Utah Archery Elk Season.

we must keep PRO from seeing this!!!!

sorry pro, just giving ya crap, nobody else does here!!!!

as for me, i THINK im gonna like it!!!!

9er

It's PROS fault. :) :-$

J/K PRO, he told us about it a while back if I remember correct.

Personally I like it. It doesnt end any sooner. Whats not to like? (???)

If you hunt deer where you hunt elk, or in the same area, you can hunt both at the same time. I like it. Last year I didn't see any elk till I hunted deer, then I saw elk #-o

The hunt ends sooner if you are hunting on a general sipke unit. Those areas end on the 7th of sep. and the any bull units go to the 12th of 13th of Sep. I liked the later hunting because even if you just chasing spikes the closer it gets to the rut the easier the hunting is. It won't kill me or change my plans any but I wish that it would have stayed the way it was. Just me whining a little.

Just curious a-bow-nut, what are your feelings about the LE archery hunters on the spike only units having to 'compete' with the spike hunters on their "once/twice" in a lifetime hunt? Remember, the DWR has been given a directive from the Wildlife Board on implementing a statewide spike hunt starting as early as 2009, making EVERY LE archery elk hunter having to 'compete' with spike hunters during their hunt, while rifle/muzzy LE elk hunters do NOT.

As MuleyMadness stated, I DID post the proposal BEFORE it was presented at the RAC's and Wildlife Board, asking for feedback. The OVERWHELMING response was in favor of the proposal, so I went forward with it and got it implemented. This did in fact move all archery elk hunts earlier by 5 days in August, but the LE and any-bull archery hunters GAINED an extra 5 days to hunt. This is NOT the end, we/I plan on continuing making improvements to archery seasons and look for ways to increase opportunity for ALL hunters.

PRO

PRO,

I know that you had posted all of this last summer but between building a house, starting a business, and getting ready for my bison hunt I never had the time to sit down and really study and talk to people about the whole proposel as much as I would have liked to.

I didn't know that the state had mandated these rules to be put into place and I comend you for trying to improve hunting oppurtunities for all of us. I was just surprised to see the changes and personaly I would have liked them to stay the way that they were. I'm fine with the fact that most people wanted this and like I said before I will still hunt like I have in the past it will just be a few days earlier that I had planned on.

One of the questions that I have is this. Even though you move the general season archery elk hunt up a few days there are still all of the general season deer hunters in the woods at the exact same time so really how many people have you taken out of the limited entry elk hunting season? I haven't looked into it but are there any units that would allow just the limited entry elk hunters those last few days to be in the woods without any of other archery tag holders to be in the woods at the same time?

As far as a state wide archery elk season I don't agree with that either. Some of these elk units should stay as a draw only for all of the weapon types. That is why these units have the elk that they do and I hope that they can stay that way. As for the people that put in for limited entry elk hunts that also have a general season archery spike hunts should know what they are getting into. If people don't want to compete with these people then they shouldn't have put in for these hunts. So many times I see or hear people only puting in for hunts because they have a good chance to draw without looking into what they are getting into and then they complain that the hunt wasn't what they wanted. There is a reason that these hunts are easier to draw. That is because they are hard hunt with a low success rate.

Another thought that comes to mind is. Are there any plans to move the grouse hunts so that the limited entry any weapon elk hunters don't have to compete with the grouse hunters? Also I see that the general season muzzleloader deer hunt is going at the exact same time as the limited entry muzzleloader elk hunts are going. No matter how it goes there is always going to be multipule hunts going on on the limited lands that we have to hunt. So I am haveing a hard time seeing how this change to the general season archery elk season is going to change much and in my opinion it could make the limited entry hunt even harder by allowing the general season tags to be out chasing the elk five days earlier.

I'm not saying that I even have any answers or ideas that will help with all of the challenges that face us in the future it just me expressing my opinion.

a-bow-nut asked:

One of the questions that I have is this. Even though you move the general season archery elk hunt up a few days there are still all of the general season deer hunters in the woods at the exact same time so really how many people have you taken out of the limited entry elk hunting season? I haven't looked into it but are there any units that would allow just the limited entry elk hunters those last few days to be in the woods without any of other archery tag holders to be in the woods at the same time?

You are correct, there are deer hunters out at the same time, the difference is deer hunters don't chase bugles. Every LE unit has archery deer going while the elk hunt is going on, we were just trying to remove one of MANY obstacles for the LE archery elk tag holders.

We have been looking at what we can do to change the grouse opener as well. How/what can be done is the question. We asked the DWR if it would be possible to move it to open the same day as the LE rifle hunt, they said we could but good luck with the rifle hunters and grouse hunters going along with that. Right now it opens the last Saturday of the LE archery hunt.

I see the least effective weapon, archery gear, having the MOST to overcome in the woods. They have the archery deer hunters, spike hunters on 10 of the LE units, recreational users, the grouse opener, rifle/muzzy LE hunters scouting. Rifle gets their time, with the most effective weapon, without deer hunters, without spike hunters, the grouse opening week is already over. Muzzy hunters have to contend with deer hunters, but fewer than archery hunters have during their time. All we did was give LE archery tag holders FIVE DAYS w/o competing w/spike hunters.

FYI, I posted this in early October, not during the summer. Not that it matters much now. Thanks for your questions and voicing your concerns. I will try harder to get more feedback before we propose any new stuff in the future.

PRO

Thanks for explaining a bunch of this to me. I hadn't looked at it in that light before and I can see your points. If we could all just live in our own perfect world then we would all be happy but I don't see much of a chance of the happening.