First of all I want to thank the people who developed this website. This forum is packed with lots of valuable information and was extremely helpfull in preparing for my hunt. I haven't posted many times so I guess I use this as my introduction. I was born in Oregon, grew up in Alaska and currently live here in Washington on the wet side. I've hunted big game animals here in Washington for approximately 11 years and have taken quite a few deer. I have to say it takes a lifetime to really get to know a state intimately. Every year I get to know Washington better and better and my hunts prove it. This year was my first and best Elk hunt. I hope to have many more like this and better.
Hunting Journal
Elk Hunt 2010
Location: Toutle
Dates: Nov 23-30
The season for me started with the notification that we had drawn antlerless elk tags for the Toutle unit, November 23-30. Every year my friends and I apply for group tags. We have been doing pretty good getting drawn for doe tags but had been trying for 9 years to get cow elk tags. Finally this year it happened. The anticipation for the hunt was almost unbearable. I had never hunted this unit so I was bound and determined to make the best of it. I started scouting early in July. The first day of scouting I found a group of approximately 20 and was very excited. I continued to scout every weekend I had available in between fishing trips. I was able to identify all the major roads coming in and out of the unit but was unable to get access until the early rifle deer season because of the locked Weyerhaeuser gates. Opening weekend of deer season we saw approximately 30 elk and 2 deer, one of which was a spike blacktail. With the numbers of elk I was seeing, I was pretty confident that I could get on the heard. After months of planning the season was here. A buddy and I went out the weekend before the opener and set up camp. That weekend the snow began to fall and gave us approximately 18” on the upper slopes. Opening morning I went up to a few of the areas that I had seen elk previously and only cut 2 tracks. With all the snow I figured they must have gone down in elevation. After lunch I drove south down to the next major road that crossed the unit.
Approximately half way in on that road I came across two recent gut piles and tracks absolutely everywhere. It looked like the whole Saint Helens heard had crossed through there in the middle of the night. I stopped, glassed some clear cuts and then found a small group of 8 or 9 elk up in a high clear cut about 3 miles away. The rest of that day I spent trying to figure out how to get to them as well as looking for other groups. On the way out before dark that evening I came across a small group of 5 elk in the Toutle River, one of which was a 3 by 3 rag bull. It was too dark to attempt a shot and then deal with the pack out across the river so I headed back to camp. My buddy joined me that evening in camp and I related the first days hunt and we made a plan for the next morning.
The second day of the hunt started off with a big 6X bull sighting. I was drooling with the possibility of filling my tag. We drove in to where I had seen the gut piles the previous day and began glassing. My buddy spotted the same group I had seen the day before, still in the same high clear cut. I had figured out how to get to the clear cut below them so we drove there and made a plan. The wind would be in our face for the hike up the hill so we got our gear together and began our stalk. As we walked into the lower clear cut we jumped a 5x5 bull into the open. We were worried that he might spook the cows above him so we watched and waited for him to leave. Shortly after he left another spike bull jumped up from his bed and watched us for a few before wandering out of site. After waiting approximately 45 minutes we began our climb. As we crawled over old growth and bushwhacked through the snow and underbrush the wind changed and started coming from the side. We were nervous that the wind would change to our backs so we slowly and quietly traversed around and up the hill to keep the wind in our face. After 2 hours of quietly stalking up the hill we reached the upper clear cut. As we slowly crept into the clear cut I could see a lone cow standing in the middle broadside feeding. My buddy and I made a plan that I would shoot and then he would run up and get a shot on another cow when they spooked. I crept up a little closer where I had a good view and steadied my Springfield 30-06 on my shooting stick. The cow was quartering to me about 150 yards out, so I put the cross hairs behind her front shoulder and pulled the trigger. She bolted and then about 12 elk got up from their beds and ran out into the middle of the clear cut and looked at us. My buddy pulled up on another cow and pulled the trigger. I saw his cow hump and then she disappeared behind a tree with a 3X bull. We looked at each other and said “which one did you shoot”? Both of us gave a shrug. My cow had bolted off so I was pretty sure I hit her, but his had stayed put. Finally his moved from behind a tree and I could see where he had gut shot her. He was able to put two more in her before she finally went down. With one elk down for sure we started looking for blood from my elk. After walking in circles around the estimated point of impact we finally found a few drops of blood about the size of a pencil eraser. At that point we should have stopped and waited for a couple hours at least but hindsight is always 20/20. Instead, being the rookie elk hunter that I am, I continued to follow the blood trail; sometimes one drop and sometimes 3 or 4. I couldn’t believe the blood trail was so sparse. After tracking her about 3 hours I finally gave up for the evening marked the last location on my GPS and went back for the truck. Another 3 hours later we had my buddies elk quartered up and in the truck heading back to camp. That evening wait was excruciating. I didn’t get much sleep wondering if I was ever going to find that elk. The next morning two more from our group joined us and we set out to find my elk and fill their tags. After tracking another half hour I found my elk bedded by a big tree, dead. Upon investigation I had hit her in the heart and the bullet passed through and out the back side through the gut. All in all my elk ran about a mile before piling up. With this being my first elk I couldn’t get over how tough these animals are. It’s amazing that they can run a mile with a heart shot.
After taking pictures we began the butchering process. As we were half way through it we got a call on the radio that another person in our group had dropped an elk as it was crossing a gravel road not a ¼ mile from where we were. Yahooooooo. Three elk down in the first 3 days of the hunt and two of them on Thanksgiving Day. What a way to celebrate harvest day. I can’t think of a better way. The next several days we continued to try and find one last elk to fill our group tags. We had run across an old boy with his sons who were trying to get him into an elk but weren’t having any luck. Since we only had one tag left to fill, we were riding on cloud nine and told those guys to follow us and we would put them in the general area. We put them right on the elk and the following day they filled their tag. They were so appreciative they didn’t know how to act. I was just happy to guide them into the spot. This little bit of karma paid us back on our final day of the hunt. As we were packing up camp we had a Weyerhaeuser employee come into camp and ask us if we still had an elk tag to fill. We told him we had one left and he said “follow me down to my excavator, a group of elk just ran into the clear cut behind your camp”. My buddy followed him down there and he stood on top of his excavator and spotted for my friend while he filled his tag. Three shots later and a voice over the radio, “Elk down boys”. We finished packing up the camp and drove down to help him pack out his elk. 4 for 4 = 100%. What a trip! What a hunt! I’ll be riding on this high for years to come. We were in the elk every day and saw lots of bulls, the biggest being a 6x7. Now I’ve read on this forum that there shouldn’t be any trouble filling our cow tags but I wasn’t taking anything for granted and all our hard work and scouting paid off. Here are a few pictures from the trip. I have blacked out my buddies faces because I don’t have permission to post them. Enjoy. I know I did.
