Swakane

[gasman]

I am a riffle deer hunter at this time. I hunt with my family but i am a archery hunter at heart, and do so for elk in the Yakima area. I hunt the entiat area for riffle and we have taken deer (bucks and does) for the last 5 years in the area. I have also hunted the Dec special archery permit and went home empty handed. We seen deer every day and had few shots at animals, and went home empty handed. Yes we could of had taken a few small doe's but held out for a buck or freezer filling doe and did not get a chance at either of them before the end of the season. Yes there is a higher success rate for late season in the area but not all hunters succeed. And not all of us just drive around pushing the deer in the canyons and bitch that there is no animals, there is plenty of animals in the area's.

As for the Sept high hunt, if you have been out in Early Sept hunting at all, you would know that, "Most", not all are running "NOCTERNAL", that means that the deer bed during the day and come out at night to feed. Why, because "ITS HOT", shorts are part of my Sept hunting attire (with a bug suit over them).

For a riffle hunter on a high or any hunt for that matter i could pick a spot and shoot my animal from 500 yards (i practice), but when i archery hunt i have to "SNEAK" in to with in 50 yards of the animals with out being detected to get a shot.

Any loss of a single area (no matter how good or bad) is a blow the archery hunters. As a riffle hunter i will gain more opportunity's at the ex pence of others.

Archers should get as many options as they can, for they are the ones who have to work for there quarry and can't just sit with a cup of coffee by a fire and shoot an animal when it goes by. I have seen it before............

[hunt4]

Even for all that good we still have one of the lowest success rates.

I wouldn't say the archery success rates are low. Right between muzzleloader and rifle, 25% doesn't seem all that bad.

WASHINGTON
Statewide Deer Harvest Statistics
for the 2007 Hunting Season
 

Weapon Type        
 
                                General Season         Permit Season     Total                Hunter
                                    Harvest                 Harvest          Harvest              Success
  
Modern Firearm                   26,234                   4,165           30,399                27.8%
 
Archery                              4,535                      429             4,964                25.1%
 
Muzzleloader                        1,818                      259             2,077                23.3%
  
Statewide Total                  32,999                    4,893           37,892                27.2%
  

4,535   archery harvest ..50 % of this # is does were rifle hunters took 22,482 bucks and only 2,656 does
so now lets look at DRAWS
Special Permits Antlered Antlerless Total
Modern Firearm  1,567 3,183 4,750
Muzzleloader     84 242 326
Archery           157 209 366
Multiple Weapon 20 5 25
Sub-total 1,828 3,639 5,467
it seems to me rifle took 10 times more antlered in the draws than archery TEN TIMES! and over FIFTEEN TIMES the amount of does.

[bobcat]

Damn archery hunters need to quit killing all those does! That's terrible. We need those does to produce more bucks!

[rougheye]

Damn archery hunters need to quit killing all those does! That's terrible. We need those does to produce more bucks!

Rifle hunters need to stop killin all those does 

[Ironhead]

To many bucks are being killed by archery hunters in the late season? Rifle hunters killed 22,000 bucks this year, archery hunters killed 4,500 deer total.
We lossed the late season in Swakane, Wanacut, Pogue, Sinlahekin, Manson, Peola, and Kahlotus plus lossed 6 days in September. If it was one unit I wouldn't mind so much this is 75% of the late hunts. Although success is not the only reason I hunt, I do like venison.

[Thenewguy]

Even for all that good we still have one of the lowest success rates.

I wouldn't say the archery success rates are low. Right between muzzleloader and rifle, 25% doesn't seem all that bad.

WASHINGTON
Statewide Deer Harvest Statistics
for the 2007 Hunting Season
 

Weapon Type        
 
                                General Season         Permit Season     Total                Hunter
                                    Harvest                 Harvest          Harvest              Success
  
Modern Firearm                   26,234                   4,165           30,399                27.8%
 
Archery                              4,535                      429             4,964                25.1%
 
Muzzleloader                        1,818                      259             2,077                23.3%
  
Statewide Total                  32,999                    4,893           37,892                27.2%
  

4,535   archery harvest ..50 % of this # is does were rifle hunters took 22,482 bucks and only 2,656 does
so now lets look at DRAWS
Special Permits Antlered Antlerless Total
Modern Firearm  1,567 3,183 4,750
Muzzleloader     84 242 326
Archery           157 209 366
Multiple Weapon 20 5 25
Sub-total 1,828 3,639 5,467
it seems to me rifle took 10 times more antlered in the draws than archery TEN TIMES! and over FIFTEEN TIMES the amount of does.

how many more rifle hunters are do you think?

[mikelonsford]

In addition to Swakane there are another 4 units near Loomis which are also going to be closed for general late archery for mule deer.  Basically no more late archery for mule deer north of I-90 without a special permit.  Which for me personally sucks cause I just took up archery a few years ago and I have thought Swakane was awesome and was looking forward to years of getting to know it better and continue hunting there.  Also had a good time up by Loomis.  Not that I shot a buck on any of those hunts but just to get to see so many deer, and decent deer at that, and put stalks on them was way better hunting than I ever experienced during rifle season.  I am ok with the permit only as it will help the herds in the long run, but it'd be nice if they had more permits available, to go from 5 open units to maybe 100 permits avaiable in those units just seems pretty lame.  To bad they couldn't have eased into this over the years vs cutting it off at the knees.  

[gasman]

South of I-90 is mostly Elk habitat. 
The deer herd around Yakima is not as god as the Wenatchee area.
Never hunted Cowiche but Little Naches sucks for deer. All the deer move to the Umtanum unit wich is closed for late deer hunting. Nile area has gitten wose over the years with all the elk hnters in there and low deer numbers.

It all sucks for this years archery season.........

[270Shooter]

There aren't any deer by yakima.

[hunt4]

how many more rifle hunters are do you think?

(129,743) 5 times as many rifle deer hunters..Does not matter, there killing the late archery for what reason? aparently because archery is killing 10 times less bucks?
This makes no sense ...fine make it a draw only but why are they not cutting back on the rifle tags?

[hunt4]

And yes, I feel I may get more opportunity if the Chelan mule deer numbers and buck to doe ratios are kept at reasonably high numbers, as someday I would like to hunt the September "high buck" hunt in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, and the more bucks killed by archery hunters in November out of the Swakane unit means less bucks for me the following September.

  Maybee you should look at getting rid of cars and trucks to, they have a much greater impact on these deer # than the archery hunters.

[spin05]

Damn archery hunters need to quit killing all those does! That's terrible. We need those does to produce more bucks!

Our success rates include doe's.So take probly 1/3 or more off if doe hunting is eliminated.Oh and by the way archery hunters spent 51.2 days in the feild to achieve that.Rifle spent 24.8 to acheive theres. So now that season days will be cut back you can cut another 1/3 off that. I bet if the season package goes thru as its written we will be below 20% success rate and rifle will push 30%............

[Branden]

As for the Sept high hunt, if you have been out in Early Sept hunting at all, you would know that, "Most", not all are running "NOCTERNAL", that means that the deer bed during the day and come out at night to feed. Why, because "ITS HOT", shorts are part of my Sept hunting attire (with a bug suit over them).

You must have never been in the high country in September if thats what you think. The bucks are out all day long until the high hunt starts.

The reason I started archery hunting is for the challenge. I have never seen anybody archery hunting the high country but tons of rifle hunters. Maybe rifle hunters actually hunt harder then most archery hunters? And who cares about success rates? Does everybody feel like a crappy hunter if they don't tag an animal every year?

Like I said this is the best thing to happen for the mule deer in this state in a long time.

[nw_bowhunter]

This BS! Since the proposal have come out it only seems “it’s all about what I'm losing attitude.”  Stop the trash talking between the archery and rifle and work together otherwise you’re just about what’s in it for you and it is obvious from reading this discussion that too many of you are only concerned about yourself.

BTW  Bobcat the comment about “Damn archery hunters need to quit killing all those does! That's terrible. We need those does to produce more bucks! Perfect example  of not sticking together.

[bobcat]

I wasn't 100% serious with that comment, just giving the previous poster a hard time is all. Although I do think there ARE too many does being killed in certain units, and many of them are taken during archery seasons, since many of the archery seasons are for either sex. If that's the case I wouldn't put the blame on the hunters, but on the WDFW. Thankfully this year it looks like the DFW came to their  senses are going to be cutting down on the harvest of does in many units.