Eastern Washington Elk

[midsouth_hunter]

Has anybody ever hunted eastern washington state for elk? If so, how are the numbers and quality of bulls in the herds.

 

[Big Fin]

There are some Eastern WA guys on the site and I am sure they can help out. But, given how many of them travel to MT and ID for their hunting, I suspect Eastern WA is not an elk destination.

 

[Big luke1981]

Hey I live in Washington and have hunted eastern wa all my life. We do have elk and some really nice bulls are killed every year. The problem is almost all the eastern side of the state is spike only unless you draw a limited entry tag. These tags take a while to draw, I have 5 points and don't plan on drawing a good tag for several years. If you are a non resident you have to buy a non refundable non resident hunting liscense before applying for a bull/cow tag. If you do not get drawn then you are stuck with a general spike tag and will be competing with thousands of other guys. So as Big Fin said a lot Of wa residents travel to other states because of the low draw odds for Any bull tag. If you have any questions feel free to pm me and I will try to help you out. You can also go to the reaourse page and click on washington and it will take you to the regs Welcome to the site also...

 

[Jon Boy]

Pretty much what big luke said. Theres alot of good bulls to be had but drawing a tag is another story. Washington has the largerst population of people of any of the "western states" and id go out on a limb to say they have some of the lower amounts of animals. This makes pressure on the good parts of the state horridinous, at least during rifle season, and tags extremely hard to draw. To draw one of the premier rifle tags its gunna take 10-15 years. To make it worst the general season license and tag is nonrefundable. Having said that the last 4 or 5 governor tags and a few of the raffle tags were filled with 400+ bulls.

 

[dan.kirkpatrick]

washingtons tag draw system sucks for non-reidents as you have to apply and draw a gen tag before you can put in for the good units///although im close to washington,wyoming,utah,nevada,colorado all have a much better system for non-residents,,,sorry but oregon sucks also for non-residents too.

 

[midsouth_hunter]

Thanks for the info. I am thinking about Colorado as well. Which is better Colorado or Wyoming for a quality hunt and over the counter tags? Any areas to consider in both states? Thanks again guys....

 

[dan.kirkpatrick]

colorado otc is easy tag,,,lots of elk,lots of pressure,northwest-central areas hold alot of elk,,,I think wyoming may be better for elk quality but will take a few points.

 

[JohnCushman]

There's no elk in Colorado...they all went to New Mexico and Wyoming

 

[Big O]

Colorado or Wash. for elk? Not much of a decision to make.
I have hunted E. Wa. for a long time and have shot alot of spikes & cows, but that's about it. I mainly hunt MT if that tells you anything.

Good luck.