I passed on a 251 deer tag today. Did I f up?

bpbigperm · Sep 25, 2021

So I woke up today and did my house chores. I then went onto Nevada big game web site. I saw a 251 deer tag available. While researching the area the tag was scooped up. I just feel like I should have hurried up and just bought the tag. What is your opinion?

mevertsen · Sep 25, 2021

Hard to say if you messed up or not.

Best thing I can think of with the new fcfs situation is to have areas which you have a knowledge of and which are in line with the number of points you have. And that you may want. Be ready to just pounce. Do the research beforehand if you can. NDOW.ORG has a lot of resources to do that research.

It's been pretty obvious the tags don't last long. Also, of you don't know the area, missing out on it isn't a big deal imo.

doz · Sep 25, 2021

Plenty of tags coming up. Be ready to click add to cart immediately. They go within seconds.

bpbigperm · Sep 25, 2021

mevertsen said:
Hard to say if you messed up or not.

Best thing I can think of with the new fcfs situation is to have areas which you have a knowledge of and which are in line with the number of points you have. And that you may want. Be ready to just pounce. Do the research beforehand if you can. NDOW.ORG has a lot of resources to do that research.

It's been pretty obvious the tags don't last long. Also, of you don't know the area, missing out on it isn't a big deal imo.

I had researched that area for antelope. but not deer.

nvbucksnbulls · Sep 25, 2021

The deer numbers have gone way down in the last few years. I would have turned that tag in if I drew it this year. My 2 cents

Troubadour · Sep 25, 2021

It’s going to get wild with the deer tag volume coming up and then followed by sleeper ram hunts that begin in November.
I want to hear stories of the guys that get these tags and have absolute awesome times on spontaneous adventures.

SilverState22 · Sep 27, 2021

From a guy that knows 251 very well you made the right call. The unit is very much run over by cats and the deer population is suffering badly! NDOW doesn't fly this unit for survey purposes and only goes off hunters success reports. It's been declining for the last five years and it has now gotten to a point of potential of no return unless they do something with the predator problem. It's a shame because it's one of my very favorite places to hunt.

mevertsen · Sep 27, 2021

SilverState22 said:
From a guy that knows 251 very well you made the right call. The unit is very much run over by cats and the deer population is suffering badly! NDOW doesn't fly this unit for survey purposes and only goes off hunters success reports. It's been declining for the last five years and it has now gotten to a point of potential of no return unless they do something with the predator problem. It's a shame because it's one of my very favorite places to hunt.

You can get two lion tags a year. Have at it.

What about horses. Pj's. Water, feed quality? Do any of those have an impact or is it just lions?

<<<<< lion hunter here. I have hounds and have killed 5 lions personally. Killing lions is not the end all to saving deer unless they have adequate feed and water to survive.

Let's say we killed all the lions in 251 today, and no more came in, is there enough feed to allow the deer to survive? Are the horses going to stop destruction on water sources? Are the pj's going to stop taking over sagebrush? Can we guarantee water will come to fill up the springs and seeps in the next 90 days? 6 months? Year?

If you added two people to your house, and you couldn't go to the grocery store, how long before you all starved?

Killing lions to for an extensive very long term - decade or more? Proposition, and if the other parameters aren't in place to help the deer survive, they will still die. Just in different ways.

There are a few instances where predator control does work, and has been proven to work, but those instances are very isolated and rare.

Kceastsparks · Sep 27, 2021

mevertsen said:
You can get two lion tags a year. Have at it.

What about horses. Pj's. Water, feed quality? Do any of those have an impact or is it just lions?

<<<<< lion hunter here. I have hounds and have killed 5 lions personally. Killing lions is not the end all to saving deer unless they have adequate feed and water to survive.

Let's say we killed all the lions in 251 today, and no more came in, is there enough feed to allow the deer to survive? Are the horses going to stop destruction on water sources? Are the pj's going to stop taking over sagebrush? Can we guarantee water will come to fill up the springs and seeps in the next 90 days? 6 months? Year?

If you added two people to your house, and you couldn't go to the grocery store, how long before you all starved?

Killing lions to for an extensive very long term - decade or more? Proposition, and if the other parameters aren't in place to help the deer survive, they will still die. Just in different ways.

There are a few instances where predator control does work, and has been proven to work, but those instances are very isolated and rare.

Wonderful points in here.

Complete side note, have you ever tried any of the meat from the lions?

mevertsen · Sep 27, 2021

Yes. And it is good.

Also another thought that came to mind. I would say over half of the mountain range is inside the test range, which is a constant source for lions as well, which really complicates the situation down there, even if the habitat were in ideal condition and there weren't a million horses down there either.