Utah archery hunt

[hedges]

I was wondering what everybody though about the state wide archery hunt. Do you like the fact that you can go every where or is it turning into a pain because of the uncontrolled number of hunters in your area? Let me know what you guys think about it good and bad.

I don't like it because all the new jokers that don't know how to hunt. I can't change the way they hunt but it still drives me nuts. Since they changed it I've noticed tons more people hunting down south. Every year when the muzzleloader hunt starts I feel like I'm all alone. I kid you not, both muzzleloader and rifle I see about half or even a 1/3 of people hunting. You don't need to ask where I live and hunt, isn't it obvious.

 

[Elkslayer]

I think it is great! Even though so far I have only hunted in the Northern Region. The statewide thing should draw some of the rifle and muzz. guys away from those hunts with a little less pressure as stated in your post. This year we are looking into the Monroe, and Manti areas. From what we see each year, if you are willing to get off the roads a bit, you do not see the hunters. I agree that there are far to many people hunting off 4 wheelers and not leaving the road. That's why so many small bucks are being killed on these hunts. The southern and Southeastern units are great units and should be open to statewide archery. Until someone can show me kill percentages that are affecting those units down south, I vote to keep it as is. How about not letting anyone hunt off 4 wheelers and leave the statewide archery hunt as is? Good luck on the archery hunts this year.

 

[2_Point]

I don't like Utah's archery system for a couple reasons. The statewide option does effect the deer population. If archers got 16% of a region's tags then you'd have 2,400 archery permits for the Southern Region, but there were more than 4,000 archery hunters in the Southern Region because of the statewide option. That DOES NOT include the youth hunters who can hunt all 3 seasons and the Dedicated hunters who can also hunt archery. You could have 10,000 archers in Southern Utah for the archery hunt.

The 16,000 permit cap gives archers more permit than their percentage of the Hunting Population. Many people who want to hunt, but don't draw a rifle tag or ML tag, go buy an archery permit and they have not put the effort into learning the new weapon. The high archery cap essentially forces hunters who don't draw their area to hunt with a bow. This causes more unethical behavior, including higher wound rates, lost game, and problems for other bow hunters. I'd bet that many of the "new" bowhunters are the root of the problems on the Wasatch Extended area.

This also applys to the new LTD Elk permits. Archers got 25% of the permits, but only represent 10-15% of the hunters. This will cause some to grab a bow and put in for permits because they can draw the tag, even if they aren't practiced archers. I just hate seeing these changes put in place which attracts more people because of ease of obtaining a permit, not because of the desire to learn how to archery hunt.

I know this sounds like Sour-Grapes. I do hunt with my bow.
Good luck

 

[stickflipper]

I hope you dont feel like you are the only one crowded. Welcome to hunting in Utah. Now I know you have probably lived here all your life so I dont understand why this is such a surprise to you.

 

[hedges]

Elkslayer I didn't say it takes away pressure from the rifle or muzzleloader hunt. I said the pressure is huge from the bow hunt and when you get to the muzzleloader or rifle hunt you feel not so crowded. There is only a certain number of rifle and muzzleloader hunters compared to an unknown amount of bow hunters.

I don't road hunt in fact I rarely use my truck to get to spots I hike all day and come back only if I have to.

2-point you hit it on the head. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. I bet you hunt down south also.

stickflipper I have live down south all my life and I have been hunting since I can remember. Most of my earlier hunting was on the rifle hunt back when they had thousand of more hunters. I've never seen the kind of pressure in those days as it is now.

Man I remember the old days of bow hunting when you almost never seen anybody and if you did they wasn't hunting. I know some of you guys remember the old compound bows that sucked. The new bows are tons better and all those wanna be unexperience bow(their choice) hunters are giving us a bad name. I much rather see a cap on the number of bow tags for each region, that way only the serious hunters will out hunting.