Attention all UT muzzleloaders!!!

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Wounded_w

Guest
Your Muzzleload hunts are about to change for the worse(IMO).Check out the home page for the UDWR. under news, Big game changes for 2011. The muzzleload will be after the 1st of 2 rifle hunts and the same time as muzzleload Elk. Make your voices heard at your RAC meetings. The meetings for this agenda start The 1st week of Nov.
 
LOL. Under this logic, I guess the "coveted" rifle tag will be the early one? Yeah right!

Personally, I like the changes and hope they go through.
 
From what I can tell, the only people getting screwed are the LE archery elk hunters. Other than that, I don't mind the changes. If there are half of the rifle deer hunters afield at one time, I'd take either hunt. Sounds like they want as much input as possible, which is a respectable thing to do. I guess we'll see what happens.
 
I can see how hunters would like to have less crowding in the field. What I do not understand is how 3 straight weeks of hunting pressure is going to help our deer herd. I know the areas I hunt will get hammered if they have an early Oct rifle hunt. All the data I have ever seen shows that lower hunter pressure produces higher success rates. Higher success rates equal lower bucks post season. Our herds are barely meeting objectives as it is. When do the deer come first?

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From your point of view what do you like about the changes. I'm trying to look at it from all perspectives thanks.
 
There is good and bad to the proposed changes. I really don't think it will help crowding at all - it may even make it worse. I foresee a lot of ML deer hunters switching over to one of the rifle hunts, for one thing. And what a lot of folks don't realize: Utah already has 2 rifle openers. One for deer, one for elk. By combining deer and elk dates together, then making 2 openers, they haven't changed a dang thing.

I also believe it will be bad for the deer herds, because a lot more big bucks will be getting harvested. That late hunt is awfully rutty.

If they really want to reduce crowding, its going to take a lot more than a quick shuffle of some season dates.
 
How about going to the RAC meeting and letting "OUR" (archery, muzzy and rifle) voices be heard about bettering the overall deer herd in Utah.

Every special group is worried that their oppurtunity is going to be cut short. How about we all make some sacrifices and push to cut all tags and seasons. Last year the archers screamed they were being screwed, this year is sounds like the muzzy hunters are going to scream.

I am a HUNTER, I will hunt any weapon that I can. I want more days in the field, better season dates, bigger bucks, more bucks! All of those things are a biproduct of more deer overall and we will not get that until tag numbers are cut. We should all be at the RAC meetings pleading to cut tag numbers until our deer herds are health again so we can all hunt with what ever weapon we choose in the future.
 
If it goes through I'll take that early Deer/Elk combo hunt every year thank you very much. That hunt will have the highest success rate IMO, as the Deer will only have been pursued by Archey hunters, and not MZ hunters, plus pushed around by Elk hunters like it is now. Get high, and the Deer hunting will be very good IMO.


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27 straight days of gun hunting for both deer and elk at the same time will be more than the deer herds can handle. And I'm not sure many spikes bulls will get through the hunts anymore either.

I can't even imagine the pressure on the biggest spike bull units like the Manti and the Wasatch in particular.

Bad, bad idea.
 
I don't see where it will change much at all. Other states such as Colorado have multiple seasons for deer right now and still have good quality. Hunters don't decimate deer herds, but mother nature and decline of habitat does. Look back at the '83 and '93 winters. Horrible on the deer herds. Look just 2 years ago in Northern Utah, bad winter and significant die off. Deer learn real fast when they are being hunted and will adapt. I hunted the buck/bull combo this year and the deer were just as skittish during this hunt than they were in the muzzleloader and rifle hunts in the past. I'm all for a change to reduce the number of hunters in the field at one time. I've never been one for crowds.
 
there is a reason why colorado can kill alot of bucks and still have a ton of bucks left after the seasons, colorado has three times the amount of deer as utah does. if the dates are approved the first year is going to be a great year for killing big bucks, but that will mean that alot of the older class bucks WILL get slottered. Another thing, how stupid is it to put the muzzy hunt in between the two rifle hunts. i mean come on stupidity right there.
 
I will admit, the muzzleloaders are getting the shaft on this one. It will be a very tough hunt. I think you're right that some big bucks will be killed that first year. It happened the first year they moved the muzzleloader to the earlier dates. But the deer learned fast. They will do the same with this. I just don't think that it will be an all out slaughter like some are saying. Big bucks don't get big by being stupid. The only slaughter I can remember on big bucks was a couple of years ago when the heavy snow pushed the deer down onto the winter range during the rifle hunt. Now that was a big buck slaughter. Again, that was weather related, not a season change.
 
I wish they would use Nevada's dates as a model.

I love to muzzleloader hunt, but won't anymore if the dates go through.
 

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