Hunting Washington Forum
Big Game Hunting => Elk Hunting => Topic started by: jasone on October 08, 2014, 06:57:54 PM
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Spent 5 days up near taneum point. Trying to fill a cow tag. I walked many hours every day. Seen a Bull Sunday morning. That was cool to see had my hopes up to see more but no luck. Elk hunting seems to be very difficult. Hard animal to hunt I must be doing something wrong. Many of you on this forum see many animals daily. I wonder what you all do different. I am very frusterated with elk hunting. Have been trying for seven years never see any yet alone get a possible shot. Anyway thanks for listening to me complain. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Oh and yes I do get off the road.
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If you had your warmest winter coat on today, where would you be?
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Don't get so frustrated that you quit. I had bought 20+ elk tags before I finally punched one. When you are learning from scratch, it takes time and patients. Look for north facing slopes with heavy timber. The further away from roads or easy access, the better. This is where learning to interpret maps comes in handy. Not all maps are created equal, USGS 7.5 Quads are a good place to start.
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Don't get so frustrated that you quit. I had bought 20+ elk tags before I finally punched one. When you are learning from scratch, it takes time and patients. Look for north facing slopes with heavy timber. The further away from roads or easy access, the better. This is where learning to interpret maps comes in handy. Not all maps are created equal, USGS 7.5 Quads are a good place to start.
I will try again next year. Seems the road the system on the east side goes on forever. A guy can walk in half mile area starts looking good then Bam! theirs a road. Thanks hilltop for the advice
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north facing slopes,i perfer westery, steep with ridges leading into one another,they will travel miles to water,but need it close in warmer weather.sign up high as u can go,no, well then go down 2 bottom that will tell you the story.follow the sign it takes time .when u put it all together.thats a kill :twocents: 18 elk in 25 yr's in washington :chuckle:
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remember its the experience of the hunt not just the kill keep at it and turn attention to deep and dark north faces!!! :tup:
persistence and hard work and time spent will pay off !!!!
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Taneum turned out to be a ghost town for my buddy too !! I filled my cow tag in the Colockum then we spent 5 days looking for a cow for him in the Taneum and I finally convinced him to try a new area so I took him over to a true spike unit and connected 20 minutes after the lights came on !!
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You don't always have to walk to hell and back to get into elk. Sometimes you can't get that far from a road. Spike I killed this year was 800yds from a road but he hadn't seen a human all season, hell I called him in. It was a steep nasty slope though and you could see where all the boot tracks stopped about a 1/4 of the way down. There had been guys all over that canyon all day. I slid on down there mid day and found him lonely. He was right in the bottom in brush so thick you couldn't even push through it. You may be hiking miles but if they are all on the ridge tops then they are pointless. I would be willing to bet that 90% of guys don't hunt for more than a few hours in the a.m. before they are back in camp and don't gain or lose all that much elevation in a day. Go where others aren't willing to go. Dark in and dark out. You may feel like dying but I promise you won't. The pain in your legs will go away in a few days but the meat will last you a lot longer. Nothing more rewarding than killing elk. Hands down. Keep at it and you will succeed.
