Oregon Elk

[Kim]

I'm going to Oregon and try for archery Elk with my buddy, since it's over the counter for tags. Will try for deer and bear also since their season's all coincides. Eastern Oregon is where we'll be going (Desolation) by Granite. Some of the guys at the archery range said it's not to bad there. I'm going to try and get a scouting trip in before the season opens. Has anybody had any experience in this area? Any info is good. Thanks Kim

 

[tmoniz]

I used to hunt there. Saw quite a few elk in November when I was there.
Directly across the Highway from Granite proper heading west there is a place called Lost Boy. Ask around about that place and they were logging directly across the highway from granite on a high ridge where I jumped a decent bull way up on top. There is also a road that heads west along a river to a large lake where people at that time did fairly well. Lost boy and that logging area were good areas.

 

[Kim]

Thanks for the info Timonz, I'm headed there in Sept. when the elk starts bugling. I better start practicin my calling.

 

[wmidbrook]

I was looking into that area too before a good opportunity cropped up in NM. The biologist was very helpful. He recommended North Fork John Day wilderness, the Indian Rock area, and another mountain I'd have to look up on my map. Those areas are west and south of Granite in the high country towards the Northside unit. I hunted Northside archery season 2 seasons ago and the elk were starting to bugle the 3rd week of Sept. there....although the last week of the season's usually better. Last year it rained on folks up there that last week the whole time and squelshed the bugling activities pretty good I hear....

 

[Kim]

I'll be headed up there right after Labor Day weekend and stay for the rest of the archery season 9/26. I just hope mother nature will be good to us. I'll look up those places you mentioned on my maps and see if they show up. Good luck on your N.M. trip.

 

[Pinkys79]

Good luck Kim I live in southern Oregon, and we only travel about two hours for our spot, but even here most everyone goes east. But I have yet to have a chance to go over there and have absolutly no helpful info for you. But opening day last year I got my first Elk, a Cow, and my buddy got his first, A little 4 point bull.
We already had a trail cam out for 6 days and had several pics of a little bull a bunch of cows and some real nice bucks. I am going out on Sunday to put up my camera. Cant wait.

Well have fun and enjoy

 

[Kim]

Hey Pinkys79, Welcome to this forum... I'm sure that you will enjoy it here. Sounds like you had a good time last year with the Cow and little Bull Elk. We'll be getting a general Bear Tag also, my buddy is dreaming of getting an Elk with archery and myself a Bear archery. Well thanks for the response anyway.

 

[Pinkys79]

Thanks for the welcome Kim, I do like this forum also. As for bear good luck, last year I saw my first live bear out in the wild and I have lived and hunted here all my life. And here in So. Oregon we have the largest number of bears, if we get one we can go buy a second tag over the counter. But I think that it is just luck, it is that I am not out there because some years I am out in the sticks more then I am home. (At least the is what the wife says). But dont get me wrong we have plenty of them I just havnt had the luck to see them.

Thanks again.

 

[tmoniz]

forgot to mention, east of downtown Granite we saw alot of mule deer in the timber.

 

[Kim]

Thanks guys for the input, I like the way Oregon has the application system. I'll be faxing in my application tomorrow for Deer, Elk, and Bear. Elk is either sex, Deer is Buck only, Bear is mature.

 

[Oregon Archer]

only thing you need to apply for are controlled hunts and that deadline is way past. so i assume you are faxing in your tag purchases for general season tags.

sorry i dont have any specific info to give you on the desolation unit. it does hold some nice bulls. ive heard it sees a fair amount of pressure also. so do what you can to get away from the roads.

 

[Monsterbull]

Hey Oregon Archer, how'd you do last year? Did you tag out?
We had a series of close calls and mishaps but no meat. My brother who lives in Dexter got a cow though in the late season.

I know guys that hunt that NE area, killed a couple of cows last year. Lots of elk, roads and competition.

 

[Oregon Archer]

well i blew my one opp last season. walked right in on a herd of about 20 elk with them having no clue we were there. well we thought we would be cute and try and cow call the lone bull in a little closer. he was at about 70yrds. well we gave a few cow calls which brought the attention of the lead cow. well she never could figure out what we were but she didnt like us so she took the herd down the canyon and that was it. only other elk i saw were in the dark.

never did go out during the late season as i was busy chasing bucks around lol.

 

[Monsterbull]

I got one better than that. We located a small bunch and set up two guys out front with my brother back cow calling. Well, soon enough a cow comes running in with a nice symmetrical 5-point on its tail with his nose right up her backside. She was coming right at my buddy who was above me and pulls up at about 25 yards from him, turns around and heads back. The bull sticks around, walks broadside and.....nothing! Finally, he hightails it back. I'm standing there scratchin' my head wondering, "what the heck?" Turns out when my buddy started to draw back and swing toward the bull, his arrow clipped the tree he was standing behind. Bull's standing there at 25 yards and his arrow is dandling off his string like a limp noodle.

Maybe better luck this year, eh?.

Watch yer topnot.

 

[wmidbrook]

Enjoy your hunts in OR...I can't go this season but I can't wait to get back up there to hunt...great archery opportunities at a reasonble price.

 

[Oregon Archer]

my luck cant get any worse with elk. so things are only looking up

 

[hunthog]

I hunted the exact area you will be hunting last year and hope to hunt there this year. It's a tough area with lot's of dead fall in the best areas. Dangerous as heck to hunt if your not really careful. It can be very productive if you're patient, hunt hard and plan on hiking in a ways each day.

One thing for certain, don't spend a lot of time practicing with your bugle. The bulls are very bugle shy and respond better to cow calls. The problem is, they come in silent and slow to the cow call. My best advice is to locate with short bugles, move in as close as you dare, set up and cow call for as long as an hour or more at each set-up. I had multiple opportunities for nice bulls. The first 2 bugled but shied away when I responded with bugles. The others would work in to a cow call and move away when I tried to hurry their approach with a bugle. Others just walked out unexpected when I was cow calling other bulls. I became impatient with another 2 after 45 minutes or so and decided to try and move in on them. I ended up face to face with them moving in silent to my cow call.

Early in the hunt I tried to work a huge bull that was frequenting an area, wandering around bugling and rubbing. It was apparent he was searching the area for cows but not looking for a fight. For 2 days I followed him through the woods as he just wandered around and bugled to no one in particular. After a couple of days he just went away.

Last year it snowed about mid season and the first thing I noticed while tracking Elk in the snow was that the majority of larger bulls were not running with the small to meduim groups of cows and calves. They stayed near and seemed to follow them around but never seemed to join the groups. That seemed strange. I was up there until the beginning of the 4th week and only saw or heard 2 out of about 8 or 9 bulls with cows.

I ended up getting a cow on my last day that came running to my Hoochie Mama at 1:30 in the afternoon. That was the same day I got busted by the 2 bulls that I was impatient with.

I'm hoping to get there this year but my partners are dropping like flys and the country is just too hard to hunt by yourself so, I may be forced to cancel my hunt this year. I hate unreliable partners but no one seems willing to commit or get into the shape they need to be in to hunt. It's going to kill me to miss this year but what's a guy to do?

Hunthog

 

[Oregon Archer]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

They stayed near and seemed to follow them around but never seemed to join the groups. That seemed strange. [/b]

ive read quite a few discussions on what you described and the general concensus was that these larger bulls without harems would wander from herd to herd. theyd check each herd for cows coming into estrus. once they would find one theyd just take her out of the herd since they were much bigger and more dominant than the herd bull at the time. theory being is that the larger bulls would be able to conserve much more energy going into winter this way and also avoid injury by not having to defend a harem of cows all day and night. made sense to me when i read it. wether its true or not i dont know but it is a feasible theory.

 

[Kim]

HogHunt, thanks for the great report, i better prepare for any kind of weather. I've been trying to get into shape, but I just got a case of "shingles" I'm hoping that it will be over the worst part by the time we go. In either case though I'm going. I'll be going up there right after Labor Day til the rest of the season, maybe we can hook up over there.
Kim

 

[hunthog]

Hey Kim,

If I end up going let's keep in contact till we go up. If I go, my last remaining partner will be leaving the second week for 6 days no matter what. We should definately hook up. I have every wallow, rub, contact area and known beds marked on my GPS in the area that I hunt. I planned on doing some Grouse hunting and fishing in Olive Lake during the week my partners were gone but I'd rather Elk hunt and have no problem showing you around my hunt area. I marked around 200 very interesting waypoints.

Hunthog