Antler Point Restrictions

[Elkmagnet]

Although Mule deer are my favorite. I would support a 3-5 year ban on killing mulies state wide. We need to get the population back up to good numbers. I don't like it, but let's manage for the deer instead of the money.

This highlights the problem with government agencies being run like businesses instead of for the benefit of the people.
Currently game agencies don't like to reduce tags because it causes a hole in funding.
Perhaps the legislature should provide emergency funds after a bad winter with the requirement that tags be cut temporarily until the resource has recovered.
We provide emergency funding for all kinds of acts of nature.

 

[antlerradar]

Genuinely curious: Why should trophy quality be of any concern to the F&G dept. if their goal is managing for heard health & stability?

Because the biggest bucks in the herd are more in likely big because they are also the healthiest bucks in the herd. When we shoot all of the bucks with the best antlers at a young age and let the bucks with the poor antlers live longer, I would predict we will see a long term decline in herd health and stability.
Traditional APR's will only insure that we take the healthiest bucks out of the herd at a younger age.

 

[TOGIE]

i feel like it's just part of the zero sum management game. if you implement antler restrictions you can get away with cutting fewer or zero tags because in theory there are overall fewer legal animals to take than without antler restrictions - maintenance of opportunity. maybe in the long run it hurts trophy quality but trophy quality does not inherently and automatically equate to herd quality/health.

colorado's widespread 4 point bull restriction in part allows us to have the insane amount of opportunity we do while maintaining healthy and stable or growing herds.

 

[cowboy]

I’ve hunted out of a pack in camp that was one of the first to implement brow tine requirements on elk. At first I thought it was a good idea, twenty years later it would take 2 elk to total a 330 count.
My non biological background now tells me all inferior genetics are passing their gene’s on.

 

[idelkslayer]

APRS for mule deer don't work. They temporarily, and in my opinion artificially, raise buck doe ratios simply because at first fewer bucks get killed.

APR has been studied pretty heavily and the long term effect is negative. It may seem counterintuitive but APR forces all hunters to focus all hunting pressure on older age class animals which means, all the hunting pressure is focused on the subset of the population that hunters are trying to preserve with APR. Fact of the matter is that 1.5 yr old bucks have always been a large portion of the harvest even in the glory days.

 

[WyoCoalMiner]

I agreed with the G&F recommendation to remove the APR. They had done the job needed after the rough 22/23 winter. G&F has a history with APRs in this region doing a great job of restoring the age class most hard hit by winter. That history should have been trusted. However, the overwhelming public support was for keeping them. I like that the Commission listened to the public over the G&F. I wish they did that more often.