What would you do?

[j_h_nimrod]

Kind of a broad question, but hoping to get help to make up my mind. Here is my situation...

I just moved from the East Side to the Humptulips area and am trying to figure out what to do for my elk season. Not knowing what my situation would be, I bought my license but never declared which side I would hunt or with which weapon. I had planned to hunt modern but had a trip come up making that impractical. Now I am trying to decide between late archery or muzzy in areas I have never been in.

I am looking at Clearwater, Matheny, Quinault Ridge, Wynoochee, and maybe North River.  What is the access like in these areas?  I know a little about Matheny and Quinault Ridge, but the rest are mysteries to me.

I have a bit of time so plan on getting out scouting and exploring a bit but they are big areas and my time is short so want to narrow down my areas. So, my first decision is weapon, for the late season in their respective areas what are people's preferences over here?  I am leaning toward Matheny muzzy but would also like to try archery. Can anybody point me to another unit that may be archery instead?

[Chukarhead]

I don't know the units well, and don't know the late seasons well, but here are the harvest statistics, which seem like what you want: http://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/harvest/

Good luck out there!  Late muzzleloader season is WET.  Keep your powder DRY!

[bobcat]

For late season I would do archery because there are more opportunities for cows. Bulls can be tough to find in the late season. Plus, like the previous post mentioned, it will be very wet and water and muzzleloaders don't go together very well, in my opinion.

[Chesapeake]

Late muzzy is short and the units don't line up well with archery and rifle units well. If you plan to rifle hunt and have time to play the generally longer late archery may be better for learning an area.

[JimmyHoffa]

Might maybe wait until the reports from modern concludes before making that choice. Normally I'd say matheny with a muzzy, but kind of looked like a lot of folks with muzzy tags this year.  They opened a lot of new gmus for early but late is still limited. So might have larger than normal late crowd. Then again all the hunters that did muzzy in Clearwater might have taken a significant amount of harvest and it could be slim pickings come late archery.  In any of the cases for the gmus mentioned hope for plenty of snow and hope they leave the park.

[Westsideelkchaser]

Muzzys did ok in Clearwater but for out being opened for the first time I'd say not a ton of animals were killed so may not be a bad  come archery season I've seen two legal bulls one day out there since muzzy closed but come late November all bets are out

[j_h_nimrod]

Thanks for the pointers and help.  After doing some more looking and research I think I will probably go with archery.  It seems that there are some pretty solid units and more choices nearby. Muzzy would be fun but I really only have one area and I am hesitant to limit myself. We will see how it all pans out, wish me luck.