slee

I' m wondering if anybody has hunted the Deschutes Unit(666) just north of and west of Yelm. I' ve hunted the unit along Ft. Lewis' southern edge, but want to know if there is any timber co or state land to hunt. I don' t want anyone' s honeyhole, just general info about public access in the unit. Any info would be appreciated.

trapper T

Are you looking for deer or Elk? I grew up in Yelm, and most of the Dechutes is either private or the Fort, plus you run into the Nisqually Res. I can' t remember how far West does it go? Just West of Oly you have the capitol forrest but I don' t recall which unit it is in? Sorry not much help. What weapon are you using? you could hop down to Vail for deer and some Elk out toward Johnson creek but that is all the Skookumchuck though.

slee

I' m chasin' deer with my muzzleloader. I wish the Skookumchuck was open for deer, I' ve got several good spots to hunt down there. But leave it to WDFW' s hodgepodge of open units for ML to screw things up. I' m sorry, but there is absolutely no reason why there aren' t more units open to any given weapon for any particular season. I understand all about hunting pressure affecting breeding patterns, winter migration, population demographics, age structure within the herd, etc, etc. Open up more units and you take the excessive pressure off all of them. More units means less concentrations of hunting activity. Sorry, soapbox standing again.

The Deschutes goes up to the edge of Capitol Peak(Unit 663), then wraps around the north edge of it before winding back to the mouth of the Nisqually. It follows the north side of Hwy 507 and old Hwy 99 down to Tenino and across to I-5, but I don' t know if Weyerhauser has any land along the north side of 507 and 99. It' s any deer, so I' m not picky about headgear. Just looking for some freezer meat. May look into other units if access doesn' t look good, but it is the closest unit to me. There is definitely something to be said for convenience. Man, I miss owning private land.

WAYNE1

Slee.....Ya ever get any of your good' s back that were taken..??

slee

No, and I don' t expect that I will. I checked a couple of the local pawn shops and called the area bow shops, but nothing so far. The buss cable needed replacing on it, so maybe one of the local shops will remember me if it comes through. Won' t be much I can do about it even if it does show though. Unlike a gun, you can' t cross-reference a number on a bow. Other than being able to describe it to a T, it' d be my word against their' s. Just a crappy deal all the way around. Live and learn I guess.[:@]
Somebody from the Bowsite e-mailed me the other day. Seems that he has access through his work to check inventory on the pawn shops in Pierce Co. He' s gonna keep checking it for me. I' m gonna go by the insurance office tomorrow to see where I go from there. I spent about an hour or so on Cabela' s and Eders getting prices on my stuff, but I don' t know if that will suffice. I really don' t want to have to price every item from a local shop, and have the shop owner sign off on it. We' ll see.

Bullkllr

Used to hunt the Deschutes quite a bit. There are a lot of deer and some elk. Only problem is that the Weyerhaueser property I used to hunt on near Tenino/McIntosh Lk. has been sold and largely developed into human habitat...shame...Other than that there ain' t much public access that I ever found. There is some State land of of Delphi Road on the far western border, but I never hunted it because it was all grown up reprod.

Basically, I think it is one of those " suburban" units that offer liberal " any animal" seasons because there are some animals that cause damage, but have very little land open for hunting. Looks good in the pamphlet, but finding a place to hunt is relly tough!

I' m sure you could find some good hunting on some private land, but if you don' t know someone it could take awhile...

trapper T

Slee , you might try up around Deep lake out of Tenino, lots of country and I belive some access, as far as head gear or shear numbers, should be as good as anywhere through there. The McIntosh area is all developed pretty much and the landowners charge you to hunt[:@]

slee

Sounds like I' m wasting my time considering the Deschutes as my late season destination unless I go on Ft. Lewis. I' m gonna drive around the unit a little on Sunday, but I may look into another unit. The Satsop is also open for any deer for late ML, and it is up Hwy 101 and just across Hwy 8 from Capitol Forest. Not too far to drive from Puyallup. There are some pretty big stretches of timber company land scattered throughout the unit, so at least there will be some access. There' s a pretty large chunk of land in there along Kennedy Creek that I' ll take a look at too. I know they' ve done a lot of logging in there in the past few years, so they should have plenty of food and cover to choose from. I appreciate all of the info.