Hangman moose tag...not so good

[bearpaw]

Good to hear...despite the highest concentration of wolves in Washington State you still have the best hunting.    Kind of ruins the "doom and gloom" crowd who say wolves will be the end of hunting 

The point is that the hunting could be much better if the predators were better managed and weren't so over populated.

Unless this state starts managing wolves before they get too overpopulated, the wolf impact combined with impacts by other predators could cause ungulate numbers to decline to the point that the overall hunter harvest drops significantly in the NE corner like it has in numerous units in Idaho/Montana/Wyoming. That is my main concern.

The other side of this is that we are finding out that wolves don't fit in very well in NE WA. Wolves are being eaten by cougars, bred by dogs, killed for eating livestock, shot at for attacking people, going back to Idaho and Canada and getting shot, and some are being poached but nobody is offering information to catch the wolf poachers. So it is certainly unknown what the future will be for wolves in the human populated areas of NE WA.

[hirshey]

Good to hear...despite the highest concentration of wolves in Washington State you still have the best hunting.    Kind of ruins the "doom and gloom" crowd who say wolves will be the end of hunting 

I was going to ask you if you post in any topics unrelated to wolves, but then just figured I'd check your posting statistics.. 45% of your total posts in the wolf forum... and even off the wolf forum you still manage to talk about wolves.

  

I'm getting a little bored of it, truthfully. Perhaps we should hear about your hunting season instead.

[BOWHUNTER45]

Idahohuntr ....Do you have any friends in Idaho ? 

[actionshooter]

Idahohuntr ....Do you have any friends in Idaho ? 

That's why he is here. 


back to moose issues now.

[Bob33]

If you wish to check, Idahohunter was not the member that brought wolves up first in this thread.

[Jasmin]

Figured I could bring it back to moose maybe I was lucky enough to go with someone that had the antlerless tag this year and it was successful. It was only a calf but lessoned learned for next time. Better look around more before shooting and not rush. We did see a nice bull for what I thought but I have never hunted moose in Washington before. We did end up seeing 5 moose including the one bull but we were only their for 2 days in that area. We also spent some time in other areas but did not see any animals. Anyhow figured I could try to get back on track

[jackelope]

Good to hear...despite the highest concentration of wolves in Washington State you still have the best hunting.    Kind of ruins the "doom and gloom" crowd who say wolves will be the end of hunting 

I was going to ask you if you post in any topics unrelated to wolves, but then just figured I'd check your posting statistics.. 45% of your total posts in the wolf forum... and even off the wolf forum you still manage to talk about wolves.

  

I'm getting a little bored of it, truthfully. Perhaps we should hear about your hunting season instead.

I agree with Hirshey.

[idahohuntr]

Good to hear...despite the highest concentration of wolves in Washington State you still have the best hunting.    Kind of ruins the "doom and gloom" crowd who say wolves will be the end of hunting 

The point is that the hunting could be much better if the predators were better managed and weren't so over populated.

Maybe so...things could always be better, but its a positive thing imo that even with the highest concentration of wolves in the state we still have respectable hunting up there.  I see this weekends GMAC meeting has moose permit levels as an agenda item...wonder if WDFW is seeing something similar to what folks are suggesting in this thread?  Last year one of their bio's indicated Washington was bucking the nationwide trend of declining moose numbers so maybe they are looking to increase permit numbers?

[Dhoey07]

Good to hear...despite the highest concentration of wolves in Washington State you still have the best hunting.    Kind of ruins the "doom and gloom" crowd who say wolves will be the end of hunting 

The point is that the hunting could be much better if the predators were better managed and weren't so over populated.

Maybe so...things could always be better, but its a positive thing imo that even with the highest concentration of wolves in the state we still have respectable hunting up there.  I see this weekends GMAC meeting has moose permit levels as an agenda item...wonder if WDFW is seeing something similar to what folks are suggesting in this thread?  Last year one of their bio's indicated Washington was bucking the nationwide trend of declining moose numbers so maybe they are looking to increase permit numbers?

Being permit application money is supposed to stay within the species, the state should have enough money to be able to count every single moose in this state 

[idahohuntr]

Good to hear...despite the highest concentration of wolves in Washington State you still have the best hunting.    Kind of ruins the "doom and gloom" crowd who say wolves will be the end of hunting 

I was going to ask you if you post in any topics unrelated to wolves, but then just figured I'd check your posting statistics.. 45% of your total posts in the wolf forum... and even off the wolf forum you still manage to talk about wolves.

  

I'm getting a little bored of it, truthfully. Perhaps we should hear about your hunting season instead.

I agree with Hirshey.

Jackelope, Hirshey, perhaps you could use the ignore function to reduce your boredom   

[BAR C3]

I knew of two big moose in Hangman this year. Both some of the bigger bulls I've seen in Washington. One I talked about in earlier thread. Both on private ground and absolutely no access. That's why I never put in for the unit.
As far as North Spokane, I can say since I hunted it, I agree. I had one 50 inch bull I had scouted and he busted us opening morning and I was not taking a chance on maybe seeing him again. He didn't get that big for no reason. Everything else we saw, way small. Thus the reason I shoot the first 40 inch bull I saw.
In regard to the wolves, we are just seeing the beginning of what's to come...
I hunt the Big Hole in Montana. They have wiped the Moose out. First Moose I ever saw was there twenty years ago. I rarely see them there anymore. I ran into a guy a couple years ago and he had two days to hunt and had yet to find a moose. They will hammer the calves and cows. If there are no cows, no bulls to come. It will get worse every year here.
If you read the Spokesman Review and read the article I also referenced in an earlier moose thread about the college intern from Montana studying the moose here, I met him in the field. He admitted Idaho is getting hammered by wolves but denied we were. Also said Montana wasn't seeing affects. I disagreed with him and left it at that. I was trying to pump him for info, so wasn't trying to piss him off. 
Anyway he denied there were wolves in North Spokane unit. Again, I call BS! What he did say though is the success rate is going down in all units and the game department is considering dropping the permits to go down.  They don't have an explanation why the success rates went down. I think we all know why. I believe that statement and I can only say I'm glad I drew the tag because we will see a drastic decline if we can't start making a big dent with the predators in NE Washington.

Lastly one thing I learned from the youngster with the game department was a misconception many guys I know and how they do there reporting. Some will report twice the amount of days they actually hunted and some will even say they did not harvest an animal with the thought they will increase the tags. Based on what I was told, total opposite. I've educated several to quit the BS and report it right!   

[grundy53]

Good to hear...despite the highest concentration of wolves in Washington State you still have the best hunting.    Kind of ruins the "doom and gloom" crowd who say wolves will be the end of hunting 

I was going to ask you if you post in any topics unrelated to wolves, but then just figured I'd check your posting statistics.. 45% of your total posts in the wolf forum... and even off the wolf forum you still manage to talk about wolves.

  

I'm getting a little bored of it, truthfully. Perhaps we should hear about your hunting season instead.

I agree with Hirshey.

Jackelope, Hirshey, perhaps you could use the ignore function to reduce your boredom 

Or perhaps you can refrain from derailing threads.

[jackelope]

Good to hear...despite the highest concentration of wolves in Washington State you still have the best hunting.    Kind of ruins the "doom and gloom" crowd who say wolves will be the end of hunting 

I was going to ask you if you post in any topics unrelated to wolves, but then just figured I'd check your posting statistics.. 45% of your total posts in the wolf forum... and even off the wolf forum you still manage to talk about wolves.

  

I'm getting a little bored of it, truthfully. Perhaps we should hear about your hunting season instead.

I agree with Hirshey.

Jackelope, Hirshey, perhaps you could use the ignore function to reduce your boredom 

Can't.

[emskou]

When did you hunt it? I think the first week of the season was key with the rut. Saw and heard plenty of bulls grunting. My dad got his opening morning and the only other camp up there had there bull by noon on opening day... Sounds like you missed out

Was this a question towards me?  No offense, but myself and most tag holders would of not shot that bull your dad shot on the first day... Last day yup. He saw lots of bulls like that and so did the other hunter. Problem is the quality isn't there. Usually you see the dink bulls that are easy to pass and then there are the Bulls that are on the fence that u think about and then there are the no brainers . He saw one bull in 40+ days that was on the fence and that was it! Usually see lots of decent bulls that was not the case this year. This guy also had access to the mt that nobody could gain he was in the best area of the mt in min from the rig. I live 10 min from the star road gate I spend a ton of time up there and it really sucked! I personally haven't seen a bull over 36" this year!

My dads Bull was 41", its not a monster by any means but its a decent bull. We saw another bull that was bigger a couple weeks before opening day. Considering we were only 1 mile from the truck with and pretty easy pack out, it was a no hesitation decision to take it. I just cant believe we only saw one other moose hunt up there. We were on the idaho side and the other guy was on starr rd.

[EyeTooth]

Thanks for the info huntnnw.
19 days with no bull sightings. Sounds like a nightmare of a hunt this year. I hope he ended up getting his moose.