yakima muzzleloader elk

[rackattack]

Just curious to see what some of you think is the best unit for a 300 class bull in the Yakima area?  I'm talking the muzzleloader permit areas of course.  Being from the westside I have no knowledge of these areas, but would like to know something about them before I apply for anything.  Any help yould be great. 

[Ridgerunner]

You'll find 300 plus bulls in all the Yakima units, I personally think those closer to the crest are better during the early season as its more of the thier summer range, however even the more winter range units(i.e. Bethal) will have elk in them during the early seasons.

[boneaddict]

Any of them work just fine.  Idabooner used to carry the firestick around chasing spikes and I would take my camera along to harass the bigger wildlife.  I ran into some outstanding animals that time of year and of course the rut was in full swing.  Don't discount Peaches Ridge or the Naneum(Clockum) herd either.  The best hunting for big bulls was when they offered the big bull tag a few days before the general spike.  The quit doing that and that really screwed things up.  If they do that in any areas, I would suggest thinking about that.  I ahven't studied muzzel lately, so don't know what they are offering these days.

[rackattack]

The only drawback I could see with Peaches Ridge is that you may be mixed with rifle hunters from the Little Naches draw depending on where you hunt.  Anybody ever hunted the Nile(352), or Bumping(356) units.  These make up the Goose Prairie tag and harvest-wise looks pretty good on success?

[boneaddict]

There are only 10 guys in the Naches draw and so much country I doubt they will be messing with your peaches ridge hunt.  I didn't see any while I was up there anyway.  Typical of any of the Yakima units, the Nile and bumping are both fine choices as with any of the other ones.

[Slenk]

Having unted all of the above areas with muzzleloaders for 25+years ,I have this to add .
Weather is the greatest factore over here. I have seen years when there were a lot of monsters down low in the sagebrush . And other years when you couldnot find any elk unless you were way up high . Right now there are 25-30 within 5 miles of mine & boneaddict's houses  .
Oct.1-10 it can be 85-95 degrees over here so I would say the higher elevations would be better .
As you know the Big Boys will be as high as they can get and in the hardest places to get to.
Peaches ,Goose Praire,Bethel,Rimrock, would be the lineup I would pick for a big bull tag . Just my guess though .
Good Luck where ever
Slenk

[rackattack]

Thanks for the input Slenk, having never been over there it makes for a tough decision.  A lot of them look good on paper, but real thoughts about these units is what I'm after.  Any body ever hunt the Observatory tags?  They look to be the best odds for drawing a muzzy tag with 23 available.

[boneaddict]

Observatory is your biggest risk as far as I can think of regards to weather.  As stated, thats our backyard.  It is REALLY weather dependent.  Late season cow is a shoe in.  Almost like backing up to safeway and loading the truck full of meat.  As for big bull.  HUGE RISK.  Much better odds as people don't want to risk it.  If the weather gods are inyour favor, its a good way to have some action as you can get drawn for it.  Not that I like posting choices on the internet, but Slenk has the perfect draw order in regards to hunting wihtout risking anything.  The only flip might be rimrock versus Bethel, again in the favor of weather conditions, but Bethel ALWAYS has bulls of some sort or another.  Rimrock has more access to those harder to get bulls or wilderness bulls as you could refer to them.

[Slenk]

Observatory is your biggest risk as far as I can think of regards to weather.  As stated, thats our backyard.  It is REALLY weather dependent.  Late season cow is a shoe in.  Almost like backing up to safeway and loading the truck full of meat.  As for big bull.  HUGE RISK.  Much better odds as people don't want to risk it.  If the weather gods are inyour favor, its a good way to have some action as you can get drawn for it.  Not that I like posting choices on the internet, but Slenk has the perfect draw order in regards to hunting wihtout risking anything.  The only flip might be rimrock versus Bethel, again in the favor of weather conditions, but Bethel ALWAYS has bulls of some sort or another.  Rimrock has more access to those harder to get bulls or wilderness bulls as you could refer to them.

You reading my mind ?
Slenk

[rackattack]

More great info guys, thank you.   Note to self: Do not put in for Observatory  B.

[colockumelk]

I thought for the hell of it I would drag up a dead post from back in the day. 

If you want a big bull then make your first choice the Colockum.  In my opinion they have better genetics and unlike many other units they are not getting harassed all summer by off road guys and hikers.  Also it's spike only for the bow so hardly any bow hunters get in there.  Also there isn't a muzzle loader season so you are hunting non-pressured elk which is a beautiful thing.  Oh and the best part the Colockum herd has better genetics for their bulls.  Especially in their fronts and G3's. 

That being said the rest of the guys hit it dead on.  As far as the Yakima units go, go high.  The lowest I'd go is the Cowiche unit.  Here's how I'd pick if I was a ML.

1. Colockum
2. Peaches Ridge
3. Cowiche
4. Rimrock
Just my 

[norsepeak]

I agree with ya boneaddict ....to some degree about observatory.  Last season during early archery, not only did we harvest a nice 6x7 down in the sagebrush, but we worked 5-6 nice big 6pts. in the unit in 3 days, and didn't see any other hunters.  It's actually a very good unit if ya know where to look.  Actually over the last two seasons, the biggest bull that we have seen has been in observatory unit, had him at 20 yards, but the hunter couldn't get a shot.  Peaches is great, during the early rifle season, we had 3 of the 10 rifle tags and never saw another hunter while we were hunting.  Like bone and other have said, can't go wrong with bumping, or even bethel.  We got into some very nice bulls last archery season in Bethel.  Can't really go wrong in any of those units....and yeah temp. does affect their behavior to some degree, but they will still rut, even if it's hot....

[SpotandStalk]

I am with Norse on Observatory....there's some nice resident bulls that are there all year, BUT I am with Bone on the risk, I would say it is definitely more challenging.  My dad and I took two nice bulls out of the Observatory in 2007 with rifle tags, Dad's was 342g/332n and mine went 345g/339n.  Weather was a factor and we were limited to basically hunting resident bulls.  You can get into a lot of bulls in Peaches, I would definitely recommend a bike....there are lots of single track bike trails that can lead you into some nice drop off points. 

[fishunt247]

I drew the Peaches Ridge muzzleloader tag in 2005, and I would definitely put in for that tag again. I passed on two bulls and shot this one at 10am on opening day. There are tons of elk, a lot of bulls, and some real nice ones. This bull isn't a monster by any means, we scouted a bigger bull in the same canyon, but I don't think this is a bull you can pass up at 35 yards with a muzzleloader. So in my opinion, I'd put in for that tag... it is a huge unit and most likely you aren't going to see any other people.

[fishunt247]

I posted the picture on another thread, now it won't work. I'll keep trying