elk hunting record

[The Hedgehog]

What's the most days you've hunted elk without seeing shit? I went out for my 8th consecutive time today without seeing an elk. Not a bull, cow, or calf, nothin. That's my record. Good friend of mine said his record is 9 days.. I'm going to break that one.

 

[Bambistew]

Thats quite a record... 8 days in a row? Man maybe I better return my elk tag.

 

[MarvB]

Damn that is sparse...worse I ever had was one year in OR (Desolation Unit)...4 days of nothing....the ass end of one spike....3 more days of nothing.

Grim!

 

[Bambistew]

I think it was in 98 or 99, I hunted the better part of 10 days in archery season and about as many in rifle season and saw a grand total of 8 elk in archery season and about 6 in rifle season, nothing even remotely killable. The next year I put in for a cow tag, smoked a cow opening day of rifle season and I think I was the only one that year that killed a cow in the whole friggn state... Figures.

 

[mtmiller]

Hell, I've gone much longer than, but then again I was on the marsh at the time.

This must prove what a shitty hunter you are, maybe you should get out of the vehicle and off the road further than to take a piss and grab another beer out of the bed.

...or it could be the wolves...

 

[TheTone]

My first two year of archery hunting I saw a total of three elk combined. I probably averaged 10 days each season, so thats kind of up there with your current run. I was getting into elk and had bulls bugling within probably 40 yards, but actually seeing them was a whole different story.

 

[noharleyyet]

...two seasons....guess I was walking too close to the fence.

 

[BigBuxMT]

The ruts over you won't see shit from the road.

 

[T Bone]

Bummer Green. Keep after it, it'll happen.

I can't think of a single day when I havn't at least seen one....Of course, my standards for a decent bull are about 200 inches lower than yours.

I'd guess you're hanging in the hi country looking for bachelor bulls. Head lower and smack a spike.

 

[shoots-straight]

Greeny,

8 Days is nothing, during the 70's and into the early 80's it was nothing to go out a week at a time and not see elk, numbers were on the rebound after a drop during the 60's. If we saw a elk we shot.

The Fish and game wants to reduce the elk back to that level me thinks.
They want recreation without the hassel's of checking game.
I'm hoping that things don't snow to much this year, as our local biologist has more than trippled the quota on cows elk. Right now the total elk harvested is less than what they killed on cows in one snowy day last year. With wolves out and about now you could over harvest the elk, they produce slower than deer, and with wolves eating babies, who knows, maybe people will go back to killing the first elk they see.

Our local elk population has really taken it into the shorts with the unlimitted cow hunt, people everywhere, and bulls that would normally make it are getting shot right along with the cows. So chin up Greeny, makes success mean alot more.

 

[Hunterman]

With the short season here in Washington( about 10 days if your lucky with a rifle) I have gone seasons with out seeing an elk...I started hunting elk in 73 and didn't kill my first one until 1988, and it was a cow in the Green River Watershed...

Hunterman(Tony)

 

[Ithaca 37]

You guys gotta start getting off those ATVs!

 

[jerrym]

Tuesday, I took my daughter to a friends 100 acre farm after school to shoot a whitetail doe from my brickhouse blind it rained at least 1 inch that day. We were real low in the Bitterroot valley. We had 30 head of elk walk out on us. It was comical me calling her seeing if busting an elk was okay. Finally at last light got the green light and took a 6X6 in the 280 range. Everybody asks why my daughter didn't shoot- it was over 200 yards and getting dark, she is limited to 100 yards her first year I really have seen more elk low in the valley then ever, I think wolves have pushed them closer to town, God knows it isn't the weather.

 

[The Hedgehog]

Decided to bag elk hunting this weekend and look for sheep. A friend has a permit. I found this one and he didn't want to take it. They got some great footage of it though. I bet he gets a big one.

 

[BigBuxMT]

Greenhorn-if your friend passed on this one he will get a big one, the big ones are showing themselves this time of year. One of my friends just got a sheep, my dad has been taking him all season and the F&G said it was the biggest one they've seen come out of that area. More details and hopefully dad took some pics to share later.
P.S. just heard from my buddies about an hour ago and they got a couple cow elk. They said there were elk everywhere, wish I didn't end my season so early, I would have been there.

 

[Horn Seeker]

You have to be shitting....8 days!?? I have done that before, but it was before I had a clue. Nowadays, though I certainly dont kill chit worth talking about, I do catch a glimpse of something every couple days!!

Whatchya doin different this year?? You lose your mojo??

Ernie

 

[Hiker]

Greenhorn, Thanks for the sheep photos. I hope you can find the wapiti and get your bull, Have fun.

 

[Brad]

Green, I know where you took those pics (grin)... good luck, hope he slams a big one.

This is the toughest year elk hunting I think I've had. Cut a bull track opening morning only to have someone else pick it up further up the mountain.

Cut another Saturday am but the wiley old bugger busted me laying in his bed... never even saw him. He was positioned so that he could watch his backtrack for a hundred fifty yards but he was well above the track... found his bed and where he'd peeled out. I never saw or heard him. Makes a guy feel pretty stupid...

Saw two groups of cows.. those are the only actual elk I've seen in six or seven days hunting.

Did see a dead bull in a pickup... that count?

 

[The Hedgehog]

Hornseeker, not doing much different this year. I'm hunting in the right places for a big bull elk. Did see one elk opening day, a pretty nice 6 pointer. Not nice enough though.

 

[danr55]

Check back in a couple of weeks. I'll let you know when I get back from my hunt..