Picking a side of the state for deer hunting

[Rainier10]

If I had to pick I would pick East. If I had to pick species I would pick mule deer.

[Ghost Hunter]

I'd like to see picking a county. You can buy an over the counter deer tag for the county you live in but have to apply for a limited amount of out of county tags to hunt another.

That would cut down on county revenue.

[Sneaky]

Hopefully this has illustrated that picking sides won't solve any crowding issues in Eastern WA. it will only force folks who might currently only make a trip or two east a year to exclusively hunt Eastern WA if they want to hunt at all. The west side is VASTLY more populated and yet more than half of folks on here have voted that they would hunt ONLY the east side thus far.

I think picking is a bad idea, side, species, the odds aren't great as it is...Popular hunting areas do not suddenly become unpopular when faced with a choice...they become the only option to get outdoors! 

[ljsommer]

If I had to pick I would pick East. If I had to pick species I would pick mule deer.

So I've asked this a couple of times, but is that what most hunters pick in WA? I get the sense from these forums that muley numbers are fairly wrecked right now.

[E-Town Hunter]

With me being a greedy and living in mule deer country, I would love to see west siders pay non resident fees to come across the mountains and hunt mule deer. You guys have all the money over there and we have the goods that you want. It would help keep more west siders at home hunting blacktail and increase the revenue for the state. This post might ruffle some feathers! LOL 

[ljsommer]

With me being a greedy and living in mule deer country, I would love to see west siders pay non resident fees to come across the mountains and hunt mule deer. You guys have all the money over there and we have the goods that you want. It would help keep more west siders at home hunting blacktail and increase the revenue for the state. This post might ruffle some feathers! LOL 

As a west sider I have no problem with that.

[ne kid]

 

[bobcat]

Or they could just make the mule deer tag twice as expensive as the other deer tags, for EVERYBODY.

[cougforester]

With me being a greedy and living in mule deer country, I would love to see west siders pay non resident fees to come across the mountains and hunt mule deer. You guys have all the money over there and we have the goods that you want. It would help keep more west siders at home hunting blacktail and increase the revenue for the state. This post might ruffle some feathers! LOL 

Non-resident fees, no. More? Sure, buy a mule deer stamp or something like that. Then you, as an east sider, will have to buy a west side elk stamp to hunt OTC bulls. I'm not opposed to the idea, but don't forget to think of the entire picture!

[vandeman17]

With me being a greedy and living in mule deer country, I would love to see west siders pay non resident fees to come across the mountains and hunt mule deer. You guys have all the money over there and we have the goods that you want. It would help keep more west siders at home hunting blacktail and increase the revenue for the state. This post might ruffle some feathers! LOL 

Why complicate things? Isn't the intent of the split to try and help overall herd health? Charging more seems to go against that goal. Instead, implement having to pick a side and track tags purchased on each side and adjust if one side is heavily skewed after a certain amount of years. 

[ljsommer]

Or they could just make the mule deer tag twice as expensive as the other deer tags, for EVERYBODY.

They could just make it an OIL tag the way the WDFW manages them.

Why not just make all species OIL? It'll save us tons of time stomping around outside for nothing
Except predators. No bag limits on predators.

[BULLBLASTER]

Another thing to keep in mind is that wdfw could give much longer seasons for blacktail if in fact less people started hunting them. Same with whitetail.

Say for instance you could go hunt your mule deer hunt and have a 7-10 day season mid October or if you chose blacktail you could have a 30+ day season and late season including the rut (if harvest was reduced because people chose mule deer season length could increase without a negative impact to herd health).

As for the Benchley thing the only way they could fix that would be to just have only a mule deer or blacktail season there and call them one or the other, just like they do now.

[ljsommer]

Another thing to keep in mind is that wdfw could give much longer seasons for blacktail if in fact less people started hunting them. Same with whitetail.

I am probably an outlier here but I'd much rather have a higher quality hunt than a much longer season that has much lower odds of success. A 14 day season with quality hunting seems far more valuable to me than 30 day spent hiking in the woods without another beating heart in a 50 mile radius.

[Rainier10]

If I had to pick I would pick East. If I had to pick species I would pick mule deer.

So I've asked this a couple of times, but is that what most hunters pick in WA? I get the sense from these forums that muley numbers are fairly wrecked right now.

Looking at the poll it would be interesting to see if in another poll, BT, WT or Muley what the percentages would be.  Would the 2/3's that is picking eastside in your poll split again and be 1/3 BT, 1/3 WT and 1/3 Muley?

[BULLBLASTER]

Another thing to keep in mind is that wdfw could give much longer seasons for blacktail if in fact less people started hunting them. Same with whitetail.

I am probably an outlier here but I'd much rather have a higher quality hunt than a much longer season that has much lower odds of success. A 14 day season with quality hunting seems far more valuable to me than 30 day spent hiking in the woods without another beating heart in a 50 mile radius.

In another post you are talking about getting a sense that mule deer numbers are wrecked right now.  Do you expect to have a quality 14 day hunt when mule deer are wrecked?