Well yall I thought id share my hunting experience with you on my first ML elk season. I was one of those guys who decided to try something different this year and see if it didnt work a little better for me then doing the modern firearm circus.
10/2 -- hunted for about 8 hours down south of spokane at a friends place in unit 127, he had elk on his property just before ML season during the bow season. we hunted hard but they just wernt in the area on that particular day. did see some signs that they had been in there recently.
10/3 -- gathered my stuff for 5 days of hunting in the NE in unit 113 with my future father in law
10/4 -- arrived in Ione at grandma's house and went out that afternoon did a little road hunting/looking for sign and managed to get a grouse as well as saw a nice black bear.
10/5 -- went to an undisclosable location near a lake not far from ione and saw tons of sign. on our second stand of the day we had a forked horn come in that i wasnt able to seal the deal on due to a small miscommunication with me and my hunting partner. hunted for about 13 hours and put in approx 10 miles on foot.
10/6 -- returned to our spot near the lake and didnt see as much sign up on the ridge but we did bump a cow and a calf about mid day so we knew the elk were still in there. hunted hard for another 13 hours and managed to find a monster pair of mule der sheds sitting side by side atop the ridge as well as we saw a nice bull moose down lower after we hunted the ridge. couldnt believe the mass on on these mule deer racks. put in about another 9 or 10 miles on foot.
10/7 -- tried a different area up near the canadian border but we just couldnt find any sign. we did hear a bugle on our first stand which was cool. after a few hours of driving around and checking out nice looking areas we decided to head back to were we were on tuesday. i did manage to shoot a really cool black phased ruffed grouse while we were up there driving around. once we returned to were we were tuesday/weds we didnt put in as many miles on foot but did sit at a spot that seemed to be part of their route when they were in that area and sat for 3 hours untill dark.
10/8 -- went back in and it had rained the night before so we had a clean slate. immediately saw tons of sign and knew they were back on the ridge we were hunting. did a stand at the same spot we were at the night before and im sure we had one come in but he never showed himself. the wind was switching horribly and it busted us and wasnt going to show its self. i could hear it crunching in the bushes and i could hear it walking around in the thick bushes infront of the game trail behind me. we hunted hard the rest of the day and continued to find sign everywhere. were fairly certain the two of us were pushing them around as we were constantly finding still warm fresh scat. put in another 8 or 9 miles but other then alot of fresh fresh sign we were never able to seal the deal.
all in all i had a great season this year and even though i didnt get an elk down i did have an opportunity at one and we saw elk! I havnt even seen an elk the last 3 years doing the modern season. so i guess im happy that i did the ML season this year. i feel really confident that if the elk are in there next year well get one and i learned a new area to hunt that will be great for bear hunting as well. i dont feel like we could have done anything different and we put in a hell of an effort so all in all was a great NE ML season for me and my future father in law. was really nice not seeing another hunter the 5 days we were hunting and even nicer to see elk and all the sign as well as the better weather. so next year im sure ill do the ML thing again definately no regrets doing it this year.
--bh2bt
