on the website. type in your wild ID

www.wdfw.wa.gov

not that i drew anything... (kicks dirt)

i now am the proud owner of 9 elk points, 8 deer points 4 sheep,4 moose,4 goat in wa. no permits this year but i did draw wyoming

i just checked and finally drew blue creek bull tag. took 7 preference points but i get to hunt a big bull.

buffalobreath... GMU 154? are you local? i've lived and hunted in that GMU for most of my life. My family is still there... just wondering. There are some FANTASTIC bulls there, but you gotta have access.

edit: oh, and congrats! wish it was me!

not really local. my younger brother bought a farm over there and we have made quite a few freinds and one of them has a couple of thousand acres with a couple of very large bulls that we have been spotting this season. oct 20 is the start so i may/hope to hit someof the tailend of the rut.

best of luck an a great bull!

mind if i ask who your brother is?

heath

Everyone I elk hunt with in WA "ate" their tag, meaning they did not fill it.

The average may be 5% for elk hunting in WA, but that includes:
a) exclusive rights to private land
b) big bull or cow tags
c) packed in with horses

For the average guy in WA with 9 days to get a spike elk on public land, the chances are ~1%.
I have seen it done once, but I have seen it not done 100 times.

What does it all mean?
I have 10 years left being young enough to hunt elk, and I am not wasting any more years on WA state, unless I have a special advantage.

tnekkcc is spot on in his analysis of eastern washington elk hunting. i havent hunted elk in over 7yrs . just buy a license and a preference points. i look at it instead of buying lottery tags. i usually head to Mt or Alberta for moose but the moose is getting a bit too expensive. 742wd- My younger brother is Brian and he bought a farm up Rose Gulch. nice place and some of the finest people you could ever ask for neighbors. if i wasnt committed to Mt i would look at s.e.wash. but i get to hunt big bulls every yr in Mt. how long that lasts who knows.

looks like this may be the last year my dad and i get to hunt our little honey hole. the couple that own it have been friends for years, but she died this year at 80+ and he is 94. It's a square mile of land surrounded by private ground with some fabulous bulls on it. but i've yet to see a spike there, and my dad ate his COW tag there last year. there were bulls, just no ladies! we saw a spike and several cows across the drainage on the adjacent property that we don't have access to. it was tough to just watch them for hours...

When he dies, the place will probably go up for sale and the price will be off the charts. what a bummer!

best of luck on your GMU154 bull! my friend just told me today he drew in the dayton unit. there are some great bulls up there, too, but also 100,000's of hunters.

heath

my friend Dennis drew the Tuccannon modern bull tag and one of the late Okanagan buck permits. he had ten preference points. he will have to take off a whole month to do these hunts justice. 724wd if you are in the area around opening day of deer season let me know . you and i can get together for a beverage.

I got a Black Powder Cow tag for unit 336. only 25 tags and 3 are in our camp.

steve, it sounds like you had better put up a real sturdy meat pole. i talked to my friend Dan and his grandaughter(13ys old) that got drawn for the moose tag and was successful last year drew a youth hunt on the ranch by Hanford for a big bull elk. this gal is one hunting machine. she has taken 3 or 4 4point mule deer in the past 4 yrs and a real nice moose. her 270 has done it all.

I hunt the West side and have taken home elk meat for the last 7 years in a row. I like the Western mountains for elk. They are where you find them. Chased a 7 X 7 last year but he was smarter than me and I settled for a rag horn. This year will be the same area. Will be my 24th year in Western Washington in the same camp. Can't seem to draw a special tag although I have tried.

Buffalobreath, how bout an update? how did you do? my buddy with the Dayton tag shot a great bull. my dad, hour hunting buddy and I sat out elk season. just a points year for us.

heath

not real well. my younger brother, who owns the farm at dayton got an infection in his knee. almost lost his let. the blue tounge really hit the whitetails bad around there also. i had 3 different 7x7s , one about 360 b and c scouted out but they left the area during deer season never to return. after hunting 5 days w/o even seeing any elk i shot a young bull. my legs and back were gone and i felt lucky to have him. my friend had a tag in the blues somewhere where he wont be specific got a nice 9x7, which i caped for him. 7 of the points were busted up and he still grossed 361. 11 in bases and quite a bruiser.

well hey, you got a bull! and your brother still has his leg! we did ok for deer , but the prospects for spikes are so low, we skipped. my buddy with the dayton tag got a 7x7, green scored 372 unofficially. it's a fantastic bull. maybe one of us will draw a tag next year... one can only hope!

congrats on getting a bull. i know it's not always a sure thing. i drew a tag the first year of the points system in the dayton unit and ate the tag. saw two bulls, but couldn't pick out which body the horns belonged to.