them.  The cows looked super healthy but no babies at all.  I talked to the biologist and he told me the two down years were due to two bad severe winters with no calf survival and bad winter kills so that is why they lowered the bull tags to 6 last year (only 2 tags this year).

So my questions is this to those who hunted the Dayton unit or surrounding units (Tuccannon, Blue Creek, and Wenaha), What did you all see and experience?  With zero to no calf survival last year, were very many if any spikes taken this year??  Last winter was very mild and we had a nice wet spring with lots of feed, so did hunters see cows with calves?  How many of the cows you saw had a calf with it?  Was it truly a bad couple of winters that has caused this like the biologist told me or are predator's and tribal hunting out of control and the main contributor.  If it was the bad winters and not Predators and tribal hunting, then the cows should have had a large number of surviving calves with them I would imagine.  What did you all see???  Due to draw results for me, I hunted other areas and didn't have a chance to hunt the blues.

[CoryTDF]

The Blues are ruined and will remain so until we have some better form of predator management. IMHO. There are still some huge bulls around but nothing like it was only 8 yeas ago. 

[270Flat]

 

I’m only seeing 30% cows with calves. Last winter wreaked havoc on calves and pushed all the elk low. Wolves knew where they were. Still some huge bulls but nothing like it was a few years ago. There are more bulls outside WW now during the winter than ever before. I think the cougar population is way understated. More cats plus the wolves running the herds. Toss in calf predation from the bears and herd looks horrible...

Hoping my kids get hunt the blues when they get older

[rackattack]

Just my opinion, but the calves are not even making it to winter.  Kind of hard to blame the winter unless you are trying to cover for some other factor.

[nwwanderer]

I have a bit of experience in the southeast.  With the current WDFW attitude and management their goals can not be met.  A tiny flicker of hope might be the increased bear harvest.  Has it happened?  Anyone see any stats?  Thanks

[pc]

Hello all,
I have hunted the blues (Lick Creek & Mt. View) since 2010. The Elk and deer were plentiful at that time. 4 years ago I gave up on the blues and started hunting out of state.
This year I figured I would give it another try. I have only hunted archery in the blues... this year I drew a cow tag (Muzzleloader) for Mt. View.
Found some Elk but very few, and very few deer too. I did speak to the Game Warden and asked him about the lack of game and he said the predator's are hitting them hard, but the Native Americans are hitting them harder.
They can use rifles almost anytime of year (even during archery season - seems like a serious safely issue to me ), and they are not reporting what and how many they take to the state. So the folks that are supposed to manage the herds have no way of knowing why the decline 

I did get a shot off on a cow, however I'm new to muzzleloading and missed my shot   

[elkchaser54]

I was in mt view for archery, and on sept 3rd there was a bull bugling 30 mins after sunset behind the CCC camp and then 5 rifle blasts go off and I see truck headlights going right towards where that elk was at.  This type of predator is out of control.

[Caseyd]

Only way to prevent that last one is funding. A non profit could buy, lease or compensate a landowner for winter damage. With the 4 legged predators and snow pushing them low, most of them stay if not pushed. They get pushed and the 2 legged predators get after them. Only way it’s going to get better is if they have a safe winter home.

You’d be amazed how many of them live year round in the wheat closer to the river now

[Mr Mykiss]

Heavy tribal hunting last week of September, mostly Idaho plates. Had probably 4 or 5 shooters on cameras last year and plenty of bulls. Did have one shooter show up on Rez Bucks, Bulls and Predators FB page in early October so I scratched him off the list Bio, Wik, said about 7 times when I talked to him “they don’t report their harvests, we don’t know what they harvest and we can’t control it”, all very true.
That being said I’ve known 8 real hunters with Blues tags last year and this year and they have all filled their tags with a solid representation of a mature bull and passed on multiple bulls during their hunts.
It is not what it once was and predators of all types are taking their toll but there are still great bulls to be had.

[Matth]

Heavy tribal hunting last week of September, mostly Idaho plates. Had probably 4 or 5 shooters on cameras last year and plenty of bulls. Did have one shooter show up on Rez Bucks, Bulls and Predators FB page in early October so I scratched him off the list Bio, Wik, said about 7 times when I talked to him “they don’t report their harvests, we don’t know what they harvest and we can’t control it”, all very true.
That being said I’ve known 8 real hunters with Blues tags last year and this year and they have all filled their tags with a solid representation of a mature bull and passed on multiple bulls during their hunts.
It is not what it once was and predators of all types are taking their toll but there are still great bulls to be had.

i think this pretty much spot on.