GMU 419, 420, 421 & 422 will be Open for Late Deer - Modern Firearm

[JDHasty]

November 17-20,  Any deer.  I just got confirmation call from WDFW confirming they were inadvertently omitted from the printed hard copy of the Game Regulations.   

[fishnfur]

Makes you wonder how many other "inadvertent omissions" there are in the regs.   Four island units in two different districts.  Hard to believe they do more than just change the dates from the previous year's regs and leave the rest alone - unless directed by higher authority. 

Makes you wonder how some of these GMUs just drop out of the listings of open units  from one year to the next (?).  Perhaps they start from scratch each year and hire third graders to rebuild the hunting season spreadsheets.

[bobcat]

They should put the PDF up for a couple weeks and let the hunters look at it before  they print the hard copies. There are mistakes every year that are discovered in the first couple of weeks after the pamphlet comes out. And by then it's too late. How many people are going to go to the WDFW website to look for corrections to the pamphlet?

This year seems worse than usual, an error also with the season dates for the over 65, youth, and disabled hunter whitetail deer season in the northeast. How many people are going to be hunting when the season isn't actually open, because of the wrong dates listed in the pamphlet?

http://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/01799/2016_big_game_regulations_errata.pdf

[JDHasty]

There are a couple more that i alerted them to.  As soon as I get confirmation back I will post it. 

[fishnfur]

Bobcat - I agree completely.  The average Joe that goes hunting with a six pack of beer in his backpack is likely not going to check the regs more than once, and certainly not on the WDFW website.  As you noted, it really does have an effect on the participation of the handicapped and senior hunters as well.  Perhaps we should send up your idea to El Presidente del WDFW for consideration.

I'm not real big in trusting the government to do the right thing in all cases.  I wonder in a situation like this, with all these islands being omitted in the hard copy of the regs, whether WDFW hopes to limit the numbers of hunters in areas where they get a lot of complaints from homeowners about hunters "ruining the tranquility of their lovely island".  Even though WDFW eventually goes back and make corrections, I'd guess they probably loose 30 - 50% of the number of hunters who might hunt or at least hunt that particular GMU, by making that "inadvertent mistake".   Result:  fewer complaints and yet completely absolved of mis-deeds by having corrected the mistake online. 

I'm a bit cynical (as I'm sure many of you are as well), but I was an Officer in the Navy for nearly 24 years, so I trust my judgement.  Often times, government works in the shadows to obtain desired results.