Spike only units

[rtspring]

Gmu 346 only gets a LATE gen. season about Nov 20th-Dec 8th. Spike bull or antlerless. For some reason its very hard to harvest an elk during that season with a bow.

Not true, it rotates every 3 years.

RT, where did you hear that? Only reason their was a general hunt for a few years with archery in 346 was because supposedly the number of elk in the Nile and bumping units were down, so they changed the regs to give those elk a break and a chance to rebound. I doubt we will see an early season in 346 again.

I was under the impression that it rotated between nile/bumping- little Naches every three years.  Heck maybe Im wrong.

[hughjorgan]

Gmu 346 only gets a LATE gen. season about Nov 20th-Dec 8th. Spike bull or antlerless. For some reason its very hard to harvest an elk during that season with a bow.

Not true, it rotates every 3 years.

RT, where did you hear that? Only reason their was a general hunt for a few years with archery in 346 was because supposedly the number of elk in the Nile and bumping units were down, so they changed the regs to give those elk a break and a chance to rebound. I doubt we will see an early season in 346 again.

I was under the impression that it rotated between nile/bumping- little Naches every three years.  Heck maybe Im wrong.

Not that I know of. I have been archery hunting these units since 2003 and 346 has never been open for early archery except that one time. And it was because cow numbers were down. There should be some older threads discussing it on the forum if you want to find it....

[scoutdog346]

It does not "switch every 3 years"  i wish! Y do u think that?

[rtspring]

It does not "switch every 3 years"  i wish! Y do u think that?

Guess Im the one thats wrong.  Forgive me but I just took up archery a few years back and swore that it rotated.   

[scoutdog346]

I don't think 346 is spike only to make money. Wdfw would make nearly the same even if GMU 346 wasn't even there. Hunters would just go elsewhere I must be missing the point

[Don_D]

GMU 346 has the potential to be the best unit in the state considering it's right up against the park, GMU 653 and all the variation in environments it has to offer. I think wdfw has done wonderful considering all the poaching and other messed up illegal activities that goes on there with all the drunk campers ect. I do wish however wdfw gave out about 30 special perm. cow tags a season and made this archery cow hunt only last 3 days in between the quality archery and the quality muzzleloader tag. And decrease the ungodly amount of cow tags they give out to modern fire arm...lol.

You get a month to kill a cow with archery, general and late season.  Rifle guys get 5 days to hunt cows after everone has chased these elk for a month and a half.  Rifle is not a slam dunk, many many rifle guys go home empty handed.

Add to that the dates for the regular season coincide with the new moon and the odds just keep getting better and better.

[buglebrush]

It's a money grab.  Special permits bring in way more money.  Way more!  Why not make it 6x minimum instead of spike only? 

[elkchaser54]

How about we turn this conversation in to a positive one and discuss techniques to kill a mystical magical Spike elk!!!!!  Would you assume most spike will behave like a satellite bull? I have seen them walking right with a 6x6 and they acted like best friends. 

[Jimmy33]

The whole state should be three point or better. Wdfw is all about the money. If most of you took a look at just how difficult it really is to draw a branch antlered bull tag on the east side of the state it would make you sick. I have talked to several biologists about why the spike only rule and it's because of the bull to cow ratio. Guess what? If we left all of those spikes alone and just shot big bulls our bull to cow ratio would increase. This state is ridiculous


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[baker5150]

The whole state should be three point or better. Wdfw is all about the money. If most of you took a look at just how difficult it really is to draw a branch antlered bull tag on the east side of the state it would make you sick. I have talked to several biologists about why the spike only rule and it's because of the bull to cow ratio. Guess what? If we left all of those spikes alone and just shot big bulls our bull to cow ratio would increase. This state is ridiculous


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In theory maybe. But if hunters were to kill more branched Bulls than they would spikes the ratio wouldbe worse.  So it could really go either way.
I agree that money is the driving force.  I can't foresee guys spending
money putting in for spike tags. 
Last two seasons if I could have taken a branch bull I would have harvested both years. I didn't see a single spike both seasons.

[buglebrush]

The whole state should be three point or better. Wdfw is all about the money. If most of you took a look at just how difficult it really is to draw a branch antlered bull tag on the east side of the state it would make you sick. I have talked to several biologists about why the spike only rule and it's because of the bull to cow ratio. Guess what? If we left all of those spikes alone and just shot big bulls our bull to cow ratio would increase. This state is ridiculous


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In theory maybe. But if hunters were to kill more branched Bulls than they would spikes the ratio wouldbe worse.  So it could really go either way.
I agree that money is the driving force.  I can't foresee guys spending
money putting in for spike tags. 
Last two seasons if I could have taken a branch bull I would have harvested both years. I didn't see a single spike both seasons.

That's why I say 6x or better.  Does the same thing as spike, but is a lot more fun!

[Jimmy33]

Our states management system is a joke and a system to make money. It is not set up for opportunity, it is set up for trophy hunting. I would much rather have opportunity than trophy quality. That is why I hunt Idaho and northeast Washington even though I watch some of the biggest elk herds in the state from my yard. It's a joke of a state. I have drawn one branch antler permit in this state. Then I decided to really take a look at the actual prospects of drawing tags here...it's really pretty tough.


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[Jonathan_S]

Our states management system is a joke and a system to make money. It is not set up for opportunity, it is set up for trophy hunting. I would much rather have opportunity than trophy quality. That is why I hunt Idaho and northeast Washington even though I watch some of the biggest elk herds in the state from my yard. It's a joke of a state. I have drawn one branch antler permit in this state. Then I decided to really take a look at the actual prospects of drawing tags here...it's really pretty tough.


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Who should snap their fingers and fix the problem? There so many factors: lots of hunters and OTC tags, tribal hunting and rights, poor predator management.

[Bango skank]

Our states management system is a joke and a system to make money. It is not set up for opportunity, it is set up for trophy hunting. I would much rather have opportunity than trophy quality. That is why I hunt Idaho and northeast Washington even though I watch some of the biggest elk herds in the state from my yard. It's a joke of a state. I have drawn one branch antler permit in this state. Then I decided to really take a look at the actual prospects of drawing tags here...it's really pretty tough.


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Who should snap their fingers and fix the problem? There so many factors: lots of hunters and OTC tags, tribal hunting and rights, poor predator management.

The third could be an easy fix, but hell they wont even let us take 2 bears in eastern wa, and were crawling with them. 

[bobcat]

Actually, it is set up for maximum opportunity. That's exactly the reason for the spike only seasons- to provide the maximum amount of opportunity for people to go elk hunting, albeit with an extremely small chance for success.