Weyerhauser Permits

[RadSav]

I don't think they sold out the Tree Farm permits last year.

[bobcat]

St. Helens? Last year, they had 15,000 up for sale with a deadline of September 30th, if I remember correctly. They sold around 3,000 and then just after the deadline the WDFW got a lot of complaints from hunters who had not known about the access permit and needed one. So the WDFW talked to Weyerhaeuser and they agreed to put 1,000 more permits up for sale. They sold all those so it was about 4,000 permits sold last year.

This year they are offering 5,000 permits and the price went up by $10 to $160. It's hard to say how fast they'll sell this year. I would guess there will be a lot more demand for them with Margaret now being a general season, open for anybody with an archery, muzzleloader, or modem firearm tag. Also, Winston is open for early muzzleloader this year. Coweeman is also open for early muzzleloader, but they did take away the late muzzleloader season in that unit.

With the added opportunities on the St. Helens tree farm, I think the access permits will go a lot quicker than they did last year.

[TikkaT3-270Shortmag]

That's exactly  how I feel! I bet they sell out within 24 hours

[teegansdad]

I bought the pell south permit last year hunted all three seasons for elk on my multi tag and stuck  a hoof rot cow last two days of late season. Hardest I've ever worked for elk. Usually I see 40 elk a day where I play. This hoof rot I believe is devistating the heard. I wish the dfwl would face the reality we have a huge problem. Like a dummy I bought the permit again this year hoping that things will be different. I will pick up the St. Helens tree farm tag to just incase I draw on my eleven points. I wish the permit sale would happen after the results for special permits. You would think as much as theses permits effect the hunters they would coordinate together in best interests of the people. We the people ! I don't mind paying, but at least be thoughtful of us.

[bobcat]

You shouldn't have to buy the St Helens permit until after the draw results are out. I don't think all 5,000 will sell out in one day. They don't go up for sale until June 10th.

[TikkaT3-270Shortmag]

I grew up in Boistfort Valley (Ryderwood Unit) and don't hunt it anymore if that says anything about hoof rot

[PolarBear]

My daughter had the Boistfort January cow tag last year and out of all the elk we saw, none seemed to have hoof rot but the elk we saw on the West side of the Ryderwood and Willipa Hills units had it bad.

[TikkaT3-270Shortmag]

Year after year it getting worse.  We have killed bulls that had it really bad and we're skin and bones

[PolarBear]

I had my daughter on 3 different bulls on opening day of muzzy, one 4x4 and 2 5x5 and she passed them up because they had hoof rot so bad that they were skin and bones,  This was closer to Pe Ell.  During the January Boistfort hunt I found a set of wolf tracks and scat.

[Ddouble]

I heard PolarBears wolf howl... And managed to always be in the opposite side of the unit when him and his daughter were seeing elk!

[Bow tech hunter]

Ya I bought a St. Helens pass last year due to I drew the Toledo cow I never did go out there cuz I ended up getting a cow on thanksgiving morning close to home on public land I didn't even scout on warehouser last year

[PolarBear]

I heard PolarBears wolf howl... And managed to always be in the opposite side of the unit when him and his daughter were seeing elk!

That last day we got into them less than 1/2 hour after we ran into you.  I bet with all 4 of us we could have busted them out of that thick dog hair.  Hindsight...  I'm hiking in to the same spot during early archery to try for that herd bull.

[Falcon]

Here are my thoughts.  I'm going to hopefully buy a Vail permit (If they don't sell out in less than 2mins.)  I am going to buy a st. helens permit.  I am going to MT to hunt deer.  And if I draw another out of state tag I will be going on that hunt also and if I don't draw I might still go to ID on a deer hunt.  I am not rich but I know it costs money to hunt so I save all year long so that when hunting season is here I can hunt.  If you wait until "you have the money" you will never hunt like you want to.

Amen!

The year I killed my big 7X7 bull my buddy Bone and I had completely run out of money.  I had a $10 bill stashed away in my ash tray that I knew would get me from Sumpter, Oregon to the next Exxon station where I could use a gas card to get me home.  We took an afternoon off from hunting to walk a few roads picking up beer cans and pop bottles.  That gave us enough money to put one more tank of gas in the Datsun, buy a large bag of frozen peas, some mayo and a loaf of bread.  I then shot a small buck for camp meat and that was enough to get us through the last week of the season.  That last week of the season produced one heck of a glory ride home!  Two bulls, a 350# bear and 1.3 deer made the ride home in the back of the truck. 

I've been lucky enough to have hunted all over the United States and Canada.  Taken record book sheep, caribou, elk, deer and bear.  Been at the top of the world for sunrise and watched the sun set on the beaches of the gulf.  Hunted with Hall of Fame members, culled pigs for the government and made nearly every hunting and fishing dream I'd had as a child come true.  But that one week we spent in the hills of eastern Oregon, dang near penniless, eating the same thing three times a day for six days will forever be the greatest hunting trip of my life.

If you wait until you have the money you likely will be too old to do the things you've dreamed of once you get it.  You are only young once!  Sacrifice what you can now before those creeping hands of time beat you down.  I can live with the things I failed at and the mistakes I made.  But the things I never did are the things that haunt me now.  Sometimes picking up cans and bottles for the chance to get just one more opportunity, one more shot or one more week in the woods can take you to places you've never been before.  For me it resulted in one good arrow, that arrow resulted in a national award, that national award got me an invite to the S.H.O.T. show, that show is where I met the right people, those people launched a career, and that career has given me one heck of a good life!


One of the best posts ever!