How long?

[HUNT]

How long will it be before you have to draw a permit to hunt elk in Washington?  Seems to me that this is the direction that things are going and may not be that far away.  Especially in the Blues and Colockum.  Thats pretty much the way it is for me now.  If I don't draw a permit here, I don't hunt here.  I take an extra week in Idaho.

[Timberstalker]

My guess is 5-7 years.  It will happen to Mule Deer first.

[colockumelk]

Last february I wrote a paper about this very same subject in a biology class.  It was a sort of what if type scenario.  Such as how many tags would be given out each year for each user group.  The WDFW said my numbers were within plus or minus 5% if it did happen.  Scroll down to view the tables.

Table 1 is the total amount of branch bull tags given out amongst the three user groups
Table 2 is for modern
Table 3 is for MZ
Table 4 is for Bow Hunters.  As you will see the numbers are broken down in each GMU. 

I also explain how and where I got these numbers.

http://www.washingtonsportsmen.com/?q=node/85

[gunnarnewt]

    Call me crazy, but when the state went to spike only way back, when I went to the townhall meeting in Yakima, I suggested this and used Nevada and Utah as examples, I was booed out of the building. To me a quality hunt with a reasonable chance of harvesting a bull is far better than the war zone we deal with now. I counted 27 people in the small drainage I hunt last year, and after two hours of watching "the march" of people talking and walking the roads I gave up.If you limit the hunts, you not only make for a better quality hunt, you weed out the guys who are just in it for the beer and socializing.
 

[sjhgraysage]

I would be willing to pay double the application fee we pay now, and double the tag price "IF/ONCE" drawn if we went to permit only hunting. Right now I buy deer and elk up front and usually never go elk hunting because of the crowds and predictable lack of success or opportunities