2021 Entiat Archery Deer Permit

[Rainier10]

And rocking the croc’s! Atta boy!

Camouflage crocs.

[Sutherland]

That is so awesome! Congrats to you both! Thanks for massaging!

[Mulie87]

Way to go

[blackveltbowhunter]

Great bucks!!  Congrats!!

[jhawk13]

Glad to see you guys filled your tag! Congrats.

[Jpmiller]

Congrats! Now how are you filling the cougar tag to complete your cycle?

[Rainier10]

Congrats! Now how are you filling the cougar tag to complete your cycle?

I should be spending my weekends in swakane canyon. There were cougar tracks all over up there in the snow. There was a freshly skinned cat at the gate just off the highway. So somebody got one but there were fresh tracks daily so there are more still out there.

I will focus my attention at my property above Ellensburg. There are at least two cats roaming the area that I catch at night on game cameras.

[phildobaggins]

Congratulations on the hunt! Looks like a great time. Met a guy named Matt the other night at Pub n Grub in Entiat, he said his buddy had an Entiat archery tag. Do you know Matt? Congrats again!

[mburrows]

Congrats to you and your daughter Rick!

[Rainier10]

Congratulations on the hunt! Looks like a great time. Met a guy named Matt the other night at Pub n Grub in Entiat, he said his buddy had an Entiat archery tag. Do you know Matt? Congrats again!

It may have been Matt/mburrows that replied right after you.  He was helpful last year when I had the incentive tag and again this year when I had the archery tag.

Congrats to you and your daughter Rick!

Thanks for all the help Matt.

[phildobaggins]

Congratulations on the hunt! Looks like a great time. Met a guy named Matt the other night at Pub n Grub in Entiat, he said his buddy had an Entiat archery tag. Do you know Matt? Congrats again!

It may have been Matt/mburrows that replied right after you.  He was helpful last year when I had the incentive tag and again this year when I had the archery tag.

Congrats to you and your daughter Rick!

Thanks for all the help Matt.

Funny, the Matt I was chatting with said he was from the west side. We were both hunting in Swakane and he was just over for the weekend so don't think it's mburrows unless he says otherwise

[Gonehuntin01]

Congrats to you both.  Glad you guys got it done and made some great memories.  Good looking bucks.

[Rainier10]

So this year was entirely different than last year.  I really wish I would have gone back to the unit last during the archery season to see what it was like then.

Last year I was able to hunt rifle and then archery season.  Snows were heavy early and the rifle season was epic.  Over 170 deer a day and lots of bucks.  I ended up tagging out before the archery season started and went to swakane for the archery season.  My tag last year was an incentive tag, second tag, so I could shoot two deer.

This year there was very little snow and I think that greatly impacted the number of deer we saw.  We saw less does and way less mature bucks.  It may have been that the rifle guys had taken a bunch of the good ones but I think with the reduced number of does I saw it was more of a weather thing.

It so tough with these tags.  You wait so long to draw and then you are at the mercy of mother nature, weather and fires.

I will say that most of the does I saw had at least one fawn and many still had twins.  That is good for the future.  I would also say the lack of weather pushing the big boys down bodes well for next year as so many of them will still be available next year for the general season in the traditional grounds and during the permit seasons on their wintering grounds in the entiat.

My take away after doing the rifle hunt last year the archery hunt this year is you have way better odds with a rifle of filling a tag and less pressure, only 15 tag holders rifle versus 30 archery.  If archery is what you love like I do the archery season is a kick you just need to be prepared to eat the tag if you are going for a 160"plus deer or be happy with a deer under 160".

For me both hunts met all of my expectations and I have the very best memories from each of them.

[Rainier10]

I will add that swakane had way less deer in it this year than last.  Again I credit that to the lack of snow.

Both last year and this year there were significantly less deer in Swakane than in Entiat.  That I credit to Swakane having a general season and Entiat not having one for the last 20 years.  There are also far less roads in Swakane in my opinion so to cover the same amount of ground and see deer each day you have to do it on foot.  The road system in entiat allows you to cover and see a ton more ground than you can in Swakane.

I think that the numbers in swakane would go up if other units in the area were open to a general late archery season.  Spread the hunters out a bit.

The swakane season was shortened again this year and I am not sure if that made it more crowded with hunters or if there were less hunters because they just decided a 7 day season with Thanksgiving in the middle of it just wasn't worth it.

[actionshooter]

Congrats! Looked like some great family time!