So I am a hunter education instructor and absolutely love it. It is a great way to give back. I also love to talk and it gives me a captive audience for 4 hours a night.
One of the perks of being an instructor other than the free shirt and hat is special permits. I signed up because I love to hear myself talk and then found out about the permits. If you teach at least one class a year you are eligible to put in for some permits, multiseason elk, multiseason deer and a general pool for different elk and deer tags. If you teach two online certification classes you get to put your name in another drawing.
I was lucky enough to draw a hunter ed multiseason elk tag in the past and this year a multiseason deer tag.
I also had my name in the pool for teaching the online certification class. I was drawn for that tag third on the list. There are six tags, any deer 100 series GMU's except 157, any deer GMU 245&247, any deer 335-368, any bull 336-368, any elk 382, 388, and all 500 series GMUs except GMU 522 or any deer 600 series GMU's.
The tag you get is an extra tag meaning you can take one additional deer or elk to your general license. You can hunt any season, general or permit that the GMU is open with the method permitted during that season.
The first winner took the Klickitat and 500 series elk tag, the second winner took the Yakima bull tag and I took the 245&247 mule deer tag. I thought about taking the whitetail tag as I never get to hunt those. I hunt mule deer every year at Swakane with my family. Mule deer just seemed like the right choice.
I am crazy excited for this hunt. I hunted in 245 once my very first year hunting. I shot a 130" 4x4 during the general rifle deer season. I hunted GMU 247 once with a bow back in 2000 or 2001 when it was still an OTC hunt in late November and got my biggest buck to date, 160".
With this permit I can hunt the rifle permit season in both units, 11/1-11/20, I can then hunt the archery permit season in 247 11/21-11/30 and if I still have a tag I can hunt 12/1-12/8 archery permit season in 245.
My plan is to hunt the last week of the rifle permit season with my bow. If I can't get close enough and I really want a particular deer I will have a rifle nearby. Then I will switch to the bow season and hunt entiat and if I am still not done I can hit Chiwawa for the late late bow season.
I plan to hunt with family and friends and more than anything just want to look at a ton of deer. I would love to shoot something bigger than 160" to beat my personal best but this isn't going to be so much about inches of antler as just having a blast looking at a ton of nice deer.
I will try to share as much of this hunt as I can and if anyone wants to chime in on this thread until then about their experience in these units in the past feel free. If you have any questions about the hunter education program and permits also feel free to ask.
This thread is open to just about anything except the Corona Virus! I don't even want to think about it when I look at this thread. There are plenty of threads to discuss that if you want to.
