Where are the Elk?

[joken]

We saw one Elk this muzzleloader season and have never not seen animals. There was also virtually no sign and we saw Wolf tracks at Wickiup last year. I spoke to a friend who grew up in Crescent and he sent me pictures of four different Wolves, one with at least one pup. We covered a lot of ground, as did three other parties, and nothing. I have hunted this area for years and fill my tag more often than not. Did the Wolves push the Elk out of the area or is something else going on?

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[CrackPipe]

You probably know this if you are filling your tag more often than not, but here are some thoughts anyway...
If there are wolves in the area, Elk will change their behavior and will often temporarily move out of the area while the wolves are there.
In many areas, elk will rotate spots in a 5-7 day loop. Depending on your timing, that can make them easy to miss.
Weather conditions can effect visible sign. Was it significantly different in that area this year? This last September, I saw almost no sign at all, but we were on elk at least one elk more than 50% of the days. This was the coast and it was pretty dry. There was even a lack of fresh rubs. Not sure what that was.
I have also seen elk move completely out of an area if there is an uptick in hunting or other pressure.

 

[joken]

You probably know this if you are filling your tag more often than not, but here are some thoughts anyway...
If there are wolves in the area, Elk will change their behavior and will often temporarily move out of the area while the wolves are there.
In many areas, elk will rotate spots in a 5-7 day loop. Depending on your timing, that can make them easy to miss.
Weather conditions can effect visible sign. Was it significantly different in that area this year? This last September, I saw almost no sign at all, but we were on elk at least one elk more than 50% of the days. This was the coast and it was pretty dry. There was even a lack of fresh rubs. Not sure what that was.
I have also seen elk move completely out of an area if there is an uptick in hunting or other pressure.

Nothing there has changed. The weather was spring like but that's not unusual. We had snow on the last day and still almost no sign.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

Game animals read the hunting regs , so they know when and where to go so as not to end up as someone's dinner guests...

Seriously though....
Many different reasons for the lack of game ...
Hunting pressure...
Change in the environment...things like loss of favored food. or habitat ...natural predators...
Low birth rate....
Andy

 

[clanhanson]

They're all by my yard it seems

 

[The Heretic]

Elk are usually found somewhere in the woods - by other hunters if at all, but almost never found by me. The only times I found elk was during deer season (I stumbled into a bedded herd when hunting deer in the hills just west of Monmouth my first time hunting deer) or otherwise, but not elk season - although I sometimes saw cow elk when I had a bull tag. It seems that when I have a tag/license and I am in the area, the elk are somewhere else.

My father had decent luck during elk season - he often hunted in the Jewell area.

 

[Nosferatu]

Go higher. If there is any pressure, they will be up as high as they can get, just below the snow, if any.

 

[Ben B.]

I have 2 in my freezer, did you try checking there?

 

[MacReady]

Deer hunting this year was a total bust for our group up here in Washington, if thats any consolation.

 

[The Heretic]

Deer hunting this year was a total bust for our group up here in Washington, if thats any consolation.

I have a friend in Colorado who just bought a house and moved into it. The house is known as the local hotspot for deer. Currently a 4 point buck beds down in their backyard and her daughter hand feeds it. The buck will only come to her daughter.

 

[Val1884]

Elk will never recover in WA until they get rid of late season. Every cow killed is a calf too. Wdfw poached several thousand a few years back for there master whorehauser. We got too many bears, cougars, wolves an now with economic hard times and immigrants poaching is out of hand. Don't expect much for several years unless we get a drastic change.

 

[clanhanson]

Elk will never recover in WA until they get rid of late season. Every cow killed is a calf too. Wdfw poached several thousand a few years back for there master whorehauser. We got too many bears, cougars, wolves an now with economic hard times and immigrants poaching is out of hand. Don't expect much for several years unless we get a drastic change.

I also see disturbing treatment of elk here in MT. People will chase a herd into a shallow pond or clearing and circle them, firing into the huddled mass until they're all killed. They do this every year and rarely are caught.

 

[Val1884]

I also see disturbing treatment of elk here in MT. People will chase a herd into a shallow pond and circle them, firing into the huddled mass until they're all killed. They do this every year and rarely are caught.

Yup some folks need a good fishwacker massage to cure them of that behavior.

 

[Pepe-lepew]

Central Oregon I have found elk herds break up with pressure from predators or hunters. They still hang in the area but are much more elusive.
My experience is wolf sign does not equate to no elk around. I have seen wolf track and elk in the same area a day or two apart. Two years ago we saw a day or two old wolf, cougar and bear track in a few hundred yards of an old road. We blew elk out of a small timber draw next to the road a few hundred yards further. This year, we ran into a cougar near the same draw. A week later we got onto fresh elk sign and track in the same draw and followed the track to the herd a 1/4 mile away where my oldest kid harvested a cow.

I read a book on elk hunting many years ago. The book had several things I put in practice. One was how to find the elk. The author said in new areas, plan to cover 10 square miles to first find where they are. Then start hunting the small areas you find they are hanging, focusing on topography that elk prefer.

This strategy worked well for my oldest kids first elk hunt in a new area for me. We covered 8-10 miles a day hiking around different areas. It took three days to find our first fresh elk track. It took another half day to find a bull and a few cows. Working more area over the next days we found track of a large herd several miles away. The next day we found a medium size herd and bull that she harvested a big cow from. In all it took 6 days and 50+ miles of hiking.

I really got serious this deer season to get a big blacktail or have my youngest kid fill my tag. While not successful, I located four big bucks and saw three of those bucks during the season. I used a similar strategy to my elk hunting to find them in a high pressures closed road area. Interestingly, the bucks routes and bedding areas were isolated areas other hunters never went. I covered over 75 miles hiking through the season in an area of 6 square miles. All that work was not wasted. I learned the area in detail and a little more than a day into my daughters first deer tag, she dropped a bruiser 3 pointer.

 

[CrackPipe]

Go higher. If there is any pressure, they will be up as high as they can get, just below the snow, if any.

Great point. I hunt September so I forget about the snow thing. My friends in Montana hunt rifle in the snow. They walk sidehill or drive until they find fresh tracks. Then they follow them until they start to meander. The second the tracks look like they are aimless, STOP! Hunt VERY, VERY slow as they are likely bedded super close. That's their experience at least and they have killed a LOT of elk. Of course they are also in Montana.

 

[joken]

Some folks camped 100 yards from us at Wickiup, had a Cougar in their camp one night. The Kid in the tent slept through it.

 

[The Heretic]

One thing I have read/heard and in my very limited elk hunting experience, is that elk move around quite a bit, and they move far (as much as county to county to county), whereas deer tend to stay within a few square miles.

 

[JuglansRegia]

Hunters kill more elk and deer than wolves, so my guess is they are purposely avoiding you. Just had a buck walk through my back yard yesterday, he could be up in the hills but for some reason this time of year they like sticking around populated areas.

 

[joken]

Hunters kill more elk and deer than wolves, so my guess is they are purposely avoiding you. Just had a buck walk through my back yard yesterday, he could be up in the hills but for some reason this time of year they like sticking around populated areas.

Deer are in the Rut and he is looking for Girls.
You may want to read some of these stats

 

[BaggerRyder]

I have always found that elk are where they are. Often times are where you arent. And elk go where you don't want to go.
The last one really holds true as I get older and wiser. Because in my youth I used to kill a lot of elk. I used to also go where I no longer want to go. I don't even look down into those places and don't think about climbing up to those places. Elk are big and heavy and a lot of work. 11 hr pack outs aren't as fun for me anymore. Not to say I don't hunt hard. I just don't hunt as hard as I once did.
We didn't see any elk in Western WA either.