Mule Deer Hunting Washington State

I have been going out of state for a number of years now as hunting seemed less productive here in Washington State. My youngest daughter has taken a real liking to Mule Deer hunting and we were able to help her get her first Mule deer in Wyoming in 2005. I'd like to help her fill a tag in Washington State if possible but to be honest with you, I really do not know where to go since I have not hunted here for so long. She is in good shape so we could do some backpacking somewhere if that seemed to be the best thing to consider (although my knee is essentially bone on bone so I'll be the old duffer holding her up). In any case, would anyone be willing to consider pointing me in the direction to try for a Mule deer for my daughter?
I've been searching the web and it's hard to find info it seems on "suggestions" for hunting Mule Deer in Washington State. We have purchased our tags, etc., already as she is excited to try it once again. I am very fortunate to have a daughter who loves to hunt Mule Deer as much as I do. Thanks for any advice.
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Don't know if you are familiar with the southeast part of the state, but that is where I would head for a mule deer I have heard that the northcentral is good also but have never hunted there. The SE or Palouse area of washington is a good combo of Mule deer and Whitetail it has plenty of open CRP areas that hold mule deer combined with wheat and other dryland crops providing great habitat I would concentrate on the areas from the town of Prescott to Pomeroy north of Hwy 124 and Hwy 12, GMU 149 and 145 it is almost all private land but with a little scouting you can find some large pockets of feel free to hunt properties. The terrrain is rolling and open and would be a little easier hunting than backpacking into a national forest. If she is open to shooting a doe both GMU's have pretty good odds on doe permits open during general firearm season. I don't know if this would be an option but the early muzzleloader season is definitely the way to go for these GMU's, a lot less people and you will see a lot more animals. I shot a nice 3x4 muley in GMU 145 two years ago and this past year shot a 4 point whitetail in GMU 149 so that shows you how diverse the deer population is both during muzzleloader season. Hope this helps.
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ABert
It's been a few years since I hunted WA. Brought my son with me and we hunted in the northeast corner of the state and had pretty good success. Lots of nation forest and timber company land, as I recall.
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go check out http://www.hunting-washington.com. Lot of good knowledge over on that site
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almost any unit up north is not all that difficult to shoot a buck if you are willing to hunt hard and put in the hours. That being said taking a buck of older age class and quility is not as easy.units from Okanogan all the way down to wanatchee do hold some dandy bucks (for washington standards being anything above 160).Units around yakima also hold a fair amount of deer with a lot of public land.I have not hunted washington all that hard over the last 5years becouse I have been focused on my out of state hunts but I do manage to tag out everey year although I am only able to hunt 1 or 2 weekends hear a year.Do not be discouraged with all the low harvest % becouse most people do not put the time in the field or even get out of the truck to even have a chance to shoot one of those bucks that are out there. As previosly stated the east side holds many bucks as well it is just not as easy to find public land in many of the areas
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I've seen some pretty good bucks come out of North Central Washington, with that being the old "north half" of our reservation. I've hunted up that way from time to time as we do have hunting rights there. As been mentioned before, if you're willing to get off the beaten path, I would say that's as good as place as any. The town of Republic, for example, has been made the home of roughly a pack of 20 mule deer including several bucks. Obviously you can't shoot them, but you can use them as an example of what lies outside the town in the hills.
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