Sky Lakes Wilderness Elk Hunting

[OregonHunter13]

Hi everyone. Long time reader of this forum but first time posting. Mostly because I have not found a lot of information regarding the Sky Lakes Wilderness where I am wanting to try this year. This will be my first elk season and wondering if this wilderness holds a decent population of elk or if my time is better of spent somewhere else. I appreciate any information and I am definitely not trying to get your secret spot. But after scouting alot these past couple months I am kind of running out of options here in Southern Oregon.

Thanks

 

[HuntWyld]

Elk in that part of Oregon are sparse, most of Oregon’s elk population resides on the coastal range for Roosevelt and on the east side of the state for Rockies. That region of southern Oregon has been suffering a severely declining elk population over the past couple decades. I live in the area and travel for elk hunting so if I were you I would look further east or west.

 

[OregonHunter13]

Elk in that part of Oregon are sparse, most of Oregon’s elk population resides on the coastal range for Roosevelt and on the east side of the state for Rockies. That region of southern Oregon has been suffering a severely declining elk population over the past couple decades. I live in the area and travel for elk hunting so if I were you I would look further east or west.

Ok thanks for the quick reply I was wondering if that is what I was going to have to do.

 

[Hoodie]

I hunt the Cascades primarily, and will hunt the Coast Range mid-week if it's getting down to the wire.

The general trend is that elk densities are much lower in the Cascades and so are hunter densities. This is primarily a habitat issue. Due to low success rates and high bull survival there are also very good bulls in the Cascades. They can get old there. The coast has far higher elk numbers, but also more pressure and road access.

The takeaway from that would be that you can find good elk hunting in the Cascades, but only with serious extensive scouting. The critical element in the Cascades is feed. You will only find elk near pockets of sufficient feed, which are few and far between. If you blow a drainage out, you can't just jump to the next one and expect to be on elk again.

If you have plenty of time to spend scouting and learning the movements of your local herd, the Cascades can be a viable option. If not, I'd stick to the Coast.

 

[DawnPatrol]

I often hunt another wilderness area in the cascades with low elk density. Like others have said, if you can invest significant time in scouting (aka wandering around in a beautiful place) you may find success. Then you can have the treble satisfaction of killing a bull, not having to combat hunt like on the coast, and knowing that you beat the odds. Try to hold that satisfaction in your mind while you are packing out across miles of untracked wilderness area instead of being able to drive within 100 yards of your kill like you inevitably would on the coast.