Ritzville late buck tag is a decent buck tag but nothing all that great. I have never had the tag but my son, daughter, brother, and hunting partner have all drawn the tag in the past. It has been 6 years since we last had it so maybe something wonderful has happened since then. If you have nice private property to hunt then it could be possibly real good. Another option is to try and pay an access fee for some good hunting land from some of the hunting clubs that have literally taken over most of the good hunting ground around Washtucna and Hooper. If you are a DIY hunter hunting on public ground you probably will be let down. It's easy to get a buck because the tag is for "any buck" and spikes and two points will be easy to find even on public property. But good quality 4 points and bigger will be very hard to come by. With the four tags we have drawn we have shot a 4 point, two 3 points, and one 2 point. We did have permission to hunt some private. I hunted all over the Hooper area for many years in the 80's, 90's, and early 2000's. Every ranch that I used to hunt have had the old ranchers pass away and the kids have put them all in hunting clubs. Like i said, it is a decent tag but nothing great in my opinion. Lots of the hunting by written permission landowners will not return your calls or let you hunt because they are just using the game dept to post their land for free. It amazes me the drawing odds and the number of applicants that apply for it. Good luck on your hunt. I don't mean to be negative, just realistic and honest. If you can get permission to hunt on Beckly's, Blankenship's, Gray's, Clinesmith's, or the Bar-U ranch it would be a real good hunt. Make sure when you ask for permission that they know you are hunting a late hunt after the regular season is over. That might get them to listen to you longer. You probably will have to pay for access but you might get lucky.
