Blue mountains foothills east

[bearbaito6]

So I was drawn for the foothills east tag, by mistake I thought I was putting in for a different tag. Then I thought I had a small piece of private ground to hunt but that did not work out. So my question, is it worth the long drive to hunt some of the wildlife areas in those gmus?  Have the whitetail started rutting yet?  I can get some time off work this week to go, but honestly I don't know the area at all, and work was way to busy for me to scout this summer.  So I can't decide if I should waste the tag and chase blacktails or go for it. If anyone is willing to give me a little insight I would greatly appreciate it.

[RightPlace-RightTime]

Always good to learn the area with a tag in your pocket.
It's hunting
Good luck

[jackelope]

Yes it is worth it, especially since you have a tag that a lot of other folks would love to have and can hunt in one of the coolest areas in the state.

[Wolfdog2314]

Drove thru a part of the Peola on way to Tucannon (have the west tag) there were deer standing out in wheat fields around there at 2pm.  Couple dinker bucks. I’ve seen SOME rut action in the west. But not much, yet. Hoping it picks up. Id come over the last few days.

[Tschaefer72]

Completely worth it. You will see lots of animals and some incredible country. I would choose this over black tail hunting every day! Plus you will learn if this is a tag that you want to keep applying for in the future.

[bobcat]

I'd hunt it for sure. It's way better than trying to find a blacktail in the late season. Check the Feel Free to Hunt Areas, and some of the scattered DNR sections. You won't have much competition with only 50 permits for that hunt.

[lonedave]

Definitely worth it.  That's a great permit to have.  GoHunt and Googlearth are your friends in this case.

[jackelope]

The entire 175 Lick Creek unit is open for that hunt, and it's pretty much all huntable public land. Don't think the whitetails are only in the farm country, and don't think they'll migrate out of the snow down to the farm country. Those deer are different there. The biggest whitetail I've ever seen alive was in the national forest in the Lick Creek GMU, late November at close to 5k' in a couple feet of snow.

[bearbaito6]

Ok thanks. Makes me feel better about the long drive.

[Wolfdog2314]

Three different legal (small)  3pts chasing does today. One right across the road in front of the truck. No reason u shouldn’t b able to fill the tag at least! Should keep picking up every day.

[borntoslay]

Jackelope hits the nail on the head 👍 congrats on that goat by the way it was awesome following your journey on here.

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[meatwhack]

Did you end up hunting it?

[CaNINE]

The entire 175 Lick Creek unit is open for that hunt, and it's pretty much all huntable public land. Don't think the whitetails are only in the farm country, and don't think they'll migrate out of the snow down to the farm country. Those deer are different there. The biggest whitetail I've ever seen alive was in the national forest in the Lick Creek GMU, late November at close to 5k' in a couple feet of snow.

ditto - the biggest whitetail I've seen in WA was in Lick Creek.

[Hot Lunch]

The SE white tails are rutting hard. Filled my bow tag friday and saw bucks chasing does all day. Plenty of public land in the foothills.

[jackelope]

My daughter and I drove through the Peola unit today. Maybe 15-20 miles of roads and saw 1 wt doe. It was midday but I thought with the rut going, we’d see more deer.


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[dvolmer]

My buddy has the West Blue MT foothills muzzle tag and he has been all over the hills from Walla Walla, Dayton, Waitsburg, and Prescott.  He has seen a few bucks but none with doe's and no rut activity at all as far as he can tell.  Seen a lot of doe's but no bucks with them.

[Scott]

He's not looking very hard then. 

My buddy has the West Blue MT foothills muzzle tag and he has been all over the hills from Walla Walla, Dayton, Waitsburg, and Prescott.  He has seen a few bucks but none with doe's and no rut activity at all as far as he can tell.  Seen a lot of doe's but no bucks with them.

[Wolfdog2314]

Saw quite a bit of rut activity in west, increasing more and more up until the day we left on the 19th. Lots of small to decent sized bucks chasing does and cruising. Never did see the giants roaming around, except one. I figured it would be on fire for the muzzy Hunt in there.

[Hot Lunch]

This guy was love struck trailing a doe on the edge of a seeded wheat field thursday when I slipped in and arrowed him at 50 yards. There was another buck similar size trailing a doe that busted me at 50 prior to my kill. If you can slip into 50 yards with a bow on a WT they are distracted! GMU 178
 

[Boss .300 winmag]

Nice one Hot lunch  it almost looks like a deer decoy.