LAST EDITED ON May-06-17 AT 12:25PM (MST)[p]tailbuck1 and elkassassin are right on, in their explanation to all those who, over the last 10 years keep asking: Why?
Sometimes it seems like if we keep asking the same questions, the answers will some how change. But....... no! No matter how often we ask, we aren't going to change the answer, from what it was the last time we asked. It's like, if we keep asking the same question the answer will eventually change.
Think, folks............ what was the bull elk hunt like in Utah, before the spike only units were implemented, 25 years ago? We know exactly what will happen if we issue more tags or open more units up to any bull, because we've already lived through it.
For those too young to know..... there where very very few bull elk over three years old, on any unit, in any part of the State. So us elk hunters, back in the 70s and 80s and early 90s were killing only spike bulls, and on very very rare occasions, someone would kill a rag horn bull (a two or three year old). Even on private ranches, bulls larger than rag horn bulls were unheard of.
If you think I'm overstating the elk hunting in Utah, the 70, 80 and early 90's, check the B & C and the Long Hunter record books. It wasn't until after spike only unit were established that anything but a three year old rag horn was seen or killed in Utah, unless you go back to the 40s and 50s, when there were hardly any elk tags issued in Utah.
So....... after spike only units were established, most of the bulls killed in Utah were and are spikes, and that's the same thing that was happening before spike only units were set up. Yes........ that's right, mostly spikes before spike only units, and still mostly spikes in spike only units!!!!
So what's the difference between now and pre-spike only elk units?
Now, if a spike escapes getting killed the first year, which most don't but a few do, the bull enters a protected status, for the rest of his life, and he only gets hunted by a few dozen hunters each year, allowing a few of the spikes to live long enough to get mature. The fewer the number of branch antler tags, the better his odds of surviving another year are.
So........... not a lot of sacrifice has been forced on elk hunters, to allow a hand full of bulls, in the spike only units, to live past their first year, and to add a few more each year, until eventually we have 300 to 600 branch antler bulls on any given spike only unit. The 300 to 600 bulls average in age from 2 to 10 years old. Thats why we are now seeing mature bull elk, when we visit/hunt these units, but................ like tailbuck1 and elkassassin have said, for the 10,000th time, if we open these spike elk units up to any bull again, like they were, 25 years ago, in two years, yes, in two short years of any bull hunting, all 300-600 branch antlered bull will be gone again, and all that will be left will be yearling bulls, the same as it was, prior to spike only regulations.
So........ as far as I'm concerned, Utah elk hunting can be, wide open, any bull, and go back to only yearlings and a rare rage horn to hunt or keep spike only and still hunt mostly spikes but have a few mature bull to hunt once or twice in your life, like we have now. But....... I'd don't think it's very fair, to those who have applied for many years, to pull the rug out from under them now.
Personal, I'm over it. I've killed enough bull elk, spikes and mature bulls, I'm no longer interested accept as a guy that wants to see future generations stay interested in the life style.
It does seem funny, at least to me, that we have such little interest in elk meat in Utah, we allow some sportsman to kill two and even three elk a year because their is such limited demand for antlerless elk. This tells me, the majority of sportsman want antlers, not to "just hunt" or not to "just kill for meat", as some claim. Yet, the very sportsmen that want antlers want/demand that we remove the management tool that is creating the thing the want most. It's nuts.
And......... the same principles apply to mule deer, that I do care about, we constantly complain about the lack of opportunity to hunt the units will mature bucks and then b!tch about point creep and keep demanding we reduce point creep, and in the same breath, demand that we sell more tags and kill nearly every buck, on our general season units. The same as we had with elk, prior to spike only regulations.
Like everything else, in our "upside down logic" today...... it's abject social/culture madness.
Got to run..... I have a tee time at the Richfield Municipal Golf course at 1:00, this afternoon.
Wish you all very the best in your outdoor adventures.
DC
