Chesnimnus bow hunt

Old Goat · 03-10-2003, 06:48 AM

Has anyone out there bow hunted in the Chesnimnus unit? I have rifle hunted it...but thats later in the year. I found some good daytime feeding areas in reprod pine near the breaks of the Imnaha. Is this a likely area to find elk earlier in the year during the archery season?

Any info would be appreciated.

MountainLion84 · 03-10-2003, 05:34 PM

I deer hunt up there, so we are there a week after bow season ends. The best numbers of elk I see (and hear) are usually either toward Huffman springs, or out between Billy Meadows and Vigne campground.

bigshark · 03-10-2003, 07:56 PM

Old Salt

Its been a long time since I've hunted it but it was once a premium bowhunting area. I hear its a tough unit to draw now. I think your getting good feedback about Billy Meadows from the few reports I get from local friends.

tailchaser · 03-11-2003, 07:17 AM

Had a buddy hunt it this year and saw lots of elk, but there were a lot of people chasing them too. For a limited draw area he said there were still rigs on every road. I'm not going to waste my points for that kind of hunt, but it only takes 1 or so to draw it.

tc

Old Goat · 03-11-2003, 08:21 AM

I find that hard to believe...I hunted Ches in a rifle hunt where they allow twice the number into the unit. I had days that I saw no other hunters once I got off the road. Sometimes the best places are not at a road's end. I tend to look at topo maps and catch a draw that takes off of a road...not necessarily the end. Then look for areas where no roads exist and have good topo and elk features.

I hunted in the Ochoco's last year and was disappointed with the lack of sightings...but I was able to avoid people there as well.

As far as the ATV's go...that is discouraging. Good targets for a handgun! I have walked in and set up...to have an atv drive up to the edge of the canyon and start blowing on his call. It sounds rediculous to me and I am sure it does to elk too...not to mention runining my efforts for the evening.

Old Goat · 03-11-2003, 08:25 AM

I read an old post about cattle in the unit. I agree that it is over-fun. But every rule of thumb you hear seems to be disproven. The one about elk not going into areas where cattle are...not true.

Oh and the one about elk not crossing fences...I watched a herd of over 100 go right over a drift fence. Ping, ping, ping as they crossed.

tailchaser · 03-11-2003, 09:47 AM

Just replying from what he told me. I've heard mixed results on that area for quite some time now but nothing stating it was a premier unit by any means. A lot of elk but not many big ones. It's a popular area so there's defintely going to be people around. Anymore the thought of being alone and going to bowhunting is defintely not true, especially in Oregon.

bigshark · 03-11-2003, 12:21 PM

A good point is being brought to light here about seeing other hunters in the field. While I have not been in this unit for years, I have hunted the NE part of Oregon for many. It is surprising to me how many people actually do little more than drive the roads. There are lots of elk but too few people willing to go to where they are, where people find it inconvenient to go as there isn't a road to that spot. Good for you aye fsh,
glad you got an elk. I'm not able to dive off the side of a canyon anymore, simply because I can't get back up like I once could. Sure hope more of the younger, stonger men would try it, my thought is there would be a lot more success. IN ALL UNITS

[ 03-11-2003, 01:24 PM: Message edited by: bigshark ]

Old Goat · 03-11-2003, 12:39 PM

Aye fsh,

I of course would not expect a UTM location...but what general area do you find elk during the archery season? During the rifle season...after opening day you cant look to the open meadows anymore during the day. I found elk everyday tho in the thick short pine thickets near the breaks. They were feeding during the day there. Called in cow/calves and cow/spikes with cow calls. That was in November. Do you think they will be up further north during archery season?

They synopsis doesnt say anything about the hunt being bull only. But that would be OK too.

Have you run into any Whitetail during your elk hunts. We saw lots of them in the thicker stuff but only muley's in the open country. Would be fun to bag a whitetail!!

aye fsh · 03-11-2003, 11:31 PM

I have drawn that tag the last two years and last year I killed my first bull, which was also my second elk in 6 years of archery hunting. I am hopeful to get the tag again because it was amazing. There are plenty of people but they seem to do a lot of road hunting, so walking around in the woods, usually within 200 yds of a road, got us into elk.

I have been told, but this has not been substantiated, that this year it is going to a bull only hunt, which I would think will keep the numbers of people wanting to hunt there down. The reason for this change is due to Indians going into the area and decimating the cow population, really cool huh?

MountainLion84 · 03-12-2003, 09:26 AM

One more thing. Plan to encounter the Native Americans hunting the same animals, only with Rifles. They had three bulls hanging (in one piece of course) two days before rifle deer season.

Old Goat · 03-12-2003, 11:26 PM

Is the issue of running into Indians (wont even give them the politically correct title) more frequent in this unit than others? I bet they are using 4 wheelers and dragging them out...roads or not.

Does the fire hazard level restrict indians or are they ammune to that too? [img]graemlins/icon_argue.gif[/img]

Old Goat · 03-12-2003, 11:43 PM

Lets start focussing on the things we can control, rather than the reasons we are not successful.

Here is the issue. You can draw a Ches tag almost without fail...every two years. You might even get lucky and get it two years in a row. Most of the higher success and large bull areas take 6 to ? to get a tag. Is Ches as good or better than the units which require no drawing to hunt?

Next, I bet if you hunt the thickets and blowdowns you will find no indians or road hunters and probably no other hunters at all.

I have heard that Horse Creek is a good area during the rifle season...but I dont know about the archery season?

I have a good idea about where I want to hunt base on it being early Novemeber. But I dont know about late September??? For a close point of reference, lets say in the Thomason Meadow area near the south end of the national forest boundary. Any thoughts???

aye fsh · 03-12-2003, 11:53 PM

I had my 13 yr old son with me this year and I specifically targeted areas that were not too rough terrain-wise. The Forest service there in Enterprise has a fantastic map that shows all the roads and topo features, was very helpful. We camped at Coyote C.G. and everything we hunted was no furhter than 3 miles from camp, one of our party was walking out from camp and getting into them. What cracked me up was all the people getting up 2 hours before daylight and driving umpteen miles to their secret spot. We had several instances where we ran into elk hanging out not more than 30 yards from the main road. There are a lot of roads but there is enough separation between them for the animals to feel covered and secure. There were not very many places we were hunting where we couldn't hear the road traffic. We found all sorts of little meadows and semi-open timber areas you just wouldn't expect to be there, again because we got out of the truck and wandered around.

Be prepared for some fairly disgusting sights. We saw piles of garbage left in "primitive" campsites, One guy running his sewer line out of his 5th wheeler onto the ground, 4 wheelers cutting cookies in the roads and tear-a$$ing cross country, just a general lack of respect for the area. We were constantly picking up trash and packing it out. Some of the areas that had extreme cattle grazing pressure got me pretty worked up too. Not the kind of condition I thought an area like that should be in. Figured all I could do was clean up what I could and try to teach my boy about the right way to behave on "OUR" land. I got a little satisfaction from chewing out a couple of older (mid 50's) fellas for not closing the gate behind them. I gave 'em an earful and it felt GOOD!

We did run into some whitetails, just does though.

uh-oh, time to get back to work!