How do you feel about....

[robodad]

having to cram all your hunting (Deer and Elk) into 7 days ??

[wastickslinger]

That is why I do archery elk and muzz deer or vice versa every year. I don't like to do both muzzleload because for the most part the seasons completely overlap. There are a few units open late but not many.

On the otherhand, those guys who only get a few days off a year get to hunt for both deer and elk during the same week. 

[Sagedawg]

I dont mind it to much. A few of the areas I hunt have elk running around on them and if one presents a shot Ill take it. The only bad thing is if you get an elk down you spend alot of time packing out so you deer hunting suffers or vice versa.


 Sage

[tmike]

I've heard from several people that Muzzleloaders get all these great seasons, but that isn't happening in Eastern Washington. Maybe someone who hunts the West side can chime in with their opportunities. It's great being able to hunt both deer and elk at the same time but it sure goes by quick.

[PolarBear]

I usually only get to hunt 4 days max a year for deer and 4 max for elk.  I'm use to it and have found out how to make the most of it and make it pay off.  I use to hunt deer for 2-3 weeks straight with limited results.  I do much better if I know my time is short and have to make every minute count.  It keeps me from getting lazy or hunting half-assed.

[6.5swede]

I think it sucks!  Why is it that modern firearm hunting seasons are statewide and longer than the muzzleloader which is in limited areas.  It used to be great back when I started hunting muzzleloader in the early 90's when it was a lot of areas and either sex in most. 

[bobcat]

having to cram all your hunting (Deer and Elk) into 7 days ??

I don't understand. Why do you only have 7 days?

There is the 7 day early muzzleloader season, and then the 3 week late muzzleloader season. That's 4 weeks.

It really works out good if you only hunt either deer OR elk with muzzleloader, and hunt rifle or archery for the other.

You are right in that eastside elk muzzleloader is only 7 days and there is no late season. But that's the tradeoff a guy makes if he decides to hunt elk with a muzzleloader on the eastside. The upside is you get to hunt before the crowds of rifle hunters, AND you get to hunt while the elk are (hopefully) still at the tail end of the rut.

So do you really only hunt the 7 day early season for both deer and elk?

[robodad]

No but I wish I could hunt both deer and elk separately with a ML, I take off to Wisconsin for the late ML here so I miss that all together. Right now I hunt modern for deer and basically gave up on elk with ML, I have a friend who is a DH and he does archery so I go with him as his companion hunter and usually play caller for him, this year I may not even be able to do that cause I'll be chasing moose in Bristol Bay with my cousin for the middle of September and the way gas and diesel prices are going I'll be lucky to see much hunting time at all being on a fixed income and a family to support.

[tmike]

If you hunt the East Side for deer. Yes you get 3 weeks. Here's what you get, some white tail units, East Kilckitat and Ringold (that must have been the Esquatel? before)not a lot of options. Another reason to keep all the weapon choices on the table. The West side looks like a different story.

[SHANE(WA)]

u only get the late in the selkirk unit, all the other traditional hot spots in NE WA are the first week of Oct which has to be the worst time to kill a big whitetail.

[brutus1]

We all need to voice our concerns to the game dept.We pay the same amount of money with less time to hunt. Deer and ELK at the same time is a joke. Late season deer hunts suck unless you have access to private land.

[Bookworm]

I've had some pretty good success in the late hunt down along the columbia. It is usually dependant on getting enough snow to get them to migrate but not too much so that you cant get around.

[robodad]

brutus1,

wouldn't that be nice to see them open a state wide late ML deer season for 4 days over the weekend before rifle late season ??

I'm sure it would just piss off the other user groups though !!

Yep it kind of sucks to pay the same to play but get far less time, but I guess that is what is keeping the user participation down some.

I just wish they would eliminate the "Special Draw Tags" that overlap with other users. I had a Winston cow tag this last year 07 and had to hunt with the general archery guys and it sucked, those guys must have thought I was a piece of crap for having a gun in the archery woods. If I was hunting archery I wouldn't want to see any body with a gun, it is also kind of unfair to them to unleash a bunch of hunters with guns into the archery woods in my opinion.

I'll never put in for another tag that puts me in the woods with another user group, it is just plain stupid IMO !!

I think I'll bring this up in another thread and see what others think about it, maybe it is just me that thinks it sucks.

[bobcat]

I just wish they would eliminate the "Special Draw Tags" that overlap with other users. I had a Winston cow tag this last year 07 and had to hunt with the general archery guys and it sucked, those guys must have thought I was a piece of crap for having a gun in the archery woods. If I was hunting archery I wouldn't want to see any body with a gun, it is also kind of unfair to them to unleash a bunch of hunters with guns into the archery woods in my opinion.

All those extra muzzleloader elk permits were new this year due to the plan to reduce the st. helens elk herd. I didn't apply for any permit that overlapped with any other general season, whether it was archery or muzzleloader. If I draw a special permit I don't want to be hunting during a general season that's open to anybody with a tag. But I wouldn't fault the WDFW. This is bound to happen especially with people like you demanding more muzzleloader opportunities, and at the same time the archery hunters are adamant in not giving up anything. If you think about it, the 60 Winston muzzleloader permits is a relatively small number when there are probably at least 1000 archery hunters hunting the Winston unit at the same time. So I doubt if it affected the archery guys much. And for the muzzleloader hunters, they knew or should have known the permit season was at the same time as general archery when they applied for the permit.

So how did you do? Did you see any elk?

[robodad]

Yeah I seen a few but it was only when I was driving from one place to another and they were running hard with tongue's hanging and tripping on stuff, you could tell that they were being pushed hard.

The way I see it is since the areas have been open for general season for a user group and they were not able to get the job done then open it up to a different user group, maybe they will have better success.

I would have had no problem if the area was open to general late season ML 3pt or better and 60 cow tags, but to have to hunt with the archery guys was hard.

You may be right in that by me being there it didn't affect the archery guys much but almost everyone I ran into it went like this :

"Hey hows it going, fine and you ? What are you doing in here with a muzzleloader ? Well I have a permit to be here. Ah well you better look at the regulations and make sure cause you are not supposed to be here. So I show them the permit and I get " That is such *censored*" and they walk off"

Just sort of made me feel like crap even though I had the same right to be there as they did, so I didn't hunt the places I wanted to for fear of running into another PO hunter, see what I mean.

These seasons should never overlap and if the game dept wants to have the ML permit holders hunting in an area then they need to have an emergency closure for the other user groups. and the same goes for the others, if there is a permit season going on then it should be only permit holders hunting.

It is somewhat my fault like you say, I should have realized that the general season would be going on when I applied. That will never happen again I assure you !!!