Howdy from WA

[kwyeewyk]

Hi all

Been lurking around here for a couple years, after I started watching Randy's videos. I grew up in Okanogan County, got a wildlife degree from WSU and jumped around doing seasonal work for Forest Service, BLM, WDFW, Montana FWP and USGS. And a summer snagging bear hair in the North Cascades for a WSU project (one of the best summers of my life). Currently working for BLM doing post-fire rehab, wildlife biology and GIS. I live near Entiat with my wife and three kids, 18, 8 and 5. Great deer (and chuckar) hunting in the back yard, but not so much for elk. Also love salmon fishing in the Columbia and trout in the high country.

I turned 40 this year and after not drawing a WY general elk tag with 2 points I realized if I'm going to get some real elk hunting in before I'm too old I'd better get a plan together and make it happen. I've found a ton of good advice on here for figuring out all the options for elk hunts and I feel like I have a solid plan for the next ten years. I appreciate the values of public land hunting, meat and experience over trophies that most on this forum seem to share. Not that I don't enjoy antlers, but I've yet to pass on a legal animal in my life. Had some great hunts in WA but opportunity is limited and competition/pressure is high. Tag soup is likely on the menu if you do much passing in WA (or even if you don't). Looking forward to spending some time with a few more elk and few less hunters, I suspect I might start passing just to extend the hunt! Although elk literally turn into giant roasts in front of my eyes like in a cartoon, so might still be tough to pass on a shot! My ten year plan is based on maximum opportunity, so will be focusing on WY and MT general and ID/CO OTC tags. Plus I just love the mountains in these states. Will also throw in for NM on the off hand chance of a random draw. Hoping to get the young ones started on youth cow tags when they're old enough, and as they graduate to the tough hunts I'll help them and switch back to cow hunts for me. So for the next ten years I'm going to do my best to not worry about minimizing cost per pound and focus on enjoying chasing some bulls in the high country. Already got some good advice from mulecreek this season and am now 3/3 on leftover WY cow tags (2019, 2016, 2014). Thanks again, and to all who contribute on here, hopefully some day I can give as much good advice on here as I've already found. And thanks to Randy for supporting this forum and public land hunting in general.

 

[Dave N]

Welcome aboard!

 

[homers]

Welcome!

 

[Irrelevant]

Welcome. I'm just over the hill in Cashmere. Went to WY this year for the first time. Make sure you scout well, I ended hunting an area with very similar pressure to WA.

 

[SG25]

Welcome to HT!

 

[pabearhunter]

Welcome aboard.

 

[kwyeewyk]

Welcome. I'm just over the hill in Cashmere. Went to WY this year for the first time. Make sure you scout well, I ended hunting an area with very similar pressure to WA.

Yeah, the first 2 trips I took I hunted type 6 in limited entry migration units, and saw barely anybody. This time we did type 6 in one of the higher traffic general units in the Wyoming range, we hunted the last week of October so missed the Oct 15 opener, but I can imagine it would have been a zoo. Even the last week of the general bull season there were still plenty of hunter camps and people driving the roads, but the difference from WA seemed to be that there is generally much less road density and a lot more sanctuary areas where the hunters are much thinner. I usually figure if it's a good spot and I can figure it out there's probably at least half a dozen other hunters or more who've already figured it out! The elk were just about as smart and spooky there as they are on opening morning on the Colockum though, but in the end we found some that were nice and calm feeding on an open ridge in plain sight of the road, and were able to close in on them without them bolting for the thickets.

 

[ntodwild]

Hello and welcome.

As you stated Washington is a very limited opportunity state for "Trophy" Elk. If you are a meat hunter it's as good as any other in the west (maybe better).

As a retired hunter on a limited budget but maximum time I would suggest OTC tags from other states. My partner (also retired & fixed budget) struggled for a time trying to figure out how to get the maximum opportunity given the amount of time we have so we could be in the field hunting "almost" all year long.

I have shared this strategy in several posts on this forum.
Sharing an OTC tag and alternating who's name goes on it every year allows us a late season hunt in places like Idaho for a very cheap price. This on top of our Washington spring bear (given a tag), spring scouting, early archer elk, early archery deer pretty much puts us in the field 70+ days a year. This does not include any small game hunting we do while scouting. Splitting the cost of an OTC tag, trip, meat, hunting experience is very cost effective for two hunters and even more so if you have a 3rd. So far we have filled 3 of 5 Idaho OTC bull tags but more than that we have had some great adventures on a single budget. If you have a good hunting partner or two, don't care about the 1sec it takes to pull the trigger and are on a budget, sharing the cost of a single tag and alternating names yearly is a fantastic strategy for hunting other states. It is also much more consistent, less costly over applying and waiting for draws or point collections. Obviously you have to be ok with not being the one killing/pulling the trigger every hunt and completely at ease with enjoying a full blown Elk hunt with a great friend or two. As someone who has taken many elk over the years in the west I can see where this could be an issue with young hunt parties. My partner and I are in it for the hunt and always have been. We have always shared not only the meat but the complete experience even when we do have individual tags as we do every year in our own home state so it's truly no different when we go out of state with a single OTC tag. Just another hunt that we both look forward to and cherish.

Once again, welcome to the forum.

 

[fishing4sanity]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[kwyeewyk]

Hello and welcome.

As you stated Washington is a very limited opportunity state for "Trophy" Elk. If you are a meat hunter it's as good as any other in the west (maybe better).

As a retired hunter on a limited budget but maximum time I would suggest OTC tags from other states. My partner (also retired & fixed budget) struggled for a time trying to figure out how to get the maximum opportunity given the amount of time we have so we could be in the field hunting "almost" all year long.

I have shared this strategy in several posts on this forum.
Sharing an OTC tag and alternating who's name goes on it every year allows us a late season hunt in places like Idaho for a very cheap price. This on top of our Washington spring bear (given a tag), spring scouting, early archer elk, early archery deer pretty much puts us in the field 70+ days a year. This does not include any small game hunting we do while scouting. Splitting the cost of an OTC tag, trip, meat, hunting experience is very cost effective for two hunters and even more so if you have a 3rd. So far we have filled 3 of 5 Idaho OTC bull tags but more than that we have had some great adventures on a single budget. If you have a good hunting partner or two, don't care about the 1sec it takes to pull the trigger and are on a budget, sharing the cost of a single tag and alternating names yearly is a fantastic strategy for hunting other states. It is also much more consistent, less costly over applying and waiting for draws or point collections. Obviously you have to be ok with not being the one killing/pulling the trigger every hunt and completely at ease with enjoying a full blown Elk hunt with a great friend or two. As someone who has taken many elk over the years in the west I can see where this could be an issue with young hunt parties. My partner and I are in it for the hunt and always have been. We have always shared not only the meat but the complete experience even when we do have individual tags as we do every year in our own home state so it's truly no different when we go out of state with a single OTC tag. Just another hunt that we both look forward to and cherish.

Once again, welcome to the forum.

That's a pretty good approach, especially when you figure a lot of times you might only tag one for the group anyways. Unfortunately I will mostly be going solo, a friend and his brother are going to hunt the WY general (hopefully next season), but not sure how consistently they'll be able to hunt beyond that. We will share meat when we hunt together though, when everybody is contributing something to camp, fuel, etc, it makes sense to agree to share.

You're right about the "trophy" part, not that I'm after trophies, but I'd say in general "bull" elk are a pretty limited opportunity in WA (if you don't count spikes! or true spikes!). I haven't had the time or opportunity to learn the branched antler areas, always buy the eastern WA elk tag and the NE is the furthest drive for me. So I've spent most of my time in the Colockum and Yakima herds, and mostly gone archery so at least a chance at a cow. Always get into lots of elk and manage to find areas without too many hunters, but with archery so close can still be so far and more often than not no kill. A lot of that problem has been not being able to hunt the whole, or most, of the season though. With our limited days to hunt, hunting half the season might mean half the chance of success. I was thinking maybe I'm just a shitty hunter, but after 3 tags in WY and 3 kills with about 7 days of total hunting, I'm thinking I'll keep blaming WA where I'm double digits in days/kill! One of these years the dam will break here and I'll start getting one every year, right? Figured leftover cows in WY would keep me happy, but I've realized how badly I want to hunt bulls, not sure why, really don't care that much about the antlers, but more I think the experience of the hunt.

 

[rtraverdavis]

Great introduction. Welcome to Hunttalk.

 

[ntodwild]

I was thinking maybe I'm just a shitty hunter, but after 3 tags in WY and 3 kills with about 7 days of total hunting, I'm thinking I'll keep blaming WA where I'm double digits in days/kill! One of these years the dam will break here and I'll start getting one every year, right? Figured leftover cows in WY would keep me happy, but I've realized how badly I want to hunt bulls, not sure why, really don't care that much about the antlers, but more I think the experience of the hunt.

Na, not a shitty hunter, just limited time. Ive been hunting Washington for over 40 years now. First ten years I only was lucky twice (literally met the statistical odds). As I got older and had more time, switched from modern firearms to Archery boy did the opportunity as well as success rate go way up. Im not exactly sure how many elk I have taken over the years here in Washington but I can say that in the last 11 years of hunting I personally have taken 7 Elk which is a far cry better than the statistical average for the state. On that note the years I didn't take an elk my partner did (I can't remember the last time I didn't have meat in the freezer). I attribute this to MUCH more time in the field both scouting and during season. Effort and time put in seem to be the contributing and common factor. I surely can't quantify or at least say "I am a better hunter"? I just seem to get out much much much more now that I am retired. I was lucky enough to retire at 50 so I am still in good hunting shape which helps.

It's a balance during your working life between career, family & friends. Hunting is a hobby no matter how passionate you are about it or during what part of life you're in (starting a career, mid career, newly wed family and so on). Keep things in perspective and enjoy your hobbies as much as your current life stage allows. I pinch myself sometimes realizing my LUCK in life circumstance.