Tioga Unit

[Firedog]

Got back last night form a few days of Elk Hunting in the tioga unit. Never been down there befroe so we went down a couple days early to scout. Scouted an area that a buddy from ODF&W had seen elk while doing stream surveys. What steep country! I hunt the Clackamas Drainage and it is steep but this stuff made it look flat. Never been anywhere that had been logged and if you step of the road you are going to fall for a ways till you hit ground.

Ok Back to the hunt, Saturday we get into the area at first ligth find a good looking reprod area. Get into it and elk sign everywhere but nothing fom the last few days. Hunt through there for awhile. Nothing. Buddy is hunting one further down the road and same thing. after a few hours we decide to take a look through the area a bit. Topo map showed some areas on the other side of the drainage that looked promising. So we start driving, well the map we had didnt show all the roads on it and most of the roads arent marked so we get turned around and spend the rest of the day trying to get back to the place we started. Next morning we are heading to an area that looked good the day before but had a couple guys on the landings we needed to park on watching the clearcuts. Our paln was to run a creek drainage and allder draw off this area. We get up there and there is a party hiking across the draw to start packing out the 5 point they shot at dark off the landing the night before. So we head up to the area we had hunted the day before, about the same story as we get there two guys come out of the brush and had just shot a 4 point. So our luck isnt going so well. The 4 point was shot about 150 ft from where my buddy parked his truck the day before. :depressed: So we go hunt another area we had found, buddy spots two elk on his side of the hunt. Both spikes, not legal bulls. Pretty much the story of our hunt, was frustrating but we saw some new country and had a good time. Was really glad we got to stay at my buddies ranch in Glide in the spare double wide, since it poured the whole time we were down there. We had to drive a little over an hour every morning to get to where we were hunting but had a warmplace to sleep in and a place to take a shower after long days out in the rain. So it was pretty cushy over all :smile: No animals though. Saw a lot of deer, probably about 50 a day on our drive in an d out. Over all goo dfriends and good times. Next year must be our year. :smile:

[walkersteelhead]

I have hunted that unit,archery and spring bear. Its definetaly steep and brushy but Beautiful country. Did u see any bears. Definetaly easy to get lost.

[tailchaser]

Heck you should've given me a shout. This is my home turf. I took a couple of guys out from Kansas that wanted to kill a rosey in exchange for me going there next year for whitetails and they got one nice 5 pt and should've both tagged out but the other one just didn't have lady luck on his side. One night his scope fogged up with a big bull at 100 yards broadside, and took two shots at a 4 or small 5 pt and got nothing but brush. Turns out his scope was shooting 4" off at 100 yards. Put that out at 300 yards with some windage and houston we have a problem. I gave him my .300 mag for the rest of the time but of course that was all we saw legally.

The canyons around here aren't for the weak and feable that's for sure. You can find elk anywhere, but it's where you can get one out is the real problem. We killed two bulls in one night during bow season and it took us 14 hours of packing to get em out. Ouch is all I have to say. Anyhow, glad you had a good time. What part of the unit did you hunt?? Loon Lake area I presume??

tc

[Firedog]

Tailchaser, we hunted the Cougar Creek Drainage. Towards the Little Wolf Creek area. I wish I had posted that we were going before we went. really would have liked a little local Knowledge on some spots. Was beautiful country and like you said it was going to be work if you got one in the bottom of one of those drainages. The 4 point that those guys got couldnt have been easier it was 30 yards off the road and it was flat to the road. I think the best part was they came from the other direction and either it died right there or they shot it right before they were coming out. To bad about the foggin problem and also the scope being off, We wouldnt of had that problem :smile: We did end up in Coos Bay on the first day, took the 4000 road all the way across. Were going to head up to the loon lake area but stayed in the Cougar creek Drainage. Talked to the State Cop and he had seen a fair amount of bulls in the area we were hunting so we stayed put.

Walker, we didnt see any bears but did see some fresh sign. Heck we didnt have any problem finding our way around in the woods it was on the roads that created problems for us. :smile:

[ 11-13-2002, 03:01 PM: Message edited by: firedog ]