Quality Dayton MF bull tag help

[Rainier10]

I wish I had some information for you.  I am looking forward to hearing how this goes and wishing you the best of luck.

[Boss .300 winmag]

🤔

[meatwhack]

The pictures of the rag horn didn’t last long.

[dvolmer]

Just a quick check to see if anyone on the forum has been up in the Dayton area lately.  Anyone seeing any bulls and any information on their whereabouts???  Any help or information would be helpful.  Ill be up there this Saturday scouting and then back again early Monday morning for the Quality bull opener.  Just wondering if anyone on the forum is up deer hunting the National forest this week and if they are seeing any elk?

[Mr Mykiss]

I’ll be up there starting Thursday, let you know if I see one, or two, or a bachelor group of 400” bulls...

[dvolmer]

I’ll be up there starting Thursday, let you know if I see one, or two, or a bachelor group of 400” bulls...

Thanks a ton Mr Mykiss.  Ill be up Saturday morning to check things out before my Monday opener.  I will be in a Forest Service Green Chevy Tahoe.  Fill free to stop me and beat some sense into me!  My wife would be much obliged! 

[dvolmer]

Heading up to hunt early in the morning!  Anyone seeing big bulls up there during their deer hunting?  Any big bull sightings and locations would be much appreciated!

[time2hunt]

Take chain!!  I saw pic of the wenaha unit and it’s getting deep.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[emac]

Chains would be wise. I am sure some deer hunters and there trailers might have an adventure getting out

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[Rainier10]

Heading up to hunt early in the morning!  Anyone seeing big bulls up there during their deer hunting?  Any big bull sightings and locations would be much appreciated!

Good luck.

Anyone with information about big bulls should probably just send @dvolmer a pm and update this thread with a "pm sent" post.  No need to be broadcasting to the world wide web there is a 400" bull on no tellum ridge.

[meatwhack]

400” bulls running wild. I’d actually be surprised if there’s a legitimate 400” bull left in the unit.

[dvolmer]

Hunt update:::  Hunted the opener on Monday.  Snow was so bad (12-14 inches of super wet snow) that i couldn't get to the spots that I wanted to hunt up off of Skyline road so I tried to hunt unfamiliar areas below the snow zone.  Hunted on the boundary off of Jasper Mountain road that bordered the Blue Creek area.  Saw lots of sign but no elk.  The day ended early due to a pretty heavy rain that started early afternoon.  Went back and hunted yesterday (Wednesday) after a major Chinook wind 35-40 mph that took place on Tuesday.  I didn't hunt Tuesday because I knew it was going to be a soup bowl of mud and muck with massive winds as it melted the 12-14 inches of snow, slush, and slop.

When I went up to hunt yesterday I wasn't sure what I was going to get from the weather and the snow melt.  The roads where all accessible and I was able to get where I needed to go and the weather was absolutely beautiful.  Just about too nice with no noticeable wind and blue skies. The only real problem I found was that the skid road that I wanted to hunt was shaded and not all of the snow had melted.  It froze hard that night and as I walked on the 2-3 inches of snow it was frozen and extremely loud.  I started running in to elk and on the hunt I saw a group of 5 cows, a group of 6 cows, and a group of 12 cows with a 5x5 bull with them.  I looked at the 5x5 for a long time and decided to pass on him.  Its hard to pass on a bull here in Washington but when you put in for years and years for a Quality permit in Dayton you need to keep telling yourself that this is not a meat hunt.  Fact is that most of the thousand plus applicants for the Dayton unit will never draw in their lifetime when they are only giving out 6-12 permits a year.  This year just 6.  I did see a couple of tracks in the snow a day or so old that were single elk by themselves and by the size of the tracks you could tell they were large size bulls.  I hunted long and hard all day getting in over 21,000 steps, 9.9 miles walked, and 43 flights climbed!  I'm truly feeling my 54 years!

I couldn't hunt today (Thursday) due to some other commitments but I will be back at it before shooting hours tomorrow morning (Friday) and Saturday.  If not successful I will take Sunday off (I don't hunt on Sundays plus after two days hunting I will need a day to re-boot) but I will be back at it Monday morning again bright and early.  Good luck to all and let me know if anyone in Dayton area has a hot lead on a big bull!

Side SAD note,  Like I mentioned above, I saw approximately 20 plus cow elk on Wednesday hunting.  They were all fat and healthy looking elk.  The sad part about all of this was that there were ZERO calves with the cows.  Not even one!!!  When the game biologist told me that the Dayton elk herd is 50% smaller then it was just two years ago, I can see why.  He told me that due to a few factors that we can all argue about here, they had just about zero calf survival rate and many of the cows that survived the last two winters aborted their calves or they died after birth due to the cows themselves being just about starved to death and not having the ability to nurse following two really bad winters.  I sure hope that this next winter is mild and the elk can recover and deal with the other factors including wolves, cougars, over harvesting of natives, and poaching.

[meathunter 4x4]

Have Been hunting Dayton unit for 12 years and it seems to be getting worse every year. Had the bull tag in there 4 years ago and it was a real struggle. Chasing spikes this year all year. If I run into something awesome I will defiantly let someone know I hunt hard will be putting on the miles for sure everyday. Hunted up there during rifle deer season and didn’t see much but if you have a bull tag up there keep at it check everywhere you can lots of glassing and let me know if you need any insight. I will be camped up there all season and I know that area like the back of my hand. Good luck to all and smoke some slammers!!

[trophyhunt]

Damn shame, from best herd in the state, to this in a very short time.  Complete failure !

[one shot kill]

And the zero calf crop which I have been seeing the last couple years, sure makes it hard to find a spike. One or two more years of miss management and those herds won’t be able to bounce back.