How Many want "master Hunters" Out of North Bend, Snoq

[pianoman9701]

If you don't like something join the master hunter group and be a board member and change the rules to your liking. ...I don't belong to a gang as you refer to, and I dont believe in most hunts that are offered in this program. ..Most master hunters in my opinion  couldn't hunt any other way. Define a true hunter and not a killer a big difference that's what this program has become..my two cents.

Ah, hunters turning on other hunters. What a great thread!

There's a big difference between the MHs and the people who administrate the program. The hunters are used in many different ways, all at the direction of the WDFW. I've not once been used as part of a large group which herds animals as described above. To make a blanket statement that MHs aren't hunters, they're only killers, shows ignorance not only of the program but of any sense of sticking together as hunters. If you don't like the program, go talk to the administration about it. But you might stop trying to throw other hunters under the bus just because someone is doing something you haven't taken the time or effort to do yourself. Anti-hunters love people like you. They just sit back and watch as we hunters chew each other apart.

[bustbigking]

I have seen the changes take place. Yes now the 4601 is "mostly" private now. When the MH first started to kill cows in NB they could hunt anywhere! Hence the elk being chased out of the public land areas. I'm not just blowing smoke I witnessed it with my own eyes as did many other locals and that is why they made the special 4601 unit but by the second year the elk had already re located to private land and city parks and limits. How about closing the doors on the MH program and giving the permits out to general season hunters. I really have a hard time with this issue because I have seen elk hunting areas become ghost towns and so called "master Huntets" asking us to show them how to gut an animal after killing it in an area they were told by the game wardens to hunt.!!!! This is not just me assuming!! This is them saying "we were told to hunt these areas by the game warden. He gave us a map of the areas to hunt" oh what do you know, all are secret areas no one knew about elk being there were listed on the map!! Pretty sad!!

[bustbigking]

If you don't like something join the master hunter group and be a board member and change the rules to your liking. ...I don't belong to a gang as you refer to, and I dont believe in most hunts that are offered in this program. ..Most master hunters in my opinion  couldn't hunt any other way. Define a true hunter and not a killer a big difference that's what this program has become..my two cents.

Ah, hunters turning on other hunters. What a great thread!

There's a big difference between the MHs and the people who administrate the program. The hunters are used in many different ways, all at the direction of the WDFW. I've not once been used as part of a large group which herds animals as described above. To make a blanket statement that MHs aren't hunters, they're only killers, shows ignorance not only of the program but of any sense of sticking together as hunters. If you don't like the program, go talk to the administration about it. But you might stop trying to throw other hunters under the bus just because someone is doing something you haven't taken the time or effort to do yourself. Anti-hunters love people like you. They just sit back and watch as we hunters chew each other apart.      

No one said "killers"

[kirkl]

LMAO, sounds like real secret spots if the gammie is giving them out. Sounds like you need to be pi$$ed at the game wardens for giving out your top secret spots.

[pianoman9701]

Bustbigking, I think you're missing the point. You might consider that ranking on other hunters sucks. If you don't like how the MH program is set up, then talk to the administration about changing it. But whining about it in a public forum will have no positive effect at all and will only serve to further splinter hunters from each other instead of building us as a more cohesive group, which we sorely need to be.

I personally don't care about the tags and applied for none of them this year. When they took away the quality bull tags a couple of years ago, I had no problem with that. You have the wrong idea if you think everyone in the program is a killer and not a hunter, and doesn't care about anyone else. I know for a fact that's not the case.

[bustbigking]

All I can say is look at the poll. 8 of you complain that I don't know what I'm taking about and 15 have polled a change! So looks as though more agree with me than not!

[Bob33]

All I can say is look at the poll. 8 of you complain that I don't know what I'm taking about and 15 have polled a change! So looks as though more agree with me than not!

I voted for the option "Leave the program unchanged". Did you count that one?

[stevemiller]

your poll is 1 sided im sure if it were to give a choice of leave it as it is that would change fast. 

[bustbigking]

I added another option.

[bustbigking]

For all you haters.... Always quick to complain. So quick you have no time to notice three of the options on the poll where to keep your season just make it more reasonable. Guess hunting during the general season is too much to ask for a MH??

[hntrspud]

We arent haters. We just want pure facts, not hearsay. Complaining without taking action does no one any good. If you have valid, documented facts, bring them to the attention of the appropriate parties. Then and only then can a mediated proper response to these issues be agreed upon.

[pianoman9701]

Your poll is incomplete and plays only to those who want the program to change. There's not even an option in it to keep it the same or even increase the number of MH permits. I'm not saying that it should stay the same or increase. I'm saying that you have an anti-Master Hunter agenda. Your poll and your thread are tainted by your fervor to slam MHs when it's not them who've created this. It's the WDFW administration. Are you incapable of seeing that going after other hunters in such a way is deleterious to all hunters as a group at a time when we have enough problems?

[kirkl]

Hunting during the general season is not the goal of the MH's.
They get used after season when animals get pushed in or cause problems where they shouldnt be.

[Bob33]

I have no problem with individuals that don't like the program, or want to change it.

Going about by posting a one-sided poll on a blog really doesn't accomplish much besides alienting one hunter from another.

Your poll won't do anything constructive. Is that what you want?

If you want change, go to a USVEMG meeting and make a well prepared and reasoned presentation.

Contact the WDFW Wildlife Commission with your concerns. They are the ones who issued policy decision POL-C6005.

You may also wish to make an effort to change WAC 232-12-073 which legally authorizes the program.

http://app.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=232-12-073

http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/policies/c6005.html

[Little Dave]

The season is closed April through July for the birthing season.  I would not participate in such a hunt from January through March, some do and don't mind the little calf in the gutpile.  The matter was debated.  The counterargument being this is a two for one kill and the stress on the elk is needed for damage relief.  The season could be adjusted if there was more participation in the process, but there isn't.

The hunt has generally been conducted on properties where the owner is suffering huge loss because of elk damage, principally the golf courses, the nursery, Christmas tree farms, and private landowners with orchards or tasty hedges.  The coordinator creates a portfolio of these properties, and introduces the guy from Oak Harbor, or Kenmore, or Yakima, or Spanaway, etc. (20 new out-of-area guys every year) to these properties.  They drive around town looking for an opportunity on one of the properties in the portfolio.  They wear orange in their blinds, the poachers probably don't.

One can go find a 50 year old guy with a desk job that can't tell the difference between a hemlock and a maple and set him up with a Master Hunter permit in about two months time.  The first Master Hunter I worked with I showed him around the property, then back at his truck he loaded his rifle on the seat of his rig (which is not legal in Washington).  Generally, the department uses the program to snow landowners and get them to grant access to permit holders.  There's some good guys and there are some good hunters in the program, but in my opinion there is not a good correlation between what the program portrays and what the program members are.  An analogy is that the coordinator acts like a used car salesman as both could say, "Some are better than others but all have been certified."

Other factors are also affecting the elk this season including urban development, fencing, and special events held in the middle of the preserve during the general season.  The group that is collaring cows would like to see the number of master hunter permits increased significantly.  The game warden describes the program as a meat hunt, a success, and a model for the state.