First Time Elk Hunter

[lewdogg21]

Horsing a buck around to gut/skin out on the ground is one thing. An Elk is quite another. I dragged out a cow with another guy once about 200 yards downhill over deadfalls and other timber cutting waste and I thought I was going to die. Notice how I said it was downhill lol.

If you are hunting the rut the first order of business is find the elk and stay on the elk. It's a lot different than deer where you can bump singles and such. Once you find the elk you need to stay on them. Now this doesn't mean going into their beds in the middle of the day unless you are on the last day of your hunt or have other options b/c if you bump them off their beds they may put miles between the bedding area and where they are going to stop.

I suggest you guys read some books on Elk hunting as you (as in all of us) can't really type Q&A very indepth. I've hunted Oregon for Elk 5 or 6 times for a week or so each time and it's in my blood so much that I would give up Waterfowl to pursue Elk every year and Waterfowl is my bread/butter. Once around Prineville and the others in the Heppner unit

There is nothign more exhillarating that I've found on this planet than archery during the rut. Sneaking into a herd with bulls screaming in every direction is something you can't forget. After I shot the one in my avatar we were walking out and came upon a 350" class bull about 120 yards out in a meadow all alone. It was sorta one of those moments where you wonder if God put him there as some sort of sign. Maybe it's that I'm supposed to go again? I don't know but I do know that if I could hunt with a rifle during the rut I would have tagged about 8 5x5's and up in 3 days.

 

[easymoney]

With elk there is no horsing around and dragging, unless you are on a private ranch and havce access to an ATV. You tie it up and gut, then bone it out where it lies. Load up the bags and start marching...

 

[Deleted member 33033]

After reading all the replies and "not being in the best shape of my life" I decided i was gonna need help. Coastal Oregon outlawed the horse packers so I placed an ad on craigslist looking for field dressing/packing assistance. Instantly got two responses from guys in the area who would assist me with getting my elk (I'm trying to be positive) back to the vehicle. One was a taxidermist's assistant, the other worked in as a butcher. A third guys said he'd come help me with a horse if he was around. So as long as theire's cell service and the batteries in my GPS aren't dead...I think I have a reasonable alternative to spending the night in the woods with bags of meat hanging nearby. One guy wanted to $200 for coming out and packing meat but for $400 he said he would also cut and vac pack the meat for me. How FN cool is that?! Gotta love a hunter-friendly state. Now all I have to do is go out, not get lost, find a bull, stalk it, place an arrow in the vitals, track the blood and pose for the photos. That's a

 

[DuckFever]

Thanks for all the replies. I definitely plan on putting in some serious time and effort. I'll just be hunting the general rifle season east Cascades.