Washington Mule deer hunters ?

[jackburcs]

Not recently. But still a beautiful hunt and hardly any other people.


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I went out for it in the Alpine Lake Wilderness for just a couple days last weekend (a work trip interrupted what was supposed to be a >week-long hunt). Saw a couple does on a big bench at ~5000ft and a lot of beds and tracks high up at ~6500ft that I think were likely from a buck, but couldn’t put eyes on it. Tough hunt indeed.

 

[69thokayestshooter]

Hello all, I have been hunting in Washington state for 5-6 years now , I started hunting later in life at 40 which has been a challenge but very rewarding at the same time. I have only been hunting blacktail and elk both on the westside of the state. I’m interested in mule deer hunting but I have heard so much negative comments about how nuts it is with people. Do most Washington guys just hunt out of state and not bother here anymore?

If you go up high you can still find them. You just don't get them from the truck as much as guys like

 

[chasewright15]

Hunting WA is hard enough, so when I meet negative hunters I just stay away. I do hunt out of state when I can get tags but we always hunt WA hard and have a blast. Less opportunity than other states, yes. But we still have seasons and still have critters. Brother killed a 170" on public otc with the muzzy the other day. Lots of good advice on here. Tons of people deep, tons of people on the roads haha get out there and go for it!

 

[matchu865]

I've been very unsuccessful mule deer hunting in Washington. It's probably because I only hunt weekends - prioritizing a week vacation to go hunt in SE AK for blacktails (Successfully). Even though I typically don't see much, it's still a beautiful time to get out into the mountains to explore new places. While I'm pretty green, I do find it funny people watching out there.... had a couple hunters walk past me at 20yds sitting next to a tree without noticing even after I waved at last weekend.

 

[pulligWa]

This year in hunting season I saw 24 legal bucks. I am hunting almost every day to help my odds. Rifle is pretty slammed but theres always places to get away from people. The more spots you check and explore, the sooner youll find the deer

 

[Jason277]

This year in hunting season I saw 24 legal bucks. I am hunting almost every day to help my odds. Rifle is pretty slammed but theres always places to get away from people. The more spots you check and explore, the sooner youll find the deer

Are you hunting Modern?

 

[pulligWa]

Are you hunting Modern?

I hunted archery and modern. I think 12-14 of them were during modern season! I was able to hunt all of modern except 2 days

 

[Sandhills]

Wa state mule deer hunter, but put more effort into out of state hunts. Blessed to have 250K+ of private to hunt, very rarely hunt more then opening weekend, our group has been 7for7 on opening weekend for the last 7-8 years? Private land is easy to come by if you put in the effort, and don’t have a 360 or 206 area code. I spend about 40-50 hours a year working for the landowner, trash cleanup, fixing fence, repairing watering sites for cattle etc. show up during calving season and ask for permission to coyote hunt. Offer to help with calving chores. Work your way into deer permission. If you show up the night before opening day and ask for help it’s gonna be a no 90% of the time.

That helps no matter what state your in. I asked a guy permission once to hunt a pond for geese. He told me no. I said thank you for your time and then offered my number if he ever needed a day worker for fence or calving help. He then asked when I wanted to hunt the pond and gave me permission for that day. We didn't end up hunting it but if he called me tomorrow I'd go string a mile of fence for him.

 

[Jason277]

Hoping it wont be too long before I can get up into the higher elevations and start scouting!

 

[Ridgerunner]

That makes two of us.

 

[PanhandlePilgrim]

I grew up hunting WA. Some of the biggest bucks I've seen to this day were there. I used to hunt the high buck every year until it got so insanely popular. There was a noticeable difference of traffic after that first PNWild video dropped which is a shame.

 

[shootnrun]

I was a die hard WA mule deer-er for about 10 years. Filled a tag every year. My best bucks wouldn't make any books, tho I did see a couple that were very nice and harvested some respectable ones. I took a break for a while as it is undeniable that populations in my area have been hit hard by many factors. But this year proved out there are still bucks to be had and I passed a couple hoping for something special. Which ended up being a lion. I have no doubt if I had taken advantage of all the days I could have dug something I consider big off the hill.
Obvious recommendations:
Elevation thins more folks than distance, avoid roads and weekends, glass till you go blind then glass more, don't give up till all your time is truly up.

Go have fun. And if you don't fill your tag it doesn't matter, BT doesn't get good til the muley season is over anyways.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Will do muzzy and modern as I drew the multi-season deer. No archery for me due to an injury.

 

[BoatsNGoats]

No matter what state we're talking about, you miss every shot you don't take. My experience has been that the more a hunter complains, the worse the hunter they typically are - so don't let that negativity sway your interest in hunting muleys.

Every state has different types of "nuts" factors, whether it's crazy pressure, crazy cat ladies swinging cow bells to "protect" the deer from hunters, or crazy low draw and hunter-success rates. Just go hunt.

nailed it, as always a little sweat equity seems to thin out the herd