STARKEY EXPERIMENTAL FOREST ELK HUNT

[NASCAR88]

Did anyone hear about how they did during the rifle hunt inside the expt. forest this year? this was the first year they opened it up to branch bulls in a few years. happy holidays

 

[eagle_eye]

I know of one hunter who came home empty handed. Missed a 290 class bull. Can't tell you how hard he hunted. My group has had some success on the archery hunt in the past few years, but nothing huge.

I won't be going back due to point creep and now being a NR.

 

[huntindude]

On this subject what too what about the deer hunt? anyone know what that's like?

 

[NASCAR88]

I stop in there every year during deer season to see what has been taken. They take a few nice bucks out of there 26-28 wide
170 class, Most guys I talked to that hunted in there said it was hard to get away from the elk. I think there are some 180-190 bucks in there. We saw a couple cross the road at night as we where leaving that would of scored in that class. They also have some whitetails inside the forest. I saw a guy this year that wasted a tag that took him 7- 10 years to draw on a small three point whitetail on the second day of the hunt. Oh well to each his own. have a good day.

 

[tmbr_hntr]

My wife's aunt took a really nice muley buck in there two years ago. It was her first deer. Her husband and sons had hunted cows and spikes in there a few times. There are nice bucks in there.

 

[huntindude]

My wife should have the points to draw it for deer, but now they've shortened the hunt to 5 days. maybe that's enough time, I like to hunt when all the yahoos have tagged and gone home but with only 5 days thats tough. maybe I should check into a little more, it isn't like there are many other choices.

 

[NASCAR88]

Yeah, with them cutting it back to five days it could make it a little tougher for a nice buck. The bigger bucks in there like to stick to the thickets and it could take awhile to catch one making a mistake.

 

[eagle_eye]

I took a 167 official net 5 x 5 in 1999 in there. Been building points since then, but I'm going to wait another 15 years, or whatever it takes, to draw one of the top late hunts, assuming Oregon still has any deer then. My home state general tag is better than any LE tag in OR. Very sad.

 

[BlueMountainAdventures]

No big bulls were killed in the fence last year with a rifle??

 

[NASCAR88]

There had to have been some good bulls taken out of there, I talked to a few guys that deer hunted there and they said nice bulls were running everywhere. One guy went back to pack out the second half of his deer and when he got back to the second half there was a 300+ bull bugling about 10 yards from his deer.