Tired of WA tag soup

[MADMAX]

Duffer and Radsav what you guys say has got me thinking a lot.  I definitely could spend more time scouting that has not been a priority for me.  Its hard to admit but I guess Im a casual hunter since I don't make time to be out in the woods more.  During the season I work hard but I think I need to hit reset and figure out what Im doing wrong.

If your just after meat take up bowhunting, pretty hard to "not" get at least a blacktail doe

[boneaddict]

Black angus tastes better and is probably cheaper if you are just after meat.  If you enjoy the hunt, then I might try other quests.   All the bigtime TV hunters (Eastmans etc.) will tell you to hunt the same area for at least three years to learn the ins and outs, then it gets much easier.     I think you can get the most meat in Montana if truly after venison.

[pianoman9701]

I understand tag soup, believe me. I've certainly perfected the recipe and I must say, if you simmer it long enough, it almost has taste! 

There are guys who post blacktail kills on this forum every single year. I would concentrate on their advice and threads in the deer category, get out some trail cams, definitely put some boot leather on the ground and you should find deer. Even i kill one every few years and I'm not 1/4 of the hunter most of these guys are. Good luck. 

[BullMagnet76]

To be honest with you, deer are really simple to kill in this state.

 

[philepe]

To the guys saying it is so easy your full of it,  :twocents:Either you bust your butt and earn it.or you may get lucky road hunting but that's not really hunting. To say hunting here is easy is kinda like bill gates saying its easy to make billions of $.  Not very helpful advice, but yes entertaining.

[pianoman9701]

To the guys saying it is so easy your full of it,  :twocents:Either you bust your butt and earn it.or you may get lucky road hunting but that's not really hunting. To say hunting here is easy is kinda like bill gates saying its easy to make billions of $.  Not very helpful advice, but yes entertaining.

Perhaps instead of telling successful hunters they're full of it, you might use them as a resource and find out why it's so easy for them. Either glean information or be defensive. These two options are mutually exclusive.

[Buckmark]

To the guys saying it is so easy your full of it,  :twocents:Either you bust your butt and earn it.or you may get lucky road hunting but that's not really hunting. To say hunting here is easy is kinda like bill gates saying its easy to make billions of $.  Not very helpful advice, but yes entertaining.

If meat is all you are after, then yes having the opportunity to kill (harvest  ) a legal deer is not very difficult.
If wanting to tag a buck only then it gets a little more difficult, but still not that hard.
If wanting to tag a trophy (Define that as you want) then it gets much harder...
If you rifle hunt the general run and gun season only in areas that everyone else goes then yes you will eat more tags than fill, as long as you keep doing what you have been doing for the past 15yrs. If you do the same thing every year without success dont you think its time to either change tactics, weapons, area or all 3?

[rtspring]

Easy? No way.  I could hunt wheat fields and kill a deer every year. But I prefer to chase the mountain deer in a unit that is hard to find a legal deer. Cause when U di get one , bet your arse I worked hard for it. 

I am simply amazed at hunters who think big game should be standing at every bend of a forest road waiting to be shot. That means get out and scout and hunt your butt off, you will be rewarded... 

Now Im going to try with a bow.. 

[Mike450r]

To the guys saying it is so easy your full of it,  :twocents:Either you bust your butt and earn it.or you may get lucky road hunting but that's not really hunting. To say hunting here is easy is kinda like bill gates saying its easy to make billions of $.  Not very helpful advice, but yes entertaining.

Deer can be anywhere but definitely not everywhere.  I have killed a blacktail pretty much every year for 30+ years, with rifle, bow, and muzzleloader so for me it can at least seem pretty easy most of the time.  I have gotten them busting my butt and I have gotten lucky and got them easy even though I started the day with every intention of busting my butt if I needed too.  Some have been pretty big, some pretty small, but on average generally what I consider a decent blacktail buck.

I have given advice and pointers a few times on here and so have many many others.  If a person doesn't go to the right spot all the hard work and knowledge aint going to mean anything. 

[nw_bowhunter]

Not getting deer or elk successfully each year doesn't mean your not a good hunter and YES it can be frustrating to not be in the top 10% of guys who tag out yearly.

My advice is be honest with yourself and evaluate your skill set..  Are you constantly trying to learn new tactics, animal behaviors, talking with other experience hunters, etc? Find an area and scout your tail off all year. Use the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors.  Hunt the same area consistently for 3 to 5 years. Also, stay out in the woods all day. PS: Blacktails are challenging to hunt, try mule deer and get some experience under your belt.

I have been bow hunting elk for 12 years and shot 1 cow...maybe I'm a lousy elk hunter, or maybe there are other factors. I met up with a fellow bowhunter/elk hunter two years and he has taught me more in the limited time we hunted together in all the time hunting on my own. I'm not a successful trophy hunter but I have taken my fair share of mule deer. With family, work, etc my time for hunting is less each year. Personal advice is enjoy your self, maintain a positive attitude, always be thinking, dreaming and learning about hunting.. AND don't give up.

Opportunity and little luck also factor into being successful..

[snowpack]

If looking for a blacktail, I'd recommend putting in for the permits where the deer hunt is during the modern elk season.  Every modern elk season I and the guys I hunt with see the most bucks and the biggest bucks and they are seen in daylight.

[deltaops]

Hunting is just that.. hunting..  I first came on the forums asking for help and people kinda pointed in a general location and said go hunt. A few people gave me some more specifics and off we went. I can say this, it was not easy to hunt with a woman and a child trailing behind but it was fun doing it. Memories like that are great. I spent more time scouting than actually hunting and I do not regret it. I have ate tag soup the last two seasons in WA State but that was my fault, I have nobody to blame but me. this next season will be different and I will work my tail off to try and fill my tag.

I want to say thank you to the ones who helped me out, if it wasn't for people like you on these forums, these forums would not exist. 

[philepe]

A lot of motivating good advice here. Thanks guys.  Maybe instead of out of state I may just go with an central or e WA outfitter to try and pick up some tactics.  Any outfitters that are particularly good at teaching? I'd much rather learn the tactics from them that I can utilize rather than just bag a deer once

[pianoman9701]

The forum owner - Bearpaw.

[RadSav]

If you take away the hunter success statistics for blacktail in both Oregon and Washington almost all the western states published success ratios are about the same +/- 3-5%.  Those success ratios are heavily weighed toward those who know their hunting areas well ie resident hunters vs resident hunters.  So when guys post on the internet about the 50 bucks they see a day in "X" state or how they passed up "X" amount of deer per day looking for Mr. Big without scouting or hiring a guide in a different state you need to take it with a grain of salt.  While the occasional guy does fall into a hot spot or hits the rut perfect or happens to be a true expert in research it is statistically the exception rather than the rule.


If I could give one single secret that would increase the average guys success each and every year it would be this.  Think like the quarry you are hunting.  You can do this by reading about certain species, spending time in the woods observing that species and/or hiring an expert guide willing to answer as many questions as you can throw at them while hunting under their supervision.

I have an old fishing client that still keeps in touch with me and sends me success photos constantly.  After 20 years of trying to catch a steelhead with zero success his wife gave him a guided trip as a Christmas present.  I don't remember it being an unusually good day on the water as far as fish went.  But, I do remember this guy asking more questions than I could possible answer in one day.  Every time I switched lures he would ask me, "Why?"  Every time I would drop anchor he would ask, "Why?"  Every time I would have him cast to a certain part in the river he would ask me, "Why?"  I ended up telling him exactly why I was working a particular piece of water and how to read it before we made the first cast in each location.  He took full advantage of my experience with steelhead.  Not to increase his chances of catching a fish on that particular day.  But, to educate himself for his future success without the assistance of a guide. He wasn't set on learning the way I did things as much as he was trying to learn why steelhead do the things they do.  I can comfortably say with complete confidence that this past client is a better steelhead fisherman than I am today.  He truly is one of the best I've seen.  He had the raw talent and desire to begin with.  All he needed was a little Steelhead 101 to get him started on the right track. 

The same principles apply to deer and elk hunting.  Show me an expert hunter for a specific species of animal and I will show you someone who is educated in the way that animal thinks.  They don't watch an animal bust out of a hole without asking the question, "Why?"  Why was that animal in that spot?  Why was that animal spooked?  Why did he run that way?  What was he eating?  How far from the rut are we?  Where was he going?  Should I expect him to return to this spot?  How could I have made my approach differently?  And then, If I find myself in this situation again how am I going to kill that animal next time?


I find Thomas Edison to be one of my best sources of inspiration.  While educating yourself in your quarry it is important to also educate yourself in ways to succeed when obstacles and rejection try to tear you down.  Probably no other man in history was as resilient to these issues as Thomas Edison.  It is said that after developing a successful light bulb he admitted it was his two thousand and first prototype.  It is claimed that he was asked by a reporter how he was able to continue working after failing 2,000 times.  To which he answered, "I did not fail.  I just found 2,000 ways how not to make a light bulb.  I only needed to find one way to make it work."

Other Edison quotes I find helpful;

"Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration. Accordingly, a 'genius' is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework."

"Many of life's failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."