Elk hunting Eastern Oregon

Some have to wait a life time to get there 6 x 6 bull others manage to bag theirs right out of the gate. We have a good number of hunters in our family and this was a great year for most everyone. 
 Every year brings new lessons and the opportunity to learn a little more about the animals you are hunting. I really enjoy hunting elk in the Eastern parts of Oregon. Although most of the time the weather is cold and the terrain is steep, its still worth everything to come across one of these magnificent animals in the wild. I also find it truly amazing how an animal that big can be so elusive and hard to find. One would say that is part of the draw to finally bag yourself a 6 x 6 bull elk.

This year my brother-in-law Brian got his second six by six bull in the past four years, he also managed to tag a five by five in the same four year period. But this is what I have learned out of watching him come back successful year after year. The 18 years prior to his unbelievable success in the last four he obtained nothing! He hunted the same area for all those years and got nothing. Some people in the hunting party did but he was never able to connect. What happened? Well I believe something finally clicked and after all those years he finally started to get some basic patterns and habits these elk were doing. Knowledge is king!
 This year everything changed for our hunting party as well. My nephew Cody bagged his first elk ever and it happened to be a huge 6 x 6 bull. What changed for us this year? Well for many years we had bounced around from one unit to the next starting the learning curve back a square one every couple of years. My brother-in-law Brian finally talked us into going over and trying the area he had hunted for many years. Truth be told after three massive bulls in under four years it wasn't hard to convenience us it was the right thing to do.

 I still believe there is a small thing called right place, right time, some call it luck! With that being said there's much more than just luck involved. Hunting a productive area with plenty of game is important, learning the feeding and drinking patterns, is there both fresh, middle and old sign? These are just a couple of thing that will improve your success, but the most important of all is knowing the right person that has put all the hard work in and is willing to share that knowledge. Special thanks go's out to my brother-in-law Brian for this years successful hunt. Thanks Brian! (Ernie, Cody, Levi and Dean)