how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

I haven't been here for a while, life has been too busy lately. However I was fortunate enough to harvest a nice 4x4 bull elk. I was just wondering how the rest of Idaho hunters and others have done this year.

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

nothing so far--leaing again tomorrow for 5 days

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

I have mixed feelings on this years Oregon Bow elk season. I only saw one shooter and this was it.

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

I live in the West Centeral part the state, and my son and I each took 5-points.

Good job on the other critters guys, and good luck to those still pursuing them!!! ElkNut1

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

that is a huge cat! How big was he?!

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

Mine's been awesome.

Set up the hunt on my own and tookmy first elk, a cow, first hour of the first day of season. Colorado is too beautiful.

And Saturday I harvested an 8-point whitetail that had the smallest rack ever on a ~180 lb body! Regardless, my season thus far has been blessed.

Good luck to y'all who are out hunting as we speak!

Kimberly
_____________________________
Pro Field Staff Writer, WomenHunters

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

Took a deer while elk hunting...did not even see an elk alot of deer though.

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.

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

elk freak99, I thought maybe you got harvested. Nice to see you are still around. Our guys took 5 bulls and one cow this year. It was a great season with plenty of elk around. I hunted some other species this year also. I manged to take a bull, muley buck, antelope buck, and a turkey this year. It has been a year for the history books. Just think, only 9 mths. until elk season. Yee Haa......

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

NICE CAT!!!!!!...well if you can thin those critters out abit...your Elk will make a comeback...;)


I had them buglin all around me but they busted us...first time I could hunt during the rut. I went to M/L. But I'm eatin' tag again for the winter.....Next year!

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

Had a nice hunt in Arizona took a nice bull 8x7 really nice on one side and messed up on the other side like when he was younger was hit by a car or something kind of cool looking I boiled his skull out looks pretty neat. Seen lots of great bulls taken all over the state another good elk year in Arizona.

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

Congrats on your bull elkfreak, had a nice hunt this year even though did'nt put any elk in the freezer. Seen several bulls, and blew a shot on a big 6pt. Worked on him for over an hour and he finally came down the hill to challenge me, my arrow deflected on one little branch, which I thought I could get by w/o hitting it with my arrow.

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

Robinhood36---Ouch!! I hate when that happens. At least the bull walked away unscathed. I know from previous threads you normally are quite successful on the elk! Did you not get the opprtunities to hunt as much this year? Were the wolves an issue at all in your area? They sure are getting to be a handful in these parts.-- We're having to work extra hard to get into the bulls these days as in the past. Later--ElkNut1

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

elknut,
My boy and I went for 10 days, it was just plain tough on calling bulls in this year w/i bow range, seem to be a bit smarter on coming in or answering the calls, not sure if the elk are just getting a bit educated on the calling or with the wolves in the area, seem to be a bit shy. Did alot of hunting with my son and he finally had a bull come down the hill broad side 20 yards, and I stayed back calling and raking a tree, he got so excited he shot right over his back, 5 pt. bull, he came up to me and admitted he got some buck fever and used the wrong pin., I said if we did'nt get a bit excited we would'nt enjoy hunting so much.
On another outing with my boy we were cowcalling and we had a wolf come up w/i 15 yards of us, not sure if he seen us or smelled us but he sure bolted. In the ten days we came across the remains of 10 elk, 3 bulls and the rest were cows and calves, assuming predator kills, my brothers were bowhunting and found a coyote torn to shreds, I have heard wolves will run down and kill a coyote.
Congrats to you and your son also on your successful elk hunt, I sure enjoy hunting with my son and sharing our time together...
RobinHood36

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

yeah this year it was tough and didnt bag a single animal this year and it seems like anything that could possibly go wrong on a hunt it did happen. I hunted in my state of CA and didnt get a deer. Ran into a lot of does didnt see a single buck but we spotted a couple does bedded down in some bushes and lo and behold some moronic hunter walks down there and spooks the does and another deer ( dont know if it was a buck ). Later on the next day as the day was almost over we were sitting in the truck glassing around and spotted a buck but it was unclear whether it was a legal buck or not. Looked like a spike couldnt tell then his head turns and the buck had a fork on one side so I was all excited and got out of the truck and fell into a ditch and spooked the buck after cussing at myself a couple weeks later I head to beautiful colorado with my third season Bull tag and Buck tag. When i got there it was snowing like no tomm. not a deer in site and no elk either. We head down to lower land and not a thing either so we go back up and i got out of the truck walked around and spotted a nice fat doe but some people were on top of us already. So we drove to another area and spotted approximatly 10 cow elk and we stood there for a good hour just hoping a Bull would walk out of the bushes somewhere. I decided to look on another part of the mountain and looked back no cow in sight nada. Knew they were bedded in and were not going anywhere. We really didnt see any real animal movement till the last hour of the hunting trip when the sun finally broke out in three or four days and deer were crawling everywhere spotted at least 15 bucks in that one hour span but there was only one problem folks..... PRIVATE PROPERTY!!!


anyway went home empty-handed and that has never happened! but it only shows that hunting is surely a challenge! I will get em next year!

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

Yeah i saw a lot of elk this year. I got with in 25 yards of bull two times, but to no avail. Just couldn't get a ethical shot to work out... I am going back up this weekend, and all of next week with my bow for some late season action. I am going to hunt the St. Joe area, hopefully my group will get some animals.

If all else fails, at least i got my buck.

IDAHO

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

good luck!

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

a 5 point bull for me

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

I got a cow in September bow season. She had a 6x6 bull about 20 yards behind her but I took the 18 yard shot she offered since the bull was nice but not great (260ish). That was on the 14th day of a solo backpack hunt. I had 3 different 300 bulls within 50 yards, the biggest (a 320-330 brute) at 35 yards. That's still 5 yards out of my personal range so I hunkered there and shook like a ... well, like a bowhunter with a 330 bull 35 yards away!

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

DIRT2 WHAT STATE DID YOU HUNT?

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

Dirt2--Congrats on your cow, I made up my mind i was going to take an elk this year horns or not, after having an empty freezer last year, well another dry year, Called in several bulls but the shot just was not there, except on one bull I thought-- except one little branch connected with my arrow. Seems the bulls are so cautious when coming in and seem just to know when to stop to protect their vitals (behind trees).I am already looking forward to the 05 season. If you don't have enough room for all your elk meat I have an empty freezer you could store some! :D

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

Sorry, I live and hunt in Montana.

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

Well it sounds like it was a good year for some and bad for some others. It sure sounds like it's been a bad couple of years for you robinhood. Better luck next year. elknut you are gonna have to show me where you go because your party seems to get way too many elk a year, sounds like they need thinned out :D. Dirt2 I must say I personally commend you for not taking the shot at that big bull if it's 5 yards out of your personal range, it would be a very very difficult thing to do, especially on an elk like that. idaho hunter 58 what part of the state are you from? Elkcrazy you definitely had one heck of a year sounds like you could take next year off and still have some meat in the freezer :eek:. Rich Baker that doesn't look too much like the elk I hunt, congrats on the hunt though.

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

Hi all
Only got to go deer this yr. Seen alot of them just no shooters. Even seen a cow elk in the area I hunt. New they were there, just never seen one there in 6yrs of huntin that unit. Congrats to all that tagged out. Oh yeah that is a awsome kitty Rich!!!

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

Mine didn't go worth a diddley damm! Not because the elk weren't there
but because I wasn't.
Can somebody tell me why in blazes we build pipelines in the winter?
You know not the summer when a body could enjoy working. But oooh no- we can't do that.
I not really gripping just making light of a bad part of a relly good job.
May be next year.

RE: how did your elk hunting go this year?
 

I had them all around me but just could not get a shot at the bull I wanted. Two nice 6's and a 5. If I had a gun they would be in my freezer now. I had a cow with two calves come out and calves a mewing all afternoon. I didn't want no cow after seeing bulls almost every day. I also had a cow about 18 yds out. I was using her as a live decoy because she was making estrus calls quite a bit in the after noon and I kept thinking she would lure a bull my way, but the damn bulls would not respond to any calling and even a cow call would spook them off. It was the peak of the rut in sept., It was during a full moon and the damn bulls and herd would come so close to my truck at night I could hear the bulls snorten and gloaken and I could hear bulls all night long. Even though I didn't fill my tag I had the greastest time a person could have. ;) Just wait till next year. ;) Bobby