Central Washington Deer Population

[Karl Blanchard]

It was not a positive experience to talk to a guy who showed me old pictures of herds of deer outside Naches and west of Tieton.   

I grew up running feral up Chinook pass. The amount of deer prior to the winter of 1996 was impressive.  I can vividly remember hiking with my grandpa in the spring and the volume of winter kill was absolutely staggering.  They have just never rebounded after that.  Pretty sad.

[boneaddict]

Eastman and his family had some great footage of some monsters up by the observatory years ago.   There were some real whoppers back then.    Manastash ridge, Chinook, all amazing bucks.   

[OutHouse]

It was not a positive experience to talk to a guy who showed me old pictures of herds of deer outside Naches and west of Tieton.   

I grew up running feral up Chinook pass. The amount of deer prior to the winter of 1996 was impressive.  I can vividly remember hiking with my grandpa in the spring and the volume of winter kill was absolutely staggering.  They have just never rebounded after that.  Pretty sad.

96 was a heck of winter, eh? I was about 10 and remember missing school for two weeks around here. Another guy I knew who has since passed told me that mule deer hunting was great up Hwy 12 up to White Pass, 410 as well obviously. I think he was referencing before the 1990s.

The guy who taught me how/where to find morels said they would scope out bucks west of Tieton in the early season and "pick" the buck they wanted to get in the fall and usually they would get them. Crazy how much it has changed.

[Stein]

Dang, 96 must have been bad as I remember it over in Montana.  It snowed a bunch then dropped to -48 and the power went out.  Only time school was ever cancelled due to weather kindergarten through college.

[Wingin it]

The season after the ‘96 winter kill we found carcasses all over. I remember cutting a set of tracks and thinking that may be the only deer left. As others have said, the herd has never recovered. Seeing 50 plus deer a day was normal before that winter.

[CarbonHunter]

96 changed the way we hunted because I believe that was the start of 3 point or better if I remember right but the main issue was the lice that followed that never allowed the deer herds to recover. We still killed deer after 96 for about a decade before it turned into the disaster we all live today.

[Karl Blanchard]

96 changed the way we hunted because I believe that was the start of 3 point or better if I remember right but the main issue was the lice that followed that never allowed the deer herds to recover. We still killed deer after 96 for about a decade before it turned into the disaster we all live today.

yep you're remembering correctly

[teal101]

Lower elevation winter ranges had a decent amount of animals.  Without leaving a paved road you could see a couple hundred head if you hit a couple canyons up the Wenatchee River valley.  Seen quite a few 1-2 year bucks on the winter range as well.  Sadly if the wolves keep moving in like they are it wont be long before these safer havens are infiltrated.  I know they're close.

[Skyvalhunter]

Sure they are around already.

[bigmacc]

It was not a positive experience to talk to a guy who showed me old pictures of herds of deer outside Naches and west of Tieton.   

I’ll have to dig up some pics in the upper Methow in the 60’s and the 70’s. Jaw will drop!

Oh ya they will. 

[bigmacc]

Eastman and his family had some great footage of some monsters up by the observatory years ago.   There were some real whoppers back then.    Manastash ridge, Chinook, all amazing bucks.   

I had a customer that hunted that area for decades, he and his family, oh my the pictures he showed me. I went on a horseback fishing trip with he and his uncle one year, 80 or 81, man the bucks we seen were beautiful and a lot of them.

[OutHouse]

It was not a positive experience to talk to a guy who showed me old pictures of herds of deer outside Naches and west of Tieton.   

I’ll have to dig up some pics in the upper Methow in the 60’s and the 70’s. Jaw will drop!

Oh ya they will. 

A guy who has since passed but whose mother owned a substantial fraction of Mazama at one point showed me at least a 25 inch wide mule deer rack he had and he told me he could get one of those every year if he just "tried hard". And he said he was not that great of a hunter.   

[bigmacc]

It was not a positive experience to talk to a guy who showed me old pictures of herds of deer outside Naches and west of Tieton.   

I’ll have to dig up some pics in the upper Methow in the 60’s and the 70’s. Jaw will drop!

Oh ya they will. 

A guy who has since passed but whose mother owned a substantial fraction of Mazama at one point showed me at least a 25 inch wide mule deer rack he had and he told me he could get one of those every year if he just "tried hard". And he said he was not that great of a hunter.   

I and others believe that for sure. Remember the story I told on here years ago about the motor homes parked in a big circle in one of the big migrations corridors in the Methow back in the early 70’s, they had a pole full of bucks that were unbelievable, the weather hit up high and they killed them all sitting around their fire sipping whiskey! It was shortly after that my dad started advocating for some of the roads to be gated. Many conversations and rides with Game guys and bios. My dad said the herd would eventually be slaughtered if some of those roads were left open with the amount of new hunters after the North cascades highway was open. After what’s happened to that valley since it did open, I must admit he was right. Not even mentioning the predator issues.

That was back in the day when we had a “Game department”, that herd was at the top of the totem pole back then, job 1.

Some probably remember those days, folks would return home and say “there’s deer every where over there”. IMHO that pass was the valleys demise as far as hunting goes and for the plain ole sleepy feeling you got when you were there. Relaxing, cattle, logging, orchards, etc. It was one of those “best kept secrets”. No more.

[boneaddict]

Whats sad is now if people see a herd of 20 deer in a field they run to Huntwa and report all is well, glory days are back.   What they are clueless about is that field used to have 350 in it, and the field next to it, and the field next to that one.   No exaggeration, I'd go shed hunting and count literally a thousand deer in a basin.   Now there might be 5.   I'm not even that frickin' old.  I used to go hunt before I had to ride my bike into work.  I'd look over more than 250deer  in a morning on the ridge outside of town on public land during hunting season.   I would count more deer in less than an hour than Fitkin counted this year in three days on prime winter range.   Just looking at trails and tracks.   Its crazy how a snow covered ridge used to be crisscrossed with game trails, now just snow 

[CarbonHunter]

I think a lot of people underestimate the damage to herds caused by road kill. Once these highways and passes got cut through the land and everyone started driving 70mph the shear number of kills was exponential. Then add in hunting, poaching, habitat loss and predators. Hard to say if we’ll ever see herds like we used to.