How is the hunting in eastern Washington? Is there very much public ground or is private land the only way to go for success in WA? Any more details I should know? I have a possible job opportunity in both spokane washington and austin, tx. Washington is getting the nod from my wife right now.

Spokane is nice. It is the dry side of the state but far enough east to still be green. Washington has lots of public land. And best of all for you who are still making big money, Washington has no state income tax. Pretty gun friendly, WA is a shall issue state and has open carry too.

I'm on the other side of the state, but if you don't get any responses here in your thread, you could contact some of those guys via PM. A few of the Eastern Washingtonians include:

Safariman
JJHack
Avagadro
David Walter
Daveh

There's more, but that's the best my feeble brain can do.

Lots of public hunting in the State, The Game Dept has their heads up their arss as you might have already expected and we have a healthy Wolf re introduction program that really stinks IMO.
If you stay off the road a way's you will have a good hunt, And you could have success.


Sorry for the rant.

Spokane is a nice area, On the border with Idaho which has tons of land to see as well.

The nice thing about Spokane is it's on the ID border . You can live in ID and commute to Spokane . I occasionally work in Spokane, not a bad city and you can get out of town pretty quick. It's also just a couple hour drive to MT.

Thanks guys. I'm also considering an opportunity in Autsin TX. TX is very friendly to my other business and I know the hunting in TX can be great, but I'n not sure how easy it is to secure hunting rights since most of the state is private. IT seesm like it would be much expensive to hunt TX.

I have not reasearched it, but I think WA is more tax friendly than ID. I know ID's out of state hunting licenses are relatively cheap so it would not hurt me to by a non-res ID licence.

The best thing about Austin is it's really close to Texas. Leasing is expensive.

Choose Texas not as much public land for hunting. Washington is one of the liberal A-holes of America with high taxes and the State per capita is in as bad a debt as Mexifornia.

It is very expensive to hunt in TX.

But I'm not sure many people refer to Austin as Texas.


Travis

The correct phrase should actually be it "can" be very expensive to hunt in TX, doesn't mean you have to pay that.

I managed to kill on average a 120" or better deer over the last 15 years and the most I have ever paid was $500 for a year round lease that included deer, pigs, turkey, waterfowl and that gives hunting literally 365 days a year and most years I paid less than $50 in total.

It's like everywhere else, put in hard work, meet and greet people and don't act like an [bleep] and you can hunt a lot of places for free or nearly for free.

That included hunting all over the state from Mule Deer in the sandhills of West, TX - geese and deer in the panhandle, deer in South, TX - deer and turkey in Central, TX - waterfowl along the coast and up on the Red and Sulphur rivers and deer/pigs/turkey/waterfowl in East, TX and a Nilgai hunt in South, TX that cost nothing (I'm not a big exotic hunter or I could probably add more).

I think it's fair to say that your circumstance is an exception.


Travis

Washington has the best fishing of any western state, hands down.

I don't think so it just doesn't get the publicity on TV and magazines and even forums that the big deer mills in South, TX do....which only comprises less than a dozen counties out of 254.

I have a friend in Texas with land I have a free open invitation to hunt his land any time. Not everyone in Texas is going to rob you for hunting on their land.

Well, I lived in south Texas so that is what I'm basing it on. If it's different in other parts of the state, I was never exposed to it.


Travis

How come there all in Idaho fishing now,then?

When living and working in North Idaho we took a trip to Priest Lake and with the wife getting bored,she counted plates..Washington plates out numbered Idaho plates almost 2-1.

It sure isn't like it used to be up there anymore..Way to many people for me..

Jayco

Idaho has the grease. Some big lakers in Priest, but thats about all. Lake Pond Oreille is where everyone should be hanging out; they have the kamloops.

Hmmmm,,,,,,, see you've never been to Austin then.......

BUT, I remember whenAustin wasn't weird

Austin was just about the coolest place to grow up in. But that was 40 years ago! It's as liberal as anyplace you'd want to visit in those other places. I go to work there and then come home. I hate going to town.

I retired from the state teansportation dept. Back in the late 80's and thru thru the 90's we squandered all our construction and developement monies in our district fighting lawsuits with eco-freaks over construction in alleged environmentally sensitive areas, in other words the locations where all the urban sprall was taking place. It was the only way the freaks thought they could hault the sprall.

Only in the late 90's thu the present was the agency finally able to start on projects that had been stalled in some areas almost 25 years. Traffic is a nightmare, and I'm not even going to get into the new toll road mess. But it's about the only way new construction can be paid for now with the costs of materials and future maintenance......

Bottom line is everyone wanted their pie and eat it too!

If you are a liberal leaner, love traffic, and the whole "Keep Austin Weird" thing, then it's your town!!!!!

Bob N.

I've never had to pay to hunt, unless i choose to. I've always just treated people right and have been invited to hunt on their ranches.

Least we won't see this guy around town anymore!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Cochran

Glad to say I had never heard of that little jewel of Austin culture

Washingtyon has some pretty good hunting too around Spokane. This Muley Buck was taken out of the wheat fields last fall
West of Spokane.



These Sheep were in a hay field west of Spokane on the Columbia River.



There is Elk South of Spokane in the Blues and/or the Paloose country and they are starting to migrate north as several herds have been sighted West of Spokane between Cheney and Sprague on I-90. Water Fowl and Upland Bird Hunting opportunities abound around Spokane and the fishing is world class in the surounding lakes and streams.

I'm from CA so Austin is going to be an improvement as far as politics go even if they are die hard libturds. My big hang up is I don't like big cities and I don't want to pay 2K or equivalent trade a year just to wack a deer. However, if we move there we would deffiitly be living outside of town.

My wife really likes the Seattle area. No way I could ever stand living there, but Spokane gets us to within a 5hr driver for her and closer to play land for me.

AND he garnered 8% of the vote in one of the last mayoral elections. That's a healthy chunk of folks in that ville.

If you are only going to hunt a few times a year and only want to kill a deer I wouldn't either. But even if you paid the $2k (which isn't required in TX) you might come out ahead if you hunt a lot since you can hunt year round here compared to driving 5 hours to hunt at the price of gas nowdays. Just something to think about.

Everyone has their want list. I could live pretty much anywhere I wanted but I chose to live where I can hunt year round and can travel if I want to hunt some other species like elk etc instead of the other way around. Depends on what you want.

Just something to think about.

Repeat after me. There are no sheep in the NW.

Why do so many Washington hunters,hunt and fish Idaho with all that fish and game you have?

Jayco

Don't have a clue. I have never hunted ID.

Texas has big deer, no doubt about it. And there are places you can hunt for free. Washington deer are smaller.

Not Texas elk and bighorns along with their salmon, halibut, Dungeness crab, and such make Texas a much better choice.

It probably has to do with all the "right to work" Idahoans that work in Washington. Not only better wages, but much higher unemployment benefits.

You're an idiot.

We have no income tax, and the a-holes all moved to Texas, or live on the west side of the state.

You don't get out much, do ya?

The deer around the Austin area generally are not very large. Central Texas deer just aren't in the same class as South Texas deer IMO. You'll get lucky every once and a wile and see a 150"er, but in my area 120" is on the large side of average for mature bucks.

If you want big deer your going to have to drive a ways to get to them, and it will cost you when you get there.

Austin ain't that bad. There are crazies everywhere, the difference is that Austin is just proud of their crazies.

Depending on where in town you work you can commute 40 minutes and live amongst all the backwards white trash you desire. I'm starting to prefer mellow hippies to methed out honkeys with broke down cars in the yard. YMMV

The climate is great and there's more to do outside in the Austin area than you can keep up with. We could hike and canoe with our kids all year and never see the same place twice. It's one of the safest "large" cities in the country.

For $2000 you could hunt deer, pigs and birds all year with a place to stay and not too much of a drive. $2000 will get you MUCH more than just a chance to shoot deer. And if you're willing to drive a bit you can kill deer for free on public land. It's there, just not like in some western states.

If you come over to look around let me know and we'll meet up.

Eric

Every state has their share of a-holes, libtards and good folk too. I really put no stock in where someone's from myself.

Then you two better stop by & see me. Eric knows where I work. Hell, I'm crazy. Ask for Cra-z-Bob (The original Cra-z-Bob), downstairs and they will direct you up to my cell.

I'm just one of those old bastids that can't handle all the hope & change stuff that's been going on here for several decades...........I still remember Lake Travis when there was no one on the lake and the fishing was good. When there was water in the lake.

Washington nor Texas have a state income tax....the question is how to they charge for sales, property and other taxes to make up the difference.

I agree with the possible exceptions of NYC and Chicago.

I live in Central WA. I also grew up in Idaho and lived for a long time in N. Idaho. I hunt and fish in both states, but that is because I have a lifetime license for Idaho and own land there. My family and friends still live there as well.

Spokane is my favorite urban area with Boise a close second. I love plenty of cities in MT, WY, UT, NV, OR, etc. But, none of them have the combination of access, wildlife, growing seasons, and urban amenities that those cities offer.

This thread shouldn't be a pissing match about whether people from WA ever go to ID for outdoor recreation. What a waste of bandwidth.

Spokane has great access to Whitetail, Elk, and Bear hunting. Upland hunting is at the doorstep. There are turkey, pheasant, chukar, quail, huns, all the waterfowl, and all the forest grouse. It exists on the hairy edge between the inland temperate rainforest, the phenomenal geology of the channeled scablands, and the overwhelming depth of the Snake river gorge.

There is the Pacific a half day to the West, Montana the other way, BC to the North, and the indomitable country of the Salmon/Snake to the South that is almost incomprensible. It lays at the terminus of the Purcell trench with all of the inland lakes and staggering volume of water that is the Kootenai, Flathead, Clark Fork, Coeur d'Alene, and Snake rivers.

If you have a chance to move to Spokane, grab it with both hands.

Here are some photos of the Snake River country, see any public land here?

Texas has bighorn hunting on public land...it's just that we only give out 12 tags per year

Of course 50% of every sheep taken qualifies for B&C. Not cheap either but 100% of the proceeds are going back into sheep habitat. For a while they thought they were going to lose the desert bighorn altogether here after clashes with domestic sheep, now every year they are coming up with more and more tags. Nothing like out west I'll admit.

You're a regular Chamber of Commerce!

I do what I can.

Thanks guys! They both have different things to offer. I just put in for a transfer/promotion to both areas. It just depends on which way the wind blows now. Can't wait to leave CA. It's beutiful here. Too bad it's so hostile to my lifestyle.

When I was working with defense contractors in the SF bay area Lockheed moved a lot of people to Austin, the people I know that went there absolutely loved the change of lifestyle, it was a boom town then, there should be lots of houses available. I've heard nothing but good things about it, of course it is Texas.

High heat, Chiggers, really hot, big snakes, and did I mention it can get hot there.

I hear that Spokane is the conservative side of Washington. Austin is the San Francisco of Texas.

yep.

All three locations SUCK!!

Can't speak to the hunting near Spokane but have driven through that region a few times.

Geographically, you are close to an immense variety of topography and scenery...

Desert, just to the west and south.
Coeur d' Alene, ID area is neat and just over the border.
Glacier National Park, is a few hours NE.
Seattle (for a big city is cool) and the coast, are doable 3 day long weekend trips.

Good luck on your outcome.

I'd move somewhere other than CA before moving to the PNW so I could say I was from anywhere but CA!!!

Spo-Compton / Spok-Angeles is not bad

Montana has sheep too, but they use them for something different.

I was born in Pullman and live in Austin. Hands down eastern Washington if you like the outdoors! I wouldn't stay here if I wasn't making $$. Texas is crowded and the hunting is expensive and public land is almost nonexistent. If I could change one thing about Austin it would be the allergies. Something blooms big time here 10 months out of the year and even if you have a small allergy it will turn into a big one. The summers are pretty miserable too but the winters in Spokane aren't fun either.

Its more than just hunting to think about.

Only been to the Spokane area just once; rode a motorcycle from College Station to Flathead Lake via Moscow ID.

Texas is not a particularly attractive state, the Hill Country is pretty but you can actually get off of the road and walk on very little of it. Same is true of almost all of Texas, even though its as big as it is. And Texas is big, by the time I crossed out of the State up by Clayton NM I was more than half-way to Northern Idaho.

What public land there is in Texas, at least half of that has to be Big Bend and Guadalupe Mountains National Parks way out in West Texas maybe eight hours west of Austin.

Far and away our best wilderness is the Gulf Coast and Padre Island and the coastal/inshore fishing therein, but nobody rails about the natural beauty of the Gulf Coast either.

What I recall from Northern Idaho/Montana is the vast scenic sweep of the whole area, miles and miles of drop-dead gorgeous scenery. So pretty that I didn't actually go on up to Glacier as intended, I had seen so much beauty in the area already I saved Glacier for another time.

Coming north from Boise to McCall, my impression was that you'd wear out the sides of your tires sooner than the middle, so winding were the highways. Then the vast sweep of golden wheat fields in the Nez Perce country, finally the awesome Snake River Canyon and the long climb to Moscow north of Lewiston.

Your land access to Texas, whether on a postage stamp of public land, or on a lease on a paid-for hunt behind tall fences, is gonna be limited under the best of circumstance. If you can find a place to hike as much as ten miles, its probably going to be in a circle inside fence lines.

I dunno, but I expect I could find miles and miles of free-access wild country all over Northern Idaho and Washington State, plus four seasons of activity. And bear in mind that Austin is 250 miles from the Coast at Corpus, I aint looked but that far or close to it from Spokane might get you clear to the Pacific.

So, throw in the one-day drive west to the Pacific (which I didn't do) or east to Montana and Texas ain't even in the same ballpark.

Depends what you wanna do outside I'd guess.

Birdwatcher

Grew up on the wet side of Washington, always liked the East side. Spokane has fishing, upland birds, muleys, rockchucks, all less than an hour from town. They even have moose up by the Canadian border. The winters are cold and grey, but Spring, Summer, and Fall are great.