G&F commission voted unanimously to ban trail cams

[AZtroutman]

I might go for the bait ban being the reason of no CWD if it weren't for all the salt licks at every tank being licked on by every animal that walks by. 

[lancetkenyon]

Watch.  The next thing will be...no hunting within 1/4 mile of a water source.  

Works on the Big Bo, so that is my guess.  

Everyone's posts on here about the tanks getting mobbed are just fuel for the smoldering fire. 

[Desertguide]

22 minutes ago, lancetkenyon said:

Watch.  The next thing will be...no hunting within 1/4 mile of a water source.  

Works on the Big Bo, so that is my guess.  

Everyone's posts on here about the tanks getting mobbed are just fuel for the smoldering fire. 

Is the Big Bo rule a 1/4 mile or is it no ground blinds on water? I honestly can't remember. I know there are no ground blinds but I don't remember a 1/4 mile rule. 

[azelkhunter2]

Just some of many ranch rules....You can not have ANY blinds of any kind on the ranch and absolutely no hunting within 100 yards of any  water source...

Edited June 12, 2021 by azelkhunter2

[azelkhunter2]

HSUS worked hard on making sure the trail cam ban went into effect....They have made it known that hunting near or over water is next up....and it’s just one of many items on there agenda 

[Desertguide]

20 minutes ago, azelkhunter2 said:

Just some of many ranch rules....You can not have ANY blinds of any kind on the ranch and absolutely no hunting within 100 yards of any  water source...

I knew there were no blinds but I couldn't recall a distance from water rule. Thanks for the clarification. 

[Old Buck]

46 minutes ago, lancetkenyon said:

Watch.  The next thing will be...no hunting within 1/4 mile of a water source.  

Works on the Big Bo, so that is my guess.  

Everyone's posts on here about the tanks getting mobbed are just fuel for the smoldering fire. 

I haven't hunted on the Big Bo since 2019, but at that time it was no hunting within 100 yards of water.  G+F Commission could implement any setback that they desire.

[Desertguide]

I think if game and fish could make the whole state like the Big Bo they would do it in a heartbeat. 

[huntlines]

2 hours ago, AZtroutman said:

I might go for the bait ban being the reason of no CWD if it weren't for all the salt licks at every tank being licked on by every animal that walks by. 

Salt kills bacteria, how does that spread CWD. The water source would be more apt to spread CWD.

[AZtroutman]

15 minutes ago, huntlines said:

Salt kills bacteria, how does that spread CWD. The water source would be more apt to spread CWD.

Little biology lesson, CWD is caused by prions, not bacteria or a virus. Salt doesn't kill prions. So I stick to my original statement.

[huntlines]

2 hours ago, AZtroutman said:

Little biology lesson, CWD is caused by prions, not bacteria or a virus. Salt doesn't kill prions. So I stick to my original statement.

Thanks for the lesson. I decided to look into this further and it’s very scary. The problem seems to be congregation of animals to one area as the biggest contributor to the spread due to the prions being in the deers urine and fecal droppings as well as saliva. With the limited water in Arizona even without the salt licks, the water congregates deer and elk more so than the salt. It would run like wildfire through our herds if or when it gets here.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5931637/
 

The link is to a study done in Wisconsin. Long read but should scare the heck out of all Arizona sportsmen.

[AZtroutman]

16 minutes ago, huntlines said:

Thanks for the lesson. I decided to look into this further and it’s very scary. The problem seems to be congregation of animals to one area as the biggest contributor to the spread due to the prions being in the deers urine and fecal droppings as well as saliva. With the limited water in Arizona even without the salt licks, the water congregates deer and elk more so than the salt. It would run like wildfire through our herds if or when it gets here.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5931637/
 

The link is to a study done in Wisconsin. Long read but should scare the heck out of all Arizona sportsmen.

I agree with that, if it ever gets here there isn't anything anyone is going to do to stop it. It spreads like crazy in the east where there is water spread out, so I can't imagine how quick it would spread in the few tanks with water left in a lot of units. I think biggest thing to keep it out of the state is to monitor the animals people bring back into the state. (Which azgfd does) but all it takes is one mistake and it would take off.

[bigbuckfever]

9 hours ago, Desertguide said:

As far as tanks go, right now it's guys popping in and out to check cards. With this new rule, they're going to have to sit there and watch the animals come in. That's the dumbest thing about all this. It's going to put even more pressure on already stressed animals.

Truth^^^

[6AYoteHunter]

Good way to be clueless of how bad this drought is hurting the animal population. When success rates are trash AZGFD will say it is due to no cameras improving fair chase. When the truth is this is the largest die off and lack of animal reproduction in most hunters lifetime.

Due to lack of small game I am now seeing entire herds of javelina and deer being wiped out from predation. Only a matter of time until predators start starving. 

The top of the age class 8+ yo was basically wiped out by game cameras but I would argue we had more middle aged animals because less experienced hunters would pass on stuff looking for a 6 yo. I do think "less" cameras (we all know guys will still hang cameras saying it wasn't for hunting) will allow a few cool old critters each year to slip through the cracks for extra lucky or experienced hunters to find later.  

The AZGFD probably would have been better off with a trail camera season. Decent monitoring of herd health but a good way of preventing "tracking" of a target animal on a "shopping list" allowing for slip through. 

[6AYoteHunter]

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