I had a LE Oregon tag. Even it being LE, good rut action was hit and miss.
And i beg to differ. I'm not the wanna be hunter who haphazard's his way through the woods. I've got 35 years of hunting these beasts, was bugling through a notched grass reed before you probably even knew what a diaphragm is. The 10-15 miles a day i put in , going from 8.000 feet to 12,000, gives me a pretty good idea as to what's going on in the elk woods, and also coupled with some friends who also are top notch hunters. who also are experiencing the same issues. The increased input and backlash that Colorado's Parks and Wildlife has, and is getting, has everything to do with too many hunters coming to this state. We started bitching at them 6 years ago that they were losing their herds in parts of the state. It took two years of meeting with them, and in our area they cut archery tags from 2500 plus to under 700. Now let that sink in. 2500 archery hunters is 2 GMU units. But maybe, like you say, I'm all wet, so are a bunch of other good hunters, and also CPW's field officers, terrestrial managers, and biologists. If we stayed at the 2500, and growing, archery hunters, walked away from the sweeping changes you deem unnecessary, and the push back on OTC rifle tags stopped,...yah, we wouldn't need sweeping changes because slowly but surely there would be hardly any elk to hunt. And by the way, I'm retired now and spent 3 weeks in the woods. Gps on watch logged just under 200 miles. Guess that means I don't have any first hand observations and the mounts on my walls are a testament to a "lack of success".
Don't know what burr you got under your saddle. You want to set on your duff and bitch about guys like me who maybe have an eye on future generations having the same opportunities as we have. It is evident you don't agree with, or want anyone messing up YOUR hunting now. Case in point to your assessment that doing something equals negative results, and guys like me just need to keep our mouth's shut, no change would be happening in 2025 with resident to non resident tag allocation if hunters had done what you suggest, which is to shut up and not screw up YOUR hunting. Instead, they voiced their displeasure to the CPW, don't know how many guys i told to quit bitching about it and email them. Guess what, contrary to your biased, self involved opinion that guys like me and the hundreds of other resident hunters who let their voice be heard need to shut up, there will be a change in tag allocation.....so I guess I need to just shut up and quit messing with YOUR hunting opportunities. By the way, 2 years of tag reduction does not equal an immediate herd increase. You can play the long game with an eye on the upcoming generations, or play the short game so that YOUR happy with YOUR hunting opportunities now.
One could say the same thing about YOUR approach being self-centered as well
YOUR hunt was unsatisfactory, so YOUR view is changed need to be made regardless of the effect to others. YOUR advocation for change is based on YOUR short term observations and own biased bubble of perspective.
...that's not getting anyone anywhere.
You said you are retired, so I take you are not employed as a wildlife manager. Have you ever been? Did you work for CPW?
In the hope of drawing out a genuine and honest discussion, and I hope we can have one, do you trust CPW with the wildlife management efforts and strategy?
I get that YOUR hunt was unsuccessful. Isn't that the statistical norm? Lots of folks were unsuccessful while you were stacking them up with a grass reed over 35 years. Were you advocating for sweeping changes to limit YOUR hunts on their behalf? "For the future generations", right?
I'd imagine you've nodded your head in agreement more than a few times at the phrase, "that's why it's called hunting and not killing".
I have follow up questions and hope we can do the discussion part for a bit.
Had the second hunt in the Gila as well we were into bugling bulls almost every single day was able to harvest my first bull. Only 330 not a monster for the unit I was in and also not the biggest bull we chased or seen.
