Statewide Archery

M

MBM

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LAST EDITED ON Jun-08-04 AT 07:47AM (MST)[p]What are your thoughts on Archers in Utah being able to hunt statewide? I understand from the SFW Primitive weapon thread that some Southern region hunters feel that most bowhunters are going south and killing more deer from the southern region and affecting the buck/doe ratio.

I have bowhunted the southern region archery for the last 16 years and although there are more bow hunters now than 16 years ago I noticed the increase long before Statewide archery went into affect in 2001. I have seen a higher number of road hunters the last few years but I think that is becauseof the higher widespread ATV use than to more hunters. I understand that other areas in the Southern region could be different.

The deer numbers in the area I hunt has not been very good the last few years but I think that is more due to the expanding elk population than to more hunter pressure.

I posted the following on the SFW Primative weapon thread.

I looked at the Harvest stats for 2002 in the 2004 proclamation and put together some numbers for the Southern region.
Archery (Southern Region)
Hunters Afield-5265
Harvest-965
Sucsess Rate-18.33%

The statewide Archery sucsess rate is 14%

ML (Southern)
Hunters Afield-2254
Harvest-785
Sucsess Rate-34.83%

The statewide ML sucsess rate is 25.1%

Rifle (Southern)
Hunters Afield-12563
Harvest-4094
Sucsess Rate-32.59%

The stated wide Rifle sucsess rate is 26.8%

Also in 2002 the Southern region had the highest buck to doe ratio of any other region.

I was suprised to see how well the southern ML hunters are doing compared to the state average. Archery is only a 3.3% above the state average while ML is 9.7% above. Between the two primitive weapon hunts only 1750 deer where harvested compared to 4094 on the rifle. 29.9% of the total harvest in the southern region is from primative weapons and only 16.5% is from Archery. If things are going down hill in the Southern region it is not the Statewide archery hunt at fault. Most the deer are being killed on the rifle hunt and ML has a higher than normal sucsess rate by almost 10%.

What do you guys think?

Mark
 
I think some of the reason for higher succsess rate are because of the NR they aren't that picky about what size of buck they take home, It's a shorter travel for alot Nv & Ca hunters so they try and draw Southern Utah,I know a group(6) who goes over there almost each fall and they usually do 100% on small bucks.But they are just hunting for meat bucks and are just happy as all get out over a nice forky. They hunt a area between the fields and the bedding area higher up on the mountain. Well that my thoughts on why you have a higher % killed in Southern then other parts of the state.
 
The Southern Region is flourishing so well that most of it has been reduced to a 5 day hunt for the rifle hunters!!!!!!!!! Pine Valley, Panguitch, and especially Zion are in terrible shape as far as the amount of deer on them--nobody can argue that!
I have to admitt that I don't like the statewide archery hunt strictly for selfish reasons, who the hell wants more hunters to contend with? But I don't think that the tags being statewide has effected the number of hunters nearly as bad as the archery tags available over the counter to everyone who didn't draw a rifle tag. The DWR preaches hunter ethics, but making archery tags available to people the night before the hunt starts who have never shot a bow is totally rediculous--
 
Good points Quickdraw. I think if areas is the Southern region are in trouble then the 5 day rifle hunt is the way to go. The rifle hunt is where all the deer are being taken. I am not sure what the solution is for hunters picking up a bow right before the season. Mandatory bowhunter education? August first being the last day to get a archery tag even if there are some left over? I am not sure what the best way would be to solve it. There will always be slob/uethical hunters in the field no matter what happens.

Mark
 
I am definately in favor of a mandatory archery class that includes a skills test so the archers have to prove they can make a humane kill--thus proving that they have put the time and effort into practicing.
 
I think that a lot of what has been said is true. It is closer for the NR California hunters in the southern region, and the deer herd is in bad shape. I don't think the 5-day hunt makes a lot of difference because the Monroe unit had the 5-day hunt for a number of years, but it is really no better off than any other area in the region IMHO. I think one of the biggest problems is the drought. It has definately been a major factor in our animals, but other things have also had an effect.
Let's hope that our management system can help the deer hold their own, until mother nature kicks in and ends this drought.
As far as extra hunters in the area, all you need to do is get off of the road a 1/4 of a mile and you don't see any of them.
I also think a mandatory archery skills test would be a great idea. The statistics shown above don't reflect the deer wounded by these slob hunters that wander off and die. If a guy can't shoot a minimum score in a skills test, then he shouldn't be allowed a license!! My $.02....
a*r
A bad day hunting is better than a Good Day at Work!!
 
I agree with it totally, my problem is all the people that decide to frequent hunting areas when the opening weekend is in progress. I was so screwed last year by just weekenders up riding on meadows right at sunup with no tag obviously. It was really ignorant of these people to ride ridgeline to ridgeline on quads just spooking everything away from people. Have some common decency.



-Cass
 
I have bow-hunted the Southern region as well as the Northeast region. While I see bigger bucks down South, I enjoy the Northeast region. When it comes to the number of bucks seen, it doesn't seem to matter which region I am in, I see about the same number. I am in it for the experience rather than getting the "big one." By the way Cass, my hunting party has also had problems with atv's buzzing around during opening morning. I was in the Current Creek area last year and somebody was shooting a gun during the bow-hunt. It was the type of situation where you ask yourself "Was that real or am I imaging it?" We reported it, but I felt like the information that we provided was not taken very seriously.
 
The dwr does not take anything serious. Two years ago I turned in 3 bull elk that I found about 1/4 of a mile above a highway. you could clearly see that they had all been shot. I guided a gamewarden in and all he did was cut the anlers off and leave, I asked him if he was going to do anything like retrieve the bullets or anything and he just said no and walked off.
 

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