Where in WA?

[406pat]

Yeah the short seasons are nuts! I'm also going to miss being able to bow hunt and rifle hunt for elk each year.

Didn't matter much this year though. With the move, job and grad school I didn't even think about trying to hunt. Hoping for next year. I'm building a .270 Gibbs that's in the final stages of construction and I'm hoping it and the 165 matrix (maybe 175, I'm limited by the 1-10 twist though) will be good elk and mulie medicine

 

[264WM]

Yeah the short seasons are nuts! I'm also going to miss being able to bow hunt and rifle hunt for elk each year.

Didn't matter much this year though. With the move, job and grad school I didn't even think about trying to hunt. Hoping for next year. I'm building a .270 Gibbs that's in the final stages of construction and I'm hoping it and the 165 matrix (maybe 175, I'm limited by the 1-10 twist though) will be good elk and mulie medicine

If you have visited this side of the state you get a good range of terrain from sage flat land to high mountians, open to so brushy you need a cat to get through it. My long range rifle is a 264 WM with a 30" Shilen barrel with 1 in 8 twist and 6 grove with a Nikon 6 to 18 with BDC and my brush buster out to 400yrds is a DPMS LR10 in 338 Federal with LaRue one piece quick release mounts and a Bushnell 6500 Elite 4.5 to 30 with mil dot.

 

[Clark]

If you see statistics that getting a deer is 20% and an elk 5% in WA, don't think that is for guys who just walk into public lands.

Those numbers include:
Doe tags from drawings
Bull tags from drawings
Cow tags from drawings
Private land
Tags given to land owners for property damage
Packing into the back country with horses.

 

[The Hock]

264WM you asked if I hunted mulies or white tail. I have. The last mulie I took up north of Wilbur on a doe tag. Used a .30 Herret 10" Contender with a 4X scope. I have always admired the Gibbs line of cartridges and have had a .270 Winchester since 1969.

 

[264WM]

Hard to find public land north of Wilbur.
Also this game dept thought it was a wonderful way to raise more funds by doubling the Moose, Goat and Sheep tag fees so I did a little checking and that will bring a wopping $38000 additional funds but if they loose 10000 applicants it will cost them $70000 but they may even loose more than that. Next years big game regs will have the information so I will be able to see the total gain or Loss.lightbulb

 

[HARPERC]

By now you have figured we have the shortest seasons on the planet and the worst fish and wildlife management also. Good luck in trying to figure out all the regulations. Stay safe.

I've had interactions with game departments in 5 states and 3 provinces, and agree totally. I've heard hunting consultants express the same sentiment. Even the pro's can't get straight answers from this department.
Welcome though, we need to import as many good people as we can.

 

[264WM]

I grew up in Coulee Dam and started hunting in the 50's when hunting was excellant and management was good. They just want your money now and could care less if you bag something. The pheasant release program was good back then and they had bounties on coyotes, bobcats, cougars, crows and magpies. You could also kill hawks and owls. Wild birds had a much higher hatch rate back then as now there is to many preditors that get the eggs and chicks. Some years they released as many as 500 pheasants at steamboat rock recreation area per season. We could limit out any time we wanted.

 

[Clark]

In 1963 - 1965 I hunted pheasants in the Warden area, hunted doves in Moxee, and fished for Salmon at Westport and Neah bay.

I got my limits quickly.
There is nothing there now.

My father had hunted pheasants in the Ellensburg area in the late 1940s, but by the time I came along, all the pheasant hunting in Ellensburg was gone.

It seems like the pheasant hunting has been pushed all the way to the Dakotas.

I hunted for elk in WA for years and never saw a shootable animal.
When I tried a different state, the first day I woke up, I had 76 elk walking toward me.
In other states I have to drive slowly, or I will run over trophy bucks at night.
I am done with WA for hunting.

I live on Mercer Island, and I can launch a boat for sockeye salmon without going through the 8 hour boat launch line.... if we ever have another sockeye fishery.

 

[Shooter5]

Hello All,

Just joined up - tonite.
Tri-Cities area.

 

[264WM]

Hello All,

Just joined up - tonite.
Tri-Cities area.

Welcome aboard. I worked at hanford up until being layed off in June of 2011 at that time I was living in Moses Lake and driving to Hanford each day. Saw a lot of big bucks and bull elk.

 

[264WM]

Hanford Buck

 

[264WM]

Hanford bull elk herd

 

[Clark]

For years I hunted 5 miles North of Handford, the Waluke, for ducks and pheasants.
Then the feds took it from the state ~11 years ago.
It was very empty of game and the feds got me out of the sack and told me to move my tent 5 feet closer to the road. It is all non toxic shotguns now and not planted.

 

[mpayne]

Grand coulee area