Nice!

[Pugetsound]

WDFW HUNTING RULE CHANGE   
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091
http://wdfw.wa.gov
December 29, 2009
Elk Area 4941 (Skagit River) closes for elk hunting
Action: Closes Elk Area 4941 to elk hunting
Effective dates:   December 28, 2009 to January 20, 2010
Species affected:   Elk
Location:   Skagit River south and east of highways 9 and 20, near Concrete; for more information on the closed area, please consult page 80 of the 2009 Big Game Hunting Season pamphlet.
Reasons for action:   The elk harvest objective for the area has been met and the conduct of hunters has become disorderly and unsportsmanlike.
Information Contact:   Wildlife Program (360) 902-2515 or Wildthing@dfw.wa.gov 

[Redmist]

Just read about this in the Columbia Basin Herald.  Pretty big article.  Sounds like a bad spectator sport.  Something like this happened up North on deer a decade or so ago with modern firearm.  But that opening morning of the Yakima Elk Season when the herd gets ran along the high fence and butchered isn't sportsmanlike hunting either.  How about when the Elk crossed over at Cresent Bar years back and took that royal beating.   I guess when something like this happens with arrows, it's a slower death, and probably can be more visually ugly and equated to bullfighting which I think is coward sport.  Don't let me forget to mention the tribes who have to kill Refuge and Snow yarded big game like they are great hunters.  Truthfully, the Indians are the most unsportsmanlike since they have unlimited opportunity to kill in a sportsmanlike manor, but choose to take advantage of whats "easy" on the ground that most of Washington citizens pay taxes to protect.  But the truth of the matter is that none of the above means *censored* to our kids getting killed in war.  So think about them first, and send them some Elk sausage.

[Special T]

I went to a bull fight in Mexico...One of the guys did a hack job.... So for the beginning of the next round, with a fresh bull he knelt in front of the chute about 40 yards with the red facing the bull and holding his empty hands in the air... He didn't seem like a coward to me.   

[GoldTip]

Good thing they didn't have video cam's with how the hunt used to happen out on Deckard flats near Gardner in the late 80's/early 90's during regular season after a heavy snow.

[chrisb]

I've heard a lot about this and what the DFW officials said, but never got the story on what went on.

[@RCHER]

GoldTip, I was gonna mention the same example. I hunted and visited that shin dig a few times for the late draw hunt as a kid in the early-mid 80's.

Trucks and horse trailers parked bumper-to-bumper along the road before light, then as the sun would rise, the shooting way up the mountain would begin and that's when the herds would bomb back over the ridges towards the park boundary. Nothin but gun shots and elk flippin ass over tea kettle. Some seasons got pretty bad. I should find some of the old pics of me standing there at Deckard and glassing hundreds or maybe thousands of elk just over on the park side.

Face it, some guys/people go bonkers when faced with a potentially slam dunk situation - especially an elk. Add to that, everyone's book of ethics reads differently and so the line of what's acceptable becomes less definable. I know you guys in medical and law enforcement see how goofy and unpredictable people get in different situations. Look at how the hunting/fishing communities are split on simple and legal forms of harvest. Shooting ducks on the water, or quail on the ground. To keep or not keep that fish. Hound hunting. Let that buck grow bigger. If you didn't climb 4000 vertical feet for that sheep, you didn't earn it. Etc., etc., etc... All perfectly legal and supported methods of wildlife management, but either supported or frowned upon by Joe public depending on the way his own individual book reads.

I don't know what all went down in Concrete, But as easy as it is to muff an archery shot, I wonder if WDFW is re-thinking how they conduct these urban cull hunts. Not like we have many of them. I'm sure they were trying to do what's best for the land-owners and the management plan, but perhaps something more like a youth and/or disabled, 1:1 with a WDFW agent, rifle or even shotgun option would work better. Like the MT park bison that move onto private property. Maybe perceptions would be that it's a more controlled management practice. Dunno.

[boneaddict]

Don't know much what happened but I bet it weighs on their sheep decision in the canyon.

[Special T]

I have found its much easier getting landowners permission because of the bows. You don't tend to blow a hole in the house, car,horse dog cattle etc. Over here on the wetside, land owners with 40acres are Leary of rifles on their property... I think it's a double edged sword. Easier access to keep the elk away because of the bows, yet much less effective to fold em in their tracks... I've asked permission to hunt land in that unit and have people tell me NO elk only deer, or just no in general they are pets... I think part of the problem is some would like the elk up in the hills and some like them around. Even the landowners are split...