huntlines

Great information and the science is solid. My only disagreement is with the how. I know the helo is the easiest way to get this data but I argue not the best. Give me five people with good optics spread out over the same area and I’d bet we would get better data. I also would argue it would be cheaper. Im not arguing just putting it out there. I’d like to see it tried and compare data to see which is better. Maybe the flying is better but I’d like to see it compared.

???? Missing what point? So glassing more does with fawns is missing what point? Have you ever flown an area looking for animals? You have to fly low enough to see them, animals don’t like noise just FYI. They will typically run and usually towards cover, making it hard to get accurate counts. No matter what type of aircraft you use, you are constantly moving making it difficult to view. I don’t know why I even have to explain this..... Yes, of course I find high points to glass from but it doesn’t have to be a thousand feet above. It doesn’t take much in elevation to get a good vantage point.

Agree. I was very sad when they had input on hunt quality vs hunt opportunity. The far majority of responses they got were for hunt opportunity. Increasing tags was the outcome and we are seeing the effects it is causing on the quality. If getting a tag every year is the only important thing to you, your not a true sportsman/woman. The overall health of our game should be the end goal for everyone. I still feel the aerial surveys are less beneficial though. It still takes the WM out of the field, unable to answer calls, just as much as it would if they were on foot glassing. Not to mention why are the LEO’s out doing this at all? I see lots of non-LEO’s out in G&F vehicles working on the wolf project. They are not out taking calls but only focused on research. There needs to be a separation between LEO’ and research analysts. LEO’s have their work cut out for them just taking calls for service. It’s cheaper to hire non-LEO’s to do the data research due to the agency not having to pay into the public safety retirement system, training and other benefits. All that doesn’t even include vehicle cost and equipment needs for LEO’s.

I’ve flown areas and then I’ve hiked in and sat my happy butt down with my 18/56’s in the same area. Guess which one I counted more animals doing. I know this isn’t scientific data yada, yada, yada..... They should spend the money on good optics.

Easy, if you say you didn’t kill a buck but you show everyone your harvest photos, social media(evidence), you lied.

You don’t need aerial surveys to collect this data

So what is wrong with mandatory reporting and if you get caught lying you loose your hunting rights for 5 years? I don’t know anyone willing to give false information and loose their hunting privileges for that long. You keep saying hunters lie but if there was a consequence the far majority would not. the data would be much more rock solid than the aerial bull crap they use now. Not to mention all the money they would save not paying companies to fly them.....

????? So who’s fault is it that predators are a problem? Banning trapping, introduced wolves and banning predator contest just to name a few. As for vehicle collisions with animals, this isn’t a huge issue and won’t go any further with it. Weather plays a huge roll but I won’t blame this on anyone but the man up stairs. Harvest data could be very instrumental in determining the over all health of a population if someone would grow the balls to enact meaningful ways of obtaining it. I can only conclude G&F doesn’t care about accurate data because they turn a blind eye to mandatory reporting. Change my mind. And don’t give me the bull crap about turning hunters off by mandating it....

I know how, make them mandatory and if you are caught lying on one, you loose your license for 5 years. There fixed.

100%! I know people who admit they are not honest on the survey because they know it will impact tags. They submit them every year but with inaccurate info.

New Mexico is the same way, no harvest report from the previous year, not eligible for current draw. It’s not hard for them and should not be here in Az.

I heard the 20% to 50% stuff but didn’t hear them talk about placing an undue burden on hunters. Admittedly I was in and out of the livestream due to work. I just don’t understand this rationale. Do they have data supporting these claims of reducing hunter recruitment? How does that keep people from wanting to hunt? If that’s all it takes to get less people out in the field then we need to raise heck until it’s adopted.

There was mandatory reporting for archery hunter for a few years and then they took it away. Has anyone ever heard why they stopped?

That’s what I learned as well after my long conversation. When I started asking those difficult questions I was dismissed. Didn’t go well at that meeting....

Agreed, also their buck to doe ratio is based on aerial surveys. After a long discussion with a warden on how that works, I have real doubts they have a firm grasp on that number either.

But how do they know what the archery success rates are? Lots of hunters never fill out the voluntary survey.

Cuz you all are killing too many big bucks with your bows.....

I knew it went for a couple of years. First year I almost forgot and our local game warden called me. Second year I remembered and called him to let him know he couldn’t arrest me. Then it was gone without an explanation and no changes to hunt structures. Weird

Hmmm I don’t remember it that way. I could be wrong but I thought it was state wide mandatory harvest reporting for archery hunters. I need to go back and look.....

Unit 27 this last August was worse than January IMO and most of that was residents. I was elk scouting otherwise I would have left for a different unit to archery deer hunt. im excited to see what happens in unit 1 with deer population and trophy quality in the next 3 to 4 years. Unit 1 has a little head start and we could see the benefits of draw only in that unit real soon.

They tried the mandatory reporting on archery hunting about 7 or 8 years ago. Something like that and all of a sudden it was taken away. Don’t remember if we ever heard why they decided to stop. I was only upset about it because g&f only made it mandatory for archery hunters, rifle hunters remained voluntary. Didn’t make sense, should be mandatory for everyone with a tag.

I’m planning on commenting and have made my voice heard about several issues during calls to the public. im just torn on this issue, don’t know how to feel about it. I am somewhat glad and encouraged by this change. I would not be upset if they made the entire state a draw for archery deer. Would be like a choose your weapon for your deer hunt. I’m an archery hunter and think this would greatly limit the amount of quasi archery hunters. People who wouldn’t normally archery hunt would put in for rifle hunts. Less people in the field during archery season. I also like to put in for quality, hard to draw rifle tags and when I don’t get drawn I fall back to my true passion of archery hunting. So yes, I will be commenting but still trying to decide what I want to say.

Think we all got the information about the same time.😁

I just posted this also. Didn’t mean to duplicate.

Bears are not the best of hunters. Scavengers mostly