Dear WDFW....

[TikkaT3-270Shortmag]

Increase in hunters & less habitat = less deer. Anyone considered the expkosiin of hunters in the last 20 years?

[Buckmania]

I've hunted Montana, Wyoming and Colorado for deer and I don't know if the argument is valid.  The deer populations are higher and the hunters seem to manage themselves by passing on the young bucks.

Are you serious??  Populations higher??  You don't think that it's because of the terrain and the populations are just fine, the only difference is that you're able to see more of them?? 

[jackmaster]

its pretty damn simple to help the blacktail population, when we lost hound hunting and hound permits for cougars , we lost the ONLY effective method of controling the numbers of big cats, we lost baiting and along with hounds we lost the ONLY 2 effective methods of controling the numbers, and then we lose trapping, well with hounds as well we again lost the ONLY 2 effective methods of controling the bobcat and coyote population, so what needs to happen is either the game department comes up with a serious damn plan to control bobcat, yotes, bears and cougars. then we move all of blacktail to 2pt minimum except youth and disabled or senior hunters..... if your a meat hunter then its honestly alot cheaper to go buy beef, i know its the thrill of the hunt, right! well if your true concern is putting meat on the table, then i would assume you would want to go the cheapest route, right! i love huntn blacktail, i have NO DESIRE to hunt any type of other critter, i did like to bait bears, mostly because it was a blast to watch them at a bait station, my other love was bobcat huntn with my hounds, well cant do that anymore, so there is no way i could ever give up extended buck for blackies, however i would be willing to only get to hunt blacktails every other year...now this would only be for blacktail freaks like myself, because the year you didnt get to hunt means you dont get to go hunt the eastside for muleys or whitetails, it means a whole season off from huntn deer, but it would give you alot of time to scout for the season you do get to hunt   

[deaner]

It is far more challenging to drop a doe than a buck, becasue she is ALWAYS on alert.




serious? come on.  harder to get a doe?  what planet are you from?

[PlateauNDN]

It is far more challenging to drop a doe than a buck, becasue she is ALWAYS on alert.




serious? come on.  harder to get a doe?  what planet are you from?

    I've seen more doe than bucks anytime I'm out in the woods.  just this past weekend i was out walking the woods and came across at least 20 does and 1 spike buck.  1 group of does didn't even bother to stop eating when they seen me and I came to within 25 yards of them just casually walking up to them.  good thing for them I was only sightseeing.

[BK Dave]

Please remove the Western Washington late blacktail hunt from the modern firearm general season tag holders.  Make it permit only, get rid of it completely, or only allow youth to hunt.  Thank You

Sincerely,
Jason Phelps

Perhaps your request to the GAME department could read something a little more specific like "dear Department of fish&wildlife could the Willipa Hills GMU be managed differently than other units in Western Wa. because ect ect ect....

[PolarBear]

For years I've been saying that we need to eliminate all rut and doe hunts in certain areas for a while.  The bucks are just too stupid and it can be like shooting cows in a pasture.  The majority of guys that I talk to who are against this are the same folks who never get out of their rig during hunting season except to take a leak or dump their ash trays.

[JPhelps]

Please remove the Western Washington late blacktail hunt from the modern firearm general season tag holders.  Make it permit only, get rid of it completely, or only allow youth to hunt.  Thank You

Sincerely,
Jason Phelps

Perhaps your request to the GAME department could read something a little more specific like "dear Department of fish&wildlife could the Willipa Hills GMU be managed differently than other units in Western Wa. because ect ect ect....

That works!!!  Thats the ultimate goal.  Now just to define the "ect,ect,ect..."

[bullcanyon]

Funny. My wife read this to me off fb last night thinking i wouldn't like it. I said that guy is spot on. Didn't realize it was you who started it.  I agree 100% that something major needs to be done. Hope they take note.....

[Kowsrule30]

I've shot a lot of BT during this late season.... So has my friends and Dad.... This is the season that really controls the buck to doe ratio... I was told this by a Bio... If it was given to archery it wouldn't meet their goals... Muzzy would also fall short... That is why the season is only 4 days... Short and sweet.... Best season for rifle on the west side and no permit needed... Not just for a chance at a "quality" buck... But for seeing them in general... I have switched back and forth from muzzy to modern... And keep coming back to modern just for this late season... Even though ml late season is 3 weeks long... I don't see it being switched at all... You know how many more hunters they'd lose... But if it was actually switched to a different weapon it would be muzzy and probably a week long.. So I'd just switch to muzzy again.... It'd would never be archery or youth only though... I don't know of any area's where I hunt BT that have a shortage of bucks... Of all age classes...

[WSU]

I'm curious how much of the alleged decline (we don't have anything to prove there is a decline, just some anecdotal evidence) is due to a change in logging practices?  Now, all clear cuts are sprayed to nuke everything and then evergreens are planted.  The result is, by design, a lot less brush and trees other than than whatever evergreen variety grows the best at that location.  Perhaps the changes in the forest have a lot more to do with deer numbers than a few extra bucks being killed.   

[b0bbyg]

I have hunted Willapa several years during the late archery season.  I agree with an earlier poster that poaching in this unit is worse than any other unit I have hunted.   

There have been news articles about some of the groups that poached in the area. Even with this I have seen some decent bucks in the area but had to work hard to find them. 

[Salmo]

I'm sure its been said before but I can't express enough how the original poster screwed this thread up to begin with.   As management nation wide proves it works.  The WDFW has failed us miserably.   Management also includes predators.  IMO if some *censored* wants to vote on a wildlife issue he/she such tard should be required to purchase a big game hunting lisence.

Dear WDFW,
Please save hunting in this state as it is a multi-million dollar industry which employ's thousands.  We have a predator problem that is taking a serious toll on our valuable resource.   Please pull your head out your *censored* and do whats right for everyone.  Not what pleases *censored* and the like who contribute in no way towards wildlife and conservation.  Yet from their couch they are allowed to vote on issues that do not pertain to any part of their lives.

There fixed it for ya!

[fish vacuum]

I'm curious how much of the alleged decline (we don't have anything to prove there is a decline, just some anecdotal evidence) is due to a change in logging practices?  Now, all clear cuts are sprayed to nuke everything and then evergreens are planted.  The result is, by design, a lot less brush and trees other than than whatever evergreen variety grows the best at that location.  Perhaps the changes in the forest have a lot more to do with deer numbers than a few extra bucks being killed.   

 

Closing areas just pushes more people into the places that are left open. And if they do close the late buck season, it'll be for more than one or two GMUs. No sense in having a patchwork of units with different rules. If you want late buck closed in one GMU in SW Washington, it'll be the whole SW corner that gets closed.

[Blacktail Sniper]

Been reading this and giving it some thought, and I would agree that taking ANY additional time or seasons away would be wrong.  I decided to look at what data was availible so I went back and looked at the harvest reports for the years 2007 to 2011.  Here are the numbers I found on the WDFW site for GMU 506 for deer harvested by modern firearm hunters.

Year   Antlerless      Antlered     Total (All methods)   Number of M/F hunters   Percent of M/F hunter sucess
2007         0                 193                 193                             1498                                  12.9%
2008         0                 213                 227                               N/A                                     N/A
2009         0                 194                 204                             1334                                  14.5%
2010         0                 245                 261                             1185                                  20.7%
2011         0                 175                 182                              953                                   18.4% 

So from this it seems there has been a cycle of some sort with harvest numbers raising/falling every other year, with a high of 245 bucks to a low of 175, with five year averages of:

204 bucks killed/213 total deer killed over the 5 years on average.

(Since only 4 years data) number of hunters and percent of sucess, an average of 1243 hunters enjoyed 16.6% success. 

One thing that is constant is the declinng numbers of hunters in that area each year.

So based on that availible data, it doesn't seem viable that removing an average of 200 or so bucks from that area could have that substantial of an impact on the overall herd, regardless of what time of season they are taken in to me.   

GMU 506 seems to be a fairly large unit acerage wise, so I would like to know the number of bucks/deer taken averaged out per acre if anyone knows where to find out the how big the unit is.

In short, I don't see giving up any part of our season(s) being the answer, at least based on the data I can find at this point.   I believe the other issues mentioned such as poaching, predators and habitat being the main influences.