# Hunting Elk in Oregon



## HS Climber (Aug 13, 2009)

So does anyone on here hunt elk in oregon.

Or anyone hunt elk at all on here. 
If so tell some stories about it.


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## M.R. (Aug 13, 2009)

If you're looking to get cranked up for this years season, I could send a few pic's from a game camera to someone that would post then up on here.

Lots of fun watching the antlers grow, then the damage they recieve during/after the rut. 

I truely like and admire elk and can study them all day long, but when around three different herds [at this time of year] start to cycle in on the hay ground here at the home place, they then become nothing but a Rodent!!!


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## HS Climber (Aug 14, 2009)

Yeah i am watching one herd now. kinda interesting. but they are higher in the mountains now, not alot down in the low lands. 

So where you at over in N.E. Oregon


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## wood4heat (Aug 14, 2009)

I could tell you a story about my first elk. More years ago than I want to mention I was hunting Flagtail Mtn in the Murderers Creek unit. It was the last day of the hunt and the first fresh snow we'd seen had fallen the night before. I left camp at around 5:45am and was headed to where I had planned to hunt when I came across what appeared to be fresh tracks. I followed those bad boys until almost noon when I came over a ridge and spotted the heard headed up into the trees on the other side of a small valley, prolly 200-250yds. Picked my elk and took a shot. 

I saw my elk squat and bolt for the trees. In my excitement I ran to the area they had been in and found blood everywhere! I immediately started after them (huge mistake) and found where she had bedded down about 20min later. There was a large pool of blood but no elk. I continued after her until 3:30 or so when I finally caught up. Took another shot from about 50yds and put her down, way down as she slid maybe 50 yds downhill before coming to a rest. I spent about an hour field dressing her and started thinking about how I was going to get back to camp. 

It had fallen to 16 below a couple nights earlier and by this time the temp was dropping fast. I took out my map to determine how I was going to get back to my truck. I had been heading west all day and headed toward a road that connected with the road I parked on. I decided to continue west hoping that 1, I would cut the road on the map and 2, that someone from my party would be out looking for me. I did come across a small road but not the one I was looking for. I followed it anyway hoping it would lead to the road I wanted. It did but it was a 2 mile hike. At this point it was dark, late, cold, and I was HUNGRY! I started towards the intersection that would lead to my truck and hiked another 6 miles. At 8:30 my uncles headlights came around the corner and I fell right where I was standing. He took me to my truck, another 2 miles, and I went back to camp successful in my first elk hunt. 

We went back the next morning for the elk, that's how I know the mileage. Remember how I said the elk had slid about 50yds after I put it down? Well at the bottom of this slope was the first road I followed out. We drove right to that spot then each took a leg and let the elk continue to slide right to the truck. I was beat but hooked!


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## M.R. (Aug 15, 2009)

HS Climber said:


> Yeah i am watching one herd now. kinda interesting. but they are higher in the mountains now, not alot down in the low lands.
> 
> So where you at over in N.E. Oregon



Outside of LaGrande a ways.

With the grasses seeding/drying out & losing protein, the irrigated alfalfa/grass gets to be pretty attractive to them at night.

The last pictures showed the velvet hanging and in tatters on the bigger bulls, so likely to start seeing the bachelor groups breaking up.


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## smokechase II (Aug 15, 2009)

*Filling a tag*

Trivia:

Back when I lived in NE (La Grande - 1970's) there were three guys who liked to fill "doe" tags during either deer or elk seasons.
There would be these giant migrations of hunters from Portland (along then I-80) to Eastern Oregon hunting.
These three amigos would head West to score hunters wives.

Guaranteed first night, usually second night of whatever season, they said success would fall off as fear of an early returning hunter husband would limit their chances.

==============

Stay in Western Oregon.

Safer that way.


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## smokechase II (Aug 15, 2009)

*Easy*

The easiest Elk hunt I ever heard of was this gal that got around.

She was sick, puking in her bathroom with the flu.

Opened the window for fresh air.

It was opening of cow season and there they were out toward Mt Harris.

She goes and gets her gun, uses the sill as a rest and shoots one.

Calls a guy up who comes by and tags it, guts it, hangs it in the garage and gets rid of the gut pile.

=============

Anyone top that?

A Minnesota road kill specialist doesn't have it that easy.


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## M.R. (Aug 15, 2009)

I had to wait until I was twelve to pack in on my first elk hunt, although I did get a spike with a 6.5 x55 swede, the part I remember the most happened after we got home.

I was soaking two and a half weeks of crud away in the bath tub with the shower curtain pulled, when Mom came in with the twenty questions thing about the trip. 
After the fifth or sixth question I sort of wanted to be left alone. Having never been exposed to the cutting up and camp life of elk camp I told her that I learned how Dad Stump Broke The Old Mare [It never happen but was joked about in camp] to shut her up. It worked! 

Well I heard a gasp, the bathroom door slammed shut, then the yelling...."WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN TEACHING MY BOY!" [for starters]. 

To this day, Dad has never forgotten this... as he was another month or two warming up to my Mother, and at times when we get out, this topic still comes up and Dad will always ask me if our cousin Dean had put me up to this, and I have kept him wondering all these years.


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## lawnmowertech37 (Sep 2, 2009)

HS Climber said:


> Yeah i am watching one herd now. kinda interesting. but they are higher in the mountains now, not alot down in the low lands.
> 
> So where you at over in N.E. Oregon



that sounds like beautiful country where you are just the way you are wording it would love to see some pictures of them mountains thanks 
calvin 

from coastal north carolina where the only mountains we have is sanddunes on the ocean front


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## wood4heat (Sep 2, 2009)

lawnmowertech37 said:


> from coastal north carolina where the only mountains we have is sanddunes on the ocean front



No Joke! I was in Wilmington over the weekend, beautiful city though.


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## Austin1 (Sep 3, 2009)

M.R. said:


> I had to wait until I was twelve to pack in on my first elk hunt, although I did get a spike with a 6.5 x55 swede, the part I remember the most happened after we got home.
> 
> I was soaking two and a half weeks of crud away in the bath tub with the shower curtain pulled, when Mom came in with the twenty questions thing about the trip.
> After the fifth or sixth question I sort of wanted to be left alone. Having never been exposed to the cutting up and camp life of elk camp I told her that I learned how Dad Stump Broke The Old Mare [It never happen but was joked about in camp] to shut her up. It worked!
> ...


I love this story so much! some rep coming your way! Only because you used a 6.5x55lol. Na not really but I think I got hypothermia on my first elk also a spike it was -37°C last day of the season too, I will never forget it until I die!
Mom kept me home from school the next day as I was still shivering, I know now it had more to do with the heater in the 62 GMC than the hunt. I took him with my Brothers .308 as I had broken my scope mount on my .303


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## luckycutter (Sep 16, 2009)

Whenever I can get a tag I hunt the starkey unit. The problem is that they now give out so few tags any more.

My first year I hunted with some neighbors. Most of the guys played cards all night,got an hr or two of sleep,then got up and traipsed around in the early morning hours to their ambushing areas and waited for the other hunters to push the elk in the right directions. The first day I was assigned to Grampa. 72 yrs old. @4 AM I got up with everyone else. "Grandpa" told me to ignore the rest and go back to sleep. Mm OK?.... Later on He woke me to a good hearty breakfast the rest of the family did not have time to eat. At about 9:30 we finally hit the truck and slowly made our way down the snow covered ridge road. "Grandpa" explained. "My kids are sooooo stupid. They do not get enough sleep, Get up too early, wolf down a cup of coffee and a candy bar. Then they hike Gosh knows where in the bitter dark cold. Then they wait and freeze near to death. If they do get an elk then they have to drag the poor beast up and down valleys and hills. That is hard and back breaking work. All they really have to do is pay attention. Nearly every day someone pushes the elk over that saddle at about the same time. There is one now!". I looked in disbelief as a cow walked out of the bushes and stood there on an embankment just above the road, about 50 yards away. He stopped the truck and dropped the cow with a single bullet. We backed the truck up and rolled the cow into the pick up bed. 10 min later we were back at camp.


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## wood4heat (Sep 16, 2009)

luckycutter said:


> Whenever I can get a tag I hunt the starkey unit. The problem is that they now give out so few tags any more.
> 
> My first year I hunted with some neighbors. Most of the guys played cards all night,got an hr or two of sleep,then got up and traipsed around in the early morning hours to their ambushing areas and waited for the other hunters to push the elk in the right directions.



I tried this strategy in South Starkey one year. Found a nice clearing with a LOT of sign so the next morning I was up and out of camp before 5:00a. Got to my clearing just about day break and hunkered down to see what might show up. What showed were a couple guys on :censored: quads who rode up on the far side and start BSing. There must have been a road I was unaware of. :rant: Probably scared off anything in the area so I picked myself up and started hiking. I think I did get a nice cow a day or two later, the years in S. Starkey have started to blend together.


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## luckycutter (Sep 16, 2009)

I was there one year and had some issues with quads as well. Turned out to be a good thing however. The quad hunters were simply zooming around on closed roads and off road, and shooting at what ever elk they "flushed" After wanting to, but knowing better, about putting a bullet in one or both the quad drivers that ruined my hunt, I went back to camp early. An officer went into my camp and inquired if I had any quads. He knew it to be a dumb question as my rig at the time was a toyota starlet, just a hair bigger than the quads in question. He then stated he had a few complaints and asked if I knew where they may have been driving and I showed him. He then looked at my camp. A small tent and a small tarp. "Damned that looks cold" as he shook his head. I told him I was a mountaineer so no problem. He then asked if I was staying the duration and I told him I had to be back in Portland in two days. He shook his head again and said, 'Not going to happen" A storm is closing in and 84 was going to be closed in a couple of hours." I said that it looks like I get to pack up early. He nodded and left to see if anyone else was camped nearby. 5 min later my car was loaded and I was off. I nearly high centered a few times on the way to Pendelton , but I squeaked down the hill just in time. If I had been a 1/2 hour later I would have been snowbound a few days.


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## M.R. (Dec 18, 2009)

smokechase II said:


> The easiest Elk hunt I ever heard of was this gal that got around.
> 
> She was sick, puking in her bathroom with the flu.
> 
> ...



______________________________________________________________

Recon' this year was my easiest hunting seasons to date, I had the backhoe up on the place cleaning up around a rock pit & openning up a spring, etc.
Three out of the four branched bulls that were taken. I just roaded the hoe to them, then a little ways from camp we dumped the entrails out, set them on the back of the flatbed & took them to my brothers [three trips] and hoisted them with his tractor/ skinned/quartered them. Then while still warm & steaming hung them in the cooler. The 4th as the bottom had dropped out of the road was skinned then halved, then loaded in the back of a pick-up. 

Just doesn't feel like one has really earned them, most of the elk we've taken in the past are packed out with mules, out of the Wilderness.


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