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Author Topic: Are there just not any deer in Western Wa?  (Read 21312 times)

Offline Ice monkey

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Re: Are there just not any deer in Western Wa?
« Reply #15 on: December 15, 2013, 05:08:02 PM »
Saw four deer today. A crab claw buck and three doe. Couldn't get a shot at the buck. He moved through my shooting lane way to quick. I'm passing on does until next week. Lots of sign. The cold dry weather really pushed them to only move at night. Lots of deer on camera moving from 10pm-3am.


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Offline Evoac05

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Re: Are there just not any deer in Western Wa?
« Reply #16 on: December 15, 2013, 05:29:20 PM »
I have been seeing two everyday in my lower pasture!  :chuckle:

Hope the darn cats don't get them.  :bash:

I'd be more than happy to get one of them before a cat does.  :tup:  I've been looking to get my first deer. 

Offline Swannytheswan

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Re: Are there just not any deer in Western Wa?
« Reply #17 on: December 15, 2013, 05:34:17 PM »
this spring we lost 2 fawns from the deer that came into our yard one doe had twins and one of them disappeared and another doe had one and it disappeared a couple weeks later...haven't seen any of them in a while
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Offline Boss .300 winmag

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Re: Are there just not any deer in Western Wa?
« Reply #18 on: December 15, 2013, 05:35:55 PM »
I have been seeing two everyday in my lower pasture!  :chuckle:

Hope the darn cats don't get them.  :bash:

I'd be more than happy to get one of them before a cat does.  :tup:  I've been looking to get my first deer.


Pretty sure they are yearlings, mom I think got hit by a car late spring.

They let me get close quite often on my walks, I would but the deer in my area are getting hit pretty hard by be cats.  Sorry
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Offline RadSav

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Re: Are there just not any deer in Western Wa?
« Reply #19 on: December 15, 2013, 05:51:33 PM »
They are all hiding behind the gas station in Toutle :chuckle:

Predation does have a large effect on the numbers.  Take Winston for instance.  Used to be deer everywhere in there and not many better places on earth for them to feed, but deer numbers have dropped and predator numbers have increased.  There were a good number of cougars killed in there almost ten years ago and the numbers do seem to be on the rise.  But this year the coyote population is off the chart!

If the westside were wide open and covered in wheat fields you'd probably have much better feelings about how many deer are there compared to the east side.  Blacktail just have a much smaller doe family unit size and with feed nearly everywhere there is very little congregation.  I also think the newer hybrid trees most timber companies are growing has a large effect on what we now see too.  These trees grow so fast by the time the feed reaches it's pinnacle in a clearcut the new trees are near impossible to glass from anywhere but the highest perch. Then just a few years later they have choked out the good feed and deer must move on.

The 2013 buck thread was quite impressive this year.  I don't ever remember seeing so many good blacktails posted.
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Offline Evoac05

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Re: Are there just not any deer in Western Wa?
« Reply #20 on: December 15, 2013, 06:39:35 PM »
I have been seeing two everyday in my lower pasture!  :chuckle:

Hope the darn cats don't get them.  :bash:

I'd be more than happy to get one of them before a cat does.  :tup:  I've been looking to get my first deer.


Pretty sure they are yearlings, mom I think got hit by a car late spring.

They let me get close quite often on my walks, I would but the deer in my area are getting hit pretty hard by be cats.  Sorry

No problem, I understand Boss .300 winmag.

I think I'm done with hunting the west side, at least until I get my first deer (doe or buck, I'm not picky). After 4 years hunting the west side during both modern and archery without seeing anything I'm pretty much done with this side of the state. The only time I saw a deer while hunting was during modern and it was 3-4 doe and of course not legal to shoot.  :bash:

I put out 4 cams this summer and moved a couple around getting a lot of activity, but nothing came out while I was in my stand. Moved my stand to another area with lots of sign and still no deer. I have to say blacktail deer are awesome at playing hide and seek, boy can they hide. 

Offline RB

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Re: Are there just not any deer in Western Wa?
« Reply #21 on: December 15, 2013, 07:10:50 PM »
This is what happened to me pull into boat launch(city park) to go to the islands and this dude is waltzing around eating then beds down in the flower bed. Go out for the day and see one in the area I can shoot any deer and it is the size of a pygmy goat with a couple baby carrots sticking out of its head. Laugh at it and see nothing else until back to boat ramp and 4 does and a spike walking around then almost hit a four point on the main road out, so yeah saw lots of Blacktails this year just could not shoot them  :)
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Offline furiouzgeorge

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Re: Are there just not any deer in Western Wa?
« Reply #22 on: December 15, 2013, 07:17:28 PM »
Sounds like we need to organize a HuntWa coyote / couger purge! Pick an area we want to see deer population rise and sink our teeth in!
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Offline reagansquad

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Re: Are there just not any deer in Western Wa?
« Reply #23 on: December 15, 2013, 09:34:12 PM »
Sounds like we need to organize a HuntWa coyote / couger purge! Pick an area we want to see deer population rise and sink our teeth in!

I vote for 448, but there's a cap on the number of Cougs that can be harvested from most GMUs (if I'm reading it right...)

Offline shoot-em-dead

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Re: Are there just not any deer in Western Wa?
« Reply #24 on: December 15, 2013, 09:59:06 PM »
I have been seeing two everyday in my lower pasture!  :chuckle:

Hope the darn cats don't get them.  :bash:

I'd be more than happy to get one of them before a cat does.  :tup:  I've been looking to get my first deer.


Pretty sure they are yearlings, mom I think got hit by a car late spring.

They let me get close quite often on my walks, I would but the deer in my area are getting hit pretty hard by be cats.  Sorry

No problem, I understand Boss .300 winmag.

I think I'm done with hunting the west side, at least until I get my first deer (doe or buck, I'm not picky). After 4 years hunting the west side during both modern and archery without seeing anything I'm pretty much done with this side of the state. The only time I saw a deer while hunting was during modern and it was 3-4 doe and of course not legal to shoot.  :bash:

I put out 4 cams this summer and moved a couple around getting a lot of activity, but nothing came out while I was in my stand. Moved my stand to another area with lots of sign and still no deer. I have to say blacktail deer are awesome at playing hide and seek, boy can they hide.

I wouldn't waste time in a stand. I have shot blacktails with modern, muzzy, and bow and they have all been where I least expect them to be. All of them were while I was moving. I have had them spook from 10 ft away and I never knew they  were there. These blacktails are just odd. Very, very odd. Get out there and move around and your odds should go up.
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Offline bobcat

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Re: Are there just not any deer in Western Wa?
« Reply #25 on: December 15, 2013, 10:00:33 PM »
This talk about blacktails being tough to hunt- yes that is true, because of the brush, the terrain, and the fact that they're nocturnal most of the time. But it's more than that. I believe there are so few blacktails that it's like finding a needle in a haystack. It didn't used to be like this. Back in the 80's I could go for a drive in the summer and seeing 50 deer in just a couple hours would be nothing. Now I'd be lucky to see five.

It is true that there were some nice blacktail bucks taken this year. But is that more due to the fact that there are so few younger bucks out there?

Offline shoot-em-dead

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Re: Are there just not any deer in Western Wa?
« Reply #26 on: December 15, 2013, 10:03:14 PM »
This talk about blacktails being tough to hunt- yes that is true, because of the brush, the terrain, and the fact that they're nocturnal most of the time. But it's more than that. I believe there are so few blacktails that it's like finding a needle in a haystack. It didn't used to be like this. Back in the 80's I could go for a drive in the summer and seeing 50 deer in just a couple hours would be nothing. Now I'd be lucky to see five.

It is true that there were some nice blacktail bucks taken this year. But is that more due to the fact that there are so few younger bucks out there?

Or your just getting older and need a better prescription for your eyes. :chuckle: :chuckle: :chuckle:
This closet is taken- go find your own

Offline bobcat

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Re: Are there just not any deer in Western Wa?
« Reply #27 on: December 15, 2013, 10:08:44 PM »
This talk about blacktails being tough to hunt- yes that is true, because of the brush, the terrain, and the fact that they're nocturnal most of the time. But it's more than that. I believe there are so few blacktails that it's like finding a needle in a haystack. It didn't used to be like this. Back in the 80's I could go for a drive in the summer and seeing 50 deer in just a couple hours would be nothing. Now I'd be lucky to see five.

It is true that there were some nice blacktail bucks taken this year. But is that more due to the fact that there are so few younger bucks out there?

Or your just getting older and need a better prescription for your eyes. :chuckle: :chuckle: :chuckle:

Maybe! But I just got new glasses. And I have way better binoculars than I did back then. In the 80's you could just drive logging roads and the deer were everywhere.

Offline DoubleJ

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Re: Are there just not any deer in Western Wa?
« Reply #28 on: December 15, 2013, 10:09:30 PM »
Sounds like we need to organize a HuntWa coyote / couger purge! Pick an area we want to see deer population rise and sink our teeth in!

I vote for 448, but there's a cap on the number of Cougs that can be harvested from most GMUs (if I'm reading it right...)

No quota in Mason County and we just had a sighting on Tuesday.

Offline snowpack

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Re: Are there just not any deer in Western Wa?
« Reply #29 on: December 15, 2013, 10:19:37 PM »
This talk about blacktails being tough to hunt- yes that is true, because of the brush, the terrain, and the fact that they're nocturnal most of the time. But it's more than that. I believe there are so few blacktails that it's like finding a needle in a haystack. It didn't used to be like this. Back in the 80's I could go for a drive in the summer and seeing 50 deer in just a couple hours would be nothing. Now I'd be lucky to see five.

It is true that there were some nice blacktail bucks taken this year. But is that more due to the fact that there are so few younger bucks out there?

Or your just getting older and need a better prescription for your eyes. :chuckle: :chuckle: :chuckle:

Maybe! But I just got new glasses. And I have way better binoculars than I did back then. In the 80's you could just drive logging roads and the deer were everywhere.
In the 80's you could (in most places) drive a lot more miles of logging roads and be driving through more and bigger clearcuts.  Plus the hound hunters were still operating.  Now, it's pretty much just the tribes running dogs...and I usually see the most deer near the reservations (with the exception of town deer).

 


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