Looking for elk advice - found a nice one, but am new to this game and have questions

2DaMtns · Aug 21, 2020

I'll be hunting rifle. I'm gonna keep an eye out for him on my trail cams, and have another spot or two nearby that I think might be places he spends some time. Gonna try to find more than one hangout of his. I'm also still scouting other areas. Not gonna put all my eggs in one basket. Found a place yesterday where a bull uprooted 8 or 10 trees last year within a few hundred yards' walk. Put a trail cam there and at another spot near a trail in a pinch point where the brush is browsed down to knee height or so and there are deer and elk tracks all over. The scat in there shows consistent activity. If I don't get a bull this year, it won't be from lack of trying. And maybe he'll be a 6x6 next year!

FishnhuntOR · Aug 21, 2020

Just be ready for them to be pushed out by the archery crowd. Or no one will pressure them and you'll be lucky by rifle season.
From what I've seen, elk have their habit of using same routs or very similar patterns. If, they are local elk, not just wondering through.

If you can dial some of these routes, you'll have better chance, especially once other hunters start to push them around.

bbbass · Aug 22, 2020

Oregonhunter5 said:
I heard the wolves have been destroyed up in Mt. Emily. True? False?

I have not heard that. I'm pretty sure I would have seen something on FB... if some good ol boys took out the pack, there would be a lot of outrage from the pro-wolf sector and the powers that be...

Oregonhunter5 · Aug 22, 2020

bbbass said:
I have not heard that. I'm pretty sure I would have seen something on FB... if some good ol boys took out the pack, there would be a lot of outrage from the pro-wolf sector and the powers that be...

I must of been tired when I posted that. Meant to say I heard the wolves have destroyed the elk hunting up there.

USMC1911 · Aug 22, 2020

FishnhuntOR said:
Just be ready for them to be pushed out by the archery crowd. Or no one will pressure them and you'll be lucky by rifle season.
From what I've seen, elk have their habit of using same routs or very similar patterns. If, they are local elk, not just wondering through.

If you can dial some of these routes, you'll have better chance, especially once other hunters start to push them around.

This is spot on in my experience. Depending on where your at a herd makes a big loop. Especially west of the mountains like the coastal ranges of Oregon they don't really migrate as much as feed in a large circle.