I was lucky enough to get an access permit for a 20,000 acre private ranch in eastern Oregon for the 5-day bull elk season late October. The catch is no vehicles allowed. During the hunt I can use a mountain bicycle or hike. If I kill an animal I can use a cart or contract with a packer to get the meat out. Before the hunt I can only hike to scout.

So the question is: How to a locate a good hunting area? There will be 19 other hunters on the property and they will likely be concentrated in one area where elk are definitely known to be. I hunt alone and don't like to be crowded. I have access to excellent maps and aerial photos. Would it be worthwhile to charter a small plane for an hour or so?

My .02
Look on your topo...find where the other hunters
will likely access the property.Then find the
elk escape routes.Find yourself the "back way" to
position yourself to intercept the elk way before
the others go into the woods.

Look for thick,nasty cover.Thats where I'd go if
I were an elk.

Scout,scout,scout.
Hope you kill a big one.

Jeff

19 hunters on that little amount of land that means pressure. I'd be looking at the highest areas, and locate the likely benches below the ridges. Look for food, water and shelter, and you'll find the elk. HTH, Dutch.

Elk are funny creatures. Where they were plentiful one year, they may completely avoid the next. I would do a bunch of scouting, or hiring a pilot, but I probably wouldn't start until October. The rut tends to move them around some.
Good Luck.

Hello;
I dunno what kind of country you are hunting, but around here, I've had good luck by hitting potential feeding areas. I,ve never considered it worth my while to beat black timber. Elk are grazers and dusk will draw them to meadows, where they may stay all night, moving out at dawn . They are also creatures of habit. So, unless really disturbed, they will probably be back there the next night. The biggest problem we have around here with Elk is their love of stacked hay, usually toward the end of the season, or beyond. As for calling, I've called bulls in even during the first two weeks of October, when they supposedly aren't in rut anymore. We bagged my brother in laws bull after calling in a group of 5 bulls with a cow call on oct. 17.
Grizz

Allan, first, get a set of quad maps that cover the area. Study the maps and then visit the place and look for the elk where they are now, if the land owner will allow this. You will be finding them in pre rut and the bulls will not likely be with the cows at this time. If the 19 hunters are going to exert much pressure (that area is 31 square miles and is 8.5 times larger than Ray's touted elk hunting outfitter client in Nebraska)they will be very busy. That is a relatively large area. I would look for some remote areas with dark timber. You will be there in post rut and the bulls will be off by themselves and my be solo but more likely in small bachelor herds. They will be trying to recuperate but will be very wary. Looking at this time of the year will not tell you where the elk are, it will only give you a lay of the land and know what to expect when you do get there. If you have the opportunity to visit the site later, that would be ideal. I would go after the rut and use a spotting scope to check out those areas that you thought were good habitat in your earlier visit. I am in the same mode this year having drawn an ANY bull tag for an area in Eastern Washington. An off the shelf tag here only allows you to take a spike, my permit allows me take anything with horns. My hunt will be earlier and the territory bigger but with the same problem as I do not know it.

We can argue about how big 30 square miles are, but unless it is black timber, you are going to move elk around with 20 guys. If each hunter walks 6 miles per day, in two days they could have walked within 250 yards of every spot on the place. If it is rainforest or black timber, that's not bad. If it is open or rocky, that's bad.

Most places, it's worse than that because there is quite a bit of "dead" areas that won't hold elk (or hunters). For comparison, 1 hunter per 1.5 section is about 5 times the pressure of the over-the-counter units I hunt in Central Idaho. FWIW, Dutch.

Allan-glad to hear you got a permit (at least you've heard-Mt put off its drawing till next week now-yep I am pissed!). That means you get to go to the hill and hunt! Cool deal.

To your question-do you have any leads of hunters who have drawn the permit in the past-if you can find one or two or three you may be able to get some good info.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Why can't you use the mountain bike to scout now?

"GET TO THE HILL"

Dog

GET AN AIRPLANE.

Dutch made some good points but as he said it all depends on terrain. It is also very unlikely that all the hunters will cover that kind of distance in a day. Also depending on the terrain, the areas olding elk will be far less than the total 20,000 acres. That can be an advatage or disadvatage to you but depends on how smart the other hunters are.

A lot of the hunters will not travel far but again it depends on the terrain and the impact of the huners is a lot more dependent on the cover. The quad maps will tell you more. I happen to have a program called map quest that has all the quad maps for Oregon. Shoot me an email about where this property is located and I will print you a set of maps for the area.

Take Chic up on the Mapquest offer! Love that program, need to quit bumming it from my father in law

He makes another good point, and that all this depends on the mind set of the other hunters. Some guys cover country, some don't. If they stay around camp, your choices are much greater.

Just remember that 10 miles is nothing for an elk. I've seen herds go that far for water or to feed on an alfalfa field! HTH, Dutch.

Dutch, the next time you borrow it from him, just burn a set of discs. I ended up buying Washington/Oregon and Idaho/Wyoming at a closeout sale.

great idea. Just bought a new computer with a cd burner. Now I Just have to figure out how to use it....

Here in Colorado, those who consistently succeed in bagging their Elk on crowded public areas are the ones who get DEEP into Elk country. If I was in your situation, that's exactly what I would do. Find a high spot to glass the country & let those 18 other guys move the Elk towards those Elk highways someone else mentioned. Good Luck.

I have an old friend who has consistenly harvested elk her in the Colockum Game range in North Central WA on opening day of the rifle season. He knows of some of the dark timber areas where he elk feel safe. He goes in there on hands and knees using leather gloves and knee pads and moves very slowly (duh) and looks for bedded elk and elk legs. Once he finds them and he always does, he starts looking for a bull. Sometimes it takes him several hours of crawling but he is very successful.

BTW, this hunting area during the elk season has about the same human density per sq mile as Seattle. Okay slight exageration but there are far more people hunting there than 19 in 20,000 acres.

[ 08-16-2003, 01:48: Message edited by: Customstox ]

Wouldn't be the Ochoco unit would it?