nochawk
New member
Commission Meeting Results
As announced, the AZ Game and Fish Commission meeting was Saturday, April 22. The Arizona Deer Association presented the results of the Deer Survey that you took part in. An overwhelming majority of the 6,500 hunters that participated in the survey indicated that overall they did not approve of the Departments recommended changes to the deer hunts. Hunters wanted the hunt structures to remain as they were last year.
Unfortunately the Commission was not convinced that 6,500 hunters that participated in the survey represented the views of the "average" hunter. To make things worse, only about 15 to 20 people showed up at the meeting to represent their views on the proposed changes to the deer hunts.
The Commission modified some of the items within the Departments recommendation after requests from the Arizona Deer Association, other sportsmen's groups as well as concerned individuals. They reduced the number of junior's doe permits on the Kaibab from 400 to 100. They also reclassified 300 general antlered deer permits from other hunt units to "junior's hunts" in order to replace the 300 12AW junior's doe permits that were cut. They voted to keep the January archery deer season ending date as January 31 (as it has been). Lastly, they voted to change the October whitetail deer season to be a 6 day season. All other changes that the Department recommended were approved.
It was interesting to note that with the relatively poor turnout by deer hunters, there were about half that many very vocal people from the Earth First and Animal Defense League representing their views. These people individually took the time to stand before the Commission nine separate times to request the elimination of all bighorn sheep, mountain lion, and prairie dog hunting. Fortunately for hunters, the Commission did not take action on these requests (this time).
Below are the actual statistics from the survey. For some reason the bar graph for the first few questions did not duplicate correctly. Look at the actual percentages for the correct statistics.
Do you primarily apply first choice to hunt Mule deer or Whitetail deer in the state of Arizona ?
Mule Deer
3638 (55.74%)
Whitetail Deer
2889 (44.26%)
If you answered “Whitetail Deer” in question 1, which part of the state do you primarily hunt in?
Central or Northern Arizona (units 1-27)
1188 (36.48%)
Southern Arizona (units 28-37)
2069 (63.52%)
Do you consider yourself primarily an archery deer hunter or a rifle deer hunter?
archery
618 (9.44%)
rifle
3317 (50.66%)
I hunt both ways, it depends on what I get drawn for
2613 (39.91%)
How long has it been since you have drawn a deer tag in Arizona ?
Last year
2794 (42.70%)
2 years ago
1231 (18.81%)
3 years ago
705 (10.77%)
4 years ago
456 (6.97%)
5 or more years ago
792 (12.10%)
Never
566 (8.65%)
Have you ever hunted whitetail during a general October hunt in Arizona ?
Yes
3113 (47.65%)
No
3420 (52.35%)
If you answered yes to question 5, how would you rate your hunt experience?
Excellent
284 (8.91%)
Good
940 (29.49%)
Fair
1196 (37.52%)
Poor
768 (24.09%)
Have you ever hunted whitetail during a general November hunt in Arizona ?
Yes
2876 (45.11%)
No
3500 (54.89%)
If you answered yes to question 7, how would you rate your hunt experience?
Excellent
321 (11.00%)
Good
1228 (42.07%)
Fair
1009 (34.57%)
Poor
361 (12.37%)
Have you ever hunted whitetail deer in a general December hunt in Arizona ?
Yes
2976 (45.80%)
No
3522 (54.20%)
If you answered yes to question 9, how would you rate your hunt experience?
Excellent
1410 (47.11%)
Good
1027 (34.31%)
Fair
374 (12.50%)
Poor
182 (6.08%)
In general, do you support an increase in tag opportunity even if it means more hunters in the field and a reduction in average hunt success?
Yes
1437 (21.95%)
No
5111 (78.05%)
The current AGFD proposal calls for issuing 5-10% more deer tags and lowering the overall deer hunt success by about 5% (from a target of 20-25% success to a new target of 15-20%). Do you support this change?
Yes
1687 (25.81%)
No
4849 (74.19%)
Currently, 20% of the total whitetail tags statewide are allocated to general December hunts. The AGFD hunt guidelines this year proposes to reduce that percentage to no more than 10% of the total whitetail hunting opportunity. This change will allow AGFD to issue approximately 500 to 1,000 more whitetail tags overall. These tag increases would occur during the early (Oct. and Nov.) whitetail seasons due to lower hunter success in those seasons. Do you support the current proposal to reduce opportunity for the general December whitetail hunts in exchange for increased opportunity in the general November or October hunts?
Yes
2000 (30.69%)
No
4517 (69.31%)
Currently approximately 20% of the total general hunt opportunity offered statewide for whitetail deer occurs during the December rut period. For mule deer less than 5% of the total general hunt opportunity is offered during the rut. Offering less hunt opportunity during the rut allows more tags to be offered in the Fall due to lower hunter success in the earlier Fall seasons. How much general hunt opportunity for whitetail do you think should be offered during the December rut period?
0%
128 (1.97%)
1-5% (similar to that offered for mule deer)
821 (12.65%)
10%
607 (9.35%)
15%
519 (7.99%)
20% (stay the same as current)
3344 (51.51%)
25% (increase rut hunt opportunity)
852 (13.12%)
>25% (increase rut hunt opportunity)
221 (3.40%)
New AGFD guidelines have the December general Whitetail and December archery deer seasons starting on the Friday in Week 51. These proposed seasons would always include at least two weekends, be 10-16 days long depending on the calendar year, and end on December 31. In the last 15 years the December whitetail and archery deer seasons have opened on the third Friday in December and the season length ranged from 14-20 days depending on the year. The net result of the current proposal is the December whitetail and archery deer seasons are shortened such that they will never have three weekends but will always have two weekends.What length do you prefer the December archery deer and December general Whitetail seasons to be?
10-16 days
2512 (38.80%)
14-20 days
3963 (61.20%)
Currently, the October whitetail hunt is 4 days long. The AGFD proposal this year would make that hunt a 10-day two-weekend hunt immediately preceeding the 10-day two-weekend hunt in November. How long do you think the October hunt should be?
4 days (includes 1 weekend)
1557 (24.01%)
6 days (includes 1 weekend)
1094 (16.87%)
7 days (includes 1 weekend)
1186 (18.29%)
10 days (includes 2 weekends)
2414 (37.23%)
Longer than 10 days
233 (3.59%)
The proposed AGFD guidelines call for managing the early season whitetail and mule deer hunts for 15-20% hunt success. The guidelines that the AGFD uses to manage for buck:doe, fawn:doe, and population trend will remain the same as in previous years. This new hunt success guideline is a reduction from the old target of 20-25% hunt success. Do you support lowering the hunt success guidelines as proposed?
Yes
2150 (33.05%)
No
4355 (66.95%)
The AGFD proposal calls for moving 15% of the spring javelina hunt opportunity to a new Fall javelina hunt structure in southeastern Arizona (Units 27 through 37B) to more efficiently distribute tags through the Fall draw (these are the tags that are generally issued as first come first serve tags after the spring draw is run). The new Fall archery javelina season would overlap the first 10 days of the Fall archery deer season, the new Fall HAM javelina season would overlap the first 10 days of the small game opener, and the new Fall general javelina season would overlap the 10 day general deer season in the respective unit. Do you support this proposal to move javelina hunting opportunity to the Fall?
Yes, I want some Fall javelina hunting opportunity and don't mind the overlap with the other seasons
2347 (36.43%)
No, I don't want to see javelina hunting in the Fall
2206 (34.24%)
No, I would like to see some Fall javelina hunting opportunity, but do not want it to overlap with other seasons as proposed
1890 (29.33%)
The AGFD proposal recommends shortening the January archery deer and javelina seasons by one weekend. This is being done to accommodate the lengthening of the juniors-only and HAM javelina hunts from 1 weekend to 2 weekends. Do you support this shortening of the January archery deer and javelina seasons to accommodate lengthening the juniors-only and HAM seasons?
Yes
2823 (43.48%)
No
3669 (56.52%)
What do you think can be done to increase deer hunting opportunities in Arizona (select your top two choices)?
Reduce hunter success so AGFD can issue more tags and put more hunters in the field without harvesting more deer
417 (3.25%)
Improve deer habitat to support more deer
4124 (32.15%)
Reduce predator densities to increase survival of the deer
3654 (28.48%)
Increase hunter access to public lands that require crossing private lands that are not currently open to hunters
2922 (22.78%)
We have plenty of opportunity to hunt deer in AZ, we don't need more
592 (4.61%)
Other, please specify:
1119 (8.72%)
Click to view responses
Before you read this survey, did you feel you were well informed about the new Arizona Game and Fish Department guidelines for managing the deer hunts?
Yes
3768 (57.61%)
No
2772 (42.39%)
As announced, the AZ Game and Fish Commission meeting was Saturday, April 22. The Arizona Deer Association presented the results of the Deer Survey that you took part in. An overwhelming majority of the 6,500 hunters that participated in the survey indicated that overall they did not approve of the Departments recommended changes to the deer hunts. Hunters wanted the hunt structures to remain as they were last year.
Unfortunately the Commission was not convinced that 6,500 hunters that participated in the survey represented the views of the "average" hunter. To make things worse, only about 15 to 20 people showed up at the meeting to represent their views on the proposed changes to the deer hunts.
The Commission modified some of the items within the Departments recommendation after requests from the Arizona Deer Association, other sportsmen's groups as well as concerned individuals. They reduced the number of junior's doe permits on the Kaibab from 400 to 100. They also reclassified 300 general antlered deer permits from other hunt units to "junior's hunts" in order to replace the 300 12AW junior's doe permits that were cut. They voted to keep the January archery deer season ending date as January 31 (as it has been). Lastly, they voted to change the October whitetail deer season to be a 6 day season. All other changes that the Department recommended were approved.
It was interesting to note that with the relatively poor turnout by deer hunters, there were about half that many very vocal people from the Earth First and Animal Defense League representing their views. These people individually took the time to stand before the Commission nine separate times to request the elimination of all bighorn sheep, mountain lion, and prairie dog hunting. Fortunately for hunters, the Commission did not take action on these requests (this time).
Below are the actual statistics from the survey. For some reason the bar graph for the first few questions did not duplicate correctly. Look at the actual percentages for the correct statistics.
Do you primarily apply first choice to hunt Mule deer or Whitetail deer in the state of Arizona ?
Mule Deer
3638 (55.74%)
Whitetail Deer
2889 (44.26%)
If you answered “Whitetail Deer” in question 1, which part of the state do you primarily hunt in?
Central or Northern Arizona (units 1-27)
1188 (36.48%)
Southern Arizona (units 28-37)
2069 (63.52%)
Do you consider yourself primarily an archery deer hunter or a rifle deer hunter?
archery
618 (9.44%)
rifle
3317 (50.66%)
I hunt both ways, it depends on what I get drawn for
2613 (39.91%)
How long has it been since you have drawn a deer tag in Arizona ?
Last year
2794 (42.70%)
2 years ago
1231 (18.81%)
3 years ago
705 (10.77%)
4 years ago
456 (6.97%)
5 or more years ago
792 (12.10%)
Never
566 (8.65%)
Have you ever hunted whitetail during a general October hunt in Arizona ?
Yes
3113 (47.65%)
No
3420 (52.35%)
If you answered yes to question 5, how would you rate your hunt experience?
Excellent
284 (8.91%)
Good
940 (29.49%)
Fair
1196 (37.52%)
Poor
768 (24.09%)
Have you ever hunted whitetail during a general November hunt in Arizona ?
Yes
2876 (45.11%)
No
3500 (54.89%)
If you answered yes to question 7, how would you rate your hunt experience?
Excellent
321 (11.00%)
Good
1228 (42.07%)
Fair
1009 (34.57%)
Poor
361 (12.37%)
Have you ever hunted whitetail deer in a general December hunt in Arizona ?
Yes
2976 (45.80%)
No
3522 (54.20%)
If you answered yes to question 9, how would you rate your hunt experience?
Excellent
1410 (47.11%)
Good
1027 (34.31%)
Fair
374 (12.50%)
Poor
182 (6.08%)
In general, do you support an increase in tag opportunity even if it means more hunters in the field and a reduction in average hunt success?
Yes
1437 (21.95%)
No
5111 (78.05%)
The current AGFD proposal calls for issuing 5-10% more deer tags and lowering the overall deer hunt success by about 5% (from a target of 20-25% success to a new target of 15-20%). Do you support this change?
Yes
1687 (25.81%)
No
4849 (74.19%)
Currently, 20% of the total whitetail tags statewide are allocated to general December hunts. The AGFD hunt guidelines this year proposes to reduce that percentage to no more than 10% of the total whitetail hunting opportunity. This change will allow AGFD to issue approximately 500 to 1,000 more whitetail tags overall. These tag increases would occur during the early (Oct. and Nov.) whitetail seasons due to lower hunter success in those seasons. Do you support the current proposal to reduce opportunity for the general December whitetail hunts in exchange for increased opportunity in the general November or October hunts?
Yes
2000 (30.69%)
No
4517 (69.31%)
Currently approximately 20% of the total general hunt opportunity offered statewide for whitetail deer occurs during the December rut period. For mule deer less than 5% of the total general hunt opportunity is offered during the rut. Offering less hunt opportunity during the rut allows more tags to be offered in the Fall due to lower hunter success in the earlier Fall seasons. How much general hunt opportunity for whitetail do you think should be offered during the December rut period?
0%
128 (1.97%)
1-5% (similar to that offered for mule deer)
821 (12.65%)
10%
607 (9.35%)
15%
519 (7.99%)
20% (stay the same as current)
3344 (51.51%)
25% (increase rut hunt opportunity)
852 (13.12%)
>25% (increase rut hunt opportunity)
221 (3.40%)
New AGFD guidelines have the December general Whitetail and December archery deer seasons starting on the Friday in Week 51. These proposed seasons would always include at least two weekends, be 10-16 days long depending on the calendar year, and end on December 31. In the last 15 years the December whitetail and archery deer seasons have opened on the third Friday in December and the season length ranged from 14-20 days depending on the year. The net result of the current proposal is the December whitetail and archery deer seasons are shortened such that they will never have three weekends but will always have two weekends.What length do you prefer the December archery deer and December general Whitetail seasons to be?
10-16 days
2512 (38.80%)
14-20 days
3963 (61.20%)
Currently, the October whitetail hunt is 4 days long. The AGFD proposal this year would make that hunt a 10-day two-weekend hunt immediately preceeding the 10-day two-weekend hunt in November. How long do you think the October hunt should be?
4 days (includes 1 weekend)
1557 (24.01%)
6 days (includes 1 weekend)
1094 (16.87%)
7 days (includes 1 weekend)
1186 (18.29%)
10 days (includes 2 weekends)
2414 (37.23%)
Longer than 10 days
233 (3.59%)
The proposed AGFD guidelines call for managing the early season whitetail and mule deer hunts for 15-20% hunt success. The guidelines that the AGFD uses to manage for buck:doe, fawn:doe, and population trend will remain the same as in previous years. This new hunt success guideline is a reduction from the old target of 20-25% hunt success. Do you support lowering the hunt success guidelines as proposed?
Yes
2150 (33.05%)
No
4355 (66.95%)
The AGFD proposal calls for moving 15% of the spring javelina hunt opportunity to a new Fall javelina hunt structure in southeastern Arizona (Units 27 through 37B) to more efficiently distribute tags through the Fall draw (these are the tags that are generally issued as first come first serve tags after the spring draw is run). The new Fall archery javelina season would overlap the first 10 days of the Fall archery deer season, the new Fall HAM javelina season would overlap the first 10 days of the small game opener, and the new Fall general javelina season would overlap the 10 day general deer season in the respective unit. Do you support this proposal to move javelina hunting opportunity to the Fall?
Yes, I want some Fall javelina hunting opportunity and don't mind the overlap with the other seasons
2347 (36.43%)
No, I don't want to see javelina hunting in the Fall
2206 (34.24%)
No, I would like to see some Fall javelina hunting opportunity, but do not want it to overlap with other seasons as proposed
1890 (29.33%)
The AGFD proposal recommends shortening the January archery deer and javelina seasons by one weekend. This is being done to accommodate the lengthening of the juniors-only and HAM javelina hunts from 1 weekend to 2 weekends. Do you support this shortening of the January archery deer and javelina seasons to accommodate lengthening the juniors-only and HAM seasons?
Yes
2823 (43.48%)
No
3669 (56.52%)
What do you think can be done to increase deer hunting opportunities in Arizona (select your top two choices)?
Reduce hunter success so AGFD can issue more tags and put more hunters in the field without harvesting more deer
417 (3.25%)
Improve deer habitat to support more deer
4124 (32.15%)
Reduce predator densities to increase survival of the deer
3654 (28.48%)
Increase hunter access to public lands that require crossing private lands that are not currently open to hunters
2922 (22.78%)
We have plenty of opportunity to hunt deer in AZ, we don't need more
592 (4.61%)
Other, please specify:
1119 (8.72%)
Click to view responses
Before you read this survey, did you feel you were well informed about the new Arizona Game and Fish Department guidelines for managing the deer hunts?
Yes
3768 (57.61%)
No
2772 (42.39%)
