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Rule changes boost deer hunting success on opening weekend in Washington

At the truck weigh station north of Deer Park, wash., Jay Shepherd an assistant district biologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, takes teeth and tissue samples on whitetail buck shot by Andrew Waltnerof Auburn, Wash. (in back.) Idaho wildlife officials have taken additional steps to prevent chronic wasting disease from entering the Gem State by banning the import of deer, elk or moose carcasses from areas with documented cases of chronic wasting disease. (Colin Mulvany / The Spokesman-Review)
At the truck weigh station north of Deer Park, wash., Jay Shepherd an assistant district biologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, takes teeth and tissue samples on whitetail buck shot by Andrew Waltnerof Auburn, Wash. (in back.) Idaho wildlife officials have taken additional steps to prevent chronic wasting disease from entering the Gem State by banning the import of deer, elk or moose carcasses from areas with documented cases of chronic wasting disease. (Colin Mulvany / The Spokesman-Review)Buy a print of this photo

Deer hunters out for last weekend’s opening of the general modern rifle deer season in northeastern Washington seemed to have more success compared with the 2014 opening weekend, partly because of rule changes.

The sample taken Sunday at two hunter check stations is too small on a given weekend for statistical validity, but over the course of the season, Fish and Wildlife Department biologists get useful information on a lot of fronts, including overall deer health monitoring, said Dana Base, district biologist in Colville.

The Deer Park station on Highway 395 checked 88 hunters with 19 whitetails and three mule deer.

That compares with 81 hunters in 2014 who had eight whitetails and one mule deer.

The Chattaroy station on Highway 2 checked 74 hunters with 13 whitetails and one mule deer. The Chattaroy station was not staffed on opening weekend last year.

Part of the reason for the increase in opening weekend harvest was the change in rules that allowed youth, senior and disabled hunters to shoot an antlerless whitetail. That opportunity wasn’t allowed until the last four days of the season last year.

Deer Park’s breakdown on whitetails was 10 bucks. The additional nine does were taken by youth and senior hunters.

Chattaroy’s whitetail breakdown included seven bucks, five does and one fawn. Again, the antlerless deer were taken by youths and seniors.

The other major difference from last year is the elimination of the four-point minimum rule for whitetail bucks in Game Management Units 117 and 121 that had been enacted in 2011.

The breakdown of whitetails at the Deer Park check station includes 10 bucks, seven of which were adults and three were yearlings.

The breakdown of whitetails at the Chattaroy check station includes seven bucks, four of which were adults and three yearlings.

Four or five of the 17 whitetail bucks checked on Sunday would not have been legal to shoot last year under the four-point minimum in units 117 and 121.

No more than a couple of the 15 antlerless whitetails taken by youth and seniors checked on Sunday would have been legal on opening weekend last year.

However, hunting wasn’t the only threat deer faced last weekend.

Check station staff and volunteers were taking measurements and tissue samples for a multi-year study of white-tailed deer in northeastern Washington. They also took samples for bluetongue to continue with the monitoring of an outbreak that has killed thousands of whitetails from Colville south to Grangeville, Idaho, in the past two months.

Vehicle collisions continue to be a major factor in deer mortality.

Deer Park check station volunteer Jim Kujala had to drive north on Highway 395 to pick up five road-killed deer carcasses Base had spotted on the drive to set up the station.

“We thought we’d get more sampling for the study that way,” Base said. “But Kujala was late getting back because he just kept finding more dead deer along the highway – 13 in all between Deer Park and Arden.

“And those are deer killed just in the (40-hour) period after the DOT highway crew went through and picked up dead deer along the highway on Friday.”