License in Colville/Kettle Falls Region

[hobbes]

My family and I will be driving to Kettle Falls next week for a late season hunt.  Its the first time for us to visit the area.  Where is the best place for us to pick up the necessary licenses in Colville?  It looks like there is a WalMart.  I've had issues with WalMart understanding the licensing structure in CO and MT before, especially when it comes to youth tags.  Any issues with WalMart there?

I didn't really want to stop in Spokane as we come through except for a short fuel stop, but I could get them there if necessary.

I'll go ahead and ask some hunting related questions also.  For the most part, I turkey hunt public land.  If the public land has a trail structure,  usually NF does, I'll hike the trails calling off and on to locate responsive birds.  If not, I'll hike cross country doing the same.  It looks like the surrounding NF has plenty of tails, so that is how I'll likely start.  It's unlikely that I'll vary much from the methods that have proven effective for me in the past; starting high at dawn to listen for birds then hiking and calling for most of the day to locate a hot bird.  Has this method proven effective in this area?  I see a lot of talk about some of the state managed land in the area.  Do these properties have any advantages over NF?
 

[washingtonmuley]

Big "R" should have licenses.

[Elkaholic daWg]

 Might try Clarks All Sports which is on the southern part of Colville  on 395 on the right as your going north. You'll like the store

[quadrafire]

http://mapmet.com/game/tractsmap.html

This map may help you out, all public access areas. Yes there are trails in some areas and some nasty/thick stuff as well, depends on where you end up.

I would imagine the WalMart in Colville would be well versed in hunting tags.
Good luck 

[bearpaw]

I don't think Big R carries licenses. We usually take all our hunters down to Clark's Allsport for licenses, they are quicker than WalMart most of the time. Clark's is located on the south end of Colville near the Forest Service building on Main Street.

[Jonathan_S]

Clarks AllSport

You'll probably find something you can't live without there too   

Good store.

[hobbes]

Thanks for the license info.  Quadrafire thanks for the map.  I've been looking at it for several weeks now, so I knew there was a fair amount of land managed by someone other than the NF.  I was wondering if there is any advantage to hunting that land vs. plain old National Forest land.  I didn't really want to spend the extra cash on the required permit if it wasn't necessary.  If I was hunting multiple weeks then the benefit would be the added access, but there is only so much ground I can cover in four days. 

This trip will be as much of a scouting trip for future hunting as it is a hunt.  I consider one bird out of three tags between two of my kids and myself in a completely new area without any prior scouting as a very successful hunt.  All it takes to inspire return hunts is learning the area enough to prove that bird numbers appear to offer a reasonable chance of success on future hunts. 

[quadrafire]

You will be good all over that country. I have hunted several of these areas and there are birds almost everywhere (at times). I didn't hunt this year at all, so can't comment on the numbers this year.
The national forest is nice as well, You may want to "explore" that as well for future trips.
There are plenty of roads to keep you busy for 4 days all over that region.