Washington Elk Hunters How Long have you been at IT?

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

Passed my "hunter Safety" course 1978, hunted Elk up FS #74 White River just outside the park boundary, rifle, any Bull.

[Elkaholic daWg]

Wow! only 13 so far have hunted any bull without an S/P.

 Still less than 50% even though you still can in some places. It's been since  about what 1996? No wonder so many accept the S/P system no matter how they mess it up. Spike only was mis-spoken (Washington- Must be PC) to be a TEMPORARY rule.  At this  (years before probabably) time I believe the bunny (and wolf) huggers envisioned this cash cow so they could divert other fund's to "watchable wildlife" and the like


 Yes I remember the blues started Spike only a few years earlier than that.

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

I remember Archery hunting Eastern Washington (Teanaway and Manastash) when the first week of October was anything with hooves and hair (Any Deer, Any Elk)

[bradslam]

1980. Hunting with my grandpa in the south fork of the Sol Duc, wearing a red and black Filson coat, and packing my brand new .257 Roberts.  I still remember seeing that first herd...a long sting of about thirty elk working their way through a clear cut on the other side of the valley.  Unfortunately they were all cows.  Those were the days.

[Wazukie]

Started hunting in 1972, big game in 1975.  Don't ever remember having to take hunter safety in this state.  I did have to take it in Nevada when I lived there from 06-09.  My grandparents lived in Thorp for years and I would hunt up above their place to Cle Elum, Indian John Hill area.  Now I live in God's country and up until last year, it was any elk.  Now it's 3 pt or better.

[OlympicElkJunkie]

this is my tenth season and I sure wish I had been doing it for a lot longer and hope to be doing it for many more.

[NWBREW]

This WILL date us!

Not really. I still hunt general season ANY BULL just the location has changed. .   I will say that some of the places I hunted in the late 70's are now full of houses. 

[RadSav]

Started hunting big game in '75 with .410 slug single shot.  Didn't kill my first bull until I started archery in '80.  First P&Y deer, elk & bear came in '84.  That was a good year

[WDFW Hates ME!!!]

Well lets see. passed HS. in 1993. First deer was 1993 (battleground unit spike) . first elk 1994 (lewis river cow) . So i have been at it for 18 years now. Missed a few years in the military. I miss the old days, To me in the lewis iver unit when there were clear cuts and tons of elk around.

[colockumelk]

I started elk hunting when I was 14 in 1995.  I shot a cow elk with a muzzle loader when there used to be a late muzzle loader season up Mud Lake.  I remember when the portion of the Little Naches GMU west of Rock Creek used to have a 3 day late season and then the Mud Lake area would open up for like a week.  I had some good memories during the late season.  My family used to do pretty well during the Mud Lake Late season. 

Then I joined the Marine Corps and they took the late season away.  Didn't do much elk hunting until I got out of the Marine Corps.  By that time the Muzzle Loader season had been reduced to a Saturday through Friday thing.  Since I was in college I could only hunt the weekend.  Well after one year of being limited to just ONE weekend I took up Archery in 2006 and have been addicted to archery ever since.  I hunted archery from 2006-2009.  In those three years I learned more about elk hunting than I had in my entire previous experiences. 

I'm coming back to WA this year to hunt elk bivy style in the wilderness with my brother I can't wait.

[elksnout]

1972 when I pointed my boots down the old elk trail. Never looked back. Thanks dad.

[Kowsrule30]

Year before it went to spike only....... I got to hunt any bull once..... I shot a spike the last day of season....... The next year all I saw was branched bulls and cows!!!  Figures....  The season was 2 weeks or so long and the last weekend if I remember right overlapped deer....