Why Early Archery Season Start Date Needs To Change

[pianoman9701]

People are buying them, so there must be demand. I would imagine that it's all about the dollar with any F&G department. The question isn't whether they're charging for different tags, but what's being done with our money to further enhance hunting in our state. That's where my beef starts.

[irishevox]

The fact is like i am sure is stated before is that it's all about the $$$$$ people will pay for it and as long as people are buying MS permits etc.... they will not change things.  It is important that we do recognize what is what... but as times changes we need to realize prices will change.  I think that it's dumb that Washington has all these extra hunt laws but what are you gonna do

[bobcat]

"Extra hunt laws?"   What extra laws? All states have laws to regulate hunting. I don't see how we are any different. Without the laws and the restrictions we have, there would be no game animals left.


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[pianoman9701]

"Extra hunt laws?"   What extra laws? All states have laws to regulate hunting. I don't see how we are any different. Without the laws and the restrictions we have, there would be no game animals left.


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The laws in WA are more complicated than they were back in NH. I don't know how they compare to other states, but I have a friend from MT who swears that WA is way more complicated and hard to figure out.

[returnofsid]

"Extra hunt laws?"   What extra laws? All states have laws to regulate hunting. I don't see how we are any different. Without the laws and the restrictions we have, there would be no game animals left.


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That was my question as well. People keep comparing us to Idaho, Montana, Colorado, now New Hampshire...but they fail to take into consideration that we have a much, MUCH larger population, resulting in less habitat, less resources. Less resources...more people wanting those resources...results in limited resource allocation. It's simple supply and demand. There's a limited supply of animals and land, compared to those other states, and a larger demand for those animals, compared to other states. The population of Puget Sound area, alone, dwarfs the entire state population of those other states.

[irishevox]

For instance one deer a whole season? stuff like that... not being able to unt all seasons unless you have a MS permit.  I am just saying.  I am from louisiana orignally and there you buy your licesence and you can kill up to two deer a day.  and hunt all season with one licesence. 

[returnofsid]

For instance one deer a whole season? stuff like that... not being able to unt all seasons unless you have a MS permit.  I am just saying.  I am from louisiana orignally and there you buy your licesence and you can kill up to two deer a day.  and hunt all season with one licesence.

Once again, comparing states that have absolutely no comparison, when it comes to population of people vs. Population of available game animals...

[irishevox]

Some areas have an over population of deer and not enough hunters... IE: Whidbey Island,  Lopez Island etc... over population of deer in those areas... More are hit by cars than harvested by hunters.... i think in some GMUs a second or even third deer should be allowed even if the meat is donated to a food bank.

[snowpack]

It's mostly a silly debate.  First, other states aren't comparisons and throwing them up pretty much negates the rest of your point.  We don't have the habitat volume to produce the #'s and have many more hunters  that's the end of the story.

I think that the westside gets enough precipitation and has mild enough winters (if you can call them winters), that it could support elk densities up to maybe 10X that of some of the other western states.  So the actual habitat volume wouldn't necessarily need to be the same.

[pianoman9701]

"Extra hunt laws?"   What extra laws? All states have laws to regulate hunting. I don't see how we are any different. Without the laws and the restrictions we have, there would be no game animals left.


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That was my question as well. People keep comparing us to Idaho, Montana, Colorado, now New Hampshire...but they fail to take into consideration that we have a much, MUCH larger population, resulting in less habitat, less resources. Less resources...more people wanting those resources...results in limited resource allocation. It's simple supply and demand. There's a limited supply of animals and land, compared to those other states, and a larger demand for those animals, compared to other states. The population of Puget Sound area, alone, dwarfs the entire state population of those other states.

So why does that mean our F&W laws have to be more complicated? It doesn't. One of the problems is the special permitting process. There are 30 pages of special permits. There are hunting units inside of hunting units. There are 2-pt, 3-pt, and 4-pt. minimums. Shooting hours vary from species to species depending on big game, waterfowl, predators. Animals we really want to get rid of don't even require a license in other states. They do here. Why is there even a season on Cougars? The laws in WA are far more complicated than in surrounding states.

[returnofsid]

"Extra hunt laws?"   What extra laws? All states have laws to regulate hunting. I don't see how we are any different. Without the laws and the restrictions we have, there would be no game animals left.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That was my question as well. People keep comparing us to Idaho, Montana, Colorado, now New Hampshire...but they fail to take into consideration that we have a much, MUCH larger population, resulting in less habitat, less resources. Less resources...more people wanting those resources...results in limited resource allocation. It's simple supply and demand. There's a limited supply of animals and land, compared to those other states, and a larger demand for those animals, compared to other states. The population of Puget Sound area, alone, dwarfs the entire state population of those other states.

So why does that mean our F&W laws have to be more complicated? It doesn't. One of the problems is the special permitting process. There are 30 pages of special permits. There are hunting units inside of hunting units. There are 2-pt, 3-pt, and 4-pt. minimums. Shooting hours vary from species to species depending on big game, waterfowl, predators. Animals we really want to get rid of don't even require a license in other states. They do here. Why is there even a season on Cougars? The laws in WA are far more complicated than in surrounding states.

You do realize, other states have complicated laws as well.  In many states, you can only hunt Turkey until noon, other states until 1:00PM.  A lot of states, with cougar populations, don't allow ANY cougar hunting.  Some states don't allow hunting on Sundays.  A lot of states don't allow the use of Trail Cams, during hunting season, some require trail cams to be removed, a specific number of days prior to a season opening.  Some states don't allow baiting for deer, requiring that bait be removed, a specific number of days prior to season opening.  Some states require you to research Gamelands Regs, General Regs and even County Regs, before you can understand the hunting rules. Some states allow baiting for Turkeys, as long as it doesn't alter their behavior (try defining a change in turkey behavior), some states allow turkey baiting within certain distances of hunting location, some allow turkey baiting AND hunting over that bait, but the bait must be removed/picked up, within 10 days after hunting, while other states require the bait to be removed 10 days BEFORE hunting......here I thought turkey baiting was against federal law.

[bobcat]

So to make things less complicated what would you propose? First, I'd guess you want to do away with the special permits. Okay. Then we could also do away with the special archery and muzzleloader seasons. We will simply have a deer season and an elk season, use whatever method you want. Let's have the same dates every year, and let's have deer season and elk season be the same length. How about deer season being October 1-15 and elk season will be October 16-30.

September, November, and December will now be devoted to fishing, bird and predator hunting, or watching TV.

[pianoman9701]

So to make things less complicated what would you propose? First, I'd guess you want to do away with the special permits. Okay. Then we could also do away with the special archery and muzzleloader seasons. We will simply have a deer season and an elk season, use whatever method you want. Let's have the same dates every year, and let's have deer season and elk season be the same length. How about deer season being October 1-15 and elk season will be October 16-30.

September, November, and December will now be devoted to fishing, bird and predator hunting, or watching TV.


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It's simpler in other states. That's all. I guess WA is so different from every other state it needs to be more complicated. OK. I'll go with that.

[bobcat]

Well, I don't believe it is more complicated. You ever look at Wyoming or Idaho's hunting seasons? 

[snowpack]

So to make things less complicated what would you propose? First, I'd guess you want to do away with the special permits. Okay. Then we could also do away with the special archery and muzzleloader seasons. We will simply have a deer season and an elk season, use whatever method you want. Let's have the same dates every year, and let's have deer season and elk season be the same length. How about deer season being October 1-15 and elk season will be October 16-30.

September, November, and December will now be devoted to fishing, bird and predator hunting, or watching TV.

For the new hunters, the regs can be quite confusing.  They almost get the impression of it being permit only and having missed a deadline if they pick up the regs after say May 22.  I don't think the system overall is as confusing as the regs make it out to be.  I think it has more to do with the layout of the reg book.