Well Big Jim… I like the fact that you are sending letters to the Game Department, they always need to here from us the hunters of Washington. We need as many hunters as possible to get involved with the process of season setting and feedback to the state, otherwise we ALL will get less and less.

From the meetings that I have attended with WDFW when they reference “Equal Opportunity” they are referencing “Hunter Success Rate”.

So, even though one user group may have less day’s afield or less GMU’s it ALL is based upon the “Success Rate”. If let’s say that some how one user group had a big jump in success rate the state would have to change something, i.e. weapon limitation, GMU reduction, number of days afield, to counter balance the increase in success so that ALL user groups have a balance success rate.

Also, we the less populated user groups have made the decision to hunt with a primitive or more difficult method. It was and is our choice. Otherwise we could be out in the woods this weekend with the 140,000 estimated (by the state) modern firearms hunters.

I used to rifle hunt my early life, then made the change about 12 years ago. That was a choice of hunting and lifestyle.

I personally like the fact that I have a harder hunt to be successful and still have just as much chance of not being successful at harvesting an animal.

I had a great talk with 2 new archery hunters several weeks ago at a campground. The thing that always stands out when I talk to new guys is, as quoted, “We thought it would be great to get more hunting days.” and then “Man it is a lot harder than we thought it was going to be.” and “If we would have been hunting with our rifles we could have shot a lot of elk or deer by now, we just couldn’t get to within 30 yards.”

Good luck hunting and with the game department. Keep us posted with there reply.