Q
quakiepatch
Guest
First, MERRY CHRISTMAS to each of you....
I have read hundreds of posts on this site and I appreciate it and those who have been willing to share thoughts, pics, stories, the "whole works", their souls as it were pertaining to something we each seem to love and allow to occupy so much of our time...Big Mule Deer!
I claim to have few answers just felt like typing I guess...
Perhaps I'll get a fist to the face for this one! But some of the way I see it is this: Too many elk. I have hunted the s. region (mind you, I didn't have my first choice each year, which was ok, because I was still able to hunt) for 20 years. I am now 34. We quit hunting a particular area because the deer just disappeared, an area my father and grandfather have hunting for 50 years, but where have the deer gone? One day (1998) my dad and I counted 27 lion kills in about a mile radius. My dad had never seen a lion in this area, ever! So we started hunting another area (going back to the previos area to see if anything had changed, that is any deer) my dad had been hunting a bit closer to home and for the first several years there were 7-12 bucks and about 20 does in the single drainage we would hunt...so what did the dwr do for a few years? Have doe hunts! So, since they shot a large number of does (which made no sense to me), I have no doubt some were residents into the area we hunted, I can count on one hand in the last 8 years how many does I have seen in what used to be a favorite hunting area! And bucks! Well for 6 of those 8 years I neve saw a single buck, but I did see, yup you guessed it, elk! Almost over night it seemed there were 9-16 bulls that would summer in this drainage...And if it seems like I am dogging elk, well I am (even if I have enough points to draw next year, I think 14)! Too much $$$ seems to be involved (by all parties involved)...I would much rather hunt a muley than an elk (thats why I like site, MM)...with all the hype the last 4-5 years here in Utah about the 400"ers on every mountain, and the stink that has gone into some of it (not all) I have almost lost the desire to kill a big bull...there are "trohpy" elk units all over Utah. What about the number of "trophy" mule deer units? When this question is brought up, the two most popular come to mind, Henry's or pauns...SO!
So, where am I going with these thoughts? Good question! One thing that I have noticed, we as a people have changed, I have changed!!! Hell, we could all write books about "what used to be" or "what needs to be" this that or the other. But the bottom line for me is...I don't think I have figured that one out yet.
On day not long ago I asked one of the local officers about putting in a couple "smaller area's" into "trophy areas" and his response was, because too many people hunt that area we can't limit the number...WHAT?...BS! Won't cause its all about the $$$$....Until there is an acutal mindset of "management" there wont be a fix to the deer numbers and when I say numbers I mean quality, for isn't that why most of us hunt, MONSTERS as noted as part of this site, but what is a monster? it's different for each of us...a monster for me right now would be killing a buck with my three young sons with me...
Another thing that bothers me is this land owner "privledge" thing! Their "RIGHT" as it seems to own the animals that wander through and onto "THEIR" land. Perhaps I don't understand because I don't have any land...I'll let someone else hammer this topic out...
We too often are all about me, not wanting others to know where we hunt or where we have seen bucks, etc., so I too am part of the problem!!! But the locals that know me and my family know where we like to hunt, not that I am claiming the mountain as mine...so who cares? I go where I go because I enjoy it and because there have been memories created there, and I want to relive those each year, even if the numbers are few to none...SO? How much am I really wanting to change my habits, that's to be determined...
I have read hundreds of posts on this site and I appreciate it and those who have been willing to share thoughts, pics, stories, the "whole works", their souls as it were pertaining to something we each seem to love and allow to occupy so much of our time...Big Mule Deer!
I claim to have few answers just felt like typing I guess...
Perhaps I'll get a fist to the face for this one! But some of the way I see it is this: Too many elk. I have hunted the s. region (mind you, I didn't have my first choice each year, which was ok, because I was still able to hunt) for 20 years. I am now 34. We quit hunting a particular area because the deer just disappeared, an area my father and grandfather have hunting for 50 years, but where have the deer gone? One day (1998) my dad and I counted 27 lion kills in about a mile radius. My dad had never seen a lion in this area, ever! So we started hunting another area (going back to the previos area to see if anything had changed, that is any deer) my dad had been hunting a bit closer to home and for the first several years there were 7-12 bucks and about 20 does in the single drainage we would hunt...so what did the dwr do for a few years? Have doe hunts! So, since they shot a large number of does (which made no sense to me), I have no doubt some were residents into the area we hunted, I can count on one hand in the last 8 years how many does I have seen in what used to be a favorite hunting area! And bucks! Well for 6 of those 8 years I neve saw a single buck, but I did see, yup you guessed it, elk! Almost over night it seemed there were 9-16 bulls that would summer in this drainage...And if it seems like I am dogging elk, well I am (even if I have enough points to draw next year, I think 14)! Too much $$$ seems to be involved (by all parties involved)...I would much rather hunt a muley than an elk (thats why I like site, MM)...with all the hype the last 4-5 years here in Utah about the 400"ers on every mountain, and the stink that has gone into some of it (not all) I have almost lost the desire to kill a big bull...there are "trohpy" elk units all over Utah. What about the number of "trophy" mule deer units? When this question is brought up, the two most popular come to mind, Henry's or pauns...SO!
So, where am I going with these thoughts? Good question! One thing that I have noticed, we as a people have changed, I have changed!!! Hell, we could all write books about "what used to be" or "what needs to be" this that or the other. But the bottom line for me is...I don't think I have figured that one out yet.
On day not long ago I asked one of the local officers about putting in a couple "smaller area's" into "trophy areas" and his response was, because too many people hunt that area we can't limit the number...WHAT?...BS! Won't cause its all about the $$$$....Until there is an acutal mindset of "management" there wont be a fix to the deer numbers and when I say numbers I mean quality, for isn't that why most of us hunt, MONSTERS as noted as part of this site, but what is a monster? it's different for each of us...a monster for me right now would be killing a buck with my three young sons with me...
Another thing that bothers me is this land owner "privledge" thing! Their "RIGHT" as it seems to own the animals that wander through and onto "THEIR" land. Perhaps I don't understand because I don't have any land...I'll let someone else hammer this topic out...
We too often are all about me, not wanting others to know where we hunt or where we have seen bucks, etc., so I too am part of the problem!!! But the locals that know me and my family know where we like to hunt, not that I am claiming the mountain as mine...so who cares? I go where I go because I enjoy it and because there have been memories created there, and I want to relive those each year, even if the numbers are few to none...SO? How much am I really wanting to change my habits, that's to be determined...
