Bowhunting success percentages.

[MIKEXRAY]

All of the talk & statistics around this site about bowhunters success percentages being to high hack me off. I rifle hunted for years & years during my younger years and decided I needed more challenge. The effort I put into being successful at bowhunting has to be a hundred fold over rifle hunting & I think more credit needs to be given to the archer personally for those successes rather than bitching about seasons and timing of seasons. My earlier rifle seasons I double checked my zero before season, hiked around & shot animals. Archery I practice all summer, upgrade & work on gear, religious about scent control, hike in the dark for an hour before light to get ahead of the animals each morning, and have to hunt every extra day given to connect. In closing I just want to say " congratulations " to my fellow archers on your hard work and successes, I'm sorry some out there don't understand. Stick with bowhunting through these new rule regs & I'm sure the seasons will return, definitely don't follow the flow and pick up your 300mag. My 

[Hoytstaffshooter83]

amen, well said. im glad my father started me out with a bow in my hand

[SpokaneSlayer]

I'm a new bowhunter and still fairly new to hunting compared to some of you on here.  Last season was my first attempt at bowhunting.  I drew a multi-season tag and used that as an excuse to give it a try.  Ended up shooting at my first deer ever, a small 3 point in velvet.  Saw way more animals than I when I rifle hunted.  Even with the shortened season, I'll be packing the bow again.  Besides, we can still use a bow during rifle season.  Just need to hunt low pressured areas.

[rougheye]

I have never hunted any other way in this state . My problem with the new proposals is I work in AK in the summer and i dont get hime till the middle of sep. I never cared because i prefer to hunt late archery anyway . For the money i pay to fish and hunt in this state i can go out of state for not much more .  The part that sucks is my son might not ever get to hunt with my Dad and brothers in the late hunt . Pretty sure my dad will quit after this BS .

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

Besides, we can still use a bow during rifle season.  Just need to hunt low pressured areas.

 If you want to use a bow during rifle season you STILL need to have a modern firearm tag, You cannot hunt during MF season with an archery tag.

[dbllunger]

I started bow hunting Mule Deer five years ago when I switched from White Tails.  Been lucky and killed 3 P&Y bucks those years with some awesome hunts.  I don't know what I'm going to do if they pass these through.  I love bow hunting, but I don't hunt the early season.  Just not doable with my schedule.  I might go back to hunting Whities on the late hunt.  For now I am fighting like heck and getting as many people as I can to complain about the proposals.

[bobcat]

Can somebody please explain to me why all the comments suggesting that there will no longer be any late mule deer opportunity?  I looked at the proposed seasons for late archery mule deer, and there appear to be several GMU's open, including Little Naches, Cowiche, Nile, Rimrock, Mayview, Marengo, and Grayback. There are a couple others that I can't remember off the top of my head, but it sure seems that there are some good mule deer hunts for those willing to try new areas.

[WDFW-SUX]

If those units are so good why dont we limit rifle hunters to them.......

[dbllunger]

For me that means I have to learn an entirely new area, so one to two years will be wasted in the learning process.  Ok not wasted but not spent concentrating on the deer because I have learned the area.    I am not opposed to new areas at all and killed a small bull in MT this year in a new area.  There was no need to eliminate the other units only reduce the season.  If they were going to eliminate for one user group then they should eliminate equally to the others.  Now they crammed the same number of hunters into if I remember corrrectly 11 units instead of 18.  Still waiting to see what they decide, but I will have a plan either way.  Don't forget many of us have hunting partners who's schedules have to work also.  These regs pretty much screw our hunting party period, but I guess we can go back to hunting Whities. 

[rougheye]

Can somebody please explain to me why all the comments suggesting that there will no longer be any late mule deer opportunity?  I looked at the proposed seasons for late archery mule deer, and there appear to be several GMU's open, including Little Naches, Cowiche, Nile, Rimrock, Mayview, Marengo, and Grayback. There are a couple others that I can't remember off the top of my head, but it sure seems that there are some good mule deer hunts for those willing to try new areas.

Those units dont hold that many deer and are getting pounded by late elk hunters . If they were good units then the rifle hunters would have gotten those too , at least they let us have the crappy units .

[Red Dawg]

a few of them are very good units, ya just need to learn where to go. welcome to the club of getting screwed by the wdfw.

[HardCorpsHuntr]

Can somebody please explain to me why all the comments suggesting that there will no longer be any late mule deer opportunity?  I looked at the proposed seasons for late archery mule deer, and there appear to be several GMU's open, including Little Naches, Cowiche, Nile, Rimrock, Mayview, Marengo, and Grayback. There are a couple others that I can't remember off the top of my head, but it sure seems that there are some good mule deer hunts for those willing to try new areas.

"Little Naches, Cowiche, Nile, Rimrock, Mayview, Marengo, and Grayback" 

[bobcat]

What about the early seasons? Archery hunters have lots of really good mule deer GMU's available to hunt in September, before the deer have been pressured by muzzleloader or rifle hunters. When I look at the list of early season GMU's I see several that I would love to hunt if I was a bow hunter. If it's any consolation look at the late mule deer muzzleloader seasons....there are three GMU's open, none of which have any sizeable amount of public land to hunt on.

[ThePascoKid]

Those units dont hold that many deer and are getting pounded by late elk hunters

Have you ever been to Marengo or Mayview?  I don't archery hunt but these 2 units would be a great chance at a late season mule deer and they do hold a lot of deer.  Some of the biggest mule deer I have ever seen were in Marengo.

[rougheye]

a few of them are very good units, ya just need to learn where to go. welcome to the club of getting screwed by the wdfw.

You mean very good as a whole or very good for the people who know it inside and out and a select few might do well . Look up the stats for late archery deer . Your right i dont know where to go there , everywhere i hunt is prolly gone . I tend to stay away from those areas because there are sooooooooo many people . Where the hell is marengo?

[Dmanmastertracker]

Those units dont hold that many deer and are getting pounded by late elk hunters

Have you ever been to Marengo or Mayview?  I don't archery hunt but these 2 units would be a great chance at a late season mule deer and they do hold a lot of deer.  Some of the biggest mule deer I have ever seen were in Marengo.

 Are they not also mostly private land?

[Red Dawg]

you have to know them well. But in the late season they funnel down like crazy. I did a hike in one of these units the day after thankgiving and saw about 6 bucks and 20 does and saw three different bow hunters that hadn't seen a deer in days. I dont know but I could have killed several of them that day without a problem. If I didn't love my guns so much I would trade in a heartbeat. Even with the proposed changes. And one of them gave me a ton of *censored* for being in there with a rifle. He really pissed me off.

[bobcat]

Where the hell is marengo?

North and East of Dayton.

[rougheye]

I guess i will have to look into those areas . Thanks for the heads up , I imagine those will be gone before to long too . 

[Dmanmastertracker]

 That was a serious question, I don't know anything about Marengo and Mayview, but I can't recall any Public lands in that general area, except perhaps a wildlife area.

[bobcat]

Yes, you're right, they are mostly all private land, but there are some private lands open to hunting and posted as such.

[dbllunger]

I will have to look that up, but hunted birds down around Dayton and Walla Walla back in the 80's.  A huge amount of private land compared to public in the mid to lower elevations around Dayton.

[HardCorpsHuntr]

Where the hell is marengo?

North and East of Dayton.

Come on!  Haven't you hear of the Big Muley Migration to Marengo?  We call it BMMM.  They come out of the Blues, the Selkirks, and the Cascades and they're thick as fleas!

[dbllunger]

Sorry bobcat...but 90% private (some sarcasm some truth) compared to 90% public is not even close to the same.  Just emphasizes the point that what they are proposing is really biased against bow hunters.

[Dmanmastertracker]

Yes, you're right, they are mostly all private land, but there are some private lands open to hunting and posted as such.

 Thanks.

[ThePascoKid]

I wasn't suggesting that they were as good as the gmu's the bowhunters lost, only that they weren't as bad as some people were making them out to be.  Most of the acces isn't public it is FFTH.  I don't know why I'm trying to convince you all that they are great gmu's I hunt Mayview for ML I should probably keep my mouth shut.

[Elkstuffer]

Come on!  Haven't you hear of the Big Muley Migration to Marengo?  We call it BMMM.  They come out of the Blues, the Selkirks, and the Cascades and they're thick as fleas!

That's funny *censored*!!!

[bowhuntin]

Can somebody please explain to me why all the comments suggesting that there will no longer be any late mule deer opportunity?  I looked at the proposed seasons for late archery mule deer, and there appear to be several GMU's open, including Little Naches, Cowiche, Nile, Rimrock, Mayview, Marengo, and Grayback. There are a couple others that I can't remember off the top of my head, but it sure seems that there are some good mule deer hunts for those willing to try new areas.

I don't think you can call any of the yakima units that you listed as good mule deer hunting at the moment. They are still rebounding from the louse infestation to the deer herd and IMO aren't even worth hunting for deer right now. Maybe in another five plus years. I just can't see comparing those units to deer hunting in the okanogan or chelan areas. Plus these areas are already hammered because they are open for elk concurrently with deer.

[MIKEXRAY]

Most of you guys missed the main point of the topic. I did not want to start arguing about the new regulations, I simply wanted to point out that the archers success rates are not solely because of the areas hunted & timing of hunts. I wanted to recognize your hard work & dedication to our chosen sport, arguing about our loses is on multiple different threads. I think our successes & percents over the next three years will be close to the last years no matter what areas hunted. Good luck this year & if you have to learn a new area try and have fun doing it.  Mike.

[spin05]

I have hunted Mayview and Grayback.Good luck in Mayview.We could not find anything but privite ground.Saw some deer did find one feel free to hunt but it was wide open no trees.As far as Grayback it is very weather dependent.You need snow.....Lots of deer,not many bucks.And of course the wdfw has taken away the doe's for that unit now.So it went from 2point or better 2 years ago.To 3point or better last year.To now 3pt only. Maybe they should worry more about hacking there overhead then hacking our seasons......

[Hoytstaffshooter83]

The grayback is FULL of deer snow or not, get out there ask get some private land to hunt... I have not read all the new proposals but you cant be serious about no does in late archery? thats insane.. we saw 100+ deer a day last year on the land I hunt, 3-5 good bucks and does all over

[ThePascoKid]

Your right mayview sucks I would never hunt there