My first trip to the unit was the year before any of us 4 had the tag. Me, my friend Tim , and his teenage son stopped on our way to go elk hunting in SE Idaho so Tim could call for a friend of his that drew the tag. Jonathon and I hunted for spikes elk and deer while Tim hunted with his friend. We heard quite a few bugles and saw some elk and deer. On the 3rd morning Tim called in a nice 320ish bull, and his friend filled his tag.
The next year all 3 of us put in for that tag, and Tims son Jonathon drew in the random pool!
My first trip to the unit was the year before any of us 4 had the tag. Me, my friend Tim , and his teenage son stopped on our way to go elk hunting in SE Idaho so Tim could call for a friend of his that drew the tag. Jonathon and I hunted for spikes elk and deer while Tim hunted with his friend. We heard quite a few bugles and saw some elk and deer. On the 3rd morning Tim called in a nice 320ish bull, and his friend filled his tag.
The next year all 3 of us put in for that tag, and Tims son Jonathon drew in the random pool!
We hunted off and on the first three weeks with lots of encounters. He passed on 6-7 bulls, holding out for a 340 type bull. I was pretty shocked he was able to pass those bulls, I think he was 14 at the time with one spike under his belt. After our last 10 day trip I had to head home to work for a few days. The day before I was going head back over he shot a whopper. His persistence paid off big time.
The first week of the season was an absolute monsoon every day. They didn’t really get into any elk, and Tim was a little frustrated when I showed up. The next morning we were hiking out to the ridge where Johnathan killed his bull at first light. We only made it about 3/4 of a mile from the road when a bull answered a cow call. After 20-30 minutes of calling the bull was finally coming in. It was a really nice 340 class bull, but things just didn’t work out.
Here are a couple pics of the steep stuff we ended up having the best luck finding big bulls that hadn't been messed with yet. Attached Thumbnails
We went to the top of the ridge and listened to all the other bulls screaming at each other. We saw several 280-290 bulls. There was one bull about 700 yards below us that sounded like a big one. We wanted to wait 20-30 minutes before going after the bull Tim shot, so we were glassing down where the big sounding bull was trying to catch a glimpse of it. It finally showed itself, and was the biggest bull I have ever seen. It was. 7x7 with giant main beams, long times, good mas, and super wide. I figured it was easily a 380 bull. It was really neat seeing a bull of that caliber.
After waiting for 30 minutes we went down to where Tim shot from. He took a 20 yard shot and knew he hit it good. There was tons of blood and the bull basically ran straight down. We found it about 80 yards away, just where we quite hearing it run. He said he almost didn’t shoot, but with the season getting close to being over he decided to shoot it.
When we walked up we were both amazed how big the body was on this bull. We were about 4 miles from the road and it was up hill all the way back to the truck. We had some serious work ahead of us!
Kenneth Kutch(father of Kenny Kutch owner of Kutch Archery) also had a tag, and we had been camping with him during this hunt. A couple of Tims other friends were hunting with Kenneth, but both had to go home the day before Tim killed his bull. We told him to go out with us the next morning and try to get one of the bulls we saw the day before. We were really hoping to call in the giant 7x7 if it was still out there.
If I remember correctly he was 78 years old at the time, and I was a little nervous about taking him 4 miles down a ridge and then dropping down into the steep basin the big bull was in. We got out to where we spotted the big bull and heard him answer a cow call. I was amazed how well Kenneth got around. It was nearly half a mile down to get above the bull, and he had no problems. We called in a 280-290 bull several times while cow calling to the big one, but he didn't want to shoot it. The big bull was in a real good spot for him, and not for us. We decided to get the last load of meat out from Tim's bull.
We got back to camp, and decided to run down to Abby's Pizza in Pendleton for dinner. What a treat after a couple long days of hunting and packing meat! After dinner we headed back to camp. The temperature was cool enuff to let the meat hang from Tim's bull, and we both told Kenneth we would stay and hunt with him for the last 5-6 days of the season. There were tons of different bulls in the drainage Tim's bull was in, and we figured it should only take a couple days to call in a good one for Kenneth. We got up in the morning to hunt, and he decided he wanted to get home. Kenneth had been over there for nearly the entire season. He had never been away from his wife for more than a few days, and he was ready to go home to her. We packed up camp and headed home.
In 2016 it was looking like I should draw. I had given up my elk seasons to hunt with Tim and his son when they had the tag, and he was ready to return the favor. Tim is probably the best perosn I know at calling in elk. He is very good at getting a feel for what each individual bull wants to hear to put them right in front of you. Some want to be screamed at, and some just want a couple cow calls and a few sticks breaking. I ended up drawing the tagged and we were both beyond excited. We knew the unit well, and had the whole season for me to kill a giant bull! I spent a weekend scouting a couple areas we had not been to that looked pretty good on google earth. I located a small spring about 4 miles from the road for drinking water. Theres not a lot of water sources on the tops of ridges, so that was nice to find. I figured this area would be pretty good once the rut really got going. It was a 1 mile wide by 2 mile long fairly flat ridge top surrounded by extremley steep ridges and drainages. I imagined the bulls would be coming up out of the steep country to look for cows in this area. I found lots of beds, and a lot of elk rubs from lots of different years scattered all over on that flat top. To me this confirmed my suspicions that this was going to be a great area to hunt.
Over the course of the next couple weeks we encountered a lot of really windy/ rainy days. It made hunting bulls in the thick crap they like over there nearly impossible. Another big dissapointment was another hunter had found the area where Tim and Johnathon had killed their bulls, and where we had seen the giant 7x7. That was the main area I had planned on hunting, and never got to hunt it even one time. We were also running into a lot more hunters in other areas that were god on the previous two hunts as well. On a couple occasions we had big bulls called into within 100 yards, and then other guys showed up with the wind bad cow calling and bugleing spooking the bulls off before they got into range for me to shoot. There was 6 or 7 days of season left and things weren't looking good for me. There were a couple nasty storms forcasted so it looked like only a few days of decent weather in the last week. The hunt was nearly over and I hadn't pulled my bow back even once yet.
The next morning it was about an hour drive from camp over to this area. We hunter our way out to the flat ridge top, and werent really seeing any sign that looked much fresher than what I had seen in the late summer. We Made our way around the wet side of the top of the ridge and never got any bulls to answer. At this point we had hiked 5-6 miles, and never got into any elk. Tim was pretty frustrated and I told him I wanted to check out the east side of the ridge and try to locate a bull over there. The ridges and drainages were even steeper on that side. With about an hour of day light left we reached the other side. Tim looked over at me like I was stoopid When he looked down off the edge. I jokingly pointed about a 1000 yards below us and said a bull is probably right there, since it was exactly where you would hope you didnt have to go after a bull. He cow called a couple times, and a bull came completley uncorked. It sounded like a big bull, so we dropped down the nearly vertical hillside get set up close to where it answered and call it in. We got set up with the wind good and Tim started cow calling. It didnt take long and the bull popped out of the thick stuff at 40 yards broadside. I was at full draw and my first instinct was not to shoot this bull. I came to my senses remember the season was almost done. I shot the bull just as he finsihed bugleing at Tim. Not the biggest bull, but I was happy with how hard we hunted for that one oppurtunity
In 2019 Ron Wolds Oregon Tags website showed Tim P. Had a 100 percent chance of drawing. We were hoping a lot of people didnt apply for this unit because a lot of big bulls were killed in one of the other top units. I also heard of a fair amount of people just doing a point saver because the season ended so early in 2019. I told Tim P. Just to put in for it because I would call and hunt with him for the whole season if needed. I have just as much fun calling bulls in for my friends, as me getting to shoot.
Opening weekend we went over for a couple days. We heard one bull bugle opening morning . No other elk were heard or seen. Sunday morning it got very windy and rainy so we headed home.
Over the next two weeks we saw a fair amount of 280 to 300 inch bulls. We also found one that was around a 330 bull across a canyon from us. We tried getting over to it, but the bottom of the ridge we were on turned into a 50 foot cliff. It also got so thick we just couldn’t get over to the bull before he moved on.
The next morning we hiked out the top of ridge the bull was on, but never found the bull. We did run into a couple guys that had been hunting the top of the ridge for a couple days, and. They were sleeping right where a lot of the elk we hanging out on the ridge. It was time to move on from that area.
We both had to head home and work for a few days. We headed back over Saturday September 14th to hunt the last week of the season. We went to an area I had scouted in 2016 that seemed like it could be a drainage that people overlooked.
At first light we started making our way down a finger ridge trying to locate a bull. After hiking a couple miles we finally got a response across the drainage, and it sounded like a big bull. Then 3 other bulls answered. We decided to go after the one with the deepest bugle first. We had to drop down about a mile cross a creek and get 1/3 of the way up the next ridge to get setup and try to call it in. We never did get on that bull, it just took to long to get to where he was and he moved on with his cows.
I got about 60 yards away and did a couple cow calls. 2 different bulls were within a 150 of me, and both were screaming there heads off. It was sounding like the closer bull was going too far to the right of Tim P. I very quickly moved about 60 yards to my left. I cow called a couple times as I was moving and was breaking sticks with my boots, trying to sound like a couple cows moving around. This got the bull on a course that I thought Tim would get a shot. I was just doing some light cow calls, and both bulls were goi g absolutely nuts.
I heard Tim cow call and his bow shoot. I could here sticks breaking as the bull went up the hill away from us. It sounded kind it wasn’t moving very fast, and I stopped hearing sticks break about a 80 yards away.
I couldn’t see Tim P. And wasn’t sure what happened so I kept cow calling. The other bull went past Tim at about 10 yards and then came to me at about 30 yards. It was a really nice 320ish bull. After it walked off I went to Tim P. To find out what happens.
He cow called when the bull got to a tiny window through the trees and said he made a great 25 yard shot. We backed up to where I was calling from and had some granola and coffee.
Wednesday we headed out to the area we normally elk hunt if no one draws a premium tag somewhere. We slept in the back of my truck. At first light we started the long hike to camp, I had 4 days to fill my tag. We had some close calls Thursday and Friday , but no luck. Saturday evening I spent about 2 hours sneaking in on a bull that was bugling every once in a while. Right before dark I got my opportunity!
It was going to be cold that night, and we weren’t finding blood so we hiked back to camp. I thought I heard the bull stop running about a 100 yards away. With the cold temperature there wasn’t any risk of meat spoiling, and I didn’t want to bump the bull if it was still alive.
2019 was good to us.
Wow !
Trying to burry the crap!
