I spoke with WDFG today and their early estimate is overall number of hunters was down quite a bit, and overall harvest was down also, go figure. He said they were very happy with the general season stats so far. I asked him what his thoughts were on peoples opinion that more big bucks were taken this year than in recent years. He said each year, since the 3 point rule went into effect, the size of the harvested bucks has increased. He too believes its attributed to the 3 point rule, and the mild winters we have been having, and does not believe that its having any negative effect on the herds.
I tend to agree with him. The bucks I have seen harvested in the area I hunt, are getting bigger each year regardless of the season going another 5 days. I still saw some nice deer taken in the first week, and those same big deer would have been taken regardless if the season had closed on the 24th rather than the 29th.
One other factor you guys have neglected to realize is that forums like this tend to help out a lot of guys that would not have hunted a certain area, or hunted a certain way in the past. The advent of the computer and places like MM has not helped the herds at all. I can assure you that some of my friends had never even heard of Swakane or Entiat, even having read the regs for years, let alone considered hunting there. Now that people are posting pix of some of these pigs coming out of these areas, and saying how great it is over there, you are wondering why more big bucks are being taken, and why your seeing more hunters in certain areas.
I too believe that there are too many permits being given out for these late hunts, but I believe that having to wait 7 years between drawing a permit in the state I live in is a joke as well, if my general season ends on the 24th and doesn't go till the end of the month.
Like I said before, we used to not even start hunting the general season until Halloween. Waiting that long did two things for us, it gave us a better chance at seeing a migratory buck, and it also meant we saw less hunters while in the field, because the season was spread out over a larger time period. Now what happened when they closed the season early is it concentrated all those hunters into having to hunt a one week window. Well it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that any bucks in the area that one week, regardless of where they were hiding, were going to get shot because there were no escape routes that didn't have dozens of camp sites set up.
Don't take it wrong, I don't claim to have the all the answers. I am very happy with them finally extending the season a little though, and I think the herds are in as good a shape as they have been in years, even with the extended season. Wow, that was hard to say. "Extended Season" and it ends on the 29th. Kinda like the gas prices. They will finally drop to $2.00 a gallon and we are going to be all excited, forgetting that a year ago it was $1.50, but its going to seem like they are doing us a service. What a crock.....................rf