NE slow for us...

[7mmfan]

Hunted east of Colville Thursday through Sunday and struggled. Saw lots of sign in a few areas but saw very few deer and no bucks, did see some hanging in other camps however, maybe it was just us. Only shots I heard were in the first and last hour of daylight, nothing mid-day at all. Anyone hunting in the Little Pend Orielle area had better luck?

[SpokaneSlayer]

I hunted there yesterday morning.  Didn't see anything.  Heard a lot of shots in the morning.  Saw 100+ turkey's and a coyote while driving.

[HuntingFanatic]

Saw more moose sign than anything else in there! Very sparse in the deer sighting!

[WAcoyotehunter]

it's a tough year- the population is down. 

[croix]

I was hunting north of where you were but my experience was similar. I just got back from Northport area yesterday. Spent 8 days and huntin was tough. Crazy weather and full moon on clear nights made seeing deer during the day difficult. I saw 7 deer in 8 days. Three were bucks (2 spikes) but no good shot opportunity. The bucks I saw were between 10:00 and noon, but I had to sneak into their bedding areas to see them and it was way too thick in there. Got to within 20 yds but couldn't get a shot. With 9 hunters in my camp, when I left we had one hanging and it was the only deer that guy had seen in 7 days. A couple of other camps had 1 or 2 deer but nothing huge.

Of course, driving out on Sunday I saw a nice 3X3 40 yds off the Alladin road at about 8:10 - standing proud like he owned the place.

[270Shooter]

Were you guys on the Little Pend Orielle wildlife Refuge too?

I was there sat and sun and saw 3 deer the whole time . But one was a BIG BUCK. We were driving down the blacktail mt. cutoff road and i was looking a the map and my dad said deer. So i look up and just got the Binos up in time to see a tall heavy rack going into the thickest brush he could find. So we got out and searched for him the rest of the day in there to no avail. Then the next day we saw 2 does.

On sat morning we were in the Iron Mountains on fs road 9535 and we hiked a few miles heard a few shots, but I could not find a track or poop or any sign of a deer in there. On the way out we saw 2 does as well.

I thought it was wierd that all of the deer we saw were while we were in the truck driving. This was my first time doing the late hunt so i was pretty much just starting from scratch not knowing where to go. I hunted a lot in the burned areas in the refuge and found a few fresh tracks but nothing else. Where are all of the deer?

[fishunt247]

My buddy and I got out of school (CWU!) on the first friday of the season and randomly decided to go head up that way cuz he still had a tag. We got stuck in Spokane traffic and didn't make an evening hunt. The next morning it was raining so hard we sat in the truck till 7. Then we braved the rain, set him up, and I made a push for him. A buck ran within 15 yards of him, missed it on the first shot but dumped it on the second. It is a 3pt plus eyegaurds, 20 7/8 inches wide, but not very tall. We only saw 4 deer, one just happened to be a buck. We were down by 49 degrees north though. The population there didn't seem to be much better?

[mossback91]

Good for us.....Buddy got a nice buck.....we saw one other buck.....buddies uncle got a buck and I missed a big buck TWICE!! pretty damn sure the gun is off but that would be a total of 4 bucks so not to slow for us

[7mmfan]

We hunted around McDowell Lake. I've only hunted there once, last year during late archery, and it was fantastic, saw 20 to 30 deer every day and lots of bucks, so to go there this year and see next to nothing was shocking to say the least. It did seem to be spot sensitive though. The sign we saw was in one area and the camps that we saw with deer had multiple deer hanging. Oh well, thats hunting i suppose. A guy did shoot a dandy mule deer up there, we saw it in the back of the Game Wardens truck driving out, looked like a 5x6 with LOTS of mass.

[Moe the Sleaze]

Thanks for the news, even if bad.  I'm headed up there (selkirks)for late muzzleloader next week.  Hoping for different luck. Moon will be dark. Hoping for some snow.  QUESTION....does it seem like they are at peak of rut yet?
Are you seeing new scrapes?

[270Shooter]

7mm

We drove by McDowell a few times. Its pretty thick in there . I was mostly hunting the burned areas along the bear creek road. I was hoping to atleast see some does moving through there but there wasn't much . The second morning I went to a meadow of of the Blacktail Mt. Cutoff road which is right where I saw the Big Guy the evening before, but I didn't see anything. I heard a lot of shooting and it seemed most of it was coming from the main entrance on Bear Creek Rd. right next to the privite land, I was going to go in there but there were about 5 trucks there already so i didn't bother.

Moe,

I did see one scrape in the same area I saw the big buck. I found it very interesting that I couldn't find a single rub though .
I don't know maybe I'm not looking in the right areas??? This was my first time doing the late hunt and I will be back, this was just a very frusterating hunt because i expected so much more.

[EastWaViking]

It was a hard winter last year.  Remember we had three feet of snow for several months, some  areas had lots more.  I think there was a nearly 80% winter kill in parts of NE WA.  Other areas the deer survived pretty well.

[SpokaneSlayer]

I saw an old scrape, but also no rubs.  I was hunting Starvation Flats, around a big bowl off the side of the road.  I have knee problems so i can't go to far at the moment.  Lots of sign, some fresh.

[DeKuma]

Sucked for us too above Rice. We did finally connect.  Dad is 67 so took a doe on Saturday, and I took a 10" long spike on Sunday.  We usually see much more deer.  These were the only two whitetail we saw all weekend.
We did find about 15 Muleys a day though.  Some monster forkies and one massive 4x4 with gnarley bases and 6" eye guards.  Figures we would see him now........
Saw a few rubs and scrapes, but rutting activity in general was nil.

[croix]

Moe,
Saw lots of scrapes and a few rubs but we were pretty far north (between Northport and Ione). Saturday the scrapes were getting freshened pretty hard. I personally think the peak of the rut will be over by the end of this week - maybe early next. Might be able to catch a bruiser lookin for that last doe.