I'd be open seeing anyone's sample of flags....whatever works would be fun. I think it would be cool to see the flag at a camp and stop in to say hello, knowing I was going to get to meet someone from here. For some reason I haven't figured out a great way to ask another elk hunter out in the woods, "Hey by the way, so do you by chance ever go online to that hunting forum called 'hunting-washington.com'
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I just got back (early) from my first archery elk hunt in the Nile unit. First time hunting elk, and first time archery hunting. My expectations were low going in, but also because I had been unable to spend time scouting that unit other than a drive-thru on Labor Day weekend and I never saw any elk then.
The weather was HOT. Very dry, very dusty, very hot. Got up there Wednesday afternoon and started hunting Thursday morning. My hunting partner and I hunted all day with a short lunch break/target practice at camp during mid-day, and finished hunting at dark. For all our effort covering a lot of ground and trying to get as far away from the roads as possible, we never saw any elk. In fact, we never even saw a deer. Frankly, all the sign we saw was old to really old and nothing fresh.
Day two we tried to focus on water sources as they were few and far between in that area and the weather was so warm. We found many dried up creek beds and old wallows, but not much water. The water we did find, such as creeks, we followed looking for fresh tracks and sign. We found neither, although we did find 'old stuff'.
Again, after hunting all day again, we had yet to see even ONE elk or ONE deer. Hmmm...
Day three, came and went again hitting up high in the thick shaded areas, the north and east facing slopes, the ridgelines, the open meadows, the water sources, always looking at new area covering as much ground as possible, as far away from the roads as possible, looking for animals, bedding areas, trashed trees and any other fresh sign, but only found old stuff. We cow called as we quietly moved through the mountains, but got no responses. I would bugle only once each morning from new locations, and once in the evening, just as a locator call to try to find a bull that would respond.
Nothing.
Day four.....nothing but heat and dust and more disappointment.
By day five, after failing to locate even one single elk or deer (which I ALWAYS come across in the woods at some point), we began to feel like something was wrong. The elk clearly didn't seem to be in the area. Was it the heat? They still had to be somewhere. Was it the area? Was it us? Only one camp had a cow hanging (that we could see) which they had apparently got within the first 3 days.
If we had at the very least seen something, anything, or come across fresh sign, it would have been worth burning through the remaining vacation time to stay and keep trying. But as it was, we just couldn't see wasting the additional time in an area that seemed totally void of animals at that time.
We decided to cut our losses, get home and learn more, scout more, and figure out WHERE the elk are before spending the next hunting trip wandering aimlessly and fruitlessly through the mountains. I was frustrated and confused to say the least, but mostly I was just regreting not feeling confident about where to go and find the elk. I can say with confidence that we hunted hard all day, every day and we clearly were unable to locate the animals. I know I'm a total novice when it comes to archery and elk hunting specifically and I'm a beginner with the elk calls, but I've hunted long enough to be able to hunt an area and search for fresh sign, and even that was elusive for us.
So...it was a total bust for us (at least as far as filling our tags), but we still enjoyed being out there of course. It was a great experience to be out there with our bows, hunting beautiful country in nice weather (for a change) and just soaking it all up. I just feel I could use some direction and guidence from those more experienced than me to get me off and running in the right direction, and that's in large part what I look for on forums such as this. I always seem to have to trudge my way through these new experiences blindly, but I eventually get there and the journey is always worth it. I hope others had much more success than we did and I'll try to post some pictures soon. Like I said, it was beautiful out there.
I'm looking forward to this coming weekend with the youth pheasant hunt. It should be much more productive for my boys than than the past 6 days were for me!