UNDIVIDE WASHINGTON STATE

[jackelope]

After a couple of soaking wet years without seeing anything but devils club, vine maple, hazel nut, and black berries and the flash and crash of a critter if anything spikes on the east side look a whole lot better....

After a couple years of choking on smoke and dust, sweating my boys off and not seeing anything but wolf scat, dry dead poplar, dry cedar undergrowth and not even the flash and crash of a critter if anything big bulls in the damp undergrowth of western WA looks a whole lot better..... 

Grass is always greener......

[REHJWA]

After a couple of soaking wet years without seeing anything but devils club, vine maple, hazel nut, and black berries and the flash and crash of a critter if anything spikes on the east side look a whole lot better....

After a couple years of choking on smoke and dust, sweating my boys off and not seeing anything but wolf scat, dry dead poplar, dry cedar undergrowth and not even the flash and crash of a critter if anything big bulls in the damp undergrowth of western WA looks a whole lot better..... 

Grass is always greener......

I have done both. The choice to switch it up when one gets to you mid season would be nice

[KFhunter]

After a couple of soaking wet years without seeing anything but devils club, vine maple, hazel nut, and black berries and the flash and crash of a critter if anything spikes on the east side look a whole lot better....

After a couple years of choking on smoke and dust, sweating my boys off and not seeing anything but wolf scat, dry dead poplar, dry cedar undergrowth and not even the flash and crash of a critter if anything big bulls in the damp undergrowth of western WA looks a whole lot better..... 

Grass is always greener......

I have done both. The choice to switch it up when one gets to you mid season would be nice

switching year by year would be enough for me, I have a hard enough time just hunting one GMU

[family hunter]

leave it as is .

[chester]

Then I would suggest making the whole state, 3 point or better as well.I don't see that with deer hunting,and the whole state is open for that.

I think that would make for a slaughter on the eastside. How would that benefit the longevity of the herds? I mean..I'm all for great hunting, but we also need to consider it from a management standpoint. It's not particularly difficult to find a 3 point or better bull on the east side of the state.

It's not difficult now. It would level out after a year or two when the dumb ones get weeded out. It's not hard to find a spike on the west side but I guarantee if it was spike only you'd see few of them and a ton of branch Bulls.


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[bearpaw]

Leave the tags as they are but make it 3pt+ instead of spike in the eastside spike areas!

[buglebrush]

Leave the tags as they are but make it 3pt+ instead of spike in the eastside spike areas!

Agree with the idea, but I would say 5x or better.  Some areas with excellent genetics produce 3x almost immediately.  If you would go at least 5x on one side with elk you wouldn't be encouraging the ones with poor genes. 

[Jimmy33]

No...keep it divided.


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[goldenhtr]

I see more divide and conquer.

I think it's funny how this state has convinced a lot of people that fewer options for hunter and more money for the WDFW is a good idea....

It wasn't divided when I was growing up and we had more opportunities and for me that made for better hunting. 

Now that they have us use to the system and saying "I like it how it is", or worse "lets divide it more" and take away even more opportunities and put more money into someone's squirrel, pocket gopher, meadowlark, or other non game species project....

 

[Bc316]

Hell no, keep it divided tough enough to draw tags don't need a bunch of people applying for tags.wdfw would make more money.

[Maverick]

Hell no, keep it divided tough enough to draw tags don't need a bunch of people applying for tags.wdfw would make more money.

They wouldn't make more money. Guys on both sides of the state put in for special drawings or ghost point.

[grundy53]

Hell no, keep it divided tough enough to draw tags don't need a bunch of people applying for tags.wdfw would make more money.

They wouldn't make more money. Guys on both sides of the state put in for special drawings or ghost point.

A lot of Westside elk hunters don't put in for quality elk. There aren't a lot good options. I think there would be an influx of new permit applications if they combined.

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[popeshawnpaul]

We look at this all the time on the GMAC.  We have too few elk and need to manage tons of people.  The East/West distinction helps control people so there isn't overcrowding and chances for
East permits remain viable.  3 point or better on the east side would drastically change the herd, and not for the better.  I remember the days when you could kill anything and there were no big bulls.  This isn't Wyoming...

[KFhunter]

Would you care to elaborate on why a 3pt minimum would be detrimental to the herd?

It would kill all the quality hunts on those areas, more bulls would be taken, less cows would be covered..few off the top of my head.

[kentrek]

We look at this all the time on the GMAC.  We have too few elk and need to manage tons of people.  The East/West distinction helps control people so there isn't overcrowding and chances for
East permits remain viable.  3 point or better on the east side would drastically change the herd, and not for the better.  I remember the days when you could kill anything and there were no big bulls.  This isn't Wyoming...

Only a few percent of the hunting population cares about big bulls....i could understand leaving alot of units permit only but we don't really need to have the biggest bulls in the world....a 300 inch six  by is plenty big for majority of hunters...