WTF is our G&F Thinking
Contributors to this thread:New Mexico
From: Trophyhill
17-Dec-19
So I goes out for a scouting trip last weekend and road hunting rifle sheephunters everywhere. Right before archery deer season. Do you think the deer know the difference?
From: priley
18-Dec-19
Im heading out for archery elk on Friday and they are rifle hunting cows this week. Makes for a tough hunt.
From: smarba
18-Dec-19
Happens all the time. There is only so much time throughout the year and scouting/hunting for various weapon seasons are often back to back. Just the way it is.
From: Trophyhill
18-Dec-19
Yeah well I'm just wondering why they moved it from Feb to Dec?
From: smarba
19-Dec-19
Mainly $. They used to sell 600 tags for 29/30. Now they split up seasons bow Jan, rifle Oct, Dec, Jan and Feb for a total of 925 tags.
Used to be 675 tags for 32-37. Now between all seasons they sell 825 tags.
It could be they wanted to have less hunters in the field at any one time. Or they wanted to increase the pressure on Barbs by having longer total hunting time and more tags.
I suspect the new system will reduce the Barb population.
From: Trophyhill
19-Dec-19
Thx for the input Carl. More about money than management. Or consideration for other hunts going on. Typical NMDGF bs. In the past when I've scouted in Dec for my upcoming January bow hunt, I'd see a few quail hunters occasionally, and quite a few deer, and be able to watch them in their natural environment and behaviors. Now it isn't much different than when I used to rifle hunt and a reason I stopped rifle hunting. The few deer I saw last weekend were 600 yards and running off the horizon. Meanwhile a parade of pickups cruising the 2 tracks doing what rifle toting road hunters do. The deer haven't had a chance to calm down since ml season.....
From: HDE
20-Dec-19
Same type of thing going on in UT. Cow elk are chased from Sept to Jan.
If you have an antlerless permit, you can use that permit on any hunt in that unit you have another tag for. So, a general season rifle deer hunter can use the cow tag during their deer hunt. And then use it during the normal antlerless season in Dec if it's not filled.
From: smarba
23-Dec-19
Trophy you'll be unhappy to hear that during the Jan deer bow season there will be another 75 bowhunters with Barbary tags. Although the Barb tags are lumped together 32-34-36-37 so not necessarily all of them will be in your unit for deer...
From: Trophyhill
26-Dec-19
I saw a herd of 100 + sheep last weekend while scouting. Saw a monster 6x6 buck and a bunch of does not more than 200 yards from the sheep which was odd. I've never seen deer that close to sheep before.....