Hunting Regulations 2011-2019 show drastic decline in Quality tags

[KFhunter]

One of the real problems with hunters in general.....My ......is the "trophy hunting."  This state continues to cut in an attempt to produce "quality" not quantity.  The hunters that are very loud and in your face are quite often "Trophy" hunters that are looking for the elusive 200" mule deer.  I drew a quality late archery tag last year and saw 150 deer a day without trying.  We saw plenty of quality bucks (not 200 inchers....but quality).  To say the tags need to be cut even more is simply crazy.  Increase opportunity with bear and cougar.  Allow dogs and bait.  Do it for 3 year and see what happens to our ungulate population.  If it works and we see and increase in numbers then continue.  If we don't see an increase then take it back to where it was.  If you want to be a trophy hunter.....get our and hunt harder because this state carries plenty of big bucks.  I think Bone's calendar proves that.   

So the trophy hunters that let lots of bucks walk are the problem huh?  Interesting take on it.

I've always said focus on quantity, the quality will take care of itself   

[OutHouse]

One of the real problems with hunters in general.....My ......is the "trophy hunting."  This state continues to cut in an attempt to produce "quality" not quantity.  The hunters that are very loud and in your face are quite often "Trophy" hunters that are looking for the elusive 200" mule deer.  I drew a quality late archery tag last year and saw 150 deer a day without trying.  We saw plenty of quality bucks (not 200 inchers....but quality).  To say the tags need to be cut even more is simply crazy.  Increase opportunity with bear and cougar.  Allow dogs and bait.  Do it for 3 year and see what happens to our ungulate population.  If it works and we see and increase in numbers then continue.  If we don't see an increase then take it back to where it was.  If you want to be a trophy hunter.....get our and hunt harder because this state carries plenty of big bucks.  I think Bone's calendar proves that.   

Completely agree but also see the side that those who kill any buck contribute to the issue. I don't care about the quality tags anymore for similar reasons. Not saying this is true across the board, but most quality bucks I have seen taken you ask the hunter what he did with the meat and hear something like "I experiment with it a little but give most of it away". I never understood this. Is it because an older quality buck tastes bad? It is because it was only ever about the antlers to begin with? Its shameful.

And I have nothing against trophy hunting. I certainly wouldn't pass on a trophy animal.  But for me at the end of the day its about the meat.

[buckfvr]

I enjoy the hunt even when I dont kill anything, so I am against lost opportunity to hunt.  I dont mind hunting my way through some unproductive years so long as I know they are putting forth legitimate effort for improvement.

For those who dont enjoy spending time in the woods without killing something, I understand your willingness to cut YOUR opportunity down, but dont bargain mine away.  Its bad out there, but not bad enough to quit.  Great opportunity for bear, and coyote hunting is always fun........those two animals right there will hone your woods skills.

For sure the good ol days are gone, so up your game and get after it.  More now than ever before, lack of effort makes a camping trip out of your hunt. 

[Bango skank]

108,729 deer hunters in 2018
57,452 elk hunters in 2018
21,068 bear hunters in 2018
Didnt find number of cougar licenses sold

So only 1 out of 5 deer hunters bought a bear license.  And many of those dont even go bear hunting, they buy the tag just incase, same with people who buy cougar tags.  So a small fraction of deer and elk hunters actually hunt predators.  I say if you wont put any effort into addressing the predator problem, you shouldnt be advocating for reducing deer and elk opportunity.  If every deer and elk hunter spent just a couple weekends here and there hunting predators outside of deer and elk seasons it would go a long way.

If youre bothered by our lack of deer and elk, get out there and do something about it instead of asking the state to take away more hunting opportunity.

As hunters we are the ones who manage predators, yet a lot of us arent doing it.  Even if we got hounds, wolf hunting, leg holds, everything, every tool available, it wont do. Damn bit of good if people wont even get out there and try.  Fall bear is 3.5 months long.  Cougar is 4-8 months long.  Coyote is year round.  We should all be able to make a little time, nobody is that busy.

[full choke]

108,729 deer hunters in 2018
57,452 elk hunters in 2018
21,068 bear hunters in 2018
Didnt find number of cougar licenses sold

So only 1 out of 5 deer hunters bought a bear license.  And many of those dont even go bear hunting, they buy the tag just incase, same with people who buy cougar tags.  So a small fraction of deer and elk hunters actually hunt predators.  I say if you wont put any effort into addressing the predator problem, you shouldnt be advocating for reducing deer and elk opportunity.  If every deer and elk hunter spent just a couple weekends here and there hunting predators outside of deer and elk seasons it would go a long way.

If youre bothered by our lack of deer and elk, get out there and do something about it instead of asking the state to take away more hunting opportunity.

You are 100% correct.

[Jingles]

I think I can say that there are some, maybe not as many as there should be, but there are some that if the opportunity presented itself would do some serious incidental predator control. For me as long as it isn't wearing a collar it is a Coyote............. If it is to big to carry out nature will clean it up.

[Onewhohikes]

108,729 deer hunters in 2018
57,452 elk hunters in 2018
21,068 bear hunters in 2018
Didnt find number of cougar licenses sold
Was the number of bear hunters you quoted the bear tags sold or the number of hunters that filled out the WDFW survey saying they hunted bear?

[jstone]

How many bears killed

[Bango skank]

How many bears killed

1,483 bears
6,559 elk
27,846 deer

Those are 2018 numbers.  Hopefully a good jump in bear harvest for 2019 with our new regs.  Harvest results should be out in a couple months i believe.

[buglebrush]

Agree that we really need to collectively up our game on predator hunting.  Washington makes it tougher by requiring people to harvest bear meat, and no OTC spring bear. 

I spent a long day post-holing my way into wolf country yesterday.  Couldn't believe I forgot my snowshoes!  Didn't get into any, but found some tracks from earlier in the week.  I'll be back!

[Onewhohikes]

Statistics show Cougars are more of an issue than bears to the ungulates population. We should be more concerned with them

[Bango skank]

Statistics show Cougars are more of an issue than bears to the ungulates population. We should be more concerned with them

  bears are huge predators of fawns and calves, and there are 10 times as many bears as there are cougars.  Plus theyre easier to hunt, season opens a month before cougar, and you can kill 2.  Im not saying dont hunt cougar, im saying that guys can realistically get out and kill 2 bears a year, and make an impact.  The lion thing is harder.  Bear hunting is the easiest way for a guy to help out our herds.  So get out and whack a bear or two in august, then of course try to get a cougar if possible when its open.  But if guys get serious about bear hunting and we get our numbers up we will be saving thousands more fawns and calves each year.  And if we want to see our permit numbers go back up, we need to do whatever we can to protect all those fawns and calves.

[hunter399]

New to the site, been trolling for some time. Would the hunters support a decrease in the deer and elk permits more than what is currently proposed?

Hunters have taken the cut again and again and again.  If we keep supporting it, it will never stop, they wont address the predator issue.  Weve given up enough, time to focus on the problem.  More predator control is needed, not less hunting opportunity.  I say we shouldnt have to give another inch until proper predator management goes along with it.

So do you support an increase in permits or remain the same where a quality permit isn't really quality?

No matter how many cuts WE take, the herds will not improve until predators are dealt with properly.  So reduce opportunity all you want, but without predator management it still wont be quality, and it will continue getting worse.  Continuing to cut hunter opportunity year after year is not the answer, it wont fix things.

I can tell that your starting to figure out that WDFW is not gonna deal with predator problem .Hunters are gonna hunt what they wanna hunt.Hunters are not gonna fix the predator problem.Most hunters go home right after deer season and don't return till fall .And you know this man.But in the meantime while we fight for better predator seasons and management,you can't deal deer and elk a $h$t sandwich.

On topic
We should just be happy the permits are even still available.I'm not that guy that's gonna get mad about WDFW reducing opportunity for conservation.Along as some opportunity still exists.