Need help for elk season please

[Atroxus]

My hunting partner and I are both newby hunters. This is my first hunting season, and my partner's 3rd. We did deer season on our days off, and deer season is over for us now due to work schedules. We were hunting in GMU 437 in the hopes that while we were scouting/hunting for deer that we might chance across some places to hunt elk come November. Our deer season has been a bust. We haven't seen any deer in legal hunting areas, not even does. My partner did get a pic of a cocky 4 point buck that was hiding in plain sight under a no hunting sign. I swear if that buck had fingers he would have been flying the one finger salute. The only redeeming point of our deer season is that on my most recent foray into "our spot" on public land I did see some recent(no older than 24 hours) tracks from at least 2 but possibly as many as 4 deer. So we at least know that there are deer in the area we have been hunting/scouting. Whether any of them are legal to harvest remains to be seen though. Our approach has been to focus on public land that is not vehicle accessible so we could hike in past gates and get away from the road hunters. We are not in excellent shape though so the farthest we made it past the gate is about 2.5 miles in. My plan of finding elk hunting grounds while scouting/hunting for deer was apparently very ill-conceived though, as we never saw any signs of elk in any of the areas we looked for deer. So now it's almost elk season and we realized we are completely clueless about where to go for elk season.

We have been researching as much as we can. We also tried asking some WDFW enforcement officers for tips and they either didn't know anything or didn't want to help us because we got no good info from them. In one case we actually got bad info from one of them. She told us to go scout an area only to find when we tried that the road leading to said area is closed because a bridge is out. So at this point I am grasping at straws. I have been checking the go hunt maps, and considering GMUs 501(3pt+ or antlerless) and 666(any elk) since antlerless elk are legal and they are not entirely firearms restricted. I figured I would send out a plea for help here though. I would love to be able to honestly say "I am not interested in your honey holes, or secret squirrel routes to where the elk live."; but really I will take any help I can get. I would love to harvest something this year, but I would consider the year to be a success if I even *SEE* an elk this year shootable or not....without having to go to the Zoo.

[bobcat]

If you want to see elk, I would not recommend either unit 501 or unit 666. You need to go where elk are more plentiful. Unfortunately, anywhere that has good numbers of elk almost always will also have lots of hunters. Best you can do is go to a unit that has a lot of gated roads and try to walk in a couple of miles before you even start hunting. For the best elk hunting, you need to go a little further south than 501 or 666.

[fair-chase]

Road closed because the bridge is out? That is the first place I would look. I think she might have been giving you good advice and you just needed to burn some more boot leather. As you are probably finding out elk hunting is hard work. Much more so than deer hunting. Sounds like you are on the right track though, seeking advice from gammies and biologists as well as on here will go a long ways. I have learned so much from the great people on this site.

I don't have any info on those particular areas. My best piece of advice for you since you are new to hunting and admittedly a little out of shape...always leave the truck walking uphill. This will set the pace for you and when you cannot possibly go any farther the return trip is bearable. Especially if you have an animal strapped to your back. If you can only do 2.5 miles that's ok, that's a hell of a lot farther than most hunters will go. Just remember to save enough energy to return. Would hate to see you on the news with a search party looking for ya. Good luck.

[goober]

Well, you are in the same boat as all of us once were! Best advice is to use this season as a learning tool. Get out as much as you can and note where you see hunters. They are there for a reason. That will put you in the right country. Now, start looking for the toughest country you can find near there and do some walking. Eventually, you will begin to piece together the puzzle and may stumble upon a bull in the process.

Really though, this elk hunting is so tough that even the guys with the really good spots get blanked occassionally. Good luck in your search (and be sure to tell us where you find the elk!!)

[Atroxus]

Road closed because the bridge is out? That is the first place I would look. I think she might have been giving you good advice and you just needed to burn some more boot leather. As you are probably finding out elk hunting is hard work. Much more so than deer hunting. Sounds like you are on the right track though, seeking advice from gammies and biologists as well as on here will go a long ways. I have learned so much from the great people on this site.

If the bridge had been close to the area she mentioned we would have hiked in...but according to our map the area she said we should check out was another 15-20 miles in past the bridge. 

I don't have any info on those particular areas. My best piece of advice for you since you are new to hunting and admittedly a little out of shape...always leave the truck walking uphill. This will set the pace for you and when you cannot possibly go any farther the return trip is bearable. Especially if you have an animal strapped to your back. If you can only do 2.5 miles that's ok, that's a hell of a lot farther than most hunters will go. Just remember to save enough energy to return. Would hate to see you on the news with a search party looking for ya. Good luck.

Yup, thats pretty much what we did. Uphill on the way in, downhill on the way out, and made sure to conserve enough energy to make it back out with an animal if needed. I got a PM from someone with a potential spot for elk in GMU 501, so I think I am gonna give that a shot. Next year am gonna try to get in better shape pre-season and try harder to save up some vacation time for hunting season though.