Vashon Island Hunting

[Little Fish]

I am hoping someone here can set me straight on hunting Vashon Island. My interpretation of the regulations is that the island is open for modern firearm deer season (both early and late seasons), but since it is firearm restricted I must hunt with a bow, muzzleloader, pistol or shotgun.

My confusion comes from someone telling me the island is a permit draw hunt only, but I can't find anything in the regulations about a permit to hunt the island. The only thing I can think is the person who told me about the permit must be thinking of the county issued permits to hunt the park on the island.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
LF

[Bob33]

Vashon Island is GMU 422. Look in the regulations for the particular specie and weapon choice you wish to hunt with, and you will see if and when the GMU is open for general seasons.

[Bantams]

Vashon is open for all seasons for deer and it's buck or doe even for MF season.
Second permits are available for does, if that's what he meant.
You do not need a permit to hunt on the public land (the park).
Good luck!
I just shot a nice 3x3 this morning...

[Thorny]

There is only one, really small, area that I know of that is open to the public for hunting because of a pilot-trial partnership with King County Parks and WDFW.  The Beachcomber newspaper had an article about that area in today's issue, and said only two or three deer were reported taken in that one public area last year.  The year before that it was 9 deer, and no statistics were available for prior years because Vashon only recently became it's own GMU for better record keeping of the deer taken from there. Otherwise it's all on private property. 

If you don't have permission from the landowners expect a lot problems...many of the residents are very protective of their "pets."  Remember there are only two ferry terminals off that island so don't think you're photo won't be taken to handed over to WDFW Officers if you try and pull a fast one.   However, if you know someone with an apple tree on their property it would be easy pickings....

[Bantams]

Yes, great hunting everywhere on the island if you know who to ask, but the public area actually is pretty poor hunting.  Normally it is where everyone on the island walks their dogs, and there is little deer forage there.  Plus, there is very little terrain to make for a safe shot.  You might luck out though

[erk444]

Vashon is open for all seasons for deer and it's buck or doe even for MF season.
Second permits are available for does, if that's what he meant.
You do not need a permit to hunt on the public land (the park).
Good luck!
I just shot a nice 3x3 this morning...

Any pics of the 3x3?

[MLhunter1]

I worked on the new high school for 2 years there.  Got to know the island.  Lots of deer some nice bucks.  But ya most locals have names for their pet deer.  But not all.  If you went and knocked on doors you could find one that will allow hunting.  Public area sucks.  It's small and you can't hardly see 10 ft in most of it. 

[bigtex]

Little history about public hunting on the island.

WA DNR used to have quite a bit of land on the island. DNR determined it was not economically smart to log on an island and DNR began selling it off or transferring it to other agencies. A large majority of the King County land on the island was prior DNR land. In fact the "Island Center Forest" was DNR prior to coming into King County ownership. Within the past year or two DNR transferred the ownership of another parcel to King County that had been essentially leased to King County for several years.

As of right now there is one DNR parcel left on the island (actually it's on Maury Island.) Other then that all public land is King County.

[Bantams]

Here he is!
I should have said a nice little 3x3!  The big guy will have to wait til next year.  Or maybe my dad will luck out.

[Katmai Guy]

Beautiful little buck, congratulations!

[BOWHUNTER45]

Here he is!
I should have said a nice little 3x3!  The big guy will have to wait til next year.  Or maybe my dad will luck out.

Nice ...good job 

[highside74]

I have a second doe tag to fill in December if anyone knows someone with problems in their yard I'd be happy to thin the herd with my bow.

[h2ofowlr]

Congrats on a nice buck!

[erk444]

That's awesome! I love island bucks, that have the coolest colored antlers Thanks for posting the pic.

[Little Fish]

Nice buck!

Thanks for all the information on the regulations and the history of the island/hunting on the island. Fortunately I have a friend of a friend who just bought a place on the island and he has a few deer running around his place.