Hi all, I grew up bird hunting in the Mid-West before moving to SW WA a little over 10 yrs ago. The last few years I've been slowly learning how to hunt larger game here on the West side as my kids are now old enough to get involved.
Anyway, I was out scouting and driving forest roads last week in the GNP. I was pretty deep in when I passed a vehicle driving the other direction. I could see the driver was in camo but no Discovery Pass showing (required in that area). Granted, he may not have known one was needed however signs are posted regularly throughout the area. I continued on. Later that day as I was driving out, I passed the same vehicle only this time he was pulled over and out of his car. In his hands he had what looked like a large antenna. I waved as I passed and he nodded. This happened next to a creek at the bottom of a drainage.
I guess I'm a little slow because my first thought was "hmm, no cell coverage down here and radios must not work well either so this is the method he and his fellow hunters use to communicate" Never seen that before.
Then last night I was re-reading the WDFW Regulation Pamphlet for the 1000th time (they sure don't make it easy for a guy who wants to always do the right thing) when I saw -
14. Radio-telemetry equipment
(WAC 232-12-045):
It is illegal to use radio-telemetry
equipment to locate and hunt wildlife
with transmitters attached to them.
No doubt I've read that before but that's when it hit me that what I saw earlier in the week was this happening! To give the guy the benefit of the doubt, could it have been anything else he was doing?
I guess it just didn't register in my brain at the time because that just seemed so outlandish. If his equipment was any good, that would almost be better than hunting from a helicopter!
This forum has been a wonderful resource for me and thank you for any input!
