Western Washington Blacktail

[rugdork]

I live in Edmonds and was wondering if anyone could steer me in the right direction as to where there is good public hunting land on the west side of the mountains.  My hunting parter that i hunt with every year east of the mountains has chosen to take the season off due to unfortunate events in his life.  I want to stay close to home and maybe do a few day long hunts on the west side for black tail.  Any advice would be much appreciated!

[chevysquid]

I went one year down around Matlock.  Saw some deer, few bucks, and was plenty of public land.

[Ihuntelk2]

Well lets see im a bow hunter so ive already been out this year early season saw about 14 bucks and tons of does. Just couldnt get the right "situation" for a good clean shot. Capitol forest is a very good area with tons of deer. Seen lots of good bucks taken out of there and also the skookumchuck area johnson creek rd, centralia alpha rd are some good area's. Ive also seen some nice bucks taken around the shelton area.

[chester]

If you wanna stay closer to home. head up hwy 2. ive seen a few good deer off beckler river rd in the past.

[7mm_mag_man]

Your in Edmonds, so you aren't far from Ed's Surplus store, go there and get yourself a Atlas & Gazetteer they're about $20. Then find some forest roads on the west side that look promissing and fuel up the truck and go my man. Darrington area perhaps?

[rugdork]

Thanks for the info, I have posted in the past and have received good info, I would like to be more a part of this site because everyone is here for the reason of enjoying the outdoors.  I appreciate all the input i gather from this site.  I only get to hunt a few weekends out of the year and mostly on private land which makes it hard to broaden my hunting experiances.  The kind people on this site will hopefully motivate me to steer away from land I have hunted and allow me to expand and explore the many areas in Washington has to offer.  Once again Thanks!  I have another question I will post that I cant seem to get a straight answer to.

[Ridgerunner]

Hit VAil, will be a zoo but lots of deer down there.

[Hornseeker]

I'm with the highway 2 suggestion... just head east and get on the forest. there are deer there.

[Dmanmastertracker]

 Vail is a good bet for smaller deer. We passed on a 6" spike our last trip there a couple year's ago. The outlying area's of the Skook hold a little bigger deer, mostly hike-in.

[Glockster]

Find areas with logging activity....not fresh but 5-10yr old and hunt the edges of the timber where you find tall ferns.  Darrington used to be a very good spot but since the NFS stopped cutting for spotted owl reasons alot of those forest service type habitats are no longer much good to blacktails.

You can also hop the ferry and explore lands on the Oly pen.  I may be looking for a partner to hunt b.tail if the muley thing doesn't work out this weekend and next.  PM if interested in talking about that.

[RippinLips]

Well lets see im a bow hunter so ive already been out this year early season saw about 14 bucks and tons of does. Just couldnt get the right "situation" for a good clean shot. Capitol forest is a very good area with tons of deer. Seen lots of good bucks taken out of there and also the skookumchuck area johnson creek rd, centralia alpha rd are some good area's. Ive also seen some nice bucks taken around the shelton area.

capital forest=cover yourself with blaze and a bullet proof vest lots of deer i agree but bullets are like birds out there. and youll have about a 100 huntin partners out johnson creek. definatly good spots to go for nice day hunts tho theres just lots of pressure out here

[bankwalker]

Hit VAil, will be a zoo but lots of deer down there.

i would hit vail as well. actually ill be there this year as usual.

there are alot of deer in vail, alot of spikes and 2pts. and after a few years i have learned to use the people to my advantage. and usualy see multiple bucks a day. though most are out of gun range while glassing hillsides as people walk through

[Armadillo]

yeah vail is packed with deer and is a really safe bet unless you have spent alot of time elsewhere scouting around. Check out the harvest reports from the skookumchuck unit 667 and that gives a pretty good idea about how many critters are pulled out of there