CPW 2025 Regs Online

[LongWayAround]

Some of these units are migration hunts with very early deer migration. One year when I hunted one of the units there were lots of deer moving through early then a ghost town during 3rd rifle. If a guy hunted then, he might say deer numbers are
down.
I think a first rifle option is a reasonable idea if they manage total tag numbers and adjust distribution across seasons once they see what the first rifle harvest is. Adding another season doesn’t always mean increasing total tags or harvest.

I don't disagree with you on either of those points.

I hunt an early migration area. I camp and shoot there in the summer. Scout in August. Often archery hunt 20ish days. Weekends in October, depending. Late season elk.

I haven't branched out, I hunt my areas and have maintained this for a decade. I don't go after every random tag that comes up on the leftover list.

There is zero doubt in my mind about this. Fewer good bucks, fewer deer total. Sprinkle some wolves on top for food measure.

There's some deer around, but I have seen an obvious decline. I think the last five years of later seasons hurt, plus winterkill, plus predators.

I voted for the later seasons and regret it, but I doubt my opinion was the decider. In terms of early migrators, I think the last five years fourth season dates were maybe even too late. Second and third would have been prime to kill bucks though.

Our "opportunity" focused CPW has also decided that we need to shoot more cow moose because they eat too many willows... The willows seem to be doing quite well. Kill the moose before the wolves do.

Pawnee rifle antelope is enough of a cluster that they decided to add a second season "to reduce crowding." I've never seen that many antelope out there to begin with.

 

[LongWayAround]

It’s a known fact that mule deer numbers are down.
Why would the CPW add doe tags and ES tags when prior they were bucks only?

"It gives the wildlife managers and additional tool."

^ some b.s. like that.

How can we sell more tags???

 

[Coveyleader]

there shouldn’t be one doe mule deer or antelope tag sold in the mountain west period.

 

[spike camp]

It’s a known fact that mule deer numbers are down.
Why would the CPW add doe tags and ES tags when prior they were bucks only?

CWD

 

[ckleeves]

I see the 1st rifle deer tags as a nothing burger. Those are some tough season dates for deer hunting. The units I saw them for don’t have any sort of early migration, to me it’s just an add on if you wanna deer tag in your pocket while elk hunting.

Hopefully they pulled tags from second, third and 4th for them. That would actually be a win for deer if they did. A tag coming out of 3rd and ending up in first is a much better chance for a deer staying on the mountain.

 

[Snow Panther]

May someone explain to me what are these "A" tags or "B" tags you mentioned in this thread?
I did a quick online search and found this "In most cases, List A tags are buck tags, and List B tags are doe tags."
But they say "in most cases" ...

 

[cnelk]

May someone explain to me what are these "A" tags or "B" tags you mentioned in this thread?
I did a quick online search and found this "In most cases, List A tags are buck tags, and List B tags are doe tags."
But they say "in most cases" ...

Page 3 of the Regs

 

[Snow Panther]

Thank you very much

 

[Scott7030]

I feel like I missed something. I was expecting to see a quota for each nonresident elk unit. All I found was they are going to allow for the same amount of nonresident tags as in the past. Does anyone know how that is going to work? Are they going to divide up 20,000 tags between the units evenly or divide them up based on what units get applied for?

 

[sndmn11]

I like the first rifle deer tags. I read on here the last 5 years how CPW was destroying "quality" bucks and it was so dumb to have fourth season hunts. So, hunt them early when you don't have to chase them far enough off the road to shoot because they are only thinking about breeding.

Also, I read a whole lot of "let the wildlife professionals make decisions!", drum beating last year about cats, and currently about wolves. "No emotional opinion based wildlife management! Regular people aren't biologists!"... Hunters complaining about not getting that second B tag to whack a cow, or tha above deer, etc., YOU are regular people too.

Man up, or woman up, and keep supporting the Wildlife Biologists making science based decisions even if they aren't catered to your whims. Those folks are needed to keep this hobby going and I'd bet their recent graduate potential replacement, should they quit, is far more left leaning and less hunter friendly.

 

[sndmn11]

I feel like I missed something. I was expecting to see a quota for each nonresident elk unit. All I found was they are going to allow for the same amount of nonresident tags as in the past. Does anyone know how that is going to work? Are they going to divide up 20,000 tags between the units evenly or divide them up based on what units get applied for?

Quotas come out after the draw. The recent units/DAUs that have flipped from OTC to limited have had a surplus of tags left after the 1st choice.

 

[dirtytough]

I like the first rifle deer tags. I read on here the last 5 years how CPW was destroying "quality" bucks and it was so dumb to have fourth season hunts. So, hunt them early when you don't have to chase them far enough off the road to shoot because they are only thinking about breeding.

Also, I read a whole lot of "let the wildlife professionals make decisions!", drum beating last year about cats, and currently about wolves. "No emotional opinion based wildlife management! Regular people aren't biologists!"... Hunters complaining about not getting that second B tag to whack a cow, or tha above deer, etc., YOU are regular people too.

Man up, or woman up, and keep supporting the Wildlife Biologists making science based decisions even if they aren't catered to your whims. Those folks are needed to keep this hobby going and I'd bet their recent graduate potential replacement, should they quit, is far more left leaning and less hunter friendly.

Good post.

 

[IrkedCitizen]

1st rifle buck intrigues me

 

[dirtytough]

1st rifle buck intrigues me

There is a GMU I was interested in hunting first rifle deer. It’s not on the list which is kind of a bummer.

 

[cnelk]

Copied this from another site

“
During the southwest sportsperson caucus today (2/19) CPW stated they are going to allocate 13k non res archery tags to the draw to match the number of otc tags sold to NR last year. They said they will determine how tags will be allocated per GMU based on last years harvest surveys and hunter participation per Unit.
So same number of hunters going back to the same units they say they hunted last year.”

 

[Scott7030]

Copied this from another site

“
During the southwest sportsperson caucus today (2/19) CPW stated they are going to allocate 13k non res archery tags to the draw to match the number of otc tags sold to NR last year. They said they will determine how tags will be allocated per GMU based on last years harvest surveys and hunter participation per Unit.
So same number of hunters going back to the same units they say they hunted last year.”

Thanks for the information. I had read that somewhere as well. I was just hoping for an actual breakdown by each unit.

 

[ReaptheHeat]

The move from list A tags to list B isn't because of wolves. It is because of the hard winter kill from a couple years ago. The elk numbers are still under objective so they switched the tags to list B. These are also most of the units where they dropped Cow tags by 90% over the last couple years because of that winter kill.

28 and 37 barely had the cow tags cut over the last couple years. Winter kill really wasn't a thing here unlike further to the Northwest. Our west facing slopes and river valleys provide plenty of feed. Roadkill is a bigger problem than the winter. Population targets have been under objective for quite some time now and tags should have been reduced and OTC eliminated like a decade ago. This is something that should have been done years ago but it coincides with the wolf introduction, so very suspect.

I agree with it, but its very (delayed!) reactionary instead of proactive and seems to be catering to the wolves.