John and Chris’s 2019 Roosevelt Adventures

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

Hello everyone! A new year and new dreams of the season to come , last year was great but it’s past and time to look ahead for a new challenge and adventure, this year I’m leaving the rifle in the closet and chasing Roosevelt’s with a bow for the first time with my good friend John, he’s been bow hunting Roosevelt’s for years and is very good , we scout together a lot and chase deer together but this will be our 1st elk hunt together, we are in the woods exploring new areas to chase elk in monthly and spend hundreds of hours out in the Roosevelt Kingdom before elk season, just gonna do one thread of our elk year and post all the pics from now through Bow season. And with that Johns on the board with the 1st Roosevelt Bull pic of 2019 from last Sunday, looking forward to sharing the year with everyone from our part of the elk woods .

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

Spent some great time in the elk wood this weekend ! Cleared a road , hiked some miles , found an old dead Blacktail skull , saw 5 groups of elk a few bulls ,the one pic of the bull we got came out blurry that was the only bummer of the trip , pulled a trail cam , discovered a large meadow , which is very very rare in the Roosevelt Kingdom where we hunt , and shared some laughs and having man time with my friends, here’s some highlights

 

[duckhunt]

Sounds like this is going to be a great thread.

 

[Talk2elk]

Being from Montana its weird not to see snow on the ground this time of year. Looks fun and good luck.

 

[bowhunterjae]

You will enjoy your Hunt! if you spend that much time scouting you will be in the elk all season. Great pictures.

 

[elkduds]

Love it, thanks for posting. Where's the snow?

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

Took my brother Dave pictured below , who just retired after 30 years with the military up in the Roosevelt Kingdom today for a hike , he wanted to see where I hunt , found a couple herds the last one had a 4 point bull in it the other group was a little to far to see bone at the distance we were glassing them from, pictured below is the 4 point bull there was a spike in this group along with 10 cows, we also came across an abandoned tree stand in good condition, I wasn’t in the mood to pack that sucker out , it appeared to be from last season based on rust and material fading , was happy he got to see some elk up close , the group with the bull I got a pic of was under 200 yds

 

[Slim55]

Cool! Took my first Rosie with a bow i
n northern OR two tears ago. I'm going to try southern OR this year. I'm an N/R. So awesome you get to spend so much time in the field learning the area. Have fun! ~Slim

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

It’s been a few months since I was able to get up in the Roosevelt Kingdom, March brought a late snow to the coast range this year and kept me out of the hills longer than I wanted, just picked up a new rig , and had to get back out there and a fun 2 trips out on Friday and Saturday, was able to hike in to a meadow I found on google earth and see what it actually looked like from the ground , was fired up when I found it , elk trails in and out of the area and a boat load of rubs and scrapes every where ,I found a fresh rub right by my truck where a bull earlier in the week and been trying to loose his antlers , just one more spot on my growing list of secret spots for this upcoming archery season , also stopped off a favorite out of the way clear cut and caught some elk still out feeding about 8am Pacific time , appears to be a 6 and 4 point bulls with cows , where I live a 6 point of any size is not seen often, was a great day for me , enjoy the pics




Elk trail to the meadow



The meadow and the rubs in and around it, this only a small part of the meadow, it was 300 or more yards long and a few hunred yars wide with openings of different sizes





still trying to get used to the new web page and how to post stuff.. ha ha, i have no idea how i got all bigs and a small thumbnail, there were so many rubs i quit taking pics and quit counting around 30

 

[rtraverdavis]

Looks like some fun trips Chris. I’m surprised the bulls are still packing last year’s antlers.

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

That’s what my hunt buddies and I where discussing today when I sent them txts , hard to pick up a shed when they run away.. ha ha

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

John and I were able to get out in the woods after work today , we went out to the meadow I discovered Saturday and hung a trail cam to see what comes through one of the elk trails into the meadow in the next month or 2 , then did some more hiking in the general area , on the drive out we drove past 3 elk feeding off the old logging road we parked on , they all had dropped there antlers, it was a stare down and 150 yds , and they could care less we were looking at them , we took a few pics and they feed away from us and drove on for home , here’s the best pic of the bulls , one was just out of frame from the other 2

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

John and I had Monday off we went for a half day hike to see some new dirt close to our main hunting area to possibly have this area as a backup , didn’t see any elk but saw enough sign to warrant another trip in there before the end of summer , John has a cougar and Bear tag so brought along the Ol’ 30-30 just in case , a few pics of what we saw



we found an old piece of maybe a logging machine , it was close to a 100 pounds guessing , have no idea wht it goes on never seen anything like it

 

[ignorethefringes]

Great pictures. Makes me homesick remembering chasing blacktails and elk through the thick stuff in western Washington.

 

[Greyman]

Awesome pics! My son and I will be hunting out there, probably in the Siuslaw unit this fall.

I your experience with Roosevelt elk, come hunting season, do they tend to stay in the same area that they were in the summer?

Thanks

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

Awesome pics! My son and I will be hunting out there, probably in the Siuslaw unit this fall.

I your experience with Roosevelt elk, come hunting season, do they tend to stay in the same area that they were in the summer?

Thanks

You will be hunting south of me , farther down the coast , but from what I’ve learned the last few years from putting a lot of time in the woods , Roosevelt’s don’t really migrate any where , there in the same general areas year round , there’s always close , it’s just so thick in a lot of places unless there out in the open you won’t see them

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

After bow season last September, when we started pulling trail cams , this tank turned up on a camera in a new area we discovered that fall



As anyone can imagine a crowned out Rosie is rare and had us fired up to get out and learn more of the area this bull was spotted in , later that fall during rifle season I took my dad in where we got a pick of this bull and he was able to tag out on a nice 4 point bull about 500 yards or so from where we hung that camera earlier that fall , which only further impressed on us the need to explore this area more thoroughly, well , today was that day , I went out solo today, was able to finish up my chore list early and not getting some time in the woods was killing me , so I told John sry buddy can’t wait for you , and took off for the hills , I spent a good 5 hours on foot hiking around on old logging roads , learned lay of the land and all the clearcuts in the area , which are basically food plots for Roosevelt’s and Blacktails , found quite a few elk trails , some recent rub activity where some bulls were trying to loose some antlers , one of the rubs was so fresh it still had the bulls hair in the rub , either from his head or after rubbing he used the tree as a scratching post , I’ve never found hair on a rub before, so I though that pretty cool , also came across a yearling deer leg on a cat road I was walking, fresh enough that the flies were buzzing on it , when the thought of , on the off chance a cougar killed it , I motored on with haste , not wanting to be the next leg laying in the road for someone else to find !!! Ha ha ha ! Here’s a few pics of the days adventure in the Oregon Coast Range

 

[ignorethefringes]

Thanks for sharing. Great pictures!

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

John did a mountain bike ride in a new area Saturday the 27th and got a few pics of a Roosevelt Bull already starting to branch walking down an old logging road , he actually sent them to me Saturday, but I wasn’t able to confirm till today when we talked on the phone that they were from this year , I didn’t want to post an old pic just to post one, that would feel fraudulent to me. Ha ha ha ha ! John always gets better Bull picks than me , he has a newer cell phone, I’m still using an iPhone 5

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

Thanks for sharing. Great pictures!

your welcome AJ , in 2016 a few years back when i first joined hunttalk i was pretty green when it came to elk hunting, had only been on 1 elk hunt at that time, i bascially thought an elk is an elk , lol , but as i spent some time on hunttalk ,I have grown quite a bit as a hunter since then , ive learned that this is not true, and from a lot of the comments ive read over the past few years ive come to learn that ROOSEVELT ELK where i live is a dream type hunt for a lot of the hard core elk guys from the rest of the country who only get to chase ROCKIES, and since there aint many other guys on hunttalk from my part of the woods that post ROOSEVELT stuff, over the last 2 years my Roosevelt hunting posts have kinda morphed into what im doing now, a year long journal of my friend John and I just trying to become the best elk hunters that we can be, and share the adventure, so people from the rest of the country who want to hunt these ELK can get a better idea what the ROOSEVELT kingdom is like here in Oregon . and who dosent enjoy looking at pics anyway.