I see it as it may at the 50,000 foot level view disperse statistical crowding across the entire state as a whole over the period of duration in that it essentially adds two more weeks of hunting opportunity. From my experience, outside of the final week of the month and the youth hunt there is not much going on in terms of deer/hunting hunting pressure in October to the point its impact is nil. The proposal as I understand it will give folks the opportunity as they see fit to focus on mule deer in October, and will introduce another "Opening Day". Antelope opener comes to mind and then in November, we repeat the Opener process again with everybody headed to hunt elk in another part of the state. I think its been established that the shoulder hunts on either end of the traditional season have not generated the level of interest nor fulfilled their intended purpose as hoped so eliminating them is a mute point. Although far from perfect and painting with a wide brush the current hunting pressure is dispersed by having to choose between hunting deer mostly in the eastern half (from canada to wyoming) or hunting elk in the southwest/central portions of the state during the duration of that particular hunt outing. One cannot be in two parts of the state at the same time. The separation between a species specific hunt across the state as opposed species specific season does reduce hunter over crowding in positive way. I still think the negative impacts to Elk hunting out weigh the potential benefits to mule deer. Even the potential to further irritate private land owners and the further loss of access is of concern. It will add 2, possibly 4 weeks of disruption to their operation, as I said the month of October can be pretty quite for those guys bringing cattle home. Mule deer rifle season while cattle are still on forest service leases. (Might be worth further discussion). If landowners dont like the new public season structure so be it. They'll be able to evaluate other options such a leasing to an outfitter or a other groups. There is too much at stake here for the public to entertain a new October mule deer only season. I'd prefer to see LE deer management. IF not then how about LE for rifle antlered elk.
I think the true benefactors would be some outfitters as they can expand their client base by an additional two weeks or more, and the demand is there. Many are turning new clients away. The negatives would be irreversible, and benefit is undefined. Before being unconvinced that an October mule deer season is stop forward, I would like to see an unbiased analysis soundly pointing to reliable predictable outcome. I see far more dead mule deer along our highways than i do in the back of trucks.
