The future of Utah Elk hunting

wileywapati

Very Active Member
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Posted Thursday, October 9, 2003

Mule deer and elk changes in 2004 the focus of upcoming public meetings

SALT LAKE CITY ? Division of Wildlife Resources officials have a goal for elk hunting in Utah in 2004 ? make it simpler, fairer and more consistent without sacrificing the quality hunters have come to enjoy.

They'll share their ideas on how to do that at an upcoming series of Regional Advisory Council meetings. People are encouraged to attend the meetings and provide the DWR with their input and ideas.

Another major item to be discussed will be Utah's Mule Deer Management Plan, which will guide the management of mule deer in Utah through 2008. The DWR is proposing new goals, objectives and strategies to guide the management of Utah's deer herds. Copies of the proposed plan are available on this Web site. ? (PDF format, 156 KB) Copies will also be available at the meetings.

Meeting dates, times and locations are as follows:

Northeastern Region
Oct. 27, 7 p.m.
Vernal City Office
447 E. Main St., Vernal
Southeastern Region
Oct. 28, 6:30 p.m.
John Wesley Powell Museum
885 E. Main St., Green River
Southern Region
Oct. 29, 7 p.m.
Beaver High School
195 E. Center St., Beaver
Central Region
Nov. 4, 6:30 p.m.
Department of Natural Resources
1594 W. North Temple, Salt Lake City
Northern Region
Nov. 5, 6 p.m.
Brigham City Community Center
24 N. 300 W., Brigham City
Among the major big game hunting changes the DWR is recommending for 2004 are the following:

Set aside 15 percent of the general buck deer permits in each region for youth hunters ages 14 to 18.

Eliminate the second drawing for big game permits and sell permits not taken in the first big game draw over-the-counter in June.

Eliminate AR301 archery elk permits. AR301 permits are special archery elk permits that have allowed 300 archers to hunt all of the state's general any bull elk units, as well as several spike bull and limited entry units.

Allocate limited entry elk permits on all units in a consistent way, based on weapon type ? 25 percent archery, 65 percent any weapon and 10 percent muzzleloader. This distribution would reduce current rifle elk hunting opportunities on some units and increase the number of archers and muzzleloader hunters on the units. This would lay the groundwork for expanded limited entry elk hunting opportunities in the future, because archers and muzzleloader hunters are less successful than rifle hunters. It would also distribute hunting pressure over three hunts, which would lessen hunting pressure during the rifle hunt and provide a better experience for rifle hunters.

Eliminate ML300 muzzleloader elk permits and add the 1,300 ML300 permits to the general any bull elk permit cap. This would increase the any bull elk cap to 14,300 permits. When hunters buy an any bull permit, they could choose whether they wanted their permit to be a rifle permit or a muzzleloader permit.
"The thing we keep hearing from elk hunters is that the regulations are too complicated. They also want the regulations to be fairer and more consistent across the board," Jim Karpowitz, big game coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources said about the proposed elk hunting changes. "At the same time, they don't want the quality of their hunting experience to decline. We believe we've come up with recommendations that will provide hunters what they're looking for."

RAC citizen representatives will take public input received about the recommendations to the Utah Wildlife Board when it meets Nov. 13 in Salt Lake City to approve Utah's 2004 Big Game Proclamation.

For more information about the meetings, call the nearest Division of Wildlife Resources office or the DWR's Salt Lake City office at (801) 538-4700.
 
What about the fee increase for non-res limeted elk, is it really going up to a thousand bucks ?
 
The ML300 is on the chopping block? Damn! I am pretty much garraunteed a tag for next year too. Figures, god forbid I actually get drawn for anything. I got more deer bonus points than I have inches of weiner, next year they will probably open the pausagaunt up to general season. I think I'll change my last name to Leavitt......or maybe Hinckley........
 
It will be interesting to see what happens this year. I did a quick comparison to Limited Entry Elk tags issued in 2002 and found the following:
41 Limited Archery Elk Tags were issued and 300 AR301 Tags for a total of 341 tags.
If you take 25% of all Limited Entry Archery, Rifle and Muzz tags issued in 2002 you come up with 196 (with rounding half numbers up ). You can see that if this was the case and with no consideration for achery success taken, that there would be less Limited Entry Archery Elk tags issued than the current system with the AR301 tags included.
We all know that more Limited Entry Elk Tags for 2003 were issued, but I did not have time to try to figure those amounts out.
With the 25% archey elk tag option, you are looking at approx. 25 tags for the Manti Manti, 29 tags for the Wasatch, 15 tags for the Dutton, 15 tags for Book Cliffs roaded, 4 or 5 each for the Cache units, just to name a few for the larger tag units.
What percent of people that usually put in for Rifle tags in these areas do you think will switch and put in for archery tags due to the reducd numbers of rifle tags?
I think that if the proposed change does happen, the Game Dept. will come up with their own kill percentages that they are comfortable with for each weapon and then issue more tags based on this.
It looks like the rifle tags numbers are the one's that will get somewhat reduced in these large units.
I did look at San Juan, S.W. Desert, Pahvant, Oak Creek, Monroe, Fish Lake, and Panguitch Lake. These units were already being managed on a appox. 50% rifle, 25% archery and 25% muzz basis and I do no see them changing to much.
What do you all think?
 
Yea they otta plan on fixing the Fish Lake elk herd that they obliterated.



-Cass
 
The thing the DWR website doesn't say that they are looking at proposing is they want to begin to manage trophy units harvest of bulls to be in the 6-7 year age instead of the 8-9 year age it is now. They are claiming some guides are wanting the age structure reduced for better bulls, to which I say BULL. The DWR's own stats show the heaviest antler weight comes at 8 years of age. The simple fact is that needs to be considered is if the bulls are the biggest at 6-7 as some guides are claiming-Why don't the guides shoot them when they are 6-7. Unless aliens are sucking the bulls off the earth for a couple years they have to be on the same mountains at 6-7 as they are for the 8-9 year stretch. Personally I think this is an attempt to increase tags, make more money and feed us more bull. This year more big bulls have been killed than years in the past. Why ruin a good thing. By the way this info was mailed to RAC members a couple weeks ago and I read it first hand.
 
thats right on the target. they only want more money and if you dont have $50000 for a gov. tag or landowner tag there is no future.
 
steelie: "I have more deer bonus points than inches of wiener." I am still laughing. Never really thought about comparing bonus points to inches of manhood.:eek:
 
Good math figuring 'elkslayer'. That is so unreal that they are actually penalizing the rifle hunters draw odds with this new plan for elk hunting/drawing, IF, the Archery and Mzzldr tags are as high as one would consider.

I don't really see why they want to get rid of the ML300??? Are those General mzzldr elk tags and Spike mzzldr tags going to be the same hunt dates as they are now in Nov.??

Anybody heard or read what the hunt dates will be for the LE elk draw weapons?? Maybe moving the rifle to the end of Sept and have the bow and mzzldrs split the first 3 1/2 weeks of Sept. that would be sweet for bow or mzzldr tags!
 
in my opinion utah hunting has been changed to who can fork over the most money will get the best hunts and I'm getting sick of it.
 

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