Roosevelt elk -- how much pressure is too much pressure?

[WaWox]

Context: live in western WA, and want to work towards my first OTC roosevelt elk. This year will be my first time hunting Roosevelt elk. Overall a novice elk hunter. [If you check my forums history, I got my first bull last year but it was a Utah super premium tag I lucked into].

I thought i found a good spot:
- industrial timber land that recently changed hands and now allows public access (vs formerly rather pricey trespass fees), so I thought maybe marginally less pressures than other areas? Maybe not everyone realized it's open now?
- plenty of sign on the ground, can't walk more than a dozen paces on logging roads without stepping in elk poop [but also plenty of coyote and bear poop, so predators are around...]
- pretty good shooting/glassing spots -- plenty of parallel ridge lines with clear cuts or recent reproduction to look into

I went out there this weekend for another scouting run and didn't realize it was muzzie opener.

Every single trailhead had 2-3 trucks parked, most with a couple hunters in them I'd reckon. This is industrial timber land so the spine road is open and the logging roads that branch off every ~500 yards are closed. And literally 2-3 trucks on every single one of these gates for several miles. There isn't much land behind each of these gates, the larger streams and extremely dense old deadfall + reproduction areas that I could not get through even with a machete really cut this terrain into a gris. Basically means you can hike maybe 2-3 miles before it'd be much faster to hike out and come in from another road vs trying to cross very bad terrain.

Is this going to be the same or worse in rifle season? At what point is it better to find a different area ? Or am I overthinking this?

 

[mavinwa2]

Always worse on weekends. More rifle hunters than muzzies too.

 

[NWBLKTAIL]

Welcome to the zoo that is coast rifle season in Oregon and Washington, I’d go look at other spots just to have other plans it can be a big bummer to throw everything at one spot to find out everyone and their dog hunts it

 

[High Climber]

Must be elk there, will be lots of dudes everywhere

 

[MolokoMan]

I would try to find a spot with as little people as possible.

 

[Rogue Bay]

I don’t have any experience in Washington, but have hunted the Oregon coast a fair amount and that sounds about like every coastal rifle elk hunt I’ve experienced. In the areas I have experience with it’s high-impact elk hunting, which is not how I like to hunt. The elk are still there but they get pushed into some nasty hole and only come out after legal shooting hours. It can be terribly frustrating.

Is this timber land you’re scouting bordered by National Forest or is there more industrial timber land around it? That could dictate if/where the elk move when hit with heavy hunting pressure. One of the industrial timber properties I have hunted is surrounded on several sides by decadent National Forest and the elk seem to prefer the intense hunting pressure and just change their habits as opposed to leaving and hanging out on public ground.

As stated above, having a plan B and maybe a plan C would be a good idea, but I wouldn’t entirely rule out this ground you’ve been scouting. The elk will likely be there somewhere.

 

[WaWox]

Thanks! Sounds like this is what I should expect from any plot that looks sufficiently "obvious" on onX.. i am used to it for blacktail (where I stay closer to home.. and thus also closer for hundreds of thousands of other people!) but I somehow thought the remoteness of this spot would help.

Basically, I am wondering how people find less pressure. Is it pay for play ? There is a lot of industrial timerbland in that corner of WA but (fortunately!!) the vast majority is open access, and the pockets that aren't don't seem to have established access policies / seem like small maybe even family operations.

 

[Rogue Bay]

I’ve yet to come across a good elk spot on the coast here that isn’t already well known and hunted hard. We certainly have elk on the national forest but densities are low and the habitat is tough to hunt. Most of the industrial timber lands here don’t allow access so the ones that do get pounded hard. It sounds like a lot of the timber land where you’re hunting is open for access, which is helpful. The elk can’t just run onto the neighboring property and take refuge the entire season. I guess I’d keep exploring, hoping to find a little pocket or saddle where pressured elk may go and try to use the other hunters to my advantage.

There are some great Roosevelt hunters on this forum so hopefully they chime in.

 

[WaWox]

I know Rocky Mountain Elk travel huge distances and might plausibly be pushed into an entirely different GMU by pressure (or just by random wandering around!)

But Roosevelt are more stationary, right?

The GMU i am looking at has virtually no zero-access land but it's neighboring GMUs are bordered by some combination of tribal lands, nat parks, limited entry/no hunting GMUs, and other no hunting areas. Trying to be a little vague to respect the no-naming-GMUs rule but the elk would need to travel at least 14miles as the crow flies to get into an area where only tribal members / park Rangers / very lucky draw winners/ people with a very fancy backyard can shoot them.

That's probably well within range for a RMElk (even if a not straight path walk is closer to 3x the line distance ?) , but might mean Roosies stay put instead?

 

[Rogue Bay]

There are Roosevelt hunters on here that are much more knowledgeable than I am, but I wouldn’t expect them to be blown out of the country by hunting pressure. I don’t know that I’d call them stationary, but the do have a much smaller range on average and I would expect expect them to hunker down in some thick stuff within their range and move very little during daylight hours.

 

[WaWox]

There are Roosevelt hunters on here that are much kore knowledgeable than I am, but I wouldn’t expect them to be blown out of the country by hunting pressure. I don’t know that I’d call them stationary, but the do have a much smaller range on average and I would expect expect them to hunker down in some thick stuff within their range and move very little during daylight hours.

Thank you! That's very good news, I think

So this was my plan:

Get to trail head ~90min before shooting light. Hike in 1-1.5miles to get to good glassing light at least 30min before shooting light. Stare into ~2 year old reproduction edges with thick older growth on the north facing side (?) of the ridge until I find elk. Have shooting distance / wind stuff dialed in.

This might still work, even with tons of pressure then right?

 

[mavinwa2]

have to share with you.
Couple young fellas I know hike in the day before and spike camp several western WA areas. It gets very crowded during rifle.

About 20 years ago, I helped pack out an elk in SWestern WA. Friend often tagged a Rosie bull every year. Got to experience, see the terrain he hunts and it was thick, wet and nasty. As in thick, overgrown, old clear-cut re-prod, a trickle of a creek drainage in the bottom of a deep ravine, lined with waist high devils club!

the main reason I hunt only eastern WA...and that's not much better but at least drier for the most part

 

[Nmarth88]

Look up WDFW harvest rates. That will give you an idea of what you are up against in terms of success versus the amount of hunters and average days hunted. I believe I have a pretty good idea of what area(s) you are indicating and will tell you that rifle will be much more crowded and that is due to more people being successful with a rifle. The area I hunt wasn’t to crowded as years past this year, but over this weekend hunting muzzy with my boy we were on timber land that we pay for access that boarders state land Working a bull for my boy when another hunter started working the bull from the opposite side of the ravine. He ended up closer and shot the bull. Good lesson for my kid to wa state hunting. Hopefully you are successful, but I can tell you that most people do not get out of their trucks and actually hunt, but be prepared for pressure any piece of land you intend to hunt