Wasatch Front Archery Tags

[SMELLYBUCK]

Has anyone heard if the DWR will be cutting out any of the extended archery hunt this year? After all the reports of winter kill, I was half expecting some changes on the way they administer the extended WF hunt. I'm surprised they seem to be administering it in a business as usual fashion. Seems strange they would cut the rifle tags 1000 across the whole entire region - not all of which was hit with winter kill, and then maintain a long archery hunt, buck or doe, where the herd was hit the worst.

 

[swbuckmaster]

The deer on the Wasatch front weren't hit as hard as the deer farther to the north. I watched the front and it seemed like it would snow and then the wind would blow the snow off the south facing slopes so they were pretty bare. A lot of the deer also winter in peoples back yards where there is plenty of great forage to eat.

The doe to buck ratio is around 35 buck per 100 does or higher. So even if a few bucks and a few does die it isn't like they can't recover in a year.
The herd on the front is also at the max allowed around 1200 animals. It wont hurt them to have a few thinned out.

One other thing most of the does on the front get bred early by older age bucks. This does one great thing. It allows the does to have their fawns earlier in the spring. This helps the fawns gain more weight before the winter hits. The fawns have the best chances of survival in this type of scenario. So I would bet that more fawns made it through this winter on the front than farther up north.

It's a different type of scenario in the Logan canyon area. You have spikes and two points chasing does around. The does don't want to be bred by these younger bucks so they resist as long as they can. They end up being bred later in the rut and possible even getting bred in their second cycle. Does conceive later in the spring the fawns have less chance of survival because of the weight scenario I mentioned above and also because the predators babies have become more efficient at killing. The Logan area also had way more snow.

The front should still be in great condition this year and in future years to come as long as the DWR and losers that cant stay out of peoples backyards don't screw it up.


Archery is a year round commitment!!