ill get shredded for asking but...

[wawhitey]

just wondering if anybody has ever hunted elk in winter via baiting? im sure you guys will rip me apart for this, but just curious if anybody does it. i have high hopes for my early arch season this year, but was thinking about maybe doing this in december as a last ditch effort to avoid tag soup. if anybody has done this, what do you tend to see on the bait? this last winter i kept alfalfa bails out for deer to try to get them to drop their antlers nearby, and kept a trail cam over it, and noticed that once the rut was over the bucks completely took over the alfalfa pile. wouldnt let any does near it the entire time. had something like a dozen bucks visiting it non stop and not a single doe for the couple months after the rut that i had the alfalfa up. wondering if bulls would do the same thing?

[dotman]

I would check with state regs but probably illegal in most western states.

[wawhitey]

I would check with state regs but probably illegal in most western states.

it is legal in washington. im very familiar with our game laws. illegal to bait bear and turkey, but ungulates are fair game, as are coyotes, bobs, cougs, etc

[Swede]

I have not hunted or deliberately baited elk in the winter, but I have made some observations. Where winter is hard and the snow piles up, it can be difficult to keep elk away from good feed. They feed on hay, moss from trees cut by timber fallers, etc. I do not know how a little bait would work. I would think you would need a lot to hold the elk. I have no idea how you would separate the elk you want from the others. To attract and hold the elk could get expensive. Elk are not Whitetails. I do not think you can bait them the same.

[wawhitey]

if you mean you cant bait them the same, as in legally, you can in washington. and i know theyd rip through it, but im thinking a handful of alfalfa bails would keep them coming around for a few days. i would put them in a good location based on tracks i find in the snow if i do this. and thats a big if. also, if i do, it would be in december, which would be the last week of the late arch elk season here, and at that point id take the first bull that showed. reason i ask if the bulls would dominate the pile like the bucks do is that the late archery season is any bull, but cows not legal.

[WapitiTalk1]

I've seen a few hearty individuals pack salt blocks way, way back in a WA wilderness area that seems to get a bit of elk attention.. They placed them on the edge of medows, just inside a tree line. This was in the early season though.

[wawhitey]

I've seen a few hearty individuals pack salt blocks way, way back in a WA wilderness area that seems to get a bit of elk attention.. They placed them on the edge of medows, just inside a tree line. This was in the early season though.

yeah i have trophy rock in front of a camera on top of a mountain right now and have been getting lots of action on it. the elk are hanging out around it and bedding in front of that camera all day. however, on my pics every time one of the bulls comes in he runs off the cows and bogarts the mineral rock. thats why i was thinking that in the winter if i had feed out the bulls might just dominate it and not let the cows have it (which would be good for my purposes)

[JohnFitzgerald]

As long as it's legal in your state, nobody has the right hack on you.

It's legal in Oregon as well.