Question about a spot(s) to go

[Paxer]

Hey everyone,  My first time here on the forums and my first time heading out hunting in WA, I come from a military family and have had training from various instructors from hand gun safety to drop you off in the deep woods with a knife and some para cord survival training. (36 years young) So now this is my First time in the GMU 460 area and I have my deer tag needs to be filled, I have been busy with the family but this weekend they are letting me out to play. So I am in need of a little guidance if anyone would care to share a little info it would be greatly appreciated.  Anyone know were one would land himself a nice Deer, I'm not expecting to drop a trophy but to just get some great meat and fill some freezer space. (archery tag)

Thank you for time, and I look forward to a reply

[Skyvalhunter]

Go up I 90 and hunt off the Tinkham road. You also might want to purchase a Hancock permit for your future hunting.

[Paxer]

Thank you, I purchased my non motorized  permit a few days ago. I will let u all know if I get lucky

[janttihunter]

Hey Paxer I may be headed out that way for my tomorrow. Trying to decide between 460 and 550 coweeman...Did you purchase the pass  online?

[Paxer]

Yea I got it online from the website they have. 505 mossy had some incredible numbers, but that drive is another hour and I have no idea where to go out their

[janttihunter]

I think 460 will have snow. Might be easier to find the deer. I dont really know any spots there but might just pick a spot and spend the day hiking the snowline.

Are you hunting tomorrow or SAt?

[Paxer]

depending on how tomorrow goes i might head out again sat. I have to take that day off work but if the sizes are worth it, i just might lol.

[bendotti]

I'll be out in the 460 on saturday just gonna hit the snow and go with it.

[janttihunter]

Whats a good acsess point?

[Paxer]

 sittin sitting here right no on the western side of 460 where no motorized vehicles are allowed hiked in about 2 miles. Seems a few small deer tracks but no visuals it's lightly raining an and beautiful just wish some thing would show.

[Paxer]

I apologize for the grammar my speech to text sometimes has a mind of it own.  having no luck on the western side of 460 I packed up and drove down to tinker ham road this place is awesome only problem is lack of deer. Looks like I'm going to work tomorrow cause this is a bust

[janttihunter]

I was on tinkham this morning. Was beautiful and allot of snow. I hiked high and low and didn't even see a track......trying to decide if I should hunt last couple hours at Taylor mountain on my way home...

[Paxer]

well report is dismal to say the least,

I hiked on the west side of the road here

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=47.791521,-121.879838&ll=47.791441,-121.881026&spn=0.006047,0.009645&num=1&t=h&z=17


from 7am to 10 am and only saw 1 pile of old poop, a few SMALL tracks that were old and nothing else, not even raccoons, or rabbits or any other animals, its sad really U can hike in the woods here and not see any wildlife.

I sat here on the side of the Tree line with BAIT here on map  https://maps.google.com/maps?q=47.787217,-121.883324&num=1&t=h&z=17
 for about 1 hour with cut up apples and some scent stuff,  about 40 yards away from me, side wind - so even with wind , it was blowing south today. I had full camo with scent killer sprayed on me all over including boots, bow, bino's  but nothing showed , I waked down south to here before giving up and going to another spot....

to here

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=47.781097,-121.878561&ll=47.78636,-121.881959&spn=0.012096,0.01929&num=1&t=h&z=16



some pics from today






Then I drove to Tinker ham road - and their was so much snow up their , but I went and pulled off the side of the road at some of the pull out areas and hiked in a few mins with the bino's to look deep into see if any traces were around, I was doing this from 1pm to 4 pm and during that time, not a single trace of wild life, just birds, and those were sparce to say the least.

some pics of tinkerham area






so it looks like I might just head over to one of the islands, at least that way they can't run off to far LOL
Being new up here is hard to find and scout hunting areas on a limited time.

[ICEMAN]

Paxer, interesting to read your posts on this hunt.

Being so new to the area, you are surely at the disadvantage. Keep trying, keep hitting new areas and find an area the deer have feed in, find a few areas like this that you can bounce back and forth between. Don't want to over do it at any given time...

Good luck.

[Paxer]

Thank Iceman - I am still deerless in seattle.

Being new up here its hard to make hunting friends, but its ok though I will put in some time on scouting next season and try again.

something i made while i was bored  today....

[Forrestrover.02]

I like the movie poster, Paxer! But I think Tom Hanks is too old to play your character! Ha ha.... 
Do you still  have time to hunt this year or are you done? There are some good units that are open for archery until the end of the month. Such as units 660-672. I was just looking at the regs. I was suprised to see so many units open for you guys this late.

[Paxer]

Yes I plans to still hunt this year, i have the 22,23, 24, 25 , maybe 26th too hunt. I was thinking of going up to 410 only because glassing is easier up there.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Paxer]

An amazing person just offered me some time on his private land, so Sat I am going to head out and take him up on this amazing offer! I will post some pics when I get back.

[Forrestrover.02]

Nice! Good luck.

[joebear]

Yes I plans to still hunt this year, i have the 22,23, 24, 25 , maybe 26th too hunt. I was thinking of going up to 410 only because glassing is easier up there.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

remember after second power lines you will be in white river unit.

[Russ McDonald]

Yes I plans to still hunt this year, i have the 22,23, 24, 25 , maybe 26th too hunt. I was thinking of going up to 410 only because glassing is easier up there.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

remember after second power lines you will be in white river unit.

You know I though the same thing when he said 410  but I think he is referring to gmu 410 because they are still open till the 31st

[Paxer]

Well happy new year everyone!

Some good news and some great news.

The good news first - I was invited out to a members private land and It was amazing how wonderful this invitation turned out to be. I meet some new friends from this invitation. Mr awesome is how I will refer to him, unless he says other wise he will remain anonymous. He taught some of the ropes of his property as well; as walked me out to his personal tree stand. This first day I got to his place as i was driving up i saw some rabbits running around so, I seen wild life and knew right then this place had animals.  we talked for a few mins and then he walked me to the stand and with the excitement I had to use the rest room by the time we got to the stand so I walked back to use the out house, I left my bow at the bottom of the ladder next to the stand. as I was walking back I m about 20 feet from my bow when a nice large doe walks in front of me.. I tried to ninja walk my way to the bow..but with birch and pine trees around every step was a crack of a twig and spooked her off.



So I'm as giddy as a fat kid with cake; now that i seen a doe already, and this was just within the first few hours of getting there. He tells me of his property lines and how to follow along the fence, as I might sneak up on a few that like to heard around the area. so I stayed in the stand for a few hours before deciding on stalking for the later part of the day. nothing was showing up in the stand, and the trees are thick here. like Birch trees and pine trees  kinda mixed with each other.  I stalk for a few and spot 2 more doe's on the way they were running away as it was super difficult to stalk because of the twig breaks, and even walking ninja style you can't safely take a step with out making some noise.



2nd day I was in the stand early! like 7 am.  about 7:45 am 2 large doe's come in and feast on some apples laid out, now as they came in they came in head first on the tree stand meaning if I moved they could see me. so as a bow hunter sitting down, I stood up , one  doe noticed me right away and we just locked eyes for a min, then it ran pranced off, the 2nd didn't' move yet, and I was raising my bow to draw as I got 1/2 drawn it must have caught wind or my pulse jumping out of my chest because it ran off just as quick, and I didn't want to shoot her in the rear running away. so I waited again till noon and nothing more showed. I walked back to the house and felt a little defeated but Mr awesome welcomed me in to his home with a warm cup of tea. so we chatted away for a bit and he said " you know what? !, how about you get my quad and drive down a little ways to the 2nd Y in the road, (fork)" I was blown away because 1 this person hardly knows me and 2 he's trusting me with his im going to assume every expensive full sized quad. Reverse, 4 wd and everything. Very kind of him to help me even more with my hunting trip. So I hop on and drive down a while , this 2nd fork in the road felt like 2 or more miles down the dirt trails. So ttime now is middle of the day around 2 pm I get here.

I park the quad just as he said, "leave it there and walk down the trail your sure to jump right on top of some down there..." now I am in full camo, face mask , scent blocker, and sprayed down with everything. no orange at all. and because I just parked this Quad I was guessing it would have scared off any animal with in hearing range.  I walk off the trail lightly and on the grass not to make to much noise.




as I start walking down the trail I hear some thing in the tree line, and then the noise stops, the something I hear is like branches being broken from being stepped on, I didn't think it was another hunter because i was told no one was out here but me so I just thought" OK cool its a deer". another doe perhaps. so I walk to the treeline and duck under the pine branches of this pine tree, there is fallen down trees EVERYWHERE, so you can hide behind a log or tree stump and they can't see you,  as i lightly make my way threw I step into the opening of this birch tree area. I don't' see anything, I stay there for about 4 mins and wait, looking every place, because the trees are so thick I didn't want to move deeper in if I was already pushing the deer out.  so I waited and did not hear any more movement..

a small video of just the tree's and how thick they are. View My Video

There are a few very large logs that have fallen in front of me (not in the video) from weather or what ever made them fall over and they are great cover , as I took my next step and i broke a twig , it made a large sound... this is when the earth started to move, and I had my arrow knocked, my arms went up to drawn, but as I looked to focus this large brown BEAR starts to run away from me, and when I say large this animal was moving the earth as if he created it. 4 to 6 inch birch trees were bending like rubber bands as this bear plowed threw them away from me,  I was in such shock seeing a bear that as my hands went up I drew on the bear only like 1/4 inch because my quick release was attached to my string so both hands went up to draw but i couldn't draw because of the change of pants i was needing... so what felt like an eternity was only maybe 3 to 5 seconds went by of this large bear movement ... I backed out the way i came in and jumped on the quad and drove in a different direction.. I did see 1 more deer this day but didn't get a clear shot. but I have to say that was amazing to see this large animal in its natural environment.



3rd day back in the stand and this time I put out allot of apples from his apple trees hauled them over on his quad. so i get in the stand at 7 am and wait. I m thinking to myself, ok they will be here soon and I will be ready, stay standing this entire time and be ready to draw.. Its my last day I have to take home a deer. 8 am ... nothing...... 9 am..... nothing.... its 9 :45 and Im like well *censored* i guess nothing is going to come so its cold, and i need to warm up. so i take my time and climb down the ladder, as I get to the bottom i put my bow down to fix my clothes, and as i look up, this god dam buck is standing right in front of me. we lock eyes....... he runs as I kneel down to get my bow... and yes he got away.... DAM IT!!

I go back up the ladder and into the stand I didn't make any noise or yell when he noticed me, so i figured he would come back.... 10:30am .. nope. 11:30am nope.... so time to go warm up. Mr awesome asks me if i want to take the quad back out  to the fork again. I said "no thanks I'm stay in the stand". but really I didn't want to get eatten alive by a bear, hahaha
So after noon comes and like clock work a nice thick tall doe come s walking in, and starts to snack, I was sitting down but i was able to stand up and draw  I aimed for right behind the shoulder and released but she was looking at me when I released she ducked and my arrow sailed right over her, and that was the end of my 3 day hunt..
view from stand

Now the Great news = Why you ask is this a great hunt. well I learned allot from Mr awesome about hunting his lands and where to go, as well as techniques. He welcomed me into his home as if I was family and I felt honored to have meet him and be able to even hunt on his property. He is a class act gentlemen that I can personally say we need more people like him in the world. because the world would be a great place to live. Mr awesome is wonderful person and I can proudly call him my friend,  my wife even made him our family Christmas treats because of his hospitality. I didn't get a deer this season but I got something more special then the deer kill, that was the experience's and a life long friend.

-Paxer

[janttihunter]

Thats a great story man!!!! Awesome to hear there are still good kind people out there willing to help others!!! Sounds like you had allot of fun!

Sounds like you learned allot also! I had that kind of season too ( my first hunting WA, BTs and first Muzzy) I made allot of mistakes and had a missed shot and a missfire...But just feels like a success to see animals and get a shot.

[fishinmike]

Congratulations on a great hunt and learning experience. Really great to hear about the generosity of other members. Thanks to the mystery member, Mr. Awesome for helping someone out.

[h20hunter]

Very neat.....I enjoyed the pics to go along with the story. Hats off to Mr. Awesome....did a good thing right there.

[Sitka_Blacktail]

Great story from what sounds like a fun hunt! And thanks for pointing out that there are still good, generous people in the world. Can't lose faith in mankind just yet. A Tip O' the Hat to Mr Anonymous!

And just to add to your knowledge, you weren't hunting in Pines and Birch, you were in Fir and Alder trees.

[BOWHUNTER45]

must be the way you come on to people  To meet someone like Mr Awesome so soon is almost unheard of ... You seem like a likable kinda guy ..A learning experience & meeting a new friend is hard to beat 

[Stick em]

Sounds like you had a couple of good days hunting and made a great friend. Those are the main reasons most people hunt. Keep it up and good luck next season.

[Smossy]

Right on man. That's what its all about getting the feel for it. I can't wait for my first hunt, jusst the thought gets me all giddy. God bless to the man who lett ou on his property. I wish the world was full of more people like that. Stay posative and good things will happen. Juss gotta find me my mr awsome haha.

[Paxer]

Yes everyone he's is a great guy. And thank you for the info about the Alder and furs! I'm looking forward to next season.