Washington invades Montana!

[RUTNBULL1]

Just came home from our Montana hunt, good times but couldn't believe the amount of Washington Hunters from one end of the state of Montana to the other side. Montana should send Washington Dept. of Fish & Wildlife a Christmas Bonus for doing such a crappy job in this state and pushing everybody into other states to hunt like Montana. Add story later on  our success, first need permission to post buddies buck!

[washelkhntr]

Way to get er done! Congrats.

[SemperFidelis97]

Fantastic looking deer my family will be invading Idaho again next year

[Baggman]

Nice buck. Ya Washington needs to get their head out We went into the Dalles Oregan and pulled out a nice 4x5  a 5x3 and big fork horn. Seeing bucks every day makes you want to spend your money elsewhere for sure,,

[Tman]

I've never hunted out of state.. Hopefully someday I'll be able to afford the non resident tag fees.  Nice Buck.

[BAR C3]

Going to get harder for me to go now due to the increase in tags to $897. I chewed out my friends and in-laws over there for voting for it. The residents were fed up with the guaranteed tags. What they don't understand are those guys aren't spending money in the state. We are! They are going to lose money with the economy bad and now you increase tags. All they had to do is look across the border at Idaho and see what happen there. Exactly why I quit hunting Idaho. They don't even come close to selling out there out of state tags now. No this F'd up state is increasing tags!  

[DOUBLELUNG]

Glad you had a great hunt!

 
No argument that WDFW has room for improvement, but the biggest problem here is human population density and habitat loss, not WDFW.  To quote Pogo, "we have met the enemy and he is us."

When I worked for Wyoming, with less than 500k people in a state half again as big as Washington; our biggest challenge was getting people to kill enough does and cows.  Reduced price cow/calf and doe/fawn tags, extremely reduced price nonresident doe/fawn and cow/calf tags, liberal limits, prime hunting times, seasons that were months long for over the counter tags - there weren't enough hunters to get the job done, even though 2/3 of the adult males and 37% of all residents hunted.  

When I worked for Washington, the trick was to try and divvy up a much smaller resource among way too many hunters.  Here an antlerless tag is a trophy, most general seasons are a zoo, and in general ethics suck because there is such intense competition for that limited harvestable surplus (and, on the flip side, good Washington hunters tend to be better hunters thaN WY resident hunters, skill and effort-wise).  Crappy season timing, antler point restrictions, etc., all designed to REDUCE success and PROTECT the herds while maintaining the general seasons most hunters want.  Even though those hunters are only a tiny percentage of the human population.

Montana's somewhere in between, but a lot closer to Wyoming than Washington, in terms of opportunity and abundance.  Last time I tallied up the big game and human population numbers, Wyoming had about 45 times more big game animals per human resident than Washington: Wyoming had around three big game animals per resident, Washington has around 16 residents for every big game animal.  

This is why it is STUPID for WDFW to suggest increasing nonresident hunting to raise revenues.  If Washington offered what nonresident hunters want, they would already be here (and are, to a small degree).  WDFW is already struggling to cut the pie into 46 pieces just to feed resident demand.  There are only so many days in the fall, and only so many vacation days per year -  few hunters are going to come to Washington FOR THE HUNTING in the fall, when the opportunities are so much better in other western states.  To hunt with family, or incidental to a business or family trip, sure - but not for the hunting.

 

[BAR C3]

WDFW isn't increasing the Out of State tags, they are increasing OURS! Look around the nation and compare our prices to everyone else's. We are high and as you said, we have more hunters than most states. The state is broke and they want to put the screws to an agency that makes a profit. The only the thing the tags should be paying for is the wages of game wardens. The WDFW sure and the hell doesn't spend it take care of anything.
This state could flourish with hunting and fishing if they cared. They want to close a bunch of fish hatcheries because of the budget. How about pump some money into them and put Washington on the map for fishing? They get by with bare minimum. The game biologist should alll get fired! Perfect example, the Palouse late firearm hunt is permit only. They say the population is suffering. Try going up Northeast (Republic & Curlew) were everyone hunts, the deer are gone!
I live in the Cheney unit and have 20 bucks coming into two cameras and 8 of them are wall hangers. We are talking about a five mile radius.   So I can't even hunt my own property unless I want to rifle hunt and draw a permit.
The WDFW manages people not wildlife! Bottomline.

BY THE WAY MOSSBACK 2, NICE BUCK!

[elkslare]

Nice buck mossback.   sounds like you guys had a good trip and took a couple of good bucks. looking forward to hearing your story and pictures of your buddys buck as well. I was thinking of putting in for Montana next year for hunting whitetails,sounds like pricing is going up,plus I heard the wolves are doing a number on the deer herds?  maybe not.

[Pathfinder101]

I was part of the Montana Invasion Force this year too.  Just no way for Washington to compete honestly.  We have too many hunters, not enough game.  Montana gets to manage their game, Washington has to manage the hunters.  If they are to blame for something it is this; that they have given up managing either, and are just managing for Money at this point...
The alternative of course, is for us to do what Oregon did; go to a draw only system.  It would improve the hunting slightly, but we will never be Montana, Wyoming or Colorado.  It Sucks.  But it is what it is.

Great buck BTW.  Wanna see your buddies' buck too...

[RUTNBULL1]

I was part of the Montana Invasion Force this year too.  Just no way for Washington to compete honestly.  We have too many hunters, not enough game.  Montana gets to manage their game, Washington has to manage the hunters.  If they are to blame for something it is this; that they have given up managing either, and are just managing for Money at this point...
The alternative of course, is for us to do what Oregon did; go to a draw only system.  It would improve the hunting slightly, but we will never be Montana, Wyoming or Colorado.  It Sucks.  But it is what it is.

Great buck BTW.  Wanna see your buddies' buck too...

Yes they are all about managing money and alot of it to boot and more to come to line their pockets this next year with the rumor of a minimum 40% increase. All units east of the Cascades, they need to close all the gates year around in some areas and others only when a hunting season is not in progress, start controlling the predator population as it should be and stimy this reintroduction and rapidly growing population of wolves into this state, then implement a total draw for the eastside for all elk and deer and for all weapon users for atleast five years, then revisit the idea of opening the units that have met there objectives. I know people will disagree, but not controlling these area's are leaving it wide open for poachers and almost year around tribal hunting which our state game populations can't survive this to many more years before being non exsistant. It would be nice if our younger generations have something to hunt in the years to come...........

[GlennGTR]

I agree, it is time to close the gates to protect our dwindling wildlife and natural resources. The good habitat we have left is being assaulted by dumpers, poachers and brushpickers...most of whom are illegal and dont give a rip about our forests and wildlife. I am a hunter and want to see a healthy, huntable population. I dont think that a draw only for eastside is that great but closing the gates will work wonders in a few short years.

[RUTNBULL1]

Buddies buck from Montana.

[400out]

Very nice bucks! To bad you couldn't get on the one in the spotter  But you did just fine anyways 

[RUTNBULL1]

The west side already has multiple areas closed off by gates from local Timber companies and besides with the terrain and vegetation that is so thick and heavy upon the west side allows for greater escapement for the wildlife. We need to start doing something now, including using our technology and the worlds worst enemy, the media, in our favor for producing petitions, suggestions, and new ideas with numbers(population of hunters or recreationalists) to introduce new ideas for season settings and game objectives to be achieved within our state. This year with an archery elk tag and deer tag for this state, this would be the first year ever that I didn't hunt elk within the state and only hunted a total of three days at most during the late season for deer after returning from Montana. I'm thinking real hard for next year whether I will be donating to this state again unless some real change starts to show itself, or just don't draw out of state tags.