Two cows down w/muzzleloaders

[Washington Hunter]

My brother and I were able to help with the reduction of the Mt. St. Helens elk herd, here in Southwest Wa. this past October. I killed my cow the first day of the season, and my brother took his the 2nd day. Filled the freezer and the some.

 

[elk_hunter]

Thanks for sharing those great pics! Those are nice, healthy, fat cows!

 

[mtmiller]

Looks like you shot that second one in a good spot.....close to the road. Next time take them on the other side of the road, dragging downhill is easier.

 

[noharleyyet]

Nice work..thanks for the pics...looks like some fine vittles.

 

[Washington Hunter]

mtmiller, in that unit you can't get more than about 400 yards from a road. It's impossible, the roads are everywhere. And, there was also a road down below that elk, a little farther than the upper road but not much. We tried out my brother's new cart, and took her out half at a time, downhill. Turned out the cart almost created more work than it saved, because we had to clear a trail for it, and there was tons of logs and limbs left on the ground from the recent logging.

By the way, that cart was purchased out of Montana...awesome cart, although it has no brakes and trying to slow it down on the steeper parts of that clearcut was rather interesting.

 

[TheTone]

Good deal. Are the elk in the St Helens areas Rosie's or Rocky Mtn?

 

[Washington Hunter]

I think they're Roosevelt but Boone & Crockett classifies anything east of I-5 as a Rocky Mtn. Apparently in the past there were elk from Yellowstone released in the area, so I guess in reality they're a mixture of both.

 

[Washington Hunter]

Here's a little more info if you're interested from the Washington Dept of Fish & Wildlife's 2006 St Helens Elk Herd Management Plan:

November 2006 Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Herd Distribution
Historic Distribution
The portion of the herd area that lies west of the Cascade Crest is within the original range of the Roosevelt subspecies of North American elk (Cervus elaphus roosevelti). Within this area, however, elk were not evenly distributed. Given the nature of the original habitat (largely unbroken stands of dense forests), it is likely that elk were sparse or absent over large areas,
tending to concentrate along riparian zones and near disturbed sites, such as fire seres and other natural openings. Following the arrival of settlers in the early 1800s, elk populations were largely extirpated from much of the range of the Mount St. Helens herd.
Releases of Rocky Mountain elk (C. e. nelsoni) relocated from Yellowstone National Park occurred at various times and locations throughout western Washington in the early 1900s.
Records from 1939 document the releases of 50 elk in 1913 along the Naches River in Yakima County. An additional release of 30 elk from Montana near Eatonville in 1932 may have also contributed to the Mount St. Helens herd. However, small herds of elk reported in the early 1930s near Spirit Lake in Skamania County are thought to represent remnant populations of indigenous Roosevelt elk that survived there due to the inaccessibility of the area(Pautzke et al. 1939). WDFW analyzed over 100 elk samples from the St. Helens herd using a microsatellite DNA assay. The results from this study indicated that individuals from the eastern portion of the herd were Rocky Mountain elk, and, for the most part, individuals from the western and central GMUs were predominately Roosevelt elk, although there was a scattering of both Roosevelt and Rocky Mountain elk on the southern and northern parts of the herd. Using statistical analyses of these data, we also identified several individuals within the St. Helens herd as Rocky Mountain/Roosevelt hybrids. The Roosevelt elk recognized within the St. Helen's herd are more genetically similar to the elk from the Willapa Hills Herd than the Olympic Herd.

So from what this says, I'd say the elk we killed were most likely pure Roosevelt, being that we were in the western part of the St Helens area.


http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/game/elk/sthelens.htm

 

[Bear]

Congrats to you both on nice looking cows. What type of gun and loads were you using? Tells us about the hunt...I was up there a few years ago on businesss and brought my wife along to do some sight seeeing and we really enjoyed our visit to Mt. St. Helens. We saw lots of elk and I wondered if they had a hunt for them in that area.

Bear

 

[Muleyslyr]

Very nice!! I'd say you guys did your part in helping clear the herd. If you don't mind me asking.....how did you guys get the permits. It was my original understanding that is was gonna be a disabled hunt. Was there any truth to that do you know?

I think I heard there was somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-12,000 Elk in the area and they wanted to try and take out 2000-2500 of em'.

 

[Moosie]

WH, Kudos on the cows dude !!!! You look alot happier then your brother

 

[Tom]

Looks like a sled type thing, cheap tarp, might work pretty good there. Way to go! Congratulations!