Welcome to the forum.

It's all good news for hunting elk this season.
I'm sure there's one out there with your name on it.

Rick:

Welcome to Big Game Hunt Forum!

As a Veteran, I appreciate your service to our Country during these troubled times. Once your tour is over, will you be returning to Fort Lewis or moving onto something else in the civilian world?

Next to Colorado, Washington has the next most elk out of all the states I'm aware. I'm sure you'll be glad to get back in the mountains again. There is nothing like the peace Mother Nature provides in the beautiful open country and mountainous areas.

We have a moderator on the Forum who lives in Washington and is an avid hunter. His username is fuzzybear and he can most likely provide the most helpful assistance around.

Again, welcome to the Forum! Please feel free to ask plenty of questions and be safe in finishing your tour in Mosul, Iraq.

Best Wishes, Steve

Visit BigGameHunt.net

Thanks for the welcomes!

147, upon re-deployment I'll have 2 years left on my 5 year contract. I hope to finish my military obligation quietly in Ft lewis., and hopefully of course gain a lot of new hunting and fishing experiences. I am especially looking forward to getting out into the sound!

I do actually have a question, maybe Fuzzybear could help me out. Washington has regular hunting units and then they have Elk Areas. Any chance you could explain the difference to me? Do I need any kind of extra permit to hunt an Elk Area? Do Elk Areas hold any better numbers as far as animal population? I'm looking into the November Elk hunt for Randle 5053/503. But just a little confused on what the area differences are. If this area isn't worth looking into I'd appreciate any guidance you can pass on to me. Thanks.

-Rick

welcome the BGH rick hope you meet as many good people here as i did I'm sure you will and find the people all as helpful with questions as possible.
Good luck on your hunts

Dear E C -

Washington is broken into East and West when it comes to elk. See page 35 of the regs. The URL for the regs is pasted below:

http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/game/hunter/hunter.htm

In WA you need to chose your `area' (East or West), and also your weapon. Bummer, and different than Idaho. If you choose to get an archery elk tag - that's your weapon for elk for the year. You put in for controlled hunts based on your weapon choice. But controlled hunt app dates, etc. are passed anyway.

There are probably people on BGH that can contribute pages on the WA elk. Basically west of the Pacific Crest Trail (Cascade Range) it's pretty thick (and potentailly wet). I have sure seen some fabulous elk above timberline in summer - dunno where they are during hunting season. East of the divide it opens up. The Blue Mountains in the SE corner tend to be somewhat more like parts of Idaho than the west side. But note - there is a major fire in the Blue Mountains, devouring serious elk habitat as I write (School Fire - probably 50,000 acres presently).

We have archery hunted elk in the ag lands of eastern washington. It's brutally hard with recurves in open country. The elk generally give us one or two sightings, and then I think they go to underground bunkers with food storage for the rest of the fall.

On a new subject ... have you ever run into the Bighorn Sheep down in the Owyhees? Anything you can tell me? Next year I think I'll put in. My dad has a ranch-house out of Homedale that I would like to use as a base. He also has a plane.
.

Elk Country. Welcome again

Check out this site.
http://www.wdfw.wa.gov/huntcorn.htm

It covers just about everything. I think it will answer questions for you.

Serious:
I have never run into big horn sheep in the owyhees, and I've covered a lot of ground out there. But if you have access to a plan then you could preseason scout from the air and have much better luck. I concentrated my Owyhee hunts from Silver City and DelAmar Mines over to the Oregon border and then North. -To give you an idea of the areas I've looked. I have seen them however on the east side of Boise way up in the mountains.. I'll have to do some serious thinking to come up with exactly where that was but I'll email you when I figure it out. Thanks for all the help.

-Rick