Hunting Washington Forum

Big Game Hunting => Elk Hunting => Topic started by: supagoose on May 27, 2016, 09:30:49 PM

Title: How has your elk experience changed with wolves?
Post by: supagoose on May 27, 2016, 09:30:49 PM: I don't do alot of posting just hiding and reading other peoples post. I'm wondering how other hunters elk hunting experienced has been impacted by wolves here in Washington. I started archery elk hunting Eastern Washington about 2004. I've shot a bull almost every since I started. The biggest a 330 p&y and the smallest a spike and never shot a cow. The last bull I shot was 2011 and the last bugle I heard was 2010 and since then my experience has gone down hill. Didn't get to do a lot of hunting the last 3 years due to military stuff but I still got out. I have not heard an elk bugle in the spots I hunt since 2010 and all the sign I've seen are old. I used to get into the elk every year and Id get a bull or a shot at one. But they're gone. All the elk trails I walk down are fading. its so quite and spooky for me now that it feels more like walking through a abandoned town where everyone is gone but everything they owned was left behind. I find more wolf tracks then anything now. The elk that are still there (If they are) are worth more to me alive then dead now.
Title: Re: How has your elk experience changed with wolves?
Post by: trophyhunt on May 27, 2016, 09:48:05 PM: Abso-fn-lotly! They have ruined the natural habits of elk that are not used to wolves. In wolf country, elk herds are smaller, they are less vocal and the biggest effect, they are less in numbers!! SSS
Title: Re: How has your elk experience changed with wolves?
Post by: MountainWalk on May 27, 2016, 10:02:06 PM: Wolves pretty much put the outfit I worked for under in MT.
Title: Re: How has your elk experience changed with wolves?
Post by: jasnt on May 27, 2016, 10:51:01 PM: I just focus on the predators now. Much easier to find these days
Title: Re: How has your elk experience changed with wolves?
Post by: KFhunter on May 27, 2016, 11:02:51 PM: Called in a nice bull last year, and called in a nice wolf too. Problem was they both showed up at the same time :(
Title: Re: How has your elk experience changed with wolves?
Post by: buglebrush on May 31, 2016, 08:23:04 PM: Quote from: supagoose on May 27, 2016, 09:30:49 PM
I don't do alot of posting just hiding and reading other peoples post. I'm wondering how other hunters elk hunting experienced has been impacted by wolves here in Washington. I started archery elk hunting Eastern Washington about 2004. I've shot a bull almost every since I started. The biggest a 330 p&y and the smallest a spike and never shot a cow. The last bull I shot was 2011 and the last bugle I heard was 2010 and since then my experience has gone down hill. Didn't get to do a lot of hunting the last 3 years due to military stuff but I still got out. I have not heard an elk bugle in the spots I hunt since 2010 and all the sign I've seen are old. I used to get into the elk every year and Id get a bull or a shot at one. But they're gone. All the elk trails I walk down are fading. its so quite and spooky for me now that it feels more like walking through a abandoned town where everyone is gone but everything they owned was left behind. I find more wolf tracks then anything now. The elk that are still there (If they are) are worth more to me alive then dead now.

My experiences have followed a similar trend. Definitely less elk, and much less vocal. There has been some dedicated wolf hunters in the panhandle putting the pressure on, and i wonder if that hasn't pushed some of the border packs our way. I am also noticing the elk abandoning the backcountry for the valley. Safer for them.