??s for Western Washington Hunters

[ChristopherG]

I'm hoping to move to Western Washington in the next year, and I'd love to hear about hunting in the area from you mossy Washingtonians.

What do you hunt in the emerald land, and in what part of the state to you find your prey? Do you hunt public lands or private, and if public, what kind? What hardware do you find best suited to those evergreen forests and the animals you hunt therein? And, how's your luck ? Thanks as always for sharing--
ChristopherG

 

[HABU]

Generally speaking, the west side is dense. Lots of brush and thick stuff for animals to hide in. Clear cuts are popular for Blacktail, and elk too for that matter. When I bowhunted, I hunted the west side more. I hunt on the east side bucause I hunt modern. Eastern Wa. is way more open. You can find thick stuff too, but generally speaking its much more open.

You will find blacktail deer, elk, goats, bear and cougar in western wa and whitetail, muledeer, sheep, bear, moose, cougar and elk in eastern wa.

 

[priv8ter]

Not bad...

To expand on what HABU said, there is a huge difference between eastern and western Washington hunting. Like HABU, I hunt mostly eastern, around the Ellensburg area.

This year though, since this is my wifes first time hunting, we are sticking closer to home, as we have a two-year old daughter that the grandparents will only watch for SO long.

Some of these pine forests can be pretty dense...just as dense as any New England hardwood forest. The popular technique is to find a clear cut area, and glass it for a while. The elk and deer love the young, tender stuff that starts growing in a clear cut area.

The black-tail deer in Western Washington are totally different creature for the mulies in Eastern Washington. I have seen some of the big mulies run in the 250 pound range. The biggest Western Black tail I have seen was half that. The Elk can get big. In the Olympic National Park, they have tagged elk at over 1200 pounds.

And that is part of the problem. Most of the good public hunting land in Western Washington is thin strips of state/national forrest bordering the big National Parks we have here(Olympic, Mt. Rainer, and Mr. St. Helens.) And, these deer and Elk arent' stupid. A few days into the season, hunting pressure usually drives them into these parks, not to be seen until next spring time.

On the other hand, a lot of hunting pressure means these animals are usally moving around a lot in the first few days of the season.

This year, my wife and I are hunting in the Tahuya State Forest, in North Mason County, at the end of the Kitsap Penninsula. It's going to be a different experience for me, as I am used to Eastern Washington type hunting. We are going for black-tail with two very diferent types of guns. My wife is going to be using a NEF .270 I bought her, a very useful gun for the clear-cut areas. I, in my capacity of guide, will be carrying my Marlin 1894C. She can handle the 200-yard shots, I can handle 75 yards or closer shots.

As stated, most people I know hunt public land. There is a lot of timber company land, but usually you kind of need to know someone to get on that. Sometimes, it's just as easy as making a phone call, but some people aren't even willing to put out that much effort.

Then there are companies like Merril and Ring and Rainer Timber company that advertise raffles in the Hunting regs so you can hunt on their land.

Hardware?

Gortex baby, break out the gortex. It can be quite drizzly around these parts in the fall.

But, if you are talking guns, I think this would be a great excuse for a lever gun, if you are looking for an excuse to get one. If elk are on the menu, a lever-action .45-70, with some raised scope mounts so you can still use open sights, would be perfect. Even over a clear cut, shot's at greater than 200 yards are kind of rare.

My buddy used to hunt Western Washington with a Remington 7400 in .30-06, with see through mounts an a 2.5 power scope on it. Something like that would be nice also.

greg

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Success rates are not great in a lot of areas. Start applying immediately for some of the special tags/drawings. Many elk areas have spike bull restrictions and branch antlered bulls can only be taken with a special permit. For the most part, hunters may take only one deer and one elk per season. Also, WA is kind of quirky with the weapons choice. When you buy your elk or deer tag, you must choose the weapon you want to hunt with, either archery, muzzleloader or modern firearms. You then cannot hunt that species with anything else. For example, if you choose archery for elk, you cannot hunt elk with rifles or muzzleloader. If you live in a state where you're used to (legally) shooting a half dozen whitetails every year, you can pretty much forget about that in WA. I live here but only hunt about every other year. I go elsewhere to fill my freezer with venison. On the other hand, there is no end to the opportunities to fish here. I have recently started fishing and crabbing on Puget Sound and have been filling my freezer with other kinds of tasty critters.

 

[patentmike]

A few years ago they were having goat problems in the Olympics. Are they hunted now? I suppose it would take an act of congress to allow hunting in the park, but they were causing lots of problems and they are non-native.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Mike,

There is no goat hunting in the Olympics. All the goat units are in the Cascades. There were 19 permits available this year, I think. Not very good odds to draw, needless to say. About 15,000 people applied last year.

The goat population has been stable, more or less, out there for the last 15 years or so. The fish and wildlife folks relocated a bunch of them back in the late 80's when there was a serious over-population problem. I don't even think congress could authorize a hunt in the park.

 

[ChristopherG]

This is all great information, and I appreciate your sharing it very much. The areas and land are familiar to me, as I grew up in Seattle--but did not grow up hunting, so wasn't sure about the lay of the game, as it were.

I've seen the Olympic elk herds, and they look both majestic and delicious. Actually, I've been served Washington Elk by a friend who bagged it, and it was wonderful.

I'd been thinking a 45-70 Marlin would be a great gun for the range of animals and the range of ranges most likely to be found on the wet side, and that still sounds right for most of these opportunities. Your reports are a little discouraging, perhaps--you can't cross the road without scaring up Whitetail during the Fall here in North Carolina--but I'll be happy just to get out in the rainy, mossy forest and look for them critters.

How about small game?

 

[TrapperReady]

NRA4LIFE said:

There is no goat hunting in the Olympics

Which I view as a darned shame. It's a lot more of a sport than that thing where you dance around twirling a ribbon.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

My small game hunting has been limited to rabbits and squirrels in my back yard with my pellet gun. There seems to be a near infinite supply of rabbits. I have also seen quite a few grouse in the woods too.

 

[priv8ter]

Ouch

Trapperready, that's just wrong. Luckily, I'm at work, so I can just swap keyboards out with someone ele.

Like NRA4LIFE said, Rabbit is about it. You can hunt forest grouse also, which are treated as small game, and not birds. There are also seasons for Racoon, Fox, Bobcat, and crows, but no one I know hunts them. Not even sure I've ever seen a fox in Washington.

I suppose some of us(me especially) have presented a gloomy picture. Maybe we just want you to stay away so we can have all the animals to ourselves!

It's not that bad, it's just not as good as you might think it should be for as green of a state as it is. As I said, a lot of the public land is locked up in Parks, which you can't hunt. And, opening morning of deer and elk seasons usually sound like WWIII. Add to that the DRY summers we've had the last few years, and it isn't condusive to good hunting.

Even in good years, Washington has more of a 'Meat factory' feel to it than a trophy area.

And there is a new thing going on the last few years that makes me mad. A lot of developers have been buying ranches. Not huge, but 500-700 acre places. Then they split them up into 5-20 acre 'estates' and sell them off.

Now, I'm a Libertarian, and I don't want to tell people what to do, but, this version of 'Urban Sprawl'...it just distrubs me what it must be doing to animal populations. Putting a house every 10-20 acres is just enough to mess up things up, conservation wise. One thing I don't mind paying taxes for is more land being saved.

Welfare: Bad

Lot's of Public Hunting Land: Good

greg

 

[patentmike]

Priv, I used to see a red fox every once in while when I lived down near Kingston. You guys are making me homesick.
I need to get back and visit again soon.

 

[Northwest Cajun]

Chris,
A buddy and I got a nice 4X4 Roosevelt Elk last year in the Olympic NF, well sort of... He shot it with a 300WM in a Simpson Lumber clear cut then it walked across a logging road into the NF where we tracked it and I finnished off with a Guide gun in 45-70. It was the first Elk for both of us after 5 years of trying. In fact it was the first legal animal either of us had ever seen. We used mountain bikes because the area was off limits to motorized vehicles.It was about two miles from the truck and took 2 trips each to get the quarters out. It was about 250-300lbs bone in. We each walked away with a little over 100 lbs of jearky, burger, summer sausage and steaks.
Most of the other hunters I've seen were road hunting We saw a few on mountain bikes but the farther back you can get the better. Most if not all of the Simpson Lumber Co( which boarders the NF on the south side) is open to foot trafic or Mountain bike.
Bring rain gear and Dont expect to see a lot of animals, but they are there.

Good luck

 

[p35]

I once saw a red fox standing by the side of the road in broad daylight in rural Thurston County- no idea why it was doing that. A few years ago, the Ft. Lewis golf course was having a real problem b/c the foxes kept stealing golf balls off the course in the middle of play. Again, no idea why. They are around, though.