2025 Big Game Rules are out!

[dreamingbig]

The permit numbers are an absolute insult and completely unwarranted imo.  Hell they didn't even count elk during covid but continued with this silliness.  Count the feed lots and call it good. Nevermind the hundreds of bulls that don't come down at all

Remember too folks, they gave out additional tags last year due to their draw screw up. Those chickens were most certainly going to come home to roost and they did. There is no free lunch.

Amen!


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[dreamingbig]

It's frustrating for sure.  Elk herds are bursting at the seams but we still don't get tags.  You can't bank animals. That's not how that works. Use em or lose em.  If bull numbers were a real issue we wouldn't be seeing herd growth. That's how that works.  It's just perplexing how we can have hundreds of bull tags for a single unit for years with lower elk numbers than we have now but now that the herd is bigger than it's ever been we can only spare single digit permits.  If it wasn't so insulting it would be laughable.

This is what I have been saying.  Insulting our intelligence!


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[RC]

Part of me wonders if the state is intentionally trying to keep the elk numbers high hoping there will be a correlating increase in predator numbers?  Afterall, every deer or elk we take is one less for a cougar or wolf to eat.

[ipkus]

Part of me wonders if the state is intentionally trying to keep the elk numbers high hoping there will be a correlating increase in predator numbers?  Afterall, every deer or elk we take is one less for a cougar or wolf to eat.

Yep...just dragging their feet until the wolf population builds south of I-90 to take care of the issue.

I truly hate what this state has turned into.  And yes, I blame the people that vote in the politicians that lead the charge.  We all reap what you sow.

[Stein]

Unfortunately when they said the methodology of the department will change we are now seeing how it works.  Hunters are at the absolute bottom of the totem pole, unless they can absolutely prove every other rung has an overabundance, we're on the sideline.  The commission has said multiple times they don't believe population estimates, so I suppose this is the inevitable result.

[Cougartail]

lol.. Camera hunting is the goal of the new WDFW. You'll still need a tag to post your trophy on the internet.

 Posting cell-camera pictures will be considered poaching.

I'll  post dead animals from Alaska so you remember how hunting once was.

[hunter100]

Not that I'll ever draw a bull tag but I do think its cool they switched some EA tags to start Sept 1st. Based on what I have seen that first week without the crowds would be absolutely the time to be out there!

[crabcreekhunter]

Wouldn’t say I’ve spent a ton of time in WA elk woods besides the last few years.  With that the amount of tags given out is absurd and unwarranted.  There was days I’d see 15+six point or better bulls, with a handful of those being mature.  The Yakima tag numbers are an absolute joke, goose prairie especially in my opinion as I’ve spent a fair amount of time in there when they were giving out 80-100 modern tags.  I echo what a lot of others are saying in regards to the commission/predator issues.  Sad that management of our herds is based on the political spectrum and is ruining an outdoorsman’s paradise.

[dreamingbig]

Not that I'll ever draw a bull tag but I do think its cool they switched some EA tags to start Sept 1st. Based on what I have seen that first week without the crowds would be absolutely the time to be out there!

Yeah, ~ 12 folks will get to take advantage of that.   So generous of them.


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[Loup Loup]

You don’t have to encourage them by buying tags.
I haven’t bought a deer or elk tag in 6 years. With the exception of a deer tag 3 years ago.
I won’t buy deer or elk or cougar tags this season.
I’ll shoot two bears and pick up a couple three good roadkills.

[Karl Blanchard]

You don’t have to encourage them by buying tags.
I haven’t bought a deer or elk tag in 6 years. With the exception of a deer tag 3 years ago.
I won’t buy deer or elk or cougar tags this season.
I’ll shoot two bears and pick up a couple three good roadkills.

That's exactly what they want. They want you to not buy tags. They want you to stop caring. They want you to stop hunting. You're giving them exactly what they want which is no opposition

[trophyhunt]

Agree Karl, when people want to protest and want everyone to not buy or hunt, that’s just what the anti commission want.   They don’t give two chits about the money. 

[Cougartail]

You don’t have to encourage them by buying tags.
I haven’t bought a deer or elk tag in 6 years. With the exception of a deer tag 3 years ago.
I won’t buy deer or elk or cougar tags this season.
I’ll shoot two bears and pick up a couple three good roadkills.

That's exactly what they want. They want you to not buy tags. They want you to stop caring. They want you to stop hunting. You're giving them exactly what they want which is no opposition

They already won years ago. I literally was told by a leftist  hunters should only be able to take picture of animals they find.

[Loup Loup]

You know what? I have no idea what they want. What I want is what matters. I want to stop throwing my hard earned money down their mismanagement of OUR resource. Which I have done to the extent that it works for me. Just because I chose to quite playing the fool for WDFW doesn’t mean I can’t still stand up for what’s right for the resource or continue to rub WDFW face in it when they make anti resource management decisions.
Again, quit buying no product.
And remember this, every decision should pass this test: is it best for the resource.
The best path for OUR resources is to quit being a part of the mismanagement.

[crabcreekhunter]

Us as hunters are not “part” of the mismanagement as others have said and I feel the same way our state politics and commission are the problem for our wildlife and the North America model.  People not buying tags isn’t going to help our interest in hunting, it’ll drive up prices, just like on end of life products once you can’t find them.  The product which is hunting licenses is what the state is trying to discontinue unless there is a need.  A product without a need doesn’t exist.  No license money, no tags, no hunting, antis win.