Aparently nobody has hunted there, or nobody is willing to help....either way, I am still left standing here with unanswered questions... oh well...

I've only been there during rifle season. I could help you as far as when there rutting. I have seen some nice elk in that unit though. good luck

Thanks for the response, I greatly appreciate it

i hunt the starkey unit. i would assume they would rut around the same time. I've noticed in starkey there rutting 2 week of sept till the last few days of sept

ya thats typically the elk rut everywhere you go for rocky mountain elk and roosevelt as well over on the coast. I just have no idea where to begin our scouting trip we have planned. We are going the 2nd weekend of August. I hope its not too early...

I was talking to the ex the other day and she told me her landloard goes somewhere near Foley Butte every year and they see elk all the time. Thats up north of Prineville. I'm not sure how the best way in is but it looks like you could leave HWY26 and go thru Grizzly to get there. Otherwise it's up McKay road out of prineville. You need an Oregon road and recreation atlas to see it.

thank you Don!! We will definately check it out. I really appreciate everybody helping out here. We would have been flying blind without it and pulling our hair out not knowing where the heck to go... ,)

Bowhunter4life,

I am in a party of hunters that have drawn for the first time for Ochoco archery season. July 19-20 we went on a scouting trip and covered lots of ground. We used topo and forest maps to check out areas but nothing stood out because of FREE RANGE CATTLE. that really put a damper on locating animals. There are all kinds of trails but for cattle, a deer may use them but no tracks across roads or up hills.

Salt is everywhere and so is water.

While we were out there we called the biologist and asked for some tips on where the animals might be (Elk), he was not all that giving in answers and we were at witts end with him. Basically he said get out of your vehicle and walk and you will find then, but the cattle tend to move the animals around so that is challenging and most times the animals are driven into private property. He did mention he saw a heard at Big Summit Prairie and of course that is private land.
There is Hamilton Butte and Black Canyon which may hold potential if checked out more.

We did see a few does, an antelope and one buck beded down. The animals were not spooked and stood there for quite some time.

On the 31st and 1st we had two hunters go back out for scouting and still the same results. I advise to have a backup plan to hunt in other area's other than Ochoco .

The biologist said that Oregon is down 35% across the board for deer in Oregon and that is because they are mowing down all the under brush and starving our animals plus other factors they are trying to figure out. ,) I do not know if I have helped you at all but be prepared for a hard hunt in the Ochoco's and best of luck to you.

Its been my experience that Deer and elk both will co-exist with cattle with no problem. often in the same field but maybe not right next to each other so i wouldn't put the blame on cattle.

Pretty much anywhere in the ochocos, if you take a creek or a drainage and walk it all the way up, you'll find an area with sign. They may not be staying at all elevations but you can find where they are crossing the drainage or coming to water and get you a starting point.

Biologist suggested hiking because its the best way to find them.

Great info!!! We are going out on a 4 day scouting trip this weekend and we are going to get as high as we can and glass a lot, plus hike around the drainages to find whatever sign we can. I also have met a contact through my neighbor who has given me quite a few areas to look into. He has hunted Ochoco all his life so I am pretty excited about it!

I want to thank everyone who has been so generous with the good info and ideas

I will post results from our trip on my return.