I do not mind private landowners getting their fair share of tags for their private land. Fair numbers and percentages can be debated, negotiated, compromised. I know if I owned 500 acres of land and maintained habitat to support animals I would want the right to hunt them from time to time.
What is the BIGGEST CROCK OF S*#% is being able to use PRIVATE LAND tags on adjacent PUBLIC LAND through the UNIT-WIDE designation that the EPLUS system allows. This needs to STOP NOW.
The supposed tradeoff is that public land hunters can hunt on those private parcels and therefore it increases access to public land hunters as a tradeoff. However, I was on a recent youth hunt in 16C and the Adobe Ranch which is supposed to be open due to its Unit-Wide designation had all gates into the ranch locked except if you accessed the ranch from an entirely different unit (16E) if the gate was unlocked at all. This unit has almost no cell phone service so you can't call the Game and Fish or the ranch.
I have ran into several outfitter's and guides (Adobe Ranch, Beaverhead, Black Range) in the field and they laugh saying that public draw hunters don't stand a chance in the new system. The outfitters harvest most all the decent elk on their private land in the first 24 hrs of a hunt (after all it is their land 365 days a year and have game cameras keeping tabs year-round and should know it well) and then use their remaining tags on adjacent public land the remaining hunt days. I've seen Units (16C) that were once quality, become almost impossible to harvest a legal bull in.
Furthermore, many of these tags can be used in any 5 day span, including outside the hunt dates that restrict public land hunter. This is BULLCRAP! Let's let common sense prevail and allow private landowners their tags to use on THIER PRIVATE LAND ONLY! If we do not stop this I can guarantee hunting quality will go down for everyone, but PUBLIC LAND hunters most of all.
What is the BIGGEST CROCK OF S*#% is being able to use PRIVATE LAND tags on adjacent PUBLIC LAND through the UNIT-WIDE designation that the EPLUS system allows. This needs to STOP NOW.
The supposed tradeoff is that public land hunters can hunt on those private parcels and therefore it increases access to public land hunters as a tradeoff. However, I was on a recent youth hunt in 16C and the Adobe Ranch which is supposed to be open due to its Unit-Wide designation had all gates into the ranch locked except if you accessed the ranch from an entirely different unit (16E) if the gate was unlocked at all. This unit has almost no cell phone service so you can't call the Game and Fish or the ranch.
I have ran into several outfitter's and guides (Adobe Ranch, Beaverhead, Black Range) in the field and they laugh saying that public draw hunters don't stand a chance in the new system. The outfitters harvest most all the decent elk on their private land in the first 24 hrs of a hunt (after all it is their land 365 days a year and have game cameras keeping tabs year-round and should know it well) and then use their remaining tags on adjacent public land the remaining hunt days. I've seen Units (16C) that were once quality, become almost impossible to harvest a legal bull in.
Furthermore, many of these tags can be used in any 5 day span, including outside the hunt dates that restrict public land hunter. This is BULLCRAP! Let's let common sense prevail and allow private landowners their tags to use on THIER PRIVATE LAND ONLY! If we do not stop this I can guarantee hunting quality will go down for everyone, but PUBLIC LAND hunters most of all.