LOL. I did hear the test pilot say they have a bigger motor upgrade which will take it to 250 lbs. A guy could make 4 flights at a quarter deboned per trip. The 20 minute flight time needs to increase also but it’s a starting place for the future, right?
In one regard, I completely share your sentiments. In another regard, we are so far past this addition of technology making hunting more unfair, that I'm completely unconcerned, I've hiked in roadless areas multiple times and got to a good spot just in time to watch an illegal 4 wheeler / motorcycle blaze their way in and spook out game. Sometimes they are on a trail, sometimes not. On top of that I know guys who will spend weeks of scouting and/or tens of thousands of dollars on a team of guides and/or equipment so forth and they manage to cull out the best genetics every year. Despite all of this, overall success rates and tag numbers have decreased the last three years. If we are only allowed 1 tag every two or three years, why should we worry if others use inordinate amounts of money, time, and resources to get their prize. Hopefully they use it to take out a bunch of predators in the process. Hunting technology is not what is resulting in a declining deer herd.
I think I the Forest Service has some fairly strict laws about flying which may protect some of those lands. What I see here is an advantage to access those landlocked state and BLM sections, almost 4 million acres in Wyoming which are public but inaccessible, 3 million in Montana and 2 million acres in Nevada. This isn’t a rich mans tool only as many drive $90,000 pickups nowadays or have a $60,000 pickup towing a $20,000 SXS and a $20,000 trailer set up. It’s a way for the public to finally get access to what we’ve been locked out of until now with cheaper and more affordable technology. Each state will have to decide how they handle this but having a few large ranches control much of the West gets frustrating for many, here we have a viable workaround and a solution.
Are you saying Idaho has ruled that it is illegal to access any landlocked public land from the air? I’m not wanting to argue I’ve just never seen anything on that before concerning Idaho. Everything I’ve ever seen showed that most states don’t want to touch any corner crossing type issues because they don’t want it to go to the Supreme Court for a ruling.
I am not sure you meant to use the word “wilderness”. A true wilderness area Has zero access from the air. Can’t even have supplies dropped from the air. Must be accessed by foot only (human or animal) for people and their supplies
You really think hunting technology has nothing to do with declining deer herds?
Not a rich man’s tool?! Your family gonna let you drop $100K on a 1 seater drone? “Have fun in your $100K drone this weekend honey, while I have fun in the new corvette.”
Hunting tech IS a contributor to declining herd numbers. Twist the turret and let her fly at 1000 yards….powerful spotting scopes and binos….trail cams that alert you wherever you are, whenever movement is detected….
That's BS......the 24 hour law is to keep hunters from locating game from the air then immediately pursuing.....
How many $90k pickups are out there nowadays. Besides the price will likely drop and the range be extended as battery technology evolves. Game and Fish can’t control the airspace so they will still be allowed to fly whether used for hunting or not. Many sightseers just out checking out the beautiful fall colours or a myriad of other reasons to go flying. The new SXS and 4 wheeler craze will now have competition but at least it don’t tear up the landscape.
It changed about 5 years ago. In Wyoming you can fly n hunt same day but cannot scout from the air from like June thru January 31st or some long seasonal ban on scouting and drone flying. You cannot camp overnight on state lands so the change opened them up for hunt n fly in the same day, just don’t get caught circling or communicating game location info.
Declining deer numbers aren’t due to technology for the most part. Does control that and hardly any Western state has much Doe hunting anymore. In the 1970s I could harvest 6 does a year. Declining mule deer are down due to many reasons but flying overhead won’t affect the does and fawns, just a few bucks. If you want more bucks then limit tags but hunters don’t like that much and it’s terrible for new hunter recruitment. You might want to try and get an APR Antler point restriction for a few years to up your buck to doe ratios.
Not sure which state you are looking at for mule deer but Wyoming killed 20,423 bucks and 3388 does in 2019. Utah killed 24314 bucks and 3349 antlerless. Most of those are in areas near agricultural areas where they have to control the population closer to management levels due to landowner concerns. In the 1960s Utah killed as many as 55,092 does in 1963 and in 1988 they harvested 22235 does. The Game and Fish departments do well on managing doe numbers when they are way down like now there is very limited opportunity. In the early 1990s hunters could harvest 6 does just in the Wyoming Range before the 1993 bad winter and afterwards there has been almost no doe hunting.
Last year Montana had 11,000 doe tags just for Region 7, Numbers were cut this year as deer numbers have tanked.
In 2019 Colorado harvested 7502 does, but this also includes whitetail does and 28,310 bucks. A far lower number of Mule deer does are being harvested in these Western states. It’s not the doe harvest which keeps deer numbers low, it’s a myriad of other reasons. In Wyoming, other than Ag areas we haven’t had much doe hunting for decades. In the early 1990s you could harvest 6 does per year per hunter just in the Wyoming Range.
