WAKE UP !!!

[BOWHUNTER45]

ITS TIME TO KILL SOMETHING !    Well th weather man is off again on his prediction ..I see no rain  But since I am up now I best take the wife out see what we can find ...Good luck everyone and be safe 

[billythekidrock]

Damn weather man. No rain here in Thurston County either.
Debating on going back to bed or take the wife out hunting.

[dc1608]

To all the MF hunters good luck today and stay safe!!!! 

[MountainWalk]

Just checking in, trying to stay awake on post til light. No rain on the coyle.

[M40hunter]

Good luck to all you folks hitting the woods today!

Go get em!

[Jason]

My boys and I sitting here in pouring rain waiting for the light to brighten up this rainy opener in the 574.
Good luck all!!

[rtspring]

Almost go time, got deer in my sights!!!

Good luck everyone!!

Rtspring

GETSUM..

[MountainWalk]

Jason, hope your boys get some action! Good luck and  git after it.

[big J]

i saw a buck this morning right in town he must of known it was the opener. good luck

[gr8whthunter]

perfect weather where im at, a little cold a little drizzle no fog and dark clouds........aaaaaaaaand im at work
   

[jasnt]

Had a few does come in little bit ago but then some body back in the woods a ways popped off 8 rounds  

[Toptwo]

Told myself, and the wife, that there was no way I was going out today...was going to wait til Monday..don't think I can do that, think I am going to have to go out for a walk. I mean, the truck is all loaded and ready in anticipation of going Monday morning, so nothing left to do but jump in and drive to a likely looking spot and get out for a quiet walk...what the hell   Good luck all! Stay safe1

[jtw]

I was planning on being out first thing this morning. Next week I'm going on a backpack hunt but this weekend I'm sticking around home.
Woke up at 5 and sleeping in sounded better than fighting the opening weekend crowds. I checked the weather and we're supposed to have showers this afternoon. I'll head out then and hope the rain chases off the unworthy. With Green diamond making so much of my area pay to play the areas still open to the public are going to be packed.

[cbond3318]

I think in an hour, I will go shooting. perfect day to go burn some powder.  opening day, nobody will care.

Be sure to clean up after yourself! Can't stand the site of empty casings and busted up tvs! Be safe too!

[bobcat]

Damn weather man. No rain here in Thurston County either.
Debating on going back to bed or take the wife out hunting.

It's not raining now, but it was raining hard when I went to bed at midnight last night.

[snowpack]

I think in an hour, I will go shooting. perfect day to go burn some powder.  opening day, nobody will care.

Everytime you reach a landing...I think it is a rule.  Get out, glass for two minutes with your scope, get all the empty beer cans out of the truck, shoot at the cans, get back in the truck and repeat at the next landing.

[PolarBear]

I was sitting in my hot tub at 4:00 this morning (couldn't sleep) and like every opening day of MF deer heard 2 rifle shots over towards Johnson creek.  Usually the shooting around here does not start until at least an hour before safe light.  They must be getting a jump on it this year.     The daughter and I will probably wait until next weekend after a week of rain to give it a shot.  We usually don't get too excited about it until later in the season.  We will let the early guys thin out the spikes and forkies and get them out of our way.   

[billythekidrock]

Damn weather man. No rain here in Thurston County either.
Debating on going back to bed or take the wife out hunting.

It's not raining now, but it was raining hard when I went to bed at midnight last night.

No rain here until almost 11.
The wife and I did manage to get on a tall 1x2 this morning, but she couldn't get a shot.

[jasnt]

Looks like is coming for my evening hunt

[Little Dave]

Must have been a dozen trucks headed up to the gate nice and early.  Stopped there for a second while the way was blocked, wished those guys luck or zhu hayun in their case, didn't figure they understood English that well.  Looks like they tried to follow me in, they lost my track... slipped out from behind them just like a blacktail. Took some time to get up to my spot because a few guys on the minor road were doing their pre-dawn deer inventory and roadhunting practice runs.  Was concerned I'd have company up at my spot, but had the place to myself.  Glad the rain is back.

[Toptwo]

Every gate (almost) had 7-9 rigs parked. I managed to find one with only 3, so took off for a relaxing walk. Seen NO deer, a lot of hunters, and heard some shooting. I suspect it was Naches Sportsman since nobody I talked to had reported seeing any game

[PolarBear]

Most of the shooting I am hearing is from target shooters with semi-auto rifles blowing through tons of ammo.  I did hear a big bore rifle fire off on Miller Hill then 5 minutes later it was followed by 4 more shots.     It should have been a decent day with all the weather changes and wind.

[runamuk]

I was in the woods at 5:32  I had 2 hrs sleep it was awesome saw a few does had one try and sideswipe me,saw some pumpkins, some elk, almost ran over a bunny ... bored now I need something with 3 points not just 2 with 3 men all scoping the poor thing from the middle of a road.... bloking the road whenit was really obvious that was a fork by one and a spike by spike

[bearmanric]

On the coast plenty of rain and wind. Hunting Koloch ridge pay to hunt. Rainier land. Indians in at day light motorcycles and 4 wheeler. In the walk in. Disappointed  seen a spike at clearwater and a doe by camp. Hope things are better tomorrow elk and bears are quiet. Rick

[RadSav]

At the gate at 6am this morning.  Then realized I should have looked at the Weyco gate map better.  No access where I usually go in.  Have to drive about 40 miles out of the woods and around to get to the permit gate.  Four rigs at my #1 Weyco spot.  Spot #2 is DNR land...another hour drive to get out of weyco and find the DNR access road that is not gated.  Get there fog is so thick can't hardly see the road.  Off to spot #3 across main road and back on Weyco.  Another 1.5 hours later I'm at the permit entry gate with another 15 minutes to the spot. 

What burns me is these spots were less than 10 minutes apart last year.  Weyco really needs to put in more permit access gates so a guy can get from point "A" to point "B" without having to drive all over heck to find an access point.  I think my normal three spots are separated by less than five miles.  This year I bet it is 20 miles from one to the other.  If I were 20 again we would have just cut cross country on foot to each.

Hadn't planned on having the wife road hunt all day, but that is what this gate system ended up forcing us to do as we searched for access to our spots.  Most of these gates are in areas we have never entered from before.  Drove past the first one multiple times in the dark before I got out the magnifying glass and figured it out. 

"Thank you"!!! to the guy in the two tone Ford who showed me where to find the DNR access corridor.  I'd still be trying to figure that one out if not for him

Did see some deer but nothing with horns.  Not one single elk...very strange!!  Weather was great.  Although the hail storm, thunder and lightning I could have done without.  Will hit spots 4,5 & 6 tomorrow.  Should only require a single entry to get to all those spots.  Should be less frustrating and we can capitalize on hitting them at the right times of day.

On the plus side I did not see a single person get out of their truck today.  Love that!!  Should mean that we will have the woods to ourselves once we get off the road and can move freely without being held hostage by the gate system.  Should also mean calm and relaxed deer once we get there

See you guys at 4:AM 

[PolarBear]

I noticed the gate problem at Pe Ell South.  It is darn near impossible to go in one gate and out another.  I'm actually fine with that.  In 2 days of muzzy elk we only saw one non Weyco Rig.  Bt the way, we got into elk on opening morning and every one of them had hoof rot, the bulls had thin, messed up racks and all of them were limping so badly and were in such poor shape that my daughter passed on 2 legal bulls (4x4 and a 5x4).  The elk looked like they were from Ethiopia.

[JJB11B]

At the gate at 6am this morning.  Then realized I should have looked at the Weyco gate map better.  No access where I usually go in.  Have to drive about 40 miles out of the woods and around to get to the permit gate.  Four rigs at my #1 Weyco spot.  Spot #2 is DNR land...another hour drive to get out of weyco and find the DNR access road that is not gated.  Get there fog is so thick can't hardly see the road.  Off to spot #3 across main road and back on Weyco.  Another 1.5 hours later I'm at the permit entry gate with another 15 minutes to the spot. 

What burns me is these spots were less than 10 minutes apart last year.  Weyco really needs to put in more permit access gates so a guy can get from point "A" to point "B" without having to drive all over heck to find an access point.  I think my normal three spots are separated by less than five miles.  This year I bet it is 20 miles from one to the other.  If I were 20 again we would have just cut cross country on foot to each.

Hadn't planned on having the wife road hunt all day, but that is what this gate system ended up forcing us to do as we searched for access to our spots.  Most of these gates are in areas we have never entered from before.  Drove past the first one multiple times in the dark before I got out the magnifying glass and figured it out. 

"Thank you"!!! to the guy in the two tone Ford who showed me where to find the DNR access corridor.  I'd still be trying to figure that one out if not for him

Did see some deer but nothing with horns.  Not one single elk...very strange!!  Weather was great.  Although the hail storm, thunder and lightning I could have done without.  Will hit spots 4,5 & 6 tomorrow.  Should only require a single entry to get to all those spots.  Should be less frustrating and we can capitalize on hitting them at the right times of day.

On the plus side I did not see a single person get out of their truck today.  Love that!!  Should mean that we will have the woods to ourselves once we get off the road and can move freely without being held hostage by the gate system.  Should also mean calm and relaxed deer once we get there

See you guys at 4:AM 

GET BACK IN THE MACHINE SHOP AND GET THOSE BROADHEADS WORKIN!!!!!!!!!!!

[RadSav]

I noticed the gate problem at Pe Ell South.  It is darn near impossible to go in one gate and out another.  I'm actually fine with that.  In 2 days of muzzy elk we only saw one non Weyco Rig.  Bt the way, we got into elk on opening morning and every one of them had hoof rot, the bulls had thin, messed up racks and all of them were limping so badly and were in such poor shape that my daughter passed on 2 legal bulls (4x4 and a 5x4).  The elk looked like they were from Ethiopia.

Man that is sad   I had never seen hoof rot in there prior to 2010.  Heard of it, but never actually saw it. 

Two years ago they sprayed the living tarnation out of that place.  I'm starting to warm up to the idea that spraying is having an effect.  If nothing else than reducing their ability to resist the infection.  Westside elk will be permit only soon, I think!  What a shame.

[BOWHUNTER45]

Some big blacktail hit the dirt today ..spent 3 hours packing one out  just wish me and the wife would not have turned around when we did just because the trees were falling down ...

[PolarBear]

I am also of the thinking that the herbicides and fertilizers that are being used by the timber co's are softening the elk's feet and making them more susceptible to damage and more resistant to fight off fungus and such.

[BOWHUNTER45]

I should tell ya a story but I am beat ...but I guarantee you have not seen many blacktail with a neck this size on opening day    Rutting ? you tell me ....but your have to wait until tomorrow when I am not so tired . I turned my son and niece lose this morning and they done well 

[RadSav]

GET BACK IN THE MACHINE SHOP AND GET THOSE BROADHEADS WORKIN!!!!!!!!!!!

One more week and I expect to have the low profile aluminum ferrule broadheads ready to ship.  Del's high profile blade run I had to reject.  Something was just not right with them.  After a talk with the heat treater we found out they heat treated them twice.  You can get away with that in carbon, but makes a terrible product when done in stainless.  Probably could sell them but that is not what we want people's first impression to be.  So that was 100,000 blades and about another 30K flushed down the crapper!  New ones are already in the works, but probably won't be here for late season.

On the plus side the TripleSec ferrules look great and the MadMan ferrules look good too.  Going to do a little more burnishing on the points and they will be ready for assembly!  The VanDyke LP Solid blades came out freakin awesome!!!  Can't get much better than they did.  CL and I would love to see some guys shooting those this late season

[RadSav]

I should tell ya a story but I am beat ...but I guarantee you have not seen many blacktail with a neck this size on opening day    Rutting ? you tell me ....but your have to wait until tomorrow when I am not so tired . I turned my son and niece lose this morning and they done well 

   Can't wait to see the pics!


BTW - Have you had a chance to shoot those TripleSecs' yet?  As promised BH45 got the very first production models we approved for distribution!

[RadSav]

Rutting ? you tell me ....

We have been seeing blacktail scrape and rub lines already.  Saw the first ones two weeks ago!  Could be the best MF blacktail season in years  

If no buck tomorrow Lorraine will be hitting those scrap lines with her bow during the week.  I knew I should have gotten her a slug gun this year

[PolarBear]

Rutting blacktails right now is entirely possible.  I killed my biggest blackie buck 16 or more years ago on opening day and he was in full rut.

[StuckoYota99]

418, i was socked in with hail and rain. Nothing shaking, beats a good day at work though
 

[washelkhunter]

Broke muzzy elk camp today in 352. The rains came outta nowhere just when we were ready to put the tent away.  Tons of opening day deer hunters all ROAD HUNTING!  Truck after truck; no one beating the brush however. Drove all the way down to 410 and only 1 rig parked off the grade and hitting the ground. Saw 3 does while hunting in there and 0 bucks. I did however get a chuckle outta of the little spike buck standing on the side of the road looking confused near the bottom driving out to day.   

[huntingbaldguy]

Saw 6 other hunters opening day. The deepest being 2 miles. Heard a couple shots, one very far away, the other only a few hundred yards from me. Other than that it was pretty uneventful. I walked 8 miles with a rifle through weather that had no clue what it wanted to do. Saw no deer but saw fresh tracks from that morn. I didn't get in as early as I wanted to but this was more or less a legal to shoot trial run. I'll hit it pretty hard after the 19th.

[bearmanric]

Good luck every one. Rick

[BOWHUNTER45]

Hope everyone is out hunting this morning ..I woke up with all parts hurting Really wish I was 20 again .. So anyway ..Yesterday was a pretty exciting opener ..I know of 5 bucks killed and all 3 pt or bigger ..The weather was just perfect .. My wife and I hunted one of my honey holes and seen a lot of sign but no deer . So we decided to go to spot #2 and drive straight into a tornado type storm .It was raining and blowing so hard that the road became a river in seconds ..So we decided to head back down off the mountain .. Well as we are coming down here comes my son and we meet at the corner and he is hauling arz up the road and we almost hit each other . I jump out and chew his butt for driving like that when there are other people driving on these road ..

After I calmed down I told them to turn around because it is super nasty up there . He said I am going up the road because it may clear up .. Not changing his mind obviously So I told them to be careful .. Wife and I decide to go have breakfast . About 45 minutes later we get a text saying they Jade my niece just shot a dandy and it rolled off a cliff    she shot it with a .243 and when it jumped it went right off a cliff .. Its hard to explain how bad it really was ...Once I got there I just wanted to crawl in a hole and hide    Pretty proud of them going on there own and killing a buck like this ...Definitely a nice one !

                                                             This picture really doesn't do this deer justice ..This is a true 200 pound blacktail ...maybe even more !

[HawkCreek]

I broke my alarm this morning. Yesterday was pretty poor, saw maybe 30 doe/fawn all day not a single point anywhere. For that matter I only heard 3 legitimate shots all day. Usually you're hearing shots pretty steady throughout the day around here.

[CAMPMEAT]

Broke muzzy elk camp today in 352. The rains came outta nowhere just when we were ready to put the tent away.  Tons of opening day deer hunters all ROAD HUNTING!  Truck after truck; no one beating the brush however. Drove all the way down to 410 and only 1 rig parked off the grade and hitting the ground. Saw 3 does while hunting in there and 0 bucks. I did however get a chuckle outta of the little spike buck standing on the side of the road looking confused near the bottom driving out to day.   

How's that new ATV working out for you ? You know, the one with the big wheels and tires you posted.......

[gr8whthunter]

well got out yesterday afternoon after work and went to this years honey hole, no tracks driven in to it so i was the only one there all day and saw 3 doe and a mystery deer right off the bat, couldnt track the mystery deer sadly though, went up a ways farther and was glassing a unit and spotted 2 deer about 1000yds out, spotting scope was left at home so it was time to get my stalk on. hiked across valley and threw a creek and back up the other side just on the back side of a hog back ridge and when i popped up on the top i was about 100yds away from....2 doe  .... really good size doe but started the hike back to the truck and i gotta tell you this new job i got is really working me outta shape.. slept like a baby though

[jasnt]

Rain never came for my evening hunt. Clouds kept threatening to dump but they never did. With the low light the deer poured in to my food plot like ants to a candy bar.  Heard alot of shots coming from the neighbors property's. They hunt the trails headed to my place.  At last light I put my tag on a unique 5x6.  I'll post up a story after I get him cut & wrapped

[Little Dave]

Lightning and heavy rain at the end of the day.  Went back in, and I had to dodge dozens of trucks heading out.  Went in to one of my favorite spots and found a guy getting out of there because of the heavy rain.  Let him be and went another way figuring the deer gave him the back door.  Was right.  Belly crawled up to the edge of the hill and saw five does there behind them shaking the rain off like a wet dog does.  The buck wasn't with them though, so I'll try that spot again in a few days.  He'll be there.

[RadSav]

Go get'um guys!

Got a good feeling about today! 

We are headed to the same spot the wife took her big buck last year.  No MS tag for me so I should get some good sleep in the truck.  I love waking up to the sound of Lil' Bob spouting off

[runamuk]

I am up wish i had a good feeling havent seen a deer in the last two trips out and have seen more people than I care to.  But I will try again and looks like its gonna be damp out there.