Roosevelt Elk. Please nudge me in the right direction. I feel hopeless.

[eddyr]

Hello all, new elk hunter here (2 year) Rifle starts tomorrow, I'll only be able to get out there Sunday and stay untill end of season. This past week from Tuesday morning until today I was in the "wild" looking for elk. The two weeks before that I was deer hunting in a different unit and also looking for elk there. No luck.

Unit where I deer hunted is GMU 660. Wayerhouser land. Areas I checked out is near Melbourne and a little bit near Minot peak. Near Melbourne I have looked and glassed every clear cut there is for days. Nothing. I have seen a bunch of elk sign, like fresh poop, bedding and tracks but not an actual animal. Wasn't too disappointed since I wasn't truly planning to hunt elk there anyway. (Although I do know there is elk in there because last summer I have seen poached elk hoofs while summer scouting, yes I reported it)

Then since I also have access to wayerhouser land near st. Helens I decided to go check it out this week to at least get an idea of the land. Went to GMU 520 near riff lake. From there basically went south west over couple days untill I got into GMU 550. Once again no elk. Infact barely any deer as well. Maybe I was in a completely wrong part of the 520 but contrary to hunting prospects published, this unit sucked.
Spent 2 days driving around near silver lake area of 550. No elk. My last gate was near rose valley, I got in there a couple hours before sun down so didn't get to explore much, but still, no elk.

At this point I start to believe elk don't exist. 2 years "hunting" elk, covering probably thousands of miles (on car of course), scouting multiple times in summer and not seeing a single animal... What am I doing wrong?

Should I still go to rose valley part of 550 and spent a week there? Should I try to find a completely new location? Should I instead go to Pe Ell area and look around there? I don't have access to wayco land there but I think there's a little bit of public. Never been there personally but I believe phelps calls are from there so there should be elk right?

Should I give up on Roosevelt and try east wa instead next year? Although that seems like a whole new learning curve, except this time 6+ hours away.

I am at a loss guys. Please just a little help. I'm not looking for biggest bull out there. Just a legal one, heck I would be more than happy to take one with hoof disease just to make it not suffer. Honestly, at this point, if I would see some cows I would consider this season to be somewhat successful.

Would appreciate any tips, thanks!

[fowl smacker]

Elk numbers are so horrible now in western WA it's sad.  Those very few that are still around are likely dealing with hoof rot.  I was all around this deer season in many different gmus and saw 2 cows in the Toutle unit.

[MADMAX]

Was told by 2 different locals this year that there was a 60% die off in the Winston

[HntnFsh]

Was told by 2 different locals this year that there was a 60% die off in the Winston

Over how many years?

[HUNTIN4SIX]

It’s kind of a “welcome to Washington elk hunting”.  Back in the day old timers would say you shoot and elk every seven years.  I was a little better than that, but tried harder than the average guy.  Get up every morning of elk season tighten yer boots and be the first one at the gate, hunt till dark and do it the next day.  Hike hard and work your arse off learning areas/elk and you might get an elk in a few years.  Rely on yourself and no one else and it will make it that much sweeter.  There are no short cuts, just empty clear cuts.... good luck and remember the hunt is the fun part.  Oh and don’t come over to the East side cause it sucks worse over here, and I mean that!

[MADMAX]

Was told by 2 different locals this year that there was a 60% die off in the Winston

Over how many years?

He really didn’t say, but it made sense after seeing the amount of well defined elk trails that had zero track in them
I’m not saying there’s no elk there but far less than I recall
I started hunting the Winston in the 80s when they used to give you a Weyerhaeuser map with tree damage

I’ll be hunting spikes from now on the east side

[medic6]

You're moving too much.  The days of cruising the tree farm and seeing elk in every third or fourth cut is long gone.   Elk in the tree farm live in the areas where they cannot typically see vehicles or be seen.   If you pull into a cut and park and you cannot see the entire tree line around the cut, you can bet the elk are in the section you have to walk over to look at.  To really get a good idea if elk are around you need to walk the entire tree line/timber edge and look for sign.  no sign, move over one draw and repeat.  It takes time.  That is why scouting is so important. Once you find them you find them and you can bet they will be in the general area next year and the year after etc.    I know exactly where to go to find elk and it still can take me two or three days to pin them down to a specific timber patch or specific 50 yard section of a cut in the am/pm. 

[craigapphunt]

Was told by 2 different locals this year that there was a 60% die off in the Winston

Yeah Winston's in bad shape for sure.

[craigapphunt]

Eddyr I don't have any personal experience in the area you are looking for elk at all but as others have said the elk hunting in western wa has gone way down hill in the last decade or so. It's possible that the places your hunting are experiencing VERY low numbers of elk. That being said other places in western wa still have some elk that can be located "fairly easily" at least before season while scouting. I would recommend going onto the Washington fish and wildlife website and searching harvest statistics. Specifically the total number of elk harvested in the individual units. Then after noting the top units decide which of those units are realistic for you to scout/hunt based on access and logistics. This probably doesn't help you for this season but it should at least put you in better elk country. Good luck.

[highside74]

1st off, the worst thing you can do is try to hunt elk where there aren't any. Spending a week traipsing around the woods during one of the hardest seasons to hunt elk hoping to bump into a bull is almost impossible. It can take men many years to figure out where they live during November. They aren't anywhere you will see Sept and Oct sign. Think remote, steep and deep.

[eddyr]

You're moving too much.  The days of cruising the tree farm and seeing elk in every third or fourth cut is long gone.   Elk in the tree farm live in the areas where they cannot typically see vehicles or be seen.   If you pull into a cut and park and you cannot see the entire tree line around the cut, you can bet the elk are in the section you have to walk over to look at.  To really get a good idea if elk are around you need to walk the entire tree line/timber edge and look for sign.  no sign, move over one draw and repeat.  It takes time.  That is why scouting is so important. Once you find them you find them and you can bet they will be in the general area next year and the year after etc.    I know exactly where to go to find elk and it still can take me two or three days to pin them down to a specific timber patch or specific 50 yard section of a cut in the am/pm.

So if I do find some elk after all, even just cows, would you say I should stick to that cut or will they move around to different cuts? Would they use same cut every day? Thanks

[eddyr]

1st off, the worst thing you can do is try to hunt elk where there aren't any. Spending a week traipsing around the woods during one of the hardest seasons to hunt elk hoping to bump into a bull is almost impossible. It can take men many years to figure out where they live during November. They aren't anywhere you will see Sept and Oct sign. Think remote, steep and deep.

If I find an elk trail, with decently fresh tracks and all, how realistic is it for me to stumble into an elk if I just follow the trail? There were quite a few trails in 660 that lead into some deep nasty stuff, I could follow something like that but I'm worried they will move away before I get to see them, seeing how it's impossible to get through that stuff quietly.

[highside74]

Bulls leave cows in November. You may still find them with cows but generally they will separate and live in bachelor groups away from other elk in secluded areas to rest and feed. You aren't looking for elk sign in November you are looking for bull sign. Tracks and scat in areas with good feed. Killing bull elk in November is like piecing a puzzle together. Sometimes by the process of elimination. Don't hunt cow sign expecting to run into a bull. Keep looking for bull sign. They use the same spots year after year until something changes. If it changes, use what you learned to find that kind of spot in a differwnt area. With hoof rot so prevalent on the westside it is going to get harder and harder. I just spent a week hunting deer in an area that I would normally bump elk in October. I didn't see any. My brother did the same thing in a different area. Normally cow elk around every bend. He didn't see one. The guys that I know that kill bulls consistently in Nov hunt deep creek bottoms in big timber canyons. It's very difficult and not something most guys are willing to do.

[Dark2Dark]

Get out of your truck and hike around. I have seen elk in all the areas you are talking about but rarely/never from the truck. If you road hunt elk you’ll be lucky to get one bull every [emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]] years. Spend all day in the woods and you’ll at least start seeing sign and having encounters.

Driving around looking at clearcuts isn’t an effective way to kill elk consistently or ever, unless you spend a [emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]s of hours in the same area really dialing the elk in. You’re telling about [emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]]/[emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]] hunters.