What R you doing today?

[DragonsLair]

I spent the day fleshing and salting my elk hide from yesterdays shoot to get it ready to go to the tannery. Wonder what wine goes best with elk roast.

 

[Old Philosopher]

I spent the day fleshing and salting my elk hide from yesterdays shoot to get it ready to go to the tannery. Wonder what wine goes best with elk roast.

Congratulations! I would say, something dark and smokey.
Did you get that elk on the West Side?

 

[DragonsLair]

Congratulations! I would say, something dark and smokey.
Did you get that elk on the West Side?

I had a blueberry that was reminiscent of cab sav but it's all gone. This was my first elk so I may brake into something I brought back from Italy. I only hunt the east side. You can see for a long way but it means you shoot for a long way. This was a 300 yard shot. Actually three shots.

 

[Old Philosopher]

Sounds like an appropriate time to celebrate!
Finding an elk on the west side is like trying to find a tick on a water spaniel.

 

[DragonsLair]

Only my second year elk hunting. My brother lives on this side (I live on the west side) and has been hunting elk for 15 years. He gets one about every 4th or 5th year. Got a nice 4x4 whitetail opening day of deer season, too, so this has been a good year for me. Spent the rest of deer season picking elderberries and rosehips and making them into juice to make into wine.

 

[mmadmikes1]

We have plenty of Elk on west side. The Eatonville herd is Healthy, The Quinault herd is huge, They have so many animals at St helens they had to move some up here to the Noutsack herd. Now Do we call the Bethal ridge herd east or west. It goes back and forth. Congrads Chris. Do you live in Lakewood ,Pierce county or Lakewood by Marysville

 

[DragonsLair]

We have plenty of Elk on west side. The Eatonville herd is Healthy, The Quinault herd is huge, They have so many animals at St helens they had to move some up here to the Noutsack herd. Now Do we call the Bethal ridge herd east or west. It goes back and forth. Congrads Chris. Do you live in Lakewood ,Pierce county or Lakewood by Marysville

I know there are tons on the west side but you can't sneak up on the bastards cuz the woods are so thick. Maybe we could push them east of the Columbia. Less for you, more for me. I am in Pierce Co.

 

[mmadmikes1]

The herd at Hanford is so big it is hard not to hit them when you drive thogh at night. I saw the stag herd last month and it had to be 200 bulls with horns, down side is the tags are hard to get and they GLOW

 

[Old Philosopher]

Hanford elk glow in the dark!
I used to hunt blacktails in the hills above Enumclaw. Only made two trips to the Penninsula...hence the joke about the spaniel. I hunted elk along the White River with a few members of the local Tribe. That was educational. This was way back, just after the Taylor Mountain Massacre.
Bethel Ridge! Boy, that takes me back. Many hours spent on the Ridge, Big and Little Baldy. I was standing in a pouring down rain at the foot of Big Bald Mt., and had a group of 15 cows actually bed down around me...and no cow tag! We were hunting muleys.
Back in those days, the only whitetails were a scattered few north of Spokane. The first whitetail I ever saw was in New Hampshire. Now, they come into my yard to eat my apples.

 

[mmadmikes1]

Taylor Mountain Massacre, Damn that was a while ago. I was young and it was the ugliest thing I had ever seen.So I guess our Lives have crossed

 

[Old Philosopher]

Taylor Mountain Massacre, Damn that was a while ago. I was young and it was the ugliest thing I had ever seen.So I guess our Lives have crossed

You were REAL young at that time! Except for the fact it's almost legend, I'm surprised you remember it.
I'm sure we lost 99% of the readers on this one. The Taylor Mountain incident was just above Enumclaw, WA near Mud Mountain Dam. A large herd of elk came down the open Bonneville Power right-of-way, from Taylor Mountain. It was know as the Taylor Mountain Herd. They ran smack into a string if "hunters" traveling on Hwy 410. There were around 200 animals in the herd. By the time the shooting stopped, and the dust settled, over 150 elk were dead, or wounded...cows, calves, spikes...didn't matter. The herd never recovered.

 

[St Allie]

Were the hunters prosecuted? Surely there is a limit to the number of kills ?

 

[Old Philosopher]

Were the hunters prosecuted? Surely there is a limit to the number of kills ?

I don't have all the facts, but nearly every animal killed was illegal. By the time the County Sheriff, the State Police and the game wardens got there, most has fled in panic. This was before the days of cell phones. I seem to recall about a dozen shooters were all that were prosecuted. BTW: I use the term "shooters" because they didn't deserve the title of hunter.

 

[St Allie]

"blood lust" gives hunters/shooters a bad name. esp if it's just for trophys.

I don't have a problem with hunting for food.. I don't agree with it if it's just for a head to be hung on a wall.

 

[mmadmikes1]

I wasn't carrying a rifle yet so I wasn't 13 yet. An added note. the herd is doing well now. The Park service had to relocate animals out of park because they were destroying upper meadows. The White River herd got most of the animals because it was so close. You know Elk are not native to Washington and all herds were created by plants. We were there the next day and I watched forest service personal field dressing animals.

 

[Old Philosopher]

Nice to know the White River Herd is still healthy. There we so many down in the bottoms back then, that the Natives were about the only ones who knew how to hunt them. The area was so small (along the W. Fork) that hunters never went in there, thinking there couldn't be anything there. The game folks transplanted 15 wolves in there, all hush-hush, to try to thin the herd.

 

[Old Philosopher]

I wasn't carrying a rifle yet so I wasn't 13 yet. An added note. the herd is doing well now. The Park service had to relocate animals out of park because they were destroying upper meadows. The White River herd got most of the animals because it was so close. You know Elk are not native to Washington and all herds were created by plants. We were there the next day and I watched forest service personal field dressing animals.

The Olympic Elk found on the Olympic Peninsula are native, to the best of my knowledge. It's the only place in N. America they're found, again as far as I know. All the rest are local variations of the Roosevelt Elk.

 

[mmadmikes1]

The Roosevelt elk (Cervus canadensis roosevelti), also known as Olympic elk, is the largest of the four surviving subspecies of elk in North America. That is the Quinault herd. At least thats what my grandfather called it while we were shooting at them

 

[St Allie]

What does Elk taste like?



Is it like deer? (venison?)

 

[arcticsid]

Wild Bison

They are just about ready to introduce Wood Bison just north of here. These animals once roamed around here, 100 yrs ago or so.

The herd thy have here are, well have been in quarantine the last couple years. Hopefully the natives won't start blasting them for some un-undestandable rights they thing they have. It is exciting to think that a native animal here could be reintroduced to the land they once roamed.

There is a huge case going on right now in the Point Hope area where a bunch of hunters went out and killed a bunch of Caribou and left most of them to die alone on the tundra.(Alot, like 60 animals) There were pictures of the lil babies trying to nurse from there dead mothers. Absolutely makes me cry.

Of all people who we would expect to respect the land around them, it was the natives, well a few select fews, who broke the cardinal rule of respecting the land.

Damn shame, I hope they allow these bison to grow and prosper once again. It should be serious problems if anyone messes with this herd as they continue to repopulate.

Troy