RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
Well to sum up my Western Wasington elk season I would have to say it was fun but frustrating. Until this year I was 4 bulls in the last 5 years, that average is down a little now. We never got a single bull between 7 hunters. We did fill a couple cow tags though. When I left for elk camp I drove by 3 legal (3+ point) bulls within a mile of my house and drove an hour to my usual hunting grounds. The herd by my house roams various private land of mine and my neighbors, most of witch they are protected on. I just heard that opening morning some idiot stoped and shot one of the bulls in a heavily posted field they had been in for weeks. He and two others were immediatly arrested. then the elk were unmolested until my return on Saturday. Sunday morning they wandered onto one of the few neighbors property they would be shot on and one bull was wounded and a cow inadvertantly killed then they went to another property where the other was killed. Where the 2 where shot is an extremely unsafe place to shoot with houses and stock in every direction. The game dept. was already there and scooped up the moron fleeing the scene of the dead cow. I have never seen so much ignorance in my life. On the bright side though when I talked to the game warden to ask about the wounded bull to see if I needed to look for it on my property because that is the way they leave the area. He told me they had already finished him off and were looking for someone with a cow tag to take the cow. I gave him the name and number of the person in my hunting party that had an unfilled cow tag. The cow season had already ended but he called him and we got to go pick it up. They had already gutted it and cut off the head for testing, and they even helped us load it. So I guess there was a small bright spot to an extremely screwed up situation. I saw a lot of people that give hunters a bad name and I shure wish they could give tickets for chronic stupidity because they would have run out of paper. The only thing that would have ticked me off worse than the ignorance though would be see that cow go to waste. The Washington game wardens were sure great though and I did have fun at elk camp.