western washington deer hunting

[khunter#1]

Hello I'm a new member to this site. And also a new hunter and I was wondering if anyone had any advice on a good area to scout out around 2 hours away from Seattle, 3 hours max. I am not asking for ANY honey holes or hotspots. Just on a general area thank you!

[akashasdaddy]

I have asked pretty much the same question with the exception of the driving distance from Seattle. The best answer I received was the Capitol forest around Candy Mountain. I have heard from others not on this site that, that area is battle hunting at its finest. I hope you get a better answer; which you may because when I asked the question I asked for hunting area in and around Olympia south, I do not/can not go north. Best advice find a locked gate with overgrown roads and hike as far away from everyone else as you can. Good luck to you in the up coming season.

[bryg_12]

Capital Forrest gmu 663. If you have  question pm me

[KillBilly]

There are many good places to hunt deer both south and west of Seattle. Capitol Forest is very congested and you will have people target practicing and shooting all around you constantly. It's a mess.

[halflife65]

I have asked pretty much the same question with the exception of the driving distance from Seattle. The best answer I received was the Capitol forest around Candy Mountain. I have heard from others not on this site that, that area is battle hunting at its finest. I hope you get a better answer; which you may because when I asked the question I asked for hunting area in and around Olympia south, I do not/can not go north. Best advice find a locked gate with overgrown roads and hike as far away from everyone else as you can. Good luck to you in the up coming season.

If you're hunting close to the road everything is "battle hunting" (I'm assuming I'm interpreting the meaning of the phrase correctly as something akin to "combat fishing") in just about any unit in the state - with just a few exceptions that you may never find out about because the people that know about them want to keep it the way it is.  Generally, you'll have to find somewhere to get off the road if you want to get away from people.  Since it takes some time to find those places it's hard to expect people to give them up if they have them.  You're always likely to get "Capitol Forest", or something similar, as a general area and you'll have to find your places to get away from the road.  You may get a little info on a trail or closed road system on accessing areas.  Still, it doesn't hurt to ask because you never know when someone will take pity on you and PM you some specific info. 

If you really want to have some fun, ask people where you should go for the high hunt.     After walking a million miles and sometimes taking a number of years to find a spot, not too many people are willing to give that information up.  I don't blame them at all.

[runamuk]

look at some of the tree farms....but be prepared for the currently gated roads to almost all be thrown open for deer season....green diamond and weyerhauser are the two main ones in the south sound area.....there is some good deer hunting or so I am told out of Shelton as well all I ever saw were doez  3 hours from Seattle will put you in Eburg as well so maybe check out deer over the 90 corridor although I never see many deer just lots of elk  the kitsap penninsula always has deer in the road not sure where you can hunt over there though....
the capitol forest can be a scary combat pumpkin patch during deer season on weekends weekdays aren't near as bad....

[h20hunter]

I'd head straight east and try and pick an area with accesible forest roads with logging activity in the last few years. Pick and area and learn it well. Start stump sitting and watching clearcuts for bears and blacktails.

[Jayfire83]

Try Vail Tree Farm, lots of hunters but lots of Deer!! Just get out of the car and you have 75% of the people beat!! Capital Forest is a gun range and meth head land fill!

[zackmioli]

use google earth to find areas that look to have some clearcuts. most of them on google earth are a year or older so they will be good areas to start. find the roads that access them and hope they are gated. also, anywhere in the gifford pinchot national forest. there is a ton of land within 2 hours of seattle.

[khunter#1]

Thank you so much for giving me all of that info it really helped thank you.

[Alchase]

Your tag says Auburn? You can go east through Enumclaw, hit the Forest Service roads up past Green Water. Lots of people will be there, but if you get off the roads and work a little harder then they do there are deer in there. Or you can head south between Elbe and Morton. By your self a Forest service road map (at any sporting goods store) and a Hunting regulations guide, then decide which GMU (Game Management Unit) you wish to hunt, and go scout around.
Also you can find and interesting area, then search in these forums. There is a 99.9% chance the area has been discussed and you can pickup good info.
Good luck.

[halflife65]

Your tag says Auburn? You can go east through Enumclaw, hit the Forest Service roads up past Green Water. Lots of people will be there, but if you get off the roads and work a little harder then they do there are deer in there. Or you can head south between Elbe and Morton. By your self a Forest service road map (at any sporting goods store) and a Hunting regulations guide, then decide which GMU (Game Management Unit) you wish to hunt, and go scout around.
Also you can find and interesting area, then search in these forums. There is a 99.9% chance the area has been discussed and you can pickup good info.
Good luck.

Just make sure it's only for deer and bear.  The White River unit is draw only for elk.

[Jayfire83]

What season do you hunt? That would help narrow things down a lot.

[khunter#1]

I'm thinking about hunting in the modern firearm late deer season.

[akashasdaddy]

I have asked pretty much the same question with the exception of the driving distance from Seattle. The best answer I received was the Capitol forest around Candy Mountain. I have heard from others not on this site that, that area is battle hunting at its finest. I hope you get a better answer; which you may because when I asked the question I asked for hunting area in and around Olympia south, I do not/can not go north. Best advice find a locked gate with overgrown roads and hike as far away from everyone else as you can. Good luck to you in the up coming season.

If you're hunting close to the road everything is "battle hunting" (I'm assuming I'm interpreting the meaning of the phrase correctly as something akin to "combat fishing") in just about any unit in the state - with just a few exceptions that you may never find out about because the people that know about them want to keep it the way it is.  Generally, you'll have to find somewhere to get off the road if you want to get away from people.  Since it takes some time to find those places it's hard to expect people to give them up if they have them.  You're always likely to get "Capitol Forest", or something similar, as a general area and you'll have to find your places to get away from the road.  You may get a little info on a trail or closed road system on accessing areas.  Still, it doesn't hurt to ask because you never know when someone will take pity on you and PM you some specific info. 

If you really want to have some fun, ask people where you should go for the high hunt.     After walking a million miles and sometimes taking a number of years to find a spot, not too many people are willing to give that information up.  I don't blame them at all.

I have never asked for specific areas, just general places I may find deer. I do not mind a hike and I plan on hiking in as far as I can before sun up and still have a little bit of light before sun down. I have no clue about capital forest just passing on the info I have recived. My plan for my first season in the woods is to stick to the areas I am familure with. I grew up in Grays Harbor and know the brush around there pretty well. This is my first year hunting but I have done a lot of hiking in the woods in the GHC. I have done a LOT of scouting and feel I have found about three areas that are all at least 10 miles from eachother so I dont hunt too close to one area. I have only seen small bucks but I dont really care about antlers I want to feed my family not have trophies. My trophy will be my daughter having a full belly and spending quality time with her in the woods, doing something that a lot of kids now days dont get to do and learn/enjoy the outdoors. Too many people worry too much about the antlers and not enough parents spend enough time with their kids. Share the outdoors with your kids or they wont care if the government takes it away from them. I AM a first time hunter but my advice (the little I can give) to any hunter would be, hike in as far as you can and if you want to road hunt and just drive up and down logging roads till an animal jumps infront of you, do us all a favor and stay out of the woods go get your meat from the super market, road hunting isn't sporting and in my opinion it isn't even ethical. We already have the edge with our rifles and high tech gadgets, the least we as hunters can do is get out in there territory and walk a mile or two in the animals shoes.