My Skagit report, with a quick rant

[Yotapup]

Didn't see anything out in skagit. Even the place where I shot my bore in the spring had very little sign. Did find an upper road though that had some MASSIVE hoof tracks, and reasonably fresh... would like to check it out again in a couple weeks.

On the other hand, I hope one or some of the people that will read this are the people I encountered today. I'm not gonna call you assholes or anything, acted like nice people...

BUT WTF ARE YOU DOING SHOOTING ACROSS THE ENTRANCE TOO THE GRAVEL PIT YOU WERE IN!!!

Seriously, we're on our way out for the evening, I decided to pull in for a peak. I've heard no gunfire in the area, and as I'm making the right turn in I see no one is there. As I pull in, suddenly there's a group of 3 guys at a pickup and some guns hidden from sight till your already on their "range" which consisted of their shooting line, being the gate post, looked like some cans set up at the other post, and some targets that looked like 100yds from them.

All I see is one guy waving his hands with a worried look on his face, not 20 feet to my right saying "don't worry, we won't shoot you, but we're shooting here"

I turned around and said a few words and left. As we were exiting I realized that their "down range" was at our backs as we were driving down the road.

Seriously... did you buy your f-in PAL's off craigslist or ebay?

Give your god damn head a shake.:evil:

Other then that, was a gorgeous day to be in the wilderness.

[nedarb2]

That pal course is a joke. My core taught me MORE than the pal i did, i just left shaking my head afterwards (did it in july 2010).
Nobody in my family hunts so i have never grown up with it or guns - so im not always totally confident about everything to do with guns. Other than the obvious keep it unloaded if you dont need it, dont point at people or shoot towards places people can be, etc etc. i still need to learn and get familiar and experienced with alot of common practices - tricks of the trade is i may say so.
However, i know i dont know alot about guns or ways to handle them while out hunting or in the bush and theres only so much you can read - which is why i DO NOT EVER go out without a friend who does and has hunted for their whole life to teach me how to do things right, im not going to take any chances nor want to find bad habits.

[Yotapup]

That pal course is a joke. My core taught me MORE than the pal i did, i just left shaking my head afterwards (did it in july 2010).
Nobody in my family hunts so i have never grown up with it or guns - so im not always totally confident about everything to do with guns. Other than the obvious keep it unloaded if you dont need it, dont point at people or shoot towards places people can be, etc etc. i still need to learn and get familiar and experienced with alot of common practices - tricks of the trade is i may say so.
However, i know i dont know alot about guns or ways to handle them while out hunting or in the bush and theres only so much you can read - which is why i DO NOT EVER go out without a friend who does and has hunted for their whole life to teach me how to do things right, im not going to take any chances nor want to find bad habits.

I wouldn't say it's a complete joke, but one thing either course doesn't teach you is common sense, and apparently some people just don't have it.

I've been around guns my entire life and could have challenged the core and passed with flying colors... hell, I passed the full course 100%. Challenged the CORE and passed it near 100% and I wasn't really around the hunting crowd all that much


Good for you in taking the right and safe initiative to learn the ins and outs of guns/hunting

[goatdancer]

Why is the course to blame? Lots of people take lots of courses but that does not mean that they learn anything.

[slowkey]

Well I live not to far way and just to let you know the Skagit can get some real weirdo's on it.

People not knowing where they shooting? yep it happens

That first gravel pit (I think it is about 12 k) can be a real gong show with 2 or 3 groups shooting in it at one time. Plus now access to the back part of the pit has been shut down with a berm. Truthfully I'm surprised that no one hasn't taken a round off the windshield driving up the main road up there

[BearSniper]

I used to be able to get up there to shoot when I had days off in the middle of the week. It was great, no one was there. But I only get weekends off now.

But you're right, weekends in the fall can be a gong show. It's best to try to get off the beaten path, or try up the Coke.

Skagit is hard to hunt. It's a long valley in, and not as many spurs as Tulameen area. I find it's a not too bad area for Bears, but tough for deer.

[Torch]

We don't want the pal course to be so hard people can barely pass... It's suppose to give you basic understanding and safe practices... You can't teach common sense, that suppose to be done during childhood...

Gravel pits are a little crazy sometimes, we had a group of (hunters?) up sylvester and they decided to shoot across the "ROAD" going through the pit which was also the main road...OMFG!!!
We politley went and spoke to them and invited for them to come over next to us and join in ue festivities, and all was good!

Very casual users that may only handle here arms once a year (maybe) to hunt or rec shoot are very dangerous... It's about repitition of safe handling of arms and making it unconsious.

[BCLongshot]

Well.............................................. .........................

Hunting around here is a complete waste of time and dangerous.

What people do is just plain bloody crazy and I'll distance myself from them by not participating in being there.

Hunting dinky bucks is boring also get a paper route and go for a longer drive away fron the FV.

Just hackin' don't get all emotional. ha ha ha

[Yotapup]

yeah, I'd have to agree, Skagit is good for bear, got my first big game kill there this spring. I can't believe it though, I saw DOZENS of deer that spring hunt, and now... didn't even see any deer shit. I did on the other hand find some relatively fresh tracks on one trail up higher that I wouldn't mind checking out.

Maybe some of you experts can clear some fog on that one, the tracks I did see, most were your typical deer track you see everywhere, but there was one set of massive prints in comparison. At least about 4x bigger then the usual "knuckle" sized prints you see.

[Yotapup]

Well.............................................. .........................

Hunting around here is a complete waste of time and dangerous.

What people do is just plain bloody crazy and I'll distance myself from them by not participating in being there.

Hunting dinky bucks is boring also get a paper route and go for a longer drive away fron the FV.

Just hackin' don't get all emotional. ha ha ha

Haha, the funny part is... I've considered getting a paper route to help fund this new found hobby of mine :D

[dougal]

I went up the skagit last week and it was pretty quiet not much movement buy anyone but There were quite a few nasty camps and the s#!t people leave behind/burn is crazy there was huge piles in some camps one spot looked like a chair factory went up.
we saw one lonely grouse that wasn't staying around for an encore and that's about it.
beautiful country when you get past the slides and brambles though

[slowkey]

its all blacktail around here and they are pretty elusive so thats why they're hard to find. Go a bit further east and you'll see the mulies. I have seen moose poop around Jones lake so maybe you saw a moose track

[Yotapup]

I wouldn't go as far to say it was a moose. Wasn't heavy enough.