A Blown Hunt

[Arrow]

I was Elk hunting up in the Teanaway this past weekend hiking my butt off early in the morning before light to get a good set up on the elk. This is an area behind a gate where motorized vehicles are allowed so I thought. So I get to the top of the hill just at light I see 11 cows and 6 bulls (yes I have a bull tag) feeding up the hill right to me. The bulls get within a 100-150yrds of me and 3 guys also hunting or a better description would be chasing elk on sleds come flying down the hill across the canyon from me and up the road below busting these elk over the hill away from me.    :dunno:These idiots then turn around and race back up the hill trying to get in front of these elk but all they ended up doing is chasing these elk out of the area completely. They end up ridding their sleds everyday and pretty much chased every elk out of the area because I never saw another elk all weekend.
   I understand getting to a remote spot on a sled before light then hiking from there but archery hunting from a sled that is REAL loud is never going to work in my mind. What is your guys experiance anybody archery hunt from a sled with any success? I'm thinking I'm thinking             

[jackmaster]

yeah i would be a bit pissed, i thought it was illegal to chase abimals with that type of stuff, thats why all gated roads should be walk in only... to bad your hunt got all jacked up because of IDIOTS like that, if you dont want to do it right then dont fricken hunt.....

[buckfvr]

It is illegal to chase/harrass/persue game animals with a motor vehicle of any type.  Big Game  Regs, page 70, item 5.  SHould have atleast enlightened them.

[colockumelk]

I have talked to different locals up there during archery season that elk hunt from snowmobiles.  It cracks me up because I constantly get into elk (sealing the deal is another thing  )  But I do see alot.  Then I talk to these guys on their sleds and they'll say how horrible of a year it is and how they've driven over 100miles that weekend and havn't seen any elk.   I just laugh and say "yeah neither have I"     How do you expect to see anything from a snowmobile.   

I can understand road hunting in open places with a gun.  You can cover alot of ground and then spot and stalk.  I can even understand this with a bow.  I've done it with success in far Eastern, WA with a bow.  But I will never understand why guys who are physicall capable road hunt in the thick stuff with a bow.  All the animals I've seen on the road in timber while driving saw me and my truck and continued on their way at a high rate of speed.  There was no way I could jump out and get one with a bow.  Well except once.  Maybe that's why because it worked for them once and they hope it will work again.  Not knocking the road hunting.  The reason I say I wonder why guys do it is I hunt using the method I think will give me the best chance at putting meat in the freezer.  Which is why I don't road hunt.  Do people think that hunting from the road offers them the best chance at sucess?  Like I said not knocking anybody's hunting method.  Whatever brings them enjoyment.  I was just curious why.  I guess some people wonder why I hike way back into a wilderness area?  My answer to that is because that 1. Gets me away from people, 2. gets me into non-pressured animals and 3. overall offers me the best chance at success. 

[stormin85]

Same thing me and my buddy saw, you don't have to give details but i think we might have been in the same area.

Six or seven guys on sleds, all camoed up (why wear camo if your not leaving your sled?) with bows and a couple on quads, flying up and down the rd. we stopped and talked with a few, but all had seen nothing, which you never know if thats the truth.

So me and my buddy cut a set of tracks and started hiking, kept the wind in our favor climbed a small ridge not even two hundred yards from the rd. kept on the tracks, found some beds and recently chewed leaves, as we drop down the saddle and come up the next hump, thirty elk bedded down completely unaware we are there, as my buddy draws, they jump up and bolt.

We were on them for an hour and a half or so, as they stayed just out of range, until they made the decision to cross the river, we had left our waders in the truck a mile or so back so i tried crossing in my underwear but the river got chest deep. And really cold.

Anyways all of this to say if the guys on sleds would park em and actually work to hunt they might see and or kill something but instead, they ruin hunts for other people, not in my case my buddy just missed four times and i never got close enough for a solid shot.

As for if they work, yeah they can get you some places a truck can't and walking would take hours, but as for hunting from them, its better to be on foot.

[Arrow]

   Yeah these might have been the same guys. I didn’t see the quads but the guys on sleds were all camo’ed out and yeah that was pretty funny considering they never got off them. I tried walking down to the hill to talk with them or give them a piece of advice if you know what I mean but they didn’t see me walking up another road about 20yrds off the road they were on, real good hunters! If we would have called the game dept saying they are harassing the elk would they have done anything?  All the gates were clearly marked no motorized vehicles but I have no idea where these guys were coming from but they pretty much kept the same pattern every morning.       
   Glad to hear you found the elk and at least had an opportunity for a good hunt. You heading back out this week or weekend? Looking at the weather it doesn’t look like we are going to get any new snow.     

[dkecoleman]

Sorry to hear about your hunt. I was kinda in the same boat this year, I should have known when I selected a modern tag it would be that way, but this was my first real year hunting in Washington and I have learned. haha. Is there anywhere a guy can go nowdays to get away from the crowds. I hope so because I'm changing tactics next year, haven't made my mind up if it's going to be bow (leaning toward archery) or muzzleloader. Only thing I do know is it will be on the eastside somewhere and way back in.

[stormin85]

     
   Glad to hear you found the elk and at least had an opportunity for a good hunt. You heading back out this week or weekend? Looking at the weather it doesn’t look like we are going to get any new snow.     

I would like to, it depends on a couple things, if i do decide to i will pm you and see if we can't help ech other out somehow.

Sorry to hear about your hunt. I was kinda in the same boat this year, I should have known when I selected a modern tag it would be that way, but this was my first real year hunting in Washington and I have learned. haha. Is there anywhere a guy can go nowdays to get away from the crowds. I hope so because I'm changing tactics next year, haven't made my mind up if it's going to be bow (leaning toward archery) or muzzleloader. Only thing I do know is it will be on the eastside somewhere and way back in.

I do archery for everything and the seasons are better, there are places to go, but thats the biggest advice i've got and been given, hike and put distance between you and everyone else, sometimes you get lucky and they aren't to far from the road hunters, but most of the time you will find them once you start putting on the miles.

[Skyvalhunter]

Yea I think it should be considered harassing elk. I know in the 3911 hunt on Cle Elm ridge they have the same issue with snowmobiles running the elk. It's not like there is alot of elk up there like there used to be(but then where is there). Dickey, Indian,etc all used to have a decent amount of elk that worked the different drainages. This one was taken by a guy I know with the Teanaway late archery tag.

[stormin85]

Thats a stud, i would've been ecstatic closing the deal on a cow, i can't even imagine getting drawn for the bull tag and putting something like that down, one day though!!!!

There's a pretty good 6x and 7x back where i hunt, hopefully by the time i get drawn i can have a good idea of what they do and get a real wall hanger.

Until then its chasing cows in the late and finding bulls in the alpine unit early.

[jackmaster]

sweet color on those horns there now damn, and the points are long, damn what a pig

[sakoshooter]

Sorry for your bad luck. Idiots. I feel the same way about the guys that hunt from a quad.

[boneaddict]

bumped for a member