Some way to attack west side elk hunting...

[Shawn Ryan]

Archery or rifle?

[bench beast]

hunt the steep & deep canyons, or find some gated roads and hike or bike in. you will have a fun hunt. good luck to you.

[briancorneal]

Great advise!  I hope the unit doesn't close access due to "fire danger".  I'm going to have to check out weyerhauser to see if they have a road closure map prior to september.  I really don't care if they're a raghorn since this will hopefully *fingers crossed* my first archery kill ever.  From what I've heard, elk meat is to die for. 

Thanks for all the help.

[Shawn Ryan]

Brian,

We drew archery tags in 2004.  We mostly hunted the State land on the NE corner.  We shot elk on the far east boundary well away from the roads, but that is how we like it.  I loved hunting the S. Fork of the Toutle bottom just after it comes off St. Helens.  If I had to do it again, I'd hunt there and the southern 1/3 of the unit, biking or hiking in from Merrill Lake towards Elk Mountain and Coweeman Lake.

[briancorneal]

From what I'm hearing, that sounds like a good bet.  How many hunters did you encounter while hunting on the south fork toutle?

[nontypical176]

Oh man, awesome draw.  Off the South fork of the toutle, any locked gate with no rig parked there is a good bet.  You can walk roads for miles, look for fresh sign they usually aint moving too far, and if you see clearcuts theres usually good huntable timber near by.  If the gates are locked and people ain't out squirreling around you are gonna have a good time.  Even if there are rigs at a gate talk to the people walking in, there are lots of spurs off the mainline gated roads and you can easily get away from them with lots of room to hunt on your own.  I'm with the other guys on here...the state land north of the south fork of the toutle river is loaded with people....but on the other hand thats where most of the big bulls in the toutle are shot. Another good area is north of the Kalama river, I know of 2 wall hangers shot there last year by bow hunters who said they didn't see many people at all.  Good luck.

[Shawn Ryan]

Brian,

We encountered one other hunter who was willing to get away from the roads.  Lots of rigs driving the roads, including grouse and bear hunters.  South of the S. Fork Toutle there is no driving other than Weyer. employees, hunters let in by Weyer. security to retrieve game or, I guess, the errant hunter with a key, but that is just speculation.

We camped just off the 3000 road on the Loo Wit.  It was pretty amazing to see hunters in the Loo Wit.  Convinced me there was plenty of poaching happening on the north facing slopes between the 3000 road ridge and the N. Fork Toutle.  Saw a half dozen rigs headed into the Loo Wit around midnight--claimed they were scouting and a couple guys had tags.  In 2004, I don't think there were any Loo Wit tags.

[bloodhound]

my dad got drawn like 7 years ago. we were on elk everyday. the bull my dad shot was about 100 yards from the truck while we were eating lunch at noon. we had a the elk bugle right next to us,so we dropped are sandwiches and walked in about 75 yards and bugled and the bull came running down the hill to 5 yards from him and well you know the rest!

[bentley30-06]

I have been drawn twice for that hunt and its one of the funnest archery bull hunts Ive been on.  Even if you dont get an animal its an awesome experience.  Weyerhaeuser owns the lower section of the units and there are a lot of gates (that should have been open for us last year) but remained closed for the entirity of the season.  The 3000 line has a lot of elk through it that cross from the boundary (loowit) into the toutle.  However that land up there is steep, rocky, ashy, and brushy.  It is a challenge to get a shot of through that mess.  Last year I spent some time at the 6 mile of the mainline and concentrated a lot around "signal peak"  I saw a lot of bulls there and a few 300 class bulls as well.  Not to many guys hunt it because they all head up to the 3000 line and sit next to there trucks ooooing and awwwing over the bulls spackled across the loowit.  2715 road has a locked gate on it and it brings you down closer to the river.  Had two shots at two different raghorns there.  Bugle was affective toward the end of the hunt.  Just watch your boundaries.  One thing that changed the hunt is the state giving out 50 cow tags for that unit and so you got 50 guys chasing around a herd of elk in hopes to shoot a cow.  So the elk have more unwanted pressure from guys, respectively, attempting to harvest their animal.

[Elkpiss]

That's the opposite of what I would've done.  I'm glad I posted this query!  It probably saved me a lot of time and heartache.  Are the clearcuts closer to water more beneficial, or are they everywhere since water's never far away from anything in that unit?

  I had that tag awhile back and good way to give it a go is to get way over the to the 5600 line and go down to the river and walk the river at day light and you well have bulls screaming all monring.. Get away from the river far enough to where you can hear good and not just the river but the elk were on the river at daylight.. then slowly feeding there way to the top.. Fun hunt lots of vocal bulls and thats what makes that tag fun is the action, you may not get a booner but definetly have a action packed hunt..

[Green Lantern]

Been there done that good advice elkpiss.

[briancorneal]

That's the opposite of what I would've done.  I'm glad I posted this query!  It probably saved me a lot of time and heartache.  Are the clearcuts closer to water more beneficial, or are they everywhere since water's never far away from anything in that unit?

  I had that tag awhile back and good way to give it a go is to get way over the to the 5600 line and go down to the river and walk the river at day light and you well have bulls screaming all monring.. Get away from the river far enough to where you can hear good and not just the river but the elk were on the river at daylight.. then slowly feeding there way to the top.. Fun hunt lots of vocal bulls and thats what makes that tag fun is the action, you may not get a booner but definetly have a action packed hunt..

Aren't there a ton of other hunters out there by the toutle?  When did you hunt it?


Sent from my Devour using Tapatalk

[Elkpiss]

That's the opposite of what I would've done.  I'm glad I posted this query!  It probably saved me a lot of time and heartache.  Are the clearcuts closer to water more beneficial, or are they everywhere since water's never far away from anything in that unit?

  I had that tag awhile back and good way to give it a go is to get way over the to the 5600 line and go down to the river and walk the river at day light and you well have bulls screaming all monring.. Get away from the river far enough to where you can hear good and not just the river but the elk were on the river at daylight.. then slowly feeding there way to the top.. Fun hunt lots of vocal bulls and thats what makes that tag fun is the action, you may not get a booner but definetly have a action packed hunt..

Aren't there a ton of other hunters out there by the toutle?  When did you hunt it?


Sent from my Devour using Tapatalk

I was all by myself, i know it was 20+ miles up and over the 4200 line off of the south fork, you have to go up and over and get to the 3000 line looking down into the lewit and you hit a intersection called 5 corners, then take a hard right once you get to that and that well take you down the 5600 line back down to the river and it gets you passed the Old wash out on the river and go all the way to the bottom to the river, and off to your left there is a trail or old grade/road along the river and walk that at day light and it will be bull mania for a couple hours, they will feed off the river at day light and work there way up the mt.. You can cross the river right there too and hunt the otherside which will get you away from alot of people and be all by yourself.. I rarely saw anybody over there..

[HOYT6.0]

Alot of good info.   I got my info packet for my cow hunt for the toutle.  They also sent me a post card stating they (WDFW) are working with Weyerhauser to get gates open.  I imagine that it will all depend on the fire danger.  Also stated that they are going to send me more info on the unit.  IE:  Maps etc... Anyone receive a packet like this before???  Curious on the info they provide.

[briancorneal]

I haven't gotten one of those, but i did get a notice in the mail from WDFW saying that they're gonna wait to send the permits until a few weeks before the season opens.  When did you get that notice in the mail?