Many of us enjoy the High Buck Hunt on the Olympic Peninsula. This is a special hunt that runs from the middle to end of September every year and can be hunted with modern rifle or muzzleloader. We can hunt any of the wilderness areas in Olympic National Forest: areas such as Colonel Bob Wilderness in Quinault, Wonder Mountain Wilderness near the Skokomish, Mount Skokomish Wilderness near Lake Cushman, Brothers Wilderness near the Duckabush, and Buckhorn Wilderness near Mount Constance. By increasing the acreage of wilderness on Olympic National Forest, Wild Olympics could greatly expand the land included in this hunt. In a time of shrinking access to huntable land, the Wild Olympics proposed new wilderness designations could offer significant expansion of access to hunting on the Olympic Peninsula*. (*Confirmed by WDFW)
In some years we can only hunt deer with certain firearms without a special permit in these wilderness areas during the High Buck Hunt: the overlapping GMUs (Game Management Units) are sometimes closed to certain firearms for the season, but the overlapping wilderness areas are open during the High Buck Hunt. As you can see from Washington's 2012 Big Game Hunting Seasons and Regulations, the High Buck Hunt runs from the middle through the end of September; from September 15-25 of 2012, for example. This is 11 extra days of hunting in wilderness areas. We can hunt anywhere in the wildernesses of Alpine Lakes, Glacier Peak, Pasayten, and Henry Jackson Wilderness Areas, and wilderness areas on the Olympic Peninsula, and Lake Chelan Recreation Area. Since we can hunt anywhere in the "wilderness areas of the Olympic Peninsula" outside a National Park, this means that hunters could have their hunting privileges expanded by tens of thousands of acres for the High Buck Hunt with the Wild Olympics Wilderness and Wild & Scenic Rivers Act*. (*Confirmed by WDFW)