Elk Hunting in Washington

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pax

New member
[rant]
I haven't hunted for many years, but grew up hunting with my dad and would like to put some elk meat on the table this year.

So a few days ago, I went down to the local "stuff" store and picked up the regs book. Could they make it any more complicated??? If they tried real hard??? I don't think so!

The whole state is split into hundreds of "GMUs" (Game Management Units). The lines dividing these are apparently arbitrary and not shown clearly on the map in the reg book. Each GMU apparently has a different set of rules, varying season lengths, and varying definitions of a legal elk.

As if hundreds of itsy bitsy GMUs isn't enough, some GMUs have different sets of rules operating within them ("that part of GMU 621 north and west of Jimmy Come Lately Creek...")

There are at least a dozen, maybe more, 'special tags,' 'special hunts,' 'special seasons,' etc ad infinitum. Some areas require extra permits. Some are "Firearm Restriction Areas," meaning that they are subject to extra rules about the type of gun you can use. Some regulate whether non-shooters can accompany shooters and some do not.

I seriously doubt that any one hunter, in any one year, would be able to obey all the regs listed in that book. If someone did, it would be a plain miracle.

[/rant]

pax

"The question nowadays is not what makes government work. The question is how do we make it stop." -- P. J. O'Rourke
 
There is not only special tags, but also limited time. Most of these hunt only last about a week. Hunting for ten days. That stinks! That is why I like archery season. You can go when ever, where ever and you have a month to do it. At least that's the way it is on the south side of the creek.

With a general elk archery tag, general deer rifle tag, cougar tag and bear tag. I can hunt from August first through November almost non stop. Now that's is hunting!

Robert
 
I used to live in Washington, and belief me, they want it difficult, see they dont have to outlaw hunting, they just make it so difficult and with so much red tape that nobnody will want to take the time to do it anymore, let alone teach there kids to hunt. In a generation it will be almost none existant and when they finally say, "OK, no more hunting" nobody will raise a gripe. Another thing about Washington state is that they let weyerhauser (spelling??) buy over half of the huntable land, he builds all these damm loggin' roads and don't let you use atv's to hunt on them, you have to walk in. Me and my little brother drew a cow-elk tag in a special youth-only hunt and we got one, how far from the paved road you ask???? oh only about three miles. But that was too far for my dad to carry an elk, one quarter at a time. my brother was 13 and I was 11, not much help packing elk. so we snuck our 4-wheelers in and got him out of there. A good area to hunt is the "Rimrock unit" it's about a three hour drive from tacoma, you have to drive over white pass. anyway, dont give up, good luck.
 
BadMedicine: How is it your little brother is 2 years older than you? Just wondering...

:)

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bullet placement is gun control
 
I'd like to say I was just testing you, but I really got my stories mixed up. My little brother and I drew for doe DEER tags. But when we got ther elk it was my older brother and I who drew for cows. My little brother couldn't handle the kick of an elk gun at the time, he's 4 years younger than me. And thanx for catching that.
 
Pax,

While we're on the subject of hunting in WA, let me tell you a little story about the WDFW. Back in '97 after an admittedly tough winter, the WDFW decided to change a bunch of the eastern WA mulie min. requirements due to higher than average winter kill. Fine by me, I'm all for strong herds even if it means decreased hunting opportunities for a while. Anyhow, did they make these changes nice and early and give people a chance to change hunting plans accordingly? NO!!! You know how and when I found out about this change? It was three days into the archery season, I got pulled over by a Boise Cascade campground caretaker who showed me this WDFW flier. Now I was only allowed 3 pt. or better. The area I was hunting is decent for smaller bucks and does, but you just don't see a lot of bigger bucks. Wasn't too happy as you can imagine.

Got home later that week and wrote a nasty letter to Olympia. Received a semi-apologetic letter which was more condesending than anything else.

I've got more WDFW stories if you'd like to hear them Pax. By the way, it takes a lot to discourage me from hunting, but have you seen the fishing regs? I used to fish all the time in Oregon. Moved to WA and frankly didn't feel like buying two licenses, three permits, spending a ton of money, and muddling through all their rules just to catch 1 or 2 fish. UnLocke Washington fellow sportsman!
 
From what I've seen and heard, if you go elk hunting anywhere that is easily accessible, you'd better hire a really fast teen-ager to run the animal down and tag it before some threatening redneck tags it himself. Too many people around for me. Rather go mule deer hunting up in the sticks, where overweight road-hunters fear to tread....

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Jerry V.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Too many people around for me. Rather go mule deer hunting up in the sticks, where overweight road-hunters fear to tread....[/quote]

Vek: I hear you!

We have friends with plenty of land, so my plan is to hunt on their private property, far from the madding crowd.

Especially since our friends keep griping about the damage the elk are doing to their fences and land. :) (What, you got too many elk around? I'm so sorry to hear that ....)

Sub MOA: the rot goes deeper than Locke, does it not? I seem to recall the fishing regs being impossible even before he came on the scene. Sadly, the whole state is at the mercy of the big city treehuggers. It's pathetic that folks who've never been out of the city have so much legislative power over things they simply know nothing about.

pax

"The problem with most folks ain't their ignorance, it's that they know so much that just ain't so." -- Mark Twain
 
If you haven't read my posts today. The elk herds are heathy and close in King County.

The question is can I take a cow with a Rem 870 shotgun with a rifled deer barrel and a rifled 400 grain slug at 40-60 yards?

Do people hunt elk with shotguns?

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The Seattle SharpShooter - TFL/GT/UGW/PCT/KTOG
 
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