WA-Peaches ridge bull elk tag

[Coastiecreation]

So I’ve been drawn for the peaches ridge bull elk hunt this year. Time to do my scouting and come up with a plan. Have talked with a few people about this hunt already but was hoping some Washington guys on here could give me some insight on how I should approach this hunt. As you know the first five days of the hunt are before the general season starts and you have five more days when the whole place turns to a pumpkin patch. I’m torn on whether I should hit the wilderness part of this unit or should I stick to the interior of the unit. I’m worried if I strike out in the first five days I’ve heard the elk are full on high tailing it once the spike hunt starts. Any advice on this hunt would be much appreciated to help me narrow down my scouting efforts. Anyone on here ever done this hunt before

 

[Timberline001]

I would get up there 3-5 days before the opener of your hunt and locate a bull you want to go after. Then once your season opens you already have a bull (or a couple) located and can focus on those areas before the general hunt starts. If you have free time in September when they’re in full rut that’ll be a good time to help locate them as well. The bulls rut pretty late up there and they won’t be far from where they were in September. I wouldn’t worry to much about trying to locate bulls in the summer because they’ll move a ways before they start rutting however it would be a good idea to get up there and learn the area if you don’t know it well.

 

[.204smokechaser]

I grew up in the Naches/Nile area and will say that the wilderness burn scar is where I'd spend my time hunting. Was back visiting during the rifle elk there last year and hiked up a trail off of highway 410 to get some measurements on some things for post-fire studies and saw 3 shooter bulls on the top of f...s Ridge. Also would check out c....t basin. Haven't spent hardly any time in there since the fire but all my buddies have been saying good things about what the burn scar has done for elk hunting.

If your worried about packing something out, chinook pass outiffiters is reasonable. If you're looking at a guided option, Ty (norsepeak) does well putting people on good bulls with rugged class outfitters.

 

[Timberline001]

I grew up in the Naches/Nile area and will say that the wilderness burn scar is where I'd spend my time hunting. Was back visiting during the rifle elk there last year and hiked up a trail off of highway 410 to get some measurements on some things for post-fire studies and saw 3 shooter bulls on the top of f...s Ridge. Also would check out c....t basin.

I saw one of the biggest bulls I’ve ever seen in WA near there on the peaches side of 410 at night in august a couple years ago.

 

[ridgefire]

I would take a look back in the Norse Peak Wilderness. We got into a ton of elk back around Crow Creek Lake and Cresent Lake when we hiked in there to do some fishing a few years back.

 

[Str8shtr]

346 is open for general rifle spike only. Not open for general archery or muzzleloader.

 

[Coastiecreation]

Appreciate all the good advice. All good areas. Better get the old legs in shape from the looks of it.

 

[Jason277]

Anyone deer hunt up there in the past ? Please pm me !

 

[Harvey_NW]

Anyone deer hunt up there in the past ? Please pm me !

I've been all over that unit my entire life and I can tell you deer density is low.

 

[Timberline001]

Probably the last area I’d ever hunt for deer.

 

[Jason277]

Probably the last area I’d ever hunt for deer.

Bummer

 

[Timberline001]

Bummer

For the most part everything along the crest between I90 and the Yakama reservation Id count out for deer hunting. Theres intermittent pockets of bench legs and mule deer but not enough to put the time into.

 

[Jon Boy]

I was actually really surprised at the number of deer I saw during my dad’s muzzleloader elk hunt last year. However, I looked into the regs and the season dates are down right tough to try and pull a decent bench leg out of it. Would be a fun hunt if the date went to the end of October.

 

[Timberline001]

I was actually really surprised at the number of deer I saw during my dad’s muzzleloader elk hunt last year. However, I looked into the regs and the season dates are down right tough to try and pull a decent bench leg out of it. Would be a fun hunt if the date went to the end of October.

Yeah it’s a different place during the rifle elk hunt.