Brainstorm Solutions for the Western "Tag Crisis"

[grfox92]

Y'all got this figured out yet?

Working on it. Almost done.

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[BuckSmasher]

Raised. I fixed it.

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Raided was much more fun and I thought you had a story. Darn.

 

[BuckSmasher]

What western residents are complaining that 7 tags a year isn't enough?

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I want to know also.

 

[MD97756]

It’s only a crisis if you make it. I don’t have unlimited money or time. I reap what I sow. Having unreal instagram, social media expectations of what you or anyone else is entitled to is your problem not a tag problem.

 

[Fetty Wapiti]

What western residents are complaining that 7 tags a year isn't enough?

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[grfox92]

I'm glad we can all agree that WY residents have it good and they dont need 90/10 on deer, elk, and antelope

I hope they dont do 90/10 on Deer elk and Antelope.

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[Idaboy]

Eliminate nonresident tags

 

[UpNorth89]

Eliminate nonresident tags

Then who would fund the majority of F&G budgets? The residents certainly wouldn't be up to the price increase to make up the budget.

 

[roadrunner]

Whether you like NM quotas is a different conversation.

Indeed it is.

As to LO vouchers, next year it will be more cost effective to buy LO cow tag than to go general antlerless in UT, and with a better guarantee on filling the tag...

 

[roadrunner]

So should every NR tag should basically be auctioned for top $? Go that way and you'll only have more bigger $ interest non-residents to compete with.

That is a result of the large # of transferrable landowner tags.

They already are, that's why a 6A UW archery ES voucher goes for $7,500 now where a handful of years ago they were $2,000 tops....

 

[repins05]

I didnt read through all the posts......take hunting seasons out of the rut.

Are big game tags getting harder to get if you are a resident? I have seem some point creep in some units. Other units none.

Non resident tags getting harder to get.....yes. Seems like this is a non resident issue. Does this give reason for a state to change regulations and tag allocation to accommodate out of state hunters? I don't think so.

I have hunted out of state and enjoy it. My primary focus for hunting is in state.

 

[elkmaster]

Couple observations after reading to the end of this thread. The general underlying theme I get from this is entitlement. Various forms of media marketing has influenced far too many folks(sheeple) causing them(sheeple) to place trophy male game on a pedestal. There are two major categories of hunters. Trophy and meat hunters. Within those two main divisions there are various sub-categories. A mature cow elk is a trophy in my book. Know plenty of hunters that have hunted western states many many years and never killed a single elk. Ever try to kill a wiley old grey doe in PA?

The other glaring truth that I did not see mentioned was the differences and nuances between states, especially western states. It's as if folks hear western and think that WY, NM, CO, MT, AZ, WA, ID, etc are all the same, just a big section of the nation that is "out west" Couldn't be further from reality. A couple obvious facts to support this: look at human population density from the perspective of geographical area of WY or MT compared to CO or ID. Another major factor is proximity of substantial private ranch land to public land and the influence and control or manipulation these massive ranches have on big game species, and in some western states, they may not even have working ranches, just massive private landowners that don't allow hunting.

I did like what a couple folks here said - plenty of quality hunting opportunities - that is if you aren't expecting to bag all the trophies your little heart desires, all the time, every time you go hunting. If that is what you want, expect and have decided you are entitled to, well, you can always move to Alaska. Hee hee, but Alaska has a way of chewing those kind of folks up and spitting them out, so feel free to try, My Friends

 

[Bob b]

Weapon restrictions! More traditional archery, more straight case & open site rifle seasons. We all dream of the good ole days, well that’s what they were using back then. Antler, width or some kind of age restriction needs to happen.

As long as we are using shooting animals at 1/2 mile away or 100+ yards with a bow harvest rates will go up and tat numbers will go down. Not that long ago archery success was very minimal across the board, now it’s similar to rifle success in many units.

Obviously predators, habitat encroachment, vehicle collisions are all playing a major role in herd health but those things aren’t going away and will likely get worse. Personally I don’t really notice a huge decline in numbers as much as I’ve see a huge decline in age class.

Numbers defiantly have declined since the 80’s and 90’s when I was a kid but we aren’t hunting does so reducing tags will have very little effect on age class.

Increasing cost will only change the demographic of who is able to hunt, it’s not going to help age class at all. If anything guys will likely shoot any deer after dumping more money to justify the huge expense and not wanting go home open handed.

Nailed it!! If this does not happen it will only keep going the wrong direction