Big Game Hunting > Elk Hunting

How to hunt elk in Western WA

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ljsommer:
I am on a mission to learn more about elk in Western WA. Specifically, I am hunting for useful information about how the specific challenges with Western WA elk. 99% of all "how to hunt elk" information is marketed to terrain that looks like Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, etc. That knowledge can be applied to areas of Eastern WA but I have found next to nothing about how to overcome the unique challenges that face a Western WA elk hunter.

I own the Blacktail Tactics book, is there book, video, or learning series that can help me with Western WA elk? I am in Tacoma so pretty nicely positioned between the peninsula and Rainier, but (despite having a few years of attempts, both rifle and archery) I consider myself 100% new to elk hunting so I am starting from zero.

My (amateur) perceived challenges:
1.) Finding elk - I noticed with a late archery Wynoochee lottery tag that the elk seem to roam enormous distances. This becomes problematic when you take access into consideration. How do you account for their range?
2.) Getting away from pressure in Western WA means walking into extremely dense rainforest jungle, where movement happens at 10 feet per hour. Unless you know for a fact there are elk there, how do you efficiently cover ground to even find them in the first place?
3.) Is glassing just for closing 100 yards or less? I don't see how glassing could be a usable tool to find elk with territory so densely forested
4.) People talk about muzzie like it's the only way to get elk, what's up with that? Just a "sweet spot" between rut activity and access to a weapon that has more range than a bow?
5.) How is GoHunt for elk? Seems like their terrain analysis feature could be useful

Just looking for some information to get going, even if it's a link to an article, book, or tool.

JakeLand:
It’s always a challenge that’s what makes it great , there’s a YouTube podcast with Brian cal and angry spike production ( Shannon Moab) that’s pretty useful

huntnfmly:
I seen a you tube video with Randy Newberg explaining and showing examples of the go hunt terrain analysis
Looks pretty good starting point for you
Find an area you’re thinking about and throw the info they have on that and it looks like it would help crossing areas off or circling areas to check out
I may trade in my onX mapping and give that a try
Good luck and enjoy
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself have fun

ljsommer:

--- Quote from: huntnfmly on September 19, 2022, 12:51:28 PM ---I seen a you tube video with Randy Newberg explaining and showing examples of the go hunt terrain analysis
Looks pretty good starting point for you
Find an area you’re thinking about and throw the info they have on that and it looks like it would help crossing areas off or circling areas to check out
I may trade in my onX mapping and give that a try
Good luck and enjoy
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself have fun

--- End quote ---

Yeah I just watched that episode about the terrain analysis and it looks like a great tool that I'll be making use of. Just looking for any other info on western WA elk just because there seems to be so little.

MountainWalk:
Go make friends with some shovel or tower loggers. Have a bottle of Pendleton and a rack of Rainer.  Be honest about what you want. Before I started logging, they helped me quite a bit.  Then I became a logger.  Those guys come in at dark and stay til almost dark. They use those roads every day.

  Don’t think you have to be miles from a road.  Elk will hang around units, they are used to motors and whistles.

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