Elk hunting in the GMU 340

[demontang]

He would have known if it was a gunshot wound , cause its leg woulda been dangling along for the ride . Elk can get some crazy wounds on there own , I'd like to think it was a wounded elk and not point fingers .

Well I know lots of things can change the flight of the arrow I have hunted with a bow for 13 years tell this year. No finger pointing I was just saying I saw it.

[allboy]

We did 8 days on the Taneum and didn't see one Elk, or anything hanging. It sucked. Ate two cow tags. I guess that how it goes sometimes.

[denali]

slow for us as well 4-8 guys in camp 9 days, hard to find cows let alone spikes. 

[coachcw]

How could you hunt eight days and not see a cow in 340 , thats nuts , Did you sit on the same stump every day ? if I don't find elk every day I'm pissed .

[Killmore]

This is what it was like in the goooood old days!

[denali]

How could you hunt eight days and not see a cow in 340 , thats nuts , Did you sit on the same stump every day ? if I don't find elk every day I'm pissed .

I found cows but I'm not the one with the tag, saw 5x5 and a 5x6 didn't have that tag either, we hunt in an area closed to vehicles so we we're on the hill hunting. 

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

This is what it was like in the goooood old days!

My point exactly, now you not only have to get out of your truck, but you have to walk away from it also ! 

[Killmore]

But your missing my point... I'm curious on what happened to the elk that use to be through out the area, not just in the remote areas. Which we do hunt in those remote areas, not just warming the truck seat. I'm still curious on why the cow tags have been slashed from 250 to 100 this year??? Is the Yakima herd still at 9500 head that they use to claim, or is it drastically down?

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

In the over 20 years that I have been hunting the area, I have seen major fluctuations in the numbers of Elk in the unit.
The herd was at 12000+/-, and reduced to 9500,according to the wdfw In February/March 2009, Yakima
herd was estimated at 9,133, far below the days when there was " elk through out the area"

The Yakima herd is now nearing the lower end of
population objective. A very cold, dry spring in 2008
reduced both yearling and calf recruitment.The survey data for the Yakima herd matches the
harvest data fairly closely. A high antlerless harvest since
1999 has probably reduced the population. Historic
harvest indicates the Yakima population has gone through
cycles. Relatively low cow harvest in the mid-1980’s resulted in an increasing population that was reduced in
the early 1990’s. The population likely peaked 1999-2000
and decreased in recent years.Hunter
opportunity and harvest have been reduced to stabilize
the herd.

The small pockets of "resident" animals hide in the same places every year, but there are actually fewer hunters pushing them around than there were back before the Spike Only rule.
The 3pt min restriction on deer cut the hunter numbers down even more.
That is why you are not seeing the same numbers, but they are there, if you know where to look.. 

[stickbuck]

We have hunted the manastash for at least 10 years during archery. This year was far and away the worst. It didn't start out so hot after somebody pull the SD card from my trail cam. The weird thing is that they left the camera and only took the card after it had been over that wallow for six weeks. Hunted the unit for 8 days and only saw a dozen cows. There was plenty of green feed in our normal spots that are usually not so green. It was just plain weird to not even find the normal resident herds that we were always able to find in the past.

[coachcw]

I just think the elk wernt moving much during archery season . I dont know about riffle season , just that they seem to get preety smart . If not to many guys get a mile or two from the roads the elk just hold up . I know a few spots in 340 that I can kick elk out of almost any time . both times I've been over there helping cow hunters out , weved pushed elk out. most not all rifle guys just sit were they can see a ton of area and wonder why they dont see any elk , there in the thick crap and you gotta step on them to bust them out.goto joe watt or robinson canyon come dec there there. I also think some of the elk that used to come in from 336 are wintering closser to i90 and the resort land . the game dept said they want a 50 percent kill rate on elk to manage the herd . so if the winters andthe hunters arnt killing them and the cow tags are down , my geuss in the cats are working pretty hard in there.

[Killmore]

 

[rjn cajun]

I`m a new poster been lookin at the site for a couple years. I`ve been hunting the 340 for 20 years and never seen it this bad. I have a big camp in Robinson Canyon any of you that Know the area know my camp been there for years. We did see some elk during modern deer and also a spike bull with some cows. Out of 14 guy`s we saw a total of 5 cows the first 3 days. There is always the local herd that stays around but nothing this year.Good thing we didn`t draw any tags this year.  We did most of our hunting in the Quillamine and the naneum. Saw a couple hundred head but no true spikes. Just wanted to chime in with what our camp didn`t see also.

[sled]

one word.    COUGARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[3dsheetmetal]

one word.    COUGARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought they were just hanging around the night clubs.