Didn’t really hunt for about a decade, then slowly got back into it last year. This year, been semi serious about it. Got my black bear on October 12th, and my blacktail buck October 25th. Both out on the Peninsula within 15-20 minutes of home. Also helped my friend get his first buck October 26th. Feels good to be out doing it, and having some success.

Got a 2nd bear tag, and cougar tag I’d like to fill (although not confident). Debating on hunting elk with a friend this weekend in the south end. Hopefully do some quail (bagged a couple quail last year and seen some grouse) and grouse by home, and maybe even duck hunt if I can find someone to take me and show me the ropes.

How’s everyone else’s season going?

My first season was a complete failure

Filled my 2nd bear tag this past weekend.

Went out for deer. Finding a lot of rubs and poop but nothing so far.

My buddy is trying to fill his late season tag. Taking him out in the morning to see if we can find him a blacktail buck.

Good luck!

Found some tracks and went deep in the woods but still nothing. Blacktails are ghosts, can’t seem to to find.

We hunted hard all day and didn’t see any deer. Ran into another hunter who “saw a doe” and “missed a nice buck” (which I’m starting think are the default bs answers I get from a lot of old overweight mustached chain smoker hunter I see in the field). Lots of sign. I think out in the area I hunt on the peninsula, the rut came the last week of October (or at least serious pre rut action). Last year saw lots of deer that same time too. My buddy got his buck the morning after me, within 3/4 of a mile of where I shot mine. Both bucks were following does close. Saw tons of deer those few days. Almost hit a nice blacktail buck in Shelton in 101 October 25th. Blacktail seem to go nocturnal out here late season. I haven’t even seen them in people’s yards.

One last try for me, waiting for sunlight.

This past weekend, I joined my cousin and a mutual friend of ours over in Yakima for a late-season quail hunt. The weather was nice - cold and a little windy at times, but mostly dry with some sun breaks and no snow or ice. We don't have a lot of data on late-season hunting, so this trip was partly to get outdoors and partly to gather data.

The birds definitely weren't on the move as much, which we kind of expected. Most of the time, on season openers (October), we just drive around from one spot to the next and look for them. If we don't see them, we keep driving. If there are birds in a brush pile, there's a sentry on top to give it away. But apparently it doesn't work that way in January. We only saw birds on the road twice all weekend, and we never saw a single sentry on a brush pile (even one that had birds in it). We switched tactics to getting out and kicking brush that looked promising. That turned out to be more productive, whereas it isn't in the early season.

Coveys seemed to be larger this time of year, which we also expected; average size seemed to be about 25 birds, with the largest we saw being closer to 35. Birds seemed to be a little more skittish, flushing earlier on initial contact with us. But they didn't seem to want to fly as far; they didn't want to stray far from the rest of the covey.

The orchards were bare (no foliage), but that didn't seem to translate to the birds spending less time in them this time of year vs. earlier in the season; they seemed perfectly comfortable in there. There was definitely evidence of increased coyote pressure on the coveys, particularly at their prime roosting spots. We also observed more pressure on the quail from the hawks - something we haven't seen before. In fact, in one spot, we were flushing quail and the hawks were pursuing them in flight! It was quite a sight to behold. I suspect it's because the ground squirrels are less active this time of year, so the birds of prey seek out the animals that are more accessible, which include the quail.

Total for 2 days was 19 in the bag between 3 shooters, with 2 birds shot down but not recovered (dog couldn't find them, so they either went down a hole or found a time warp). We probably should have bagged 30 birds, but admittedly our shooting wasn't stellar. It was still good to get out and shoot guns, though.

Side note: I now need a Savage .17 HMR. My cousin brought his, and not only is it scary accurate out to 200 yds but it just destroys ground squirrels.