Washington elk, deer and bear hunting: GMUs, seasons and public land
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife runs big game hunting in 6 regions and 152 game management units. WDFW's harvest report shows 4,783 elk, 23,049 deer and 1,410 black bears (general season) taken in 2025. 36.5% of the ground in Washington's GMUs is public land open to hunting, most of it national forest and DNR trust land.
Data updated October 2026. Seasons and permits: WDFW's 2026 pamphlet with its April 2026 corrections. Harvest: WDFW reports to 2025. Land: WA DNR, 2026-10.
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When are Washington's 2026 general seasons?
The dates below are the ones that cover the most GMUs for each weapon; several GMUs differ, and each GMU page lists its own.
| Season, 2026 | Dates in most GMUs | Pamphlet page |
|---|---|---|
| Deer, modern firearm, eastern Washington (mule and white-tailed) | Oct. 17-27 | 23 |
| Deer, modern firearm, western Washington (black-tailed) | Oct. 17-Nov. 1 | 23 |
| Deer, early archery, eastern Washington | Sept. 1-25 | 24 |
| Deer, early archery, western Washington | Sept. 1-25 | 24 |
| Deer, early muzzleloader | Sept. 26-Oct. 4 | 25 |
| Elk, modern firearm, eastern Washington | Oct. 31-Nov. 8 | 44 |
| Elk, modern firearm, western Washington | Nov. 7-18 | 44 |
| Elk, early archery | Sept. 12-24 | 45 |
| Elk, early muzzleloader | Oct. 3-9 | 46 |
| Black bear, fall general season (most units) | August 1-November 15 | 68 |
Source: WDFW 2026 Big Game Hunting Seasons and Regulations, with WDFW's April 2026 corrections.
How do Washington's deer and elk licenses work?
To hunt deer or elk in Washington you buy a big game hunting license that includes the species, then a transport tag for one weapon: modern firearm, muzzleloader or archery. You hunt only the general seasons for the weapon on your tag (WDFW 2026 pamphlet, pages 22 and 42).
Elk tags are split by side of the state. Eastern Washington tags (EA, EF, EM) cover the 100, 200 and 300 series GMUs; Western Washington tags (WA, WF, WM) cover the 400, 500 and 600 series. GMU 490 is closed to elk hunting, and elk in GMUs 157, 418, 437, 485, 522, 556, 621, 636 and 653 are hunted by special permit only (page 42).
Special permits for deer, elk, mountain goat, bighorn sheep, moose and turkey are drawn once a year. For 2026, WDFW took applications from April 20 through midnight on May 20 and posted results by the end of June. Each application earns one point in its category, and a hunter's points go back to zero when drawn (pages 18 to 19).
Applications for 2027 multiple-season tags, which let a hunter use the general seasons of all three weapons from September 1 to December 31, are on sale from December 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027 (page 15). Every hunter must report hunting activity for each deer, elk, bear and turkey tag by January 31, 2027.
How many special permits does WDFW offer?
WDFW's 2026 pamphlet lists 850 special permit hunts: 450 for deer (6,003 permits), 353 for elk (5,758 permits), 28 for moose (135 permits), 5 for mountain goat (7 permits) and 14 for bighorn sheep (34 permits). The deer and elk hunts are on each GMU's page; moose, mountain goat and bighorn sheep have pages of their own.
Harvest by GMU, for each species
Elk by GMU (111 GMU pages), deer by GMU (144) and black bear by GMU (96), each with WDFW's record back to 1997.
Washington's hunting regions
| Region | Area (office) | GMUs | Public land | Elk, 2025 | Deer, 2025 | Bears, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Eastern Washington (Spokane Valley) | 27 | 23.5% | 941 | 5,990 | 236 |
| Region 2 | North Central Washington (Ephrata) | 28 | 48.5% | 165 | 4,250 | 225 |
| Region 3 | South Central Washington (Yakima) | 19 | 35.1% | 1,338 | 1,392 | 107 |
| Region 4 | North Puget Sound (Mill Creek) | 25 | 48.1% | 225 | 1,981 | 215 |
| Region 5 | Southwest Washington (Ridgefield) | 23 | 38.2% | 1,079 | 6,132 | 255 |
| Region 6 | Coastal Washington (Montesano) | 30 | 28.7% | 1,231 | 5,846 | 372 |
Harvest: WDFW Game Harvest Reports (GMU), added up by region. Public land measured by FilledTag from WA DNR Major Public Lands (non-DNR) and WA DNR Managed Land Parcels, read 2026-10.
How much of Washington's hunting ground is public?
Inside Washington's GMUs, 36.5% of the ground is public land open to hunting under its manager's rules: national forest 24.2%, DNR state trust land 8.4%, WDFW land 1.6%, BLM 1.1%, Bureau of Reclamation 0.6% and national recreation area 0.6%.
The Department of Natural Resources manages about three million acres of state trust land that is open to hunting. A Discover Pass is needed to hunt on DNR-managed land, and where a parcel has no public access a hunter needs the landowner's approval to cross to it (page 87).
On WDFW wildlife areas, the Vehicle Access Pass that comes with most annual hunting licenses covers parking, and the Discover Pass works there too (page 72).
National parks are closed to hunting. The three national recreation areas (Lake Roosevelt, Lake Chelan and Ross Lake) are counted with public hunting land on these pages because the National Park Service allows hunting in them under state rules; each has its own closed areas.
WDFW wildlife areas
WDFW manages 33 wildlife areas, each with a page here: Asotin Creek, Big Bend, Chehalis, Chelan, Chief Joseph, Colockum, Columbia Basin, Cowlitz, Johns River, Klickitat, L.T. Murray, LeClerc, Methow, Mount Saint Helens, North Olympic, Oak Creek, Olympic, Revere, Sagebrush Flat, Scatter Creek, Scotch Creek, Sherman Creek, Shillapoo, Sinlahekin, Skagit, Snoqualmie, South Puget Sound, Sunnyside-Snake River, Swanson Lakes, W.T. Wooten, Wells, Wenas, Whatcom.
Questions hunters ask
When is Washington's 2026 general elk season?
In most eastern Washington GMUs the modern firearm elk season runs Oct. 31-Nov. 8; in western Washington it runs Nov. 7-18. Early archery runs Sept. 12-24 and early muzzleloader Oct. 3-9 in most GMUs (WDFW 2026 pamphlet, pages 44 to 46). Each GMU page lists its own dates.
When is Washington's 2026 general deer season?
The modern firearm deer season runs Oct. 17-27 in most of eastern Washington and Oct. 17-Nov. 1 for black-tailed deer in western Washington (page 23). Early archery opens September 1.
How many elk and deer are taken in Washington?
WDFW reports 4,783 elk and 23,049 deer taken statewide in 2025, and 1,410 black bears in the general bear season.
How do Washington special permits work?
Special permits are drawn once a year. For 2026 WDFW took applications from April 20 to May 20 and posted results by the end of June. Each application earns a point in its category, and points go back to zero when you are drawn (pages 18 to 19).
Get a Washington hunt plan when they open
Hunt plans for Washington are coming. Join the list and you'll hear first. The first 50 hunters in each new state get their plan free.
Until then, the free FilledTag app for iPhone has a map that works in every state, Washington included.
Where these numbers come from
- Seasons, licenses, permits and points: WDFW 2026 Big Game Hunting Seasons and Regulations.
- Harvest: WDFW Game Harvest Reports.
- Public land: WA DNR Major Public Lands (non-DNR) and WA DNR Managed Land Parcels, read 2026-10. GMUs: WDFW game management units, in effect April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027. Wildlife areas: WDFW wildlife area and unit boundaries.
FilledTag is not part of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Numbers are copied from WDFW and the State of Washington, or measured from their maps; nothing on this page is estimated by FilledTag. WDFW's regulations are the final word on every rule.