Hoopengarner on Outdoors
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Deer season overwhelms Tri-City butcher
Sometimes, it's difficult to gauge the success of a big-game hunting season.
You can, of course, quiz your hunting buddies or rely on reports from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
But one surefire method I've used over the years is to check with the local butcher.
A chat with Chuck Turner at Chuck's Meat & Lockers in Kennewick revealed that many Mid-Columbia hunters fared well since Saturday's start of the modern firearm general deer season.
In the three days following the opener, Turner said hunters brought in 120 head.
"We could hardly keep up with all the deer that were coming in over the weekend," he said.
Prior to Saturday's start, Turner had 102 head hanging in the coolers from early archery seasons and other hunts.
"Last year, we only had 72, so this year is well above average in the number of deer we normally process. In fact, it's been several years since we've had this many deer this early in the season," he added.
With the general deer season ending Sunday in most units and late buck and several antlerless hunts still on tap, Turner probably wishes he had three arms.
Not only is Turner seeing more deer, many of the bucks also are larger.
"Most of the deer we usually see weigh from 80 to 100 pounds, but we've had a few brought in that weighed anywhere from 150 to 190 pounds," he said.
Just in case you're interested, Chuck's charges 60 cents a pound, with a $60 minimum, to process venison.
The larger bucks hunters are bagging this year likely is the result of several mild winters, which resulted in healthy deer numbers in most areas.
However, Fish and Wildlife reported generally fewer hunters afield and lower success rates than in the past.
Wildlife officials believe the weather - little rain or snow and mostly mild conditions east of the Cascades - created dry and noisy conditions in the woods that proved unfavorable to hunters.
In the northeast, where hunter pressure and success rates for white-tailed deer often are among the highest, 20 percent fewer hunters were out and they bagged 43 percent fewer deer.
However, that information is based on state checks of hunters passing through the Deer Park check station in northern Spokane County. Biologists there saw 401 hunters with 57 deer (31 whitetail bucks, 23 whitetail antlerless deer and three mule deer bucks) for a success rate of 14 percent. That compares with the same check in 1999 of 506 hunters with 101 deer for a 20 percent success rate.
In the northern half of the Columbia Basin, state officials saw hunter numbers down about 12 percent and the harvest down nearly 28 percent.
At a check station near the Chewuch River in Okanogan County, 810 hunters were checked with 29 deer for only a 312 percent success rate. The success rate was more than 5 percent last year.
No checks were made in the Yakima area, but deer hunting pressure and harvest also was down in the region based on individual staff field checks.
Lee Stream, the state regional wildlife program manager in Yakima, said lower participation and success has been the norm since the three-antler-point minimum restriction went into effect several years ago to rebuild deer populations.
On the upland bird and waterfowl front, it appears to be a mixed bag.
For waterfowlers, some of the best hunting has been in the Potholes Wildlife Area, where hunters averaged 3.14 ducks on the opener Oct. 7. Columbia Basin pheasant hunters also did well where good habitat exists, especially near the Adams-Grant county line where there is an increased state upland habitat restoration and hunter access effort.
Locally, waterfowling remains slow, with mild and sunny weather better suited for steelhead fishing. Upland bird hunting is generally slow but should pick up as more corn is harvested and cooler, wetter weather improves scenting conditions for dogs.
Moreover, Madonna Luers, a Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman in Spokane, said the first plants of pen-reared pheasants should be made by this weekend. The state plans to release 15,000 roosters at 27 sites across Eastern Washington through Thanksgiving.
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