I lucked out, beat the odds and drew1 of the 15 northeastern bull Elk tag's this year. I am hooping to get some information from any other hunters that might have hunted here in the past or some hunters who live in the area of where to begin looking for Elk. This is a huge unit and I know that Elk will not be found throughout the entire unit. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.
Northeastern Bull elk hunt .... Information please !
- Thread starter Live2Hunt
- Start date
Muleys 24/7
Veteran member
If you can't find any helpfull info on here, you may want to check some other hunting forums with more people from Cali. Are you going to consider a guide? Or is this a DIY hunt? Congrats on a great tag!
elkgrunt
Member
sneakypete
Veteran member
Eastmans magazine had a cover article on is very zone I believe last year. If my memory is correct it was a guide hunt and the article also provided the outfitter info also. I'll check my library and if I find it I'll pm you.
Last year I worked with elkgrunt on his archery and my rifle hunt. Shoot me a PM and I'll share with you what I know. I know elkgrunt had a great archery hunt, whereas I struggled with my rifle hunt. Which is weird because I found some great bulls during my scouting.
The unit has a low density of elk and they basically don't bugle during the hunt. I never heard a bugle the entire hunt and I was up there for the entire season. I do though have a couple thousand trail cam picts of elk. My take away from the hunt is that in order to kill one there you will need to drive the roads and get real lucky. The one guy I know that was successful during the rifle hunt shot a bull I was after while driving Loveness Road. If you talk with past hunters and locals that help other hunters they're all driving the roads. I did pass on four bulls. The biggest was a ~270" six point.
If I knew what I know now I would have put in for a different hunt.
The unit has a low density of elk and they basically don't bugle during the hunt. I never heard a bugle the entire hunt and I was up there for the entire season. I do though have a couple thousand trail cam picts of elk. My take away from the hunt is that in order to kill one there you will need to drive the roads and get real lucky. The one guy I know that was successful during the rifle hunt shot a bull I was after while driving Loveness Road. If you talk with past hunters and locals that help other hunters they're all driving the roads. I did pass on four bulls. The biggest was a ~270" six point.
If I knew what I know now I would have put in for a different hunt.
I had no idea that the NE elk was that tough. I have hunted Elk in Cali before but not that unit. I have a friend who has max points and he was thinking about that unit because it has more tags. I think that is the only unit in Cali that has Rocky Mountain elk. I believe that the elk that was on the cover last year is a Roosevelt from I different unit. I hunted the Tule elk last year. Good luck with the hunt and keep us posted.
I should go back and say that I did not road hunt because it's not my style. I was told by someone that lives in the unit and knows the area very well on two different occasions, and when I called him frustrated during the hunt, that I need to stop walking and get driving. I still couldn't do it and kept still hunting and glassing areas. Two other guys I spoke with also shoot their bulls by driving the roads. I can't remember seeing an elk though driving the roads.
I think the issue during my hunt was that many of the elk had moved out of the area due to the rut and/or the weather. The weather during the hunt was much different then 3 days before the hunt. Opening morning was 24 degrees and it had rained like crazy.
The unit is absolutely huge and there is not a lot of elk in any one spot. If could go back and do my hunt over I'd expand my scouting to some of these other areas.
I think the issue during my hunt was that many of the elk had moved out of the area due to the rut and/or the weather. The weather during the hunt was much different then 3 days before the hunt. Opening morning was 24 degrees and it had rained like crazy.
The unit is absolutely huge and there is not a lot of elk in any one spot. If could go back and do my hunt over I'd expand my scouting to some of these other areas.
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i drew this tag 5 years ago and was able to kill a bull by myself, granted it wasnt huge it was a decent 5x5. since then i have helped several people with their hunts. as previoused mentioned the zone is huge and the elk are scarce. some of the good areas are better now because of road restrictions but at the same time making it harder for hunters to get to the elk. devil's garden has some giants living out there, but be prepared to sit on water and have stiff competition from other tag holders, deer hunters, rifle elk scouters and guides. i would start calling biologists and wardens throughout the unit and get some good maps. plan on doing lots of scouting. it is rare for these elk to be in the rut during the archery season, so be prepared to spot and stalk and sit water.
For the most part there wasn't any competition for sitting water. I did have a repeated issue at one spot with the same guy, but it wasn't wide spread. I saw almost no one in the Garden while I was there, but I also didn't hunt the roads. Opening day I walked 12 miles and sat water that evening. Over the 17 day hunt I probably put on over 150 miles on my boots. Oh, and I was hunting right along side of a couple of well known guides that were struggling too.
I will disagree on the help of game wardens and biologists. If you want to get really good specific info, contact previous year hunters. The game wardens and biologist only offer general advice on the hunt. The hunters I contacted were very, very helpful.
The lack of bugling I think is from the fact that there is so few elk in the area that competition for cows is low. I watched a small six point on three different occasions with two cows and two calves for more than an hour and he never made a sound. I think if the density of elk were higher, especially bulls, you'd hear a lot more bugling. I definitely saw more cows on the trail cams then bulls and this is during the August 20th to Sept 27th time frame too. Last year though they were supposedly quite active during the archery hunt.
Thank you. I also drew the X2 tag on top of the Northeastern tag, so we will be in the same area at the around the same time
Calbuck
Active Member
I know it does, I have hunted in the X3B area before but never X2. Seen some great bucks in X2 but not in X3B. I am still in shock, I can't believe I drew the Northeastern tag and the X2 tag in the same year.
sneakypete
Veteran member
Live2hunt, if you're looking for a processor there is a good one just outside of Alturas on the hwy to Burney on the north side of the hwy.