Hunting Washington Forum
Big Game Hunting => Elk Hunting => Topic started by: Lucky Buck on June 12, 2019, 08:57:36 PM
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My son drew Silver Dollar Ranch any elk. Sounds like a hit or miss hunt depending on if you get the “call” or not. Any past draw winners care to share how their experience went? Thanks in advance!
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had the disabled one and it was the year it burned but i know people get the calls
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My son also got drawn the year of the fires around there, so we didn't get called to hunt. You'll be provided a ranch managers contact info. Find out what number you are on the list. Good chance of gettting a call if toward the top of the list. Be flexible with your schedule and ready to go on short notice if you get the call. They only call when the herd has moved onto their ranch, which isn't a dailiy occurance. Also be persistent and don't hesitate to call the manager every week or so. Never know when they might be able to get you in. The manager we had assigned to us said sometimes he doesn't even hear back from some of the hunters drawn when he leaves them a message.
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Giving out these tags is a necessary evil that these ranches have to do to get the landowner tags from the state. If they give out so many in the draw then they get some they can use for themselves or sell for guided hunts (big money and three month long seasons for them). They are nice but in my experience they are not forgiving. What I mean is that if you get a call to show up the next day and you cant make it for any reason at all, they feel they have met their requirements and you probably wont get another call. My son was so excited to get drawn. I called the hunt manager for the ranch that he was assigned too multiple times. He was never called and given the opportunity to hunt at all. This bothered me quite a bid. I called WDFW after the season and requested he get his points back and they refused to give them back. I thought that was a super bad deal for a youth. He lost all of his points (5) and he never even had the opportunity to hunt at all. I understand that hunting is not always a success. But to put in for a tag that you cant hunt unless they call you, and then you never get called at all, you shouldn't loose your points. If he was given the opportunity to hunt and didn't get anything then I can still understand loosing the points but to not be able to go because you have no control over the situation and loose your points is wrong!
Another thing is that Silver dollar ranch isn't one big ranch. Its a group of ranch's. You will be assigned a ranch. from what I have learned, some ranches are a much better experience than others. Some ranches bend over backwards to give the youth a good experience and others could care less. So as you recieve comments on this thread and as you do research you will hear wonderful stories and others that are terrible.
