Is Eastern Washington Elk Hunting dying?

[Sutherland]

 

Great write ups everyone! Staying positive 

[stlusn30-06]

Not sure it contributes much to the discussion, but state wide harvest stats haven't changed much between 2013-2018. Success rates are between ~9.5-11.5% for every year available. With 2018 being "better" than 2017. Will be interesting to see how 2019 pans out.

https://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/management/game-harvest

[kevinlisa06]

We hunted the Wenas area like most every year. We saw elk from the start of deer season through elk season. Very low calf numbers though. A lot of bugling the 3 weeks I was there for rifle season. Less and less camps each year but the big ElkDuck camp by us was good size bigger than normal.


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[Landowner]

Yes.

[bbarnes]

Hunting sucks in this state the management of the wildlife is the number one problem.No one wants to set up camp to go hiking and see nothing all day.

[Naches Sportsman]

I spent 4 days of of the last 7 totaling about 13 hours or so in 352, 356, and 360 looking at mtn goats and saw very few cows with calves compared to what I saw in years past. Was talking with a few other people and they were saying the same thing.

Let's hope for a mild 2019-2020 for elk herds across the west. Seeing hundreds of elk trying to survive in over knee deep snow on the front side of clemans in mid March last spring is something I don't want to see for a few years.

[257wbymagkiller]

The snow sure helped a ton tho. My first time archery hunting the east side and what a blast I had. A foot of snow super steep old growth forests. I was in heaven to say the least. I was on cows everyday just could close the deal. The deer were getting out of the high country as fast as they could. I talked to a few camps that I ran into up there and they said the numbers were really down from past years.

[3dvapor]

its all about management! 

[KFhunter]

My take on EW elk hunting is it never really fully developed, at least in the NE corner.   

OTC tags and very liberal seasons took its toll on the herd never really allowing it to grow like it could, despite that the herds were growing anyways.   
Now add more predators and less people hunting predators combined with continued liberal OTC seasons and the herds are now going backwards. 


Its sad, because I think the NE could compensate for central WA losses and add some really great elk hunting to this state if managed properly and allowed to grow to good numbers.

[Bango skank]

My take on EW elk hunting is it never really fully developed, at least in the NE corner.   



OTC tags and very liberal seasons took its toll on the herd never really allowing it to grow like it could, despite that the herds were growing anyways.   
Now add more predators and less people hunting predators combined with continued liberal OTC seasons and the herds are now going backwards. 


Its sad, because I think the NE could compensate for central WA losses and add some really great elk hunting to this state if managed properly and allowed to grow to good numbers.

At least they went from any elk to any bull what, 5 years ago now maybe?  I think they still need to get rid of the early archery "any elk" and get rid of the antlerless special permits.  I dont think otc any bull here is going too far, not enough folks around able to successfully hunt them for that to be a problem imo.  We need to stop all antlerless harvest though.  I really dont think there should be any cow moose permits either for that matter.  Elk, moose, muley and whitetail are all in enough trouble that no antlerless harvest whatsoever should be allowed unless we manage to get our predators under control and rebuild our herds.  Which is a pipe dream, i know.

[boneaddict]

Its sad, because I think the NE could compensate for central WA losses and add some really great elk hunting to this state if managed properly and allowed to grow to good numbers.

That’s the understatement of the year of the cold hard truth. 




I hate to be the pessimist here, but ALL HUNTING is dying.   Wolves were the best tool the anti hunters could have employed.   Shortly we can take all of our technology and toys to the dump. 

[Fullabull]

Between the wolves and bad management many hunters are going to Idaho. I think this will keep happening and the state well have to deal with the lack of revenue until they make changes.

[follow maggie]

I don’t think wdfw cares if we hunt or not

[KFhunter]

I don’t think wdfw cares if we hunt or not

No, as a whole this is incorrect.   There's passionate hunters within WDFW ranks. 

[dreamingbig]

Its sad, because I think the NE could compensate for central WA losses and add some really great elk hunting to this state if managed properly and allowed to grow to good numbers.

That’s the understatement of the year of the cold hard truth. 




I hate to be the pessimist here, but ALL HUNTING is dying.   Wolves were the best tool the anti hunters could have employed.   Shortly we can take all of our technology and toys to the dump.

Truth


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