NW_Bucketlist
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Was able to fly down the last weekend of archery and scout for 3 days got good lay of the land and located a insane amount of elk. Being from Washington state I have seen plenty of elk but not like the concentrations we were seeing. We talked to a number of guides during our scouting trip that told us we were in a good area but warned us that first season muzzy would be busy.
We drove down the 1500+miles and arrived 5 days before the hunt to get more scouting in and see if the elk we located were still in the area. To our surprise the concentration of elk was even bigger. In the next couple of days of scouting we kept running into guides and outfitters everyone of them was very helpful and willing to share acknowledge again they reminded us that it could be busy in the area we were looking at. we had some good bulls patterned nothing what I would consider massive just good solid mature bulls. We had a whale tailed 5 that we wanted to shoot and a 300-315ish 6 that were on our hit list.
Opening morning came and so did the people we got setup about a 1.5 before daylight and could hear our hit list bull bugling his way to us in the dark. About a half in hour before daylight people started driving out on the flat that was holding all the elk we had been scouting I knew it wasn’t going to be good as daylight cracked I got behind the glass and witnessed about every elk in the flat line up and start single filing to the thick bedding area. We tried to make a play on a good bull but got cut off by a guide that knew the area alot better that ended up passing on the bull because it wasn’t big enough 330-340”. That one was kind of heartbreaking for us because we were so close. That evening we were hoping the elk would go back into there normal routine so we stayed in the same area. Not a single elk returned to that area that night. Back at camp we discussed what our plan was for the next morning we decided to try the same because that’s where we scouted and it was hard to leave elk to go find elk.
Wake up early and get in the spot early the next morning to have the same thing happen again people driving out on the flat a half hour before daylight. Once daylight cracked I was only able to glass up a few herds. We ended up getting corked by the same guide again and decided we needed to do something different or the encounters with people were going to ruin the hunt.
We went back to camp and started looking over new areas with OnX and found a good roadless area to hit the timber for a mid day afternoon hunt. About 4 miles into the hunt I was starting to question if there was any elk in the area it was void of sign. I kept telling my brother in law it was the best looking timber I have ever hunted and I didn’t know how we have not seen anything. We saw one more good looking bench on OnX and bugled at the end of it to get a nice growler response back. We played the wind with this bull for a couple hours and only ended up seeing his cows. We started our way back to the truck and cut some fresh tracks in the mud. We slowed down our walk and found 3 bulls standing together at 120 yards. My brother in law picked the biggest of the 3 and pulled the trigger. The bull dumped in his tracks before the smoke even appeared in my brother in laws scope. After the shot a storm came in while quarting the elk up in rained, hailed and snowed it was wild weather.
Overall unit 15 was some of the most amazing elk country I will probably ever get to experience. I think all the landowner tags during that first muzzy hunt is a joke and takes away from a amazing tag(I did not meet one person that drew the tag). It was a awesome trip with my brother in law that will be hard to beat. About a month after this hunt he killed his Roosevelt bull in Washington as well.
We drove down the 1500+miles and arrived 5 days before the hunt to get more scouting in and see if the elk we located were still in the area. To our surprise the concentration of elk was even bigger. In the next couple of days of scouting we kept running into guides and outfitters everyone of them was very helpful and willing to share acknowledge again they reminded us that it could be busy in the area we were looking at. we had some good bulls patterned nothing what I would consider massive just good solid mature bulls. We had a whale tailed 5 that we wanted to shoot and a 300-315ish 6 that were on our hit list.
Opening morning came and so did the people we got setup about a 1.5 before daylight and could hear our hit list bull bugling his way to us in the dark. About a half in hour before daylight people started driving out on the flat that was holding all the elk we had been scouting I knew it wasn’t going to be good as daylight cracked I got behind the glass and witnessed about every elk in the flat line up and start single filing to the thick bedding area. We tried to make a play on a good bull but got cut off by a guide that knew the area alot better that ended up passing on the bull because it wasn’t big enough 330-340”. That one was kind of heartbreaking for us because we were so close. That evening we were hoping the elk would go back into there normal routine so we stayed in the same area. Not a single elk returned to that area that night. Back at camp we discussed what our plan was for the next morning we decided to try the same because that’s where we scouted and it was hard to leave elk to go find elk.
Wake up early and get in the spot early the next morning to have the same thing happen again people driving out on the flat a half hour before daylight. Once daylight cracked I was only able to glass up a few herds. We ended up getting corked by the same guide again and decided we needed to do something different or the encounters with people were going to ruin the hunt.
We went back to camp and started looking over new areas with OnX and found a good roadless area to hit the timber for a mid day afternoon hunt. About 4 miles into the hunt I was starting to question if there was any elk in the area it was void of sign. I kept telling my brother in law it was the best looking timber I have ever hunted and I didn’t know how we have not seen anything. We saw one more good looking bench on OnX and bugled at the end of it to get a nice growler response back. We played the wind with this bull for a couple hours and only ended up seeing his cows. We started our way back to the truck and cut some fresh tracks in the mud. We slowed down our walk and found 3 bulls standing together at 120 yards. My brother in law picked the biggest of the 3 and pulled the trigger. The bull dumped in his tracks before the smoke even appeared in my brother in laws scope. After the shot a storm came in while quarting the elk up in rained, hailed and snowed it was wild weather.
Overall unit 15 was some of the most amazing elk country I will probably ever get to experience. I think all the landowner tags during that first muzzy hunt is a joke and takes away from a amazing tag(I did not meet one person that drew the tag). It was a awesome trip with my brother in law that will be hard to beat. About a month after this hunt he killed his Roosevelt bull in Washington as well.
