2006 Little Naches Elk Hunt

[bear]

enjoy

[Wea300mag]

Nice bulls, but a pic is not complete without the stories.............

Remember, we are all experiencing hunting withdrawls and need a fix.

[280ackley]

yes, yes, story please

[bowhuntin]

I agree a good story would be nice to go along with the pic. What season were these bulls killed in too archery, modern or muzzleloader?

[bear]

wow, the pictures actually worked!  I have more great pictures that I'll try to load(it only took a couple of days to figure it out ).  I have drawn a few good tags over the years and most of the time the hunts don't seem to end up as good as the anticipation.  Not so on this one.  I would highly recomend this hunt.  My friend and I drew the rifle tag and the season was from October 1-10.  We made several calls and talked to people who knew the area and decided to start scouting at the top of the unit near the crest trail.  We rode horse into the area about a month before season just to learn the terrain.  Didn't see any elk, but the area was amazing !  We drove truck down lower into the unit to scout, but it was heavily treed.  We hoped to hunt up high where we could do more glassing.  We came back to the area the week before the season to pick a campsite and glass for elk.  After riding about 6 miles and setting up camp, we decided to take a short hike and do a little glassing.  That evening and the following morning we estimated that we saw about 150 elk and they were rutting like crazy!!  Sorry to leave you guys hanging, but I've got to go to work.  I'll finish this evening . 

[Muleyslyr]

Cool.....those are a coupla' nice bulls.  Definately worth waiting for.  How many pts. did you guys have......if you don't mind me asking??

[popeshawnpaul]

Wow, that's just mean to leave us hanging like that...   

[yajsab]

Great pic.  Still waiting for story.   

There are a lot of elk in that unit.  I don't know why they don't open that unit during archery.  I want to go there but never got drawn.   

[bear]

Sorry to leave you guys hanging this morning.  Anyways, we had our campsite picked right next to an alpine lake with a herd of goats right above us on the hill.  I could not have even imagined it any more scenic.  We came back in the next week the day before season and set up camp.  The goat herd was still right above our camp.  Once camp was set we decided to take a short hike to glass where most of the elk were the week before.  We didn't see any, but we didn't look to hard because we didn't want to disturb things the evening before the hunt.  The next morning was like no other day that I've ever had in God's creation.  As we were laying in our sleeping bags waiting for light, the alarm clock went off in a big way!  Elk were bugling like crazy all around our tent!  Needless to say, had little trouble getting up that morning.  Once hunting light came, we walked a short distance and saw elk in several different directions.  They were screaming from all around us!  We started bugling and bulls started coming!  We had one come within 75 yards or so and my friend passed on him at first, just because we had only been hunting about 15 minutes!  After the bull walked away a few hundred yards, he decided what the heck I WANT THAT BULL!  We started bugling again and closed the distance to a couple hundred yards and then he let loose and dropped the bull in his tracks.  I then got to see if my 4 year old mare would pack meat.  I brought her up to the bull and she started to eat the grass about 6 inches away from him.  She even licked the blood off our hands after butchering the elk, and never even flinched when we loaded the elk on her.  Well, we got the elk back to camp and hung in the shade, took a break and then went back out hunting.  That evening was a little slow and the next morning was also, so we decided to take a ride into the next drainage.  The weather was nice, so the hunting was a little slow.  We heard an occasional bugle and as the day went into late afternoon things started to pick up.  We picked an area that we heard some bugling from and set up a strategy.  My friend who had already tagged out would stay up on the ridge and occasionally bugle just to help me locate.  My brother and another friend would come down the valley with me to help cow call.  It worked extremely well and we had several close encounters(within about 15 feet).  I went down even further into the valley after the bugles and cut off a bull as he was crossing over a small ridge.  He caught me in a stare down at 30 yards as my rifle was at my side.  As I slowly pulled my rifle up, he took off.  About an hour later, after hiking out of the valley, I caught the bull on a sidehill(and to make a long story short) and tagged my elk.  This was the best hunt of my life, nothing else can even come close.  If anyone draws this tag, post it one this site, and I would be glad to assist anyone in anyway that I can.  I would probably even go along if work permitted.

[searchnfor]

Great story bear, sounds like a lot of fun.

[bear]

Cool.....those are a coupla' nice bulls.  Definately worth waiting for.  How many pts. did you guys have......if you don't mind me asking??

I think we had about 7 points.

[bear]

another picture for you guys

[MuleySniper]

Nice bulls! Looks like you had a sweet camp setup too.
MS

[jackelope]

 

[Bearhunter]

Awesome story, that sounds like my dream hunt.  I have six elk points and am hoping that I draw an archery tag this year.  Did you see any pigs?