Methow valley

[Scheindogg]

Hello all! First post on hunting-Washington.com!
Just passed my online exam for hunter-ed and am planning my field skills course soon.
Just ordered my first ever rifle- savage 11 trophy hunter xp .308win with Nikon BDC scope.
I will be going deer hunting this fall with my new gun for the first time ever with my father in law (also never been hunting) and potentially a friend who is a very experienced hunter but he grew up hunting in Virginia so doesn't know Washington that well yet.
Any who enough with all that the point is I don't know where to go for our first hunt. Not asking for honey holes just a public area we can go for modern season.
Reason I mentioned methow valley is on WDFW website it seems to say there are a lot of Mule deer in this area.
Of this is true does that make it SUPER crowded or not too bad?
Do tthe "big buck" or "golden doe" wildlife area hold lots of deer or different gmus?
If for some reason this is an area I should avoid or if anyone has any hint they would be greatly appreciated!!
Thank you!

[ctwiggs1]

Generally speaking, if it's mentioned on the WDFW website and it's modern firearm, you'll see a lot of hunters.  I generally look for in the national forests for a better hunting opportunity.

That being said, I would find an area that looks fun to explore and start hiking/camping in July.  Get a feel for the area and be on the lookout for deer and bear (plenty of bear up there, and they taste great). 

Congrats on your rifle.  Go to the range with your friend as often as possible and get that thing sighted in.  After that, get comfortable shooting it from a rest, without a rest, laying down (called the prone position), resting on your hunting pack (with your hunting gear inside it), etc.  There are a lot of missed shots every year in this state - don't miss out on a deer or wound one on accident by not being familiar with your firearm. 

Good luck, keep us posted on your progress and ask as many questions as you can think of!  There are a ton of people on this forum with a TON of experience.   

Curtis

[Special T]

Welcome to the addiction! I do not know that area very well but hunted it once. What I would say is look up access points on the wdfw go hunt page and scout the areas now so that you know what they are like with snow.
In general I have found the go hunt mapping program a great place to start and then just burn boot leather. There are both whitetail and mule deer in the area. White tail I have seen in the valley in the early archery season.  Get some snow shoes an go looking for bobcat and cougars. I hear there are plenty of those.

When its not hunting season its scouting season!

[mburrows]

The methow gets very busy during modern but so does just about every other mule deer area. My advice would be to learn where to find deer on a map and hike in. The wild life areas are busy and i think your better off finding some BLM or NFS land that you can hike in on.  Get some optics and hunt all day.

Check out onxmaps for land ownership maps. Learn about places deer will hide and eacape to. Once opening day comes they are trying to hide more than anything else.

If an area is popular and you can find search results online it will be packed during modern rifle season.

[pianoman9701]

I don't know that area and shoot archery. Welcome to the forum. 

[huntnphool]

methow valley is on WDFW website it seems to say there are a lot of Mule deer in this area.

  @mtnmuley

 Not laughing at you S-dogg, welcome to the site

 Get away from town and away from the roads and you will find deer, everywhere in the Methow will be combat hunting though, good luck.

[sumpnz]

methow valley is on WDFW website it seems to say there are a lot of Mule deer in this area.

  @mtnmuley

 Not laughing at you S-dogg, welcome to the site

 Get away from town and away from the roads and you will find deer, everywhere in the Methow will be combat hunting though, good luck.

Pumpkin patch is my preferred term.

When I went through Hunter Ed in Arizona they said 90% of hunters never went more than 100 yards off a road.  So, there, if you were willing to go just a mile from the nearest road you'd have the place to yourself as most of that remaining 10% would still only go 1/4-1/2 mile out.  Here in WA, it's more likely to be 90% of hunters will still go up to half a mile off the roads.  The remaining 10% of hunters it seems are willing to go several miles from the nearest road.  So while you can find places with little pressure you'll have to go a loooong ways.

[boneaddict]

The methow herd imo is in the worst shape it ever has been.  I'd hate to be cutting my teeth hunting there these days.   Goodluck in your adventure and welcome to the sport.  Someone has to get lucky right?

[Skyvalhunter]

Not to be a Debbi Downer Dogg but you probably couldn't have picked a much worse place. Especially after what has occurred over there this winter. I would suggest looking at other places but that's just my 2 cents

[Scheindogg]

What happened there this winter?
What do you mean in the worst shape? I will definitely look into other places now.
And those of you who said you have to hike a ways is that true in this whole state? So if I go somewhere that seems busy and we decide to hike a mile or so we could potentially get away from the crowds a bit?
Btw I wasn't set on anywhere I had just started research and thought that it might be a good spot

[sumpnz]

What happened there this winter?
What do you mean in the worst shape? I will definitely look into other places now.
And those of you who said you have to hike a ways is that true in this whole state? So if I go somewhere that seems busy and we decide to hike a mile or so we could potentially get away from the crowds a bit?
Btw I wasn't set on anywhere I had just started research and thought that it might be a good spot

Summer 2015 there was a huge series of fires in the Methow.  In response the geniuses at WDFW authorized 1800 doe tags to keep from having the herd starve due to loss of winter range from the fires.  Which was totally unnecessary as the 2015/2016 winter turned out to be relatively mild and they'd have been just fine.  But combine that with a higher than normal harvest of bucks and the population was way down by this last fall's season.  I went into a canyon there that I'd never seen less than 6 does a day and say not one single deer in 2 days of hiking all over.  Most other hunters I talked to said similar things.

Then, this winter has been harsher than normal, so winter kill is expected to be high.  The whitetails might be OK, but I wouldn't expect the mule deer population to back up to fall 2015 levels for a long time.

[pianoman9701]

What happened there this winter?
What do you mean in the worst shape? I will definitely look into other places now.
And those of you who said you have to hike a ways is that true in this whole state? So if I go somewhere that seems busy and we decide to hike a mile or so we could potentially get away from the crowds a bit?
Btw I wasn't set on anywhere I had just started research and thought that it might be a good spot

If you can get a mile away from any roads, regardless of where you hunt, you'll be hunting further in than probably 80% of the hunters.

[Special T]

I'm a big fan of hunting close to where I live.

[sumpnz]

I'm a big fan of hunting close to where I live.

From Redmond he's going to be driving a ways to get to anywhere he can hunt with a rifle.  It might make sense to target areas off the I-90 and Hwy 2 corridors, but I wouldn't fault him for wanting to hit the Methow Valley.  It's probably only an extra hour and a half or so drive to get there vs mulie areas off 90 or 2. 

Now, blacktails might be a more local option, if there's public land or tree farms reasonably close that don't have firearm restrictions.  Though, the tree farms are charging for access.  So that may or may not be desirable for him.

[Special T]

I kind of got cut off on my response. The reason why I personally like hunting close to home is I can do it more often. A huge part of being a successful hunter is learning an area. If there is one person we can all learn a lesson on this is Boneaddict. He spends lots of time in the woods and grew up in the methow. For him that translated into how mule deer act and the kinds of areas they like. That is why he has so many great pictures of bruiser deer.  Most westsiders can not attain that kind of knowledge with out hunting 1 area for 20 years.

I hunt blackmail because it's possible for me to sneak out for an afternoon on a weekend and scout an area out. I'm no kind of great white hunter but I understand my major limitation. Time. The time it would take me to get to the methow is less but in that 2 hours to get there I can already have spent over an hour in the woods. Additionally I can spend it in areas I used to hike and play as a kid dispute the fact that my father was much of a hunter.
It's said that hunting mature blacktail are  harder than mulies but I also look for mushrooms and wander through the timber achieving a good lay of the land.

If you decide to go the blackmail route then read Boyd Iverson Blacktail Trophy Tactics 2