Best Blacktail Unit in the state...

[Hoytstaffshooter83]

washougal..... if you get land.. tons of bucks

[strutnrut1984]

whatcom county in the lowlands has some tremendous bucks not alot of deer outlying areas around bellingham hold some studs. if u buy some land or know someone who has privat land  the hills r pretty dead. but ive seen a few nice ones outta there too

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

I live in Chehalis and am surrounded by good hunting unfortunately I live in 501 and am an archer and it only has late ML

[bankwalker]

if this was back in the 80's and 90's i would have said 460. there are still alot of deer in the unit but the cougar population has skyrocketed.

454 has some very big deer and alot at that for how populated it is.

490 has some monsters but sadly we cant hunt that unit.

im not sure of the unit number but around brinnon on hoodcanal has some big arse bucks, though not alot. but all the bucks i have seen over in that areas have been worthy of being mounted.

[bucklucky]

You know I got to thinking about this subject again and there are big blacktails in every unit. Ive killed nice ones in every unit I have hunted them in. Its all about finding a little hole and learning it well, and hope the cougars havent killed everthing in there 

[Little Fish]

I'm in agreement with Bucklucky.....unless of course you decide to move to Oregon. Personally I think if you are going to move to W Washington you need to factor in not only the deer hunting, but the elk hunting and all the fishing/crabbing/shrimping/clamming/sea harvesting activities out there.

Edit....forgot bird hunting!

[TeacherMan]

SO I will come back with a question from the last comment. Best Wet side elk hunting? I would assume blacktail would be in there aswell. speaking of the fishing,crabbing, shrimping, etc... we just got a 17' alumaweld, cant wait to use it over there.

[Hornseeker]

If I ever move back to Washington...which is fairly likely unfortunately.... I would probably be hunting my blacktails somewhere between Snoqualmie and Stevens Pass.....OR....in the valleys below outta Duvall/Carnation/Monroe/Sultan/North bend etc....  Elk too.

BUT...honestly...I'd probably be spending my deer hunting time out east! 

[Curly]

Teacherman, the best elk hunting units generally are not the best deer hunting units.  For example, Lincoln is a great deer unit, but lacks a good elk population.  Coweeman, Toutle and Winston have huge numbers of elk, but they don't have great deer populations.........not to say you can't get deer in those units, but the best deer units don't have large elk populations IMO.

The St. Helens units have the most elk.  I think Centralia would be a good place to look for a teaching job.  It is not far to good elk hunting and there are good deer hunting areas nearby as well.  Tumwater would be worth looking into also.....

[Little Fish]

I am certainly not the expert, but the GMUs in SW Washington with lots of timber company land produce a fair number of elk/deer. If you live down south (Kelso/Vancouver/Woodland) then you are closer to great river fishing. If you live farther north you are closer to saltwater types of activities. I personally think Olympia area is a good compromise as far as west side locals. Maybe local Olympia folks can comment, but you are anywhere from 0-2 hours from all the activities I mentioned above.

BTW....that boat should be perfect for all kinds of saltwater activities.

[sss5358]

I think the Goldendale area is great. It is a cross area but there are quite a few deer in the area. Mostly blacktail but you do run into some mule deer and mule/blacktail cross. I'll attach pictures of this years muzzle load hunt. The attached is a picture of my buddies deer he got on opening day in October, a 5 X 5 weighing 176 hanging. Mine I got next day and it was a 4 X 3 and it was 116 hanging weight.

[Houndhunter]

washugal area has some great genetics, silver star is where the record came from