"If you can tell the difference between bull and cow tracks, you can get on the tracks and go," Denney said.

"Guys should bring a shotgun when they come because we probably have the best grouse hunting in the state and quite a few ducks on the ponds."

OREGON
Western Oregon
The population of the Roosevelt herd in Western Oregon is estimated at 59,000.

Last season, from the Cascades west to the ocean, 63,174 hunters tagged 6,496 elk for a 10 percent success rate. South Coast hunters were the most effective with a 16 percent success rate, while Cascade area hunters averaged 6 percent success.

On the South Coast, the Sixes Unit turned in the best numbers with 32 percent success. It's not an easy hunt, though. Hunters spent an average of 6.75 days in the field. One of the most popular units is the Tioga, which saw 4,487 hunters last year. They spent an average of 6.27 days in the field for a success rate of 15 percent.

North Coast units with the best success rates were Saddle Mountain (18 percent), Scappoose (13 percent) and Trask (13 percent).

According to Chris Yee, assistant district wildlife biologist, Cascade elk populations "don't fluctuate that much from year to year."

"Hunter success is more driven by the seasonal conditions. Cooler, overcast days are best," Yee said. "They know when they're being hunted, and they go onto the very steep slopes and into heavy cover. The general Cascade hunt is a hard hunt."

Yee said the guys who are willing to go into the steep, nasty stuff would get into the elk every year.

The biologist pointed out that successful scouting is different than merely finding elk.

A lot of guys make the mistake of looking where the elk are going to be during the non-hunting times of the year, said Yee.

It's important to get to know the area you're hunting. You have to look at areas where the elk are going to be hiding, and not necessarily in the feeding areas.

"They'll wait it out," he said. "In a weeklong season, it is nothing for them to spend all day bedded down and then go nocturnal and get up and go to feed at night," he said.

Eastern Oregon
Biologists estimate the Rocky Mountain elk population at about 56,000. As breeding season approaches and pressure mounts during the fall hunts, the bigger groups disperse. By mid-November, the herds begin to re-assemble.

It was Sept. 8, a day guide Mike Crawford of Battle Creek Outfitters would not soon forget. He had seen a bull get whipped by a bigger bull early that morning and now the bull that lost his herd was mad, bugling every hour. Crawford knew that the lone bull would be going for water by evening.

His client, Kip Read of Black Diamond, Wash., was tucked into some trees at the edge of a waterhole with an arrow nocked on his string.

Up on the hill behind Read, Crawford cow-called and the bull came in as if he were on a string. When the bull slaked his thirst at the water's edge, Read drew his arrow and tickled the release.

His 6-point Heppner bull was so symmetrical that only three-eighths of an inch difference was found between the two beams for a total score of 322, Pope and Young.

Crawford and his partner, Steve Mathers, have hunted the Heppner Unit for years. Last season, their hunters enjoyed a 90 percent success rate, and with increasing elk numbers, they expect that hunters on both public and private land should be seeing more animals this year.