Hunt Master permits

[CP]

“This is a damage hunt administered by a WDFW designated Hunt Master. Successful applicants will be contacted on an as-needed basis to help with specific sites of elk damage on designated landowner’s property.   Not all successful applicants will be contacted in any given year depending on elk damage activity for that year.”

Does anyone know how this works?  Does the HM decide who to call and what days that person hunts?  Would that be based on the order of the draw or the whim of the HM?  And if you don’t get contacted you don’t lose your points but I guess you blew your special hunt opportunity for the year.

[boneaddict]

I'll look for the topic that explained all of this....... basically I believe there is a draw order, and what that does is creat basically a phone list and they go down it until they get in touch with someone that can do the hunt.

[jackelope]

based on the comments i've heard from a lot of guys on here, it seemed to me that most never get called.

[boneaddict]

Probably a bad time to screen your calls.

[steeleywhopper]

I've drawn once and my dad and gramps have drawn twice none of us ever got a call. Not say that it does'nt happen, but it did not work out for us. I won't put in for any more of those. We all drew the Malaga tags, but I guess the elk were not in there tearing stuff up those years. Not a big deal to me weather I got called or not, it was a second elk tag anyway.

[Skyvalhunter]

I too drew a Malaga tag and no phone call from the hunt master. But if you look back at the history of that tag there have been very few calls or people harvesting animals. Some of the MH tags you lose your points(it will tell you which ones in the regs) if its a bull tag but most are depredation hunts for cow elk. So the MH just calls people on the list working his way down.

[kirkl]

Ya thats how it works, a guy i work with got called last year and got a cow but we only live 30 minutes from the area he put in for so that helps. He didnt get called the year before though.

[Skinnyman]

I was curious how these worked as well so I emailed WDFW. Basically they are a permit only hunt for Master Hunters. And they are damage control hunts (you already knew that I am sure). These damage control hunts change year by year based on the damage that is being reported by farmers and land owners. They are not a guaranteed hunt, they will only contact the permit holders if they need to lethally remove animals (meaning they will try all other means first, i.e. hazing, etc., and if those are not successful then they will use lethal means as a last resort). If there are 15 permits and they only need to remove 5 animals, I am sure not all 15 people will get called. I am not sure what order they call people in.

I have heard some of them can be a little boring depending on the hunt. Some, not all, are basically sitting in a farmers field waiting and hoping for animals to show up.

[jackelope]

logically i think guys should be putting in for these hunts expecting a meat hunt. excitement, from what i've heard is near the bottom of the list.
i think i heard one story about one of these hunts where the farmer calls the hunt master and says to get someone there quick, the elk are in the field, the hunt master calls the m.h. and if he's not immediately available to come and shoot an elk, they call the next guy. i think this is why kirkl may have mentioned living 30 minutes from the hunt area was a big benefit.

disclaimer: i might be wrong.

[kirkl]

Exactly jackelope, living 30 minutes from eberg/Kittitas is a huge benefit if your a master hunter. Its does them no good to call someone from the westside if the elk are there now. And yes these are only meat hunts, not much excitement.

[Skyvalhunter]

But if you look at the success of those particular permits and see a zero chances are the elk werent in the so called damaged area, no matter how close you live to that unit. You are right to look at it as a "meat hunt" or another excuse to be outdoors.

[Bob33]

Do you have a specific Hunt Master hunt in mind?  If so I can possibly get you some details.

[wannahunt]

The first time I got drawn for one these hunts I never got a call. This year I got another one so we'll see what happens. Like some folks have said before it's a meat hunt chance if i do get called. Elk meat in the freezer is always a good thing to me.
Hopefully I don't get a call until after the regular season is over. I don't really want to miss the real hunting. Actually I think I may be able to buy a second tag if I get called but I can't remember. Better pull the reg's out and check on that.

[bearhunter59]

I got drawn for the North Bend D Master Hunter second tag Hunt Master hunt.  My understanding is there is no set protocol for how any of these Hunt Master hunts have to follow.  There isn't even any known procedure for how the Hunt Master is selected.  As far as I can tell, the Hunt Master is a local guy that has been in touch with the local game warden on a very frequent basis, and once it was determined there would be HM hunts in an area that game warden then goes and asks an individual in the local area if he wants to be the Hunt Master.  Hopefully, it is someone that knows the local landowners pretty good.  This HM then works with the local land owners and game department to figure out exactly how a hunt will be carried out.  A landowner then probably has to call the WDFW and say the elk are here now, tearing my property up, get someone over here.  The gamie then has to call the hunt master, who then gets his list out and decides who he is going to call.  There is no requirement for him to list the names in any order, or call any of the permit holders in any specific order.  He can start at the top of the list, or the bottom of the list, or just pick names out of the list of people that he knows.  It's completely up to the Hunt Master at this point.  He could call the same guy out on a couple of different occassion, (until the guy finally bags the cow) without calling a different hunter.  This whole Hunt Master situation is an issue the Master Hunter Advisory Group is just now looking into, and hoping to address with the Wildlife Division of the WDFW.

[Skyvalhunter]

Good luck on that tag. They lost some of those elk at North Bend when the Native Americans tried to tranquilize them and did it improperly thus killing them. That hunt more so depends on if we have a good winter with lots of snow and the elk start going close to those newer housing development. No tag draw for my MH apps this year.

[Wahoo]

I recently talked with a wdfw employee who told me the order of the list to be called is created by the drawing itself. First successfull drawing for that permit is the first one on the call list and so forth. I drew the MH Moose Tag and was going to try and find out where I am on the list but I didn't think of the caller not sticking to the list. I don't think I am going to get my hopes up to high. 

[high country]

I have been drawn 2 times. there is a little politics involved since the dept just gives the HM a list and he is not paid.

[Caretaker]

Depends on where you draw.  Some hunt masters are ill-tempered control freaks, the order in which they contact potential hunters has no ryme or reason to it, and you have to be on their favorite list, god forbid you get called and make a mistake....any mistake, you will forever be blacklisted....inside their circle if you know what I mean.  Other HM's will let you hunt on your own once you have been given a tour of the hunting area.  Bob33 probably has the most knowledge in this area.

[Bob33]

New hunt master guidelines and policies have been drafted but are not fully implemented at this time. The state will provide the hunt master with a list of permit holders and the order in which each was drawn.  It is expected that the hunt master will use that list and contact the permit holders in the order they were drawn.

Since these are damage control hunts, there is no assurance that a permit holder will be called.  It really depends on the animals and when and how often they're on huntable land.

[high country]

I should add that I have had great results from the HM's, but I have seen first hand that there are MH's that are truly stupid.....at least before the super cutback. I would not want to be one of them dudes if I could not test every hunter myself.

[high country]

Depends on where you draw.  Some hunt masters are ill-tempered control freaks, the order in which they contact potential hunters has no ryme or reason to it, and you have to be on their favorite list, god forbid you get called and make a mistake....any mistake, you will forever be blacklisted....inside their circle if you know what I mean.  Other HM's will let you hunt on your own once you have been given a tour of the hunting area.  Bob33 probably has the most knowledge in this area.

the HM might be cool with it, but the the enforcement guy could have both of their arses for lunch. the HM i to be a liason, not hunt god.

I know that one hunt master will allow you to come back after your permit season and hunt another permit season (one you didn't draw) if you didn't kill an elk.