Initiative 400

proutdoors · Post by **proutdoors** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 12:50 pm

MM, word on the street is the Division and Sportsman groups want the elk off the pauns altogether, and have it like the Henries, basically elk free. I added the Pauns as another unit for you southern boys to chase spikes on, w/o much impact in the grand scheme of things.

Jim, thanks for the props, I 400 is being driven by people with kids who basically have ZERO chance of drawing a LE tag EVER under the current system. My son, Beau Hunter, should be allowed to have the realistic chance to hunt mature bulls in Utah with a decent chance of getting a good bull. He is 2 1/2, and under the current plan, his only hope is me winning the lottery and buying him a conseravtion tag.

This proposal is motivated on increasing odds to draw a mature bull tag w/o destroying the awesome quality Utah is now famous for, AND keep the OTC tags available for those who desire to hunt for 'meat', while keeping MOST LE as premier trophy elk hunts.

PRO

Post by **killerbee** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 5:31 pm

it does sound great my only prblem with [ just to be the devils advocate] while other states are trying to get their managment to run their stat like utah, you guys are wanting to change utah's management????????

but i have always said hunting in the rut with a rifle is pretty cake compared to anything else.

9er · Post by **9er** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 6:23 pm

Like i said before, im all in!

the thing that really gets me likeing the idea is the season dates, why should we make it any easier for the rifle hunters to hunt during the prime rut and leave the archery hunters with 4-5 good days of rutting activity, plus it would add alot more tags because of the lower success rates., im sure hoping this goes thru!

9er

proutdoors · Post by **proutdoors** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 9:59 pm

killerbee wrote:it does sound great my only prblem with [ just to be the devils advocate] while other states are trying to get their managment to run their stat like utah, you guys are wanting to change utah's management???????? but i have always said hunting in the rut with a rifle is pretty cake compared to anything else.

Alright "devil's advocate", we have no desire to turn Utah into Oregon

We are only talking about 5 of the 28 LE units here, that leaves 23 as is. I don't believe the whole state needs to be managed for 400 class bulls, many hunters are happy chasin 280-340 class bulls with a chace at a 350+ bull. That is what we are looking at for these 5 units. The prime units will still have rifle hunts in September on a very limited tag allocation.{just being the angels advocate}

PRO

RooDog · Post by **RooDog** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 11:53 pm

Sounds like a good plan, I hope it works out for you guys.

Post by **MuleyMadness** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 8:05 am

MM, word on the street is the Division and Sportsman groups want the elk off the pauns altogether, and have it like the Henries, basically elk free. I added the Pauns as another unit for you southern boys to chase spikes on, w/o much impact in the grand scheme of things.

Don't really have an issue with this, what I do have an issue with is; if this is the case, the general public should be informed and notified. Nothing like burning a lifetime of bonus points on a crappy Elk unit with no big bulls.

Post by **killerbee** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 9:00 am

proutdoors wrote:
killerbee wrote:it does sound great my only prblem with [ just to be the devils advocate] while other states are trying to get their managment to run their stat like utah, you guys are wanting to change utah's management???????? but i have always said hunting in the rut with a rifle is pretty cake compared to anything else.
Alright "devil's advocate", we have no desire to turn Utah into Oregon We are only talking about 5 of the 28 LE units here, that leaves 23 as is. I don't believe the whole state needs to be managed for 400 class bulls, many hunters are happy chasin 280-340 class bulls with a chace at a 350+ bull. That is what we are looking at for these 5 units. The prime units will still have rifle hunts in September on a very limited tag allocation.{just being the angels advocate}

PRO

i dont think it's possible for you to turn your hunting to oregons hunting[ are managment is hideous :dumb ] and second i think the whole idea is great i have a few prefference points i would love touse them up sooner and hunt a 320-340 bull but it still is funny that one of the most coveted elk hunting state , because of it's managment,still has unhappy people. this proves the ol' saying, "you can't please everyone" but like stated before i think it's a great plan!

proutdoors · Post by **proutdoors** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 2:38 pm

killerbee wrote:

and second i think the whole idea is great i have a few prefference points i would love touse them up sooner and hunt a 320-340 bull but it still is funny that one of the most coveted elk hunting state , because of it's managment,still has unhappy people. this proves the ol' saying, "you can't please everyone" but like stated before i think it's a great plan!

In my opinion Utah has done a great job of managing our elk for quality, but I believe they have erred on their ability to utilize this great 'product'. I love the fact Utah is now, IMHO, the premier state for trophy elk. My complaint is such a small number of elk hunters get to enjoy the monster bulls, except to just look at them, read about them in mags, watch the Mossback videos, etc.. We want to keep the quality world class on the top-tier units, we are talking about five of 28 units, and maximizing the number of hunters who can hunt mature bulls on these five units while maintaining either a 3-4 or 4-5 yr old average harvest age of the bulls on those units, ensuring some older bulls available to hunt.

I think by moving season dates, giving more tags to primitive weapon hunters, and by not killing spikes on these units, more tags can be issued on these five units while maintaining a quality hunt with reasonable success rates.

PRO

ridgetop · Post by **ridgetop** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 2:17 pm

I'm all for it. BTW, when's your next meeting to talk about "the next step".

proutdoors · Post by **proutdoors** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 4:05 pm

We are trying to get a date set before archery seasons open up, so soome time in the next few weeks. I will let you know when and where as soon as we get it figured out.

PRO