The past two winters were hard for sure, seems like harder in some pockets then others. Whatever pocket I hunted last year and so far this year must have been devastating.
For 14 years I have almost always gotten a buck in the late season, normally take the late season off from work, usually see 30 to 50 deer in a 10 day period, with about 20% of those being bucks. Last late season I spent 10 days out, hunting hard from dawn till dusk and saw a doe and a fawn on day one and never saw hide nor hair of a deer the rest of the season. Pretty shocking really. Indeed deer were being killed and some nice bucks were taken, but everyone I spoke with were seeing way less deer last year. I just hunted for three days...get ready for it, I didn't see a single deer in those three days. There is sign in the woods, but numbers are down. I hope we have a few mild winters and I hope the WDFW stops issuing all doe permits, except for youth and seniors. If I was you, this year I would not be too picky when your out there. Good luck.
