Washington Wilderness Areas in October

[SteveAndTheCrigBoys]

Anyone ever hunt the wilderness areas in Washington in October? Are there still deer hanging around or have they all migrated down in elevation?

Everyone nowadays wants to get away from the pumpkin patch public land that's mostly road accessible, including me. But if the deer have already left it will be a pretty boring trip!

 

[Brianb3]

I’m may or may not have trail cameras planted deep somewhere in the state and consistently my last pictures are the 17th to Halloween. I’m sure every spots different only reporting from one tiny spot in the the world


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[SteveAndTheCrigBoys]

I'm building a trail cam army for some high buck spots next year. Hope I never have to hunt October again! Would love to leave some out over winter to see what goes on up there. You leave them all through winter I assume?

 

[Brianb3]

Yea. Have had em up a while. And I got to be honest I have been pretty disappointed in what I’ve seen in pictures from the high buck. We saw a lot of two points a couple small threes one almost shooter three this year in the hi hunt. Visiting my taxidermist not a lot of impressing bucks in there. We will be keeping a closer eye on the local heard this winter but man I have been underwhelmed this year.


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[Tinesdown_Colt]

Anyone ever hunt the wilderness areas in Washington in October? Are there still deer hanging around or have they all migrated down in elevation?

Everyone nowadays wants to get away from the pumpkin patch public land that's mostly road accessible, including me. But if the deer have already left it will be a pretty boring trip!

I spent time in the pumpkin patch this weekend and its tough to leave with the amount of deer running around! I think the key to dealing with it is to try and get above em so they push the deer to you.

 

[couesbitten]

There will still be bucks up there and the number of hunters will be significantly reduced. The second weekend of the season through the closure may produce some bucks that are starting to get a little pre-rut activity.

 

[Quicksilver]

Early cold weather and end of the season can be good if the pieces fall into place. Those bucks won’t leave the high country until the snow level forces them to.

 

[Bachto]

I killed a buck (barely legal) in a wilderness area last weekend, we saw deer but not a ton. From people I talked to at the trail head we started at, it sounded like the same story and one guy said he didn't even see a deer in 3 days. Though I take that with a grain of salt as it sounds like he wasn't in an area I would have considered "bucky".

For what it's worth, I don't think we have enough snow yet to really start pushing deer down. Also I would rather carry my rifle around in the wilderness area and see little or no deer than deal with the Washington pumpkin patch.

 

[rl509]

There are plenty of deer up there still. Just need to be patient and glass. We just found one at 7,700' first week of October in OR

 

[SteveAndTheCrigBoys]

Looks like some snow is headed in this weekend so I'm going to give it a shot and play the snow line.

 

[Jordan]

They are still up there. I have buddies who have cams hanging from 4-7k feet in a few different wilderness areas and they have good bucks on film every year until mid Dec. From what I have seen they don’t mind the knee deep snow. I think it depends on the area you are hunting as well, if they have a secondary spot to slip down into I would tend to believe they will be around. From my limited experience they are about 500’-1k lower in elevation then during the high hunt. Have fun this weekend, looks like snow.