Fall 2012-13' Recommendations

[111]

In the link below are the 2012-2013 Fall hunt recommendations. Some of the highlights I found in this was deer permits will be on the decline quite a few units. Unit 33 lost a general mule deer hunt, but looks to add a muzzleloader any antlered deer hunt. There's a General December hunt added in units 7, 17A/B, 23, and 27. 3A/3C went to a draw for fall archery deer. Mountain lions are recommended to be hunted year round in most units once again. Bag limits on Daylong hunts for mountain lion are available as well as daylong hunts for coyotes in certain units. Also 12A will be adding some additional youth doe permits but will be staying with the 5-7% adult population growth.

 

 

Fall Hunt- My link

[elkhunter]

I'm pretty happy with some of the changes for the upcoming season

[missedagain]

1333377935[/url]' post='302450']

I'm pretty happy with some of the changes for the upcoming season

 

Looks pretty good, to bad we can't bring the kofa sheep herd back and add another 10 sheep tags.

[111]

Overall I like a lot of the changes as well! I'm happy with the December mule deer hunts added if it goes through. On the last survey I took for g&f I added they should think about adding more opportunity by a small percentage of tags going to December hunts south of the rim for mule deer. Not sure if more people asked for the same and that's the reason they're considering it.

[KaibabHunter]

Nice to see they decreased some tags in the 40's.

[elkhunter]

There's no real opportunity for trophy mule deer south of the rim, I would guess that dec mule deer hunts would classify as that, would be cool to see some monster southern mule deer taken during the dec hunts!

[jim]

So they take away the dec archery hunt in 27 but are now going to allow 25 big muleys to be taken by rifle in the rut. The whole reason given to take the dec archery hunt was to protect the big bucks in the rut.

[111]

There's no real opportunity for trophy mule deer south of the rim, I would guess that dec mule deer hunts would classify as that, would be cool to see some monster southern mule deer taken during the dec hunts!

 

I agree and I'm glad to see that opportunity given to harvest a great buck! It allows more hunt choices to put down and may give slightly better draw odds to other quality deer hunts around the State! The only thing g&f needs to watch is giving too many tags for the December hunts. I think 10 tags for unit 7 is just about right. Something like 25 tags may be risking killing off a lot of mature bucks during the rut, especially in units that are poor quality already.

[Basser15]

I'm still trying to figure out exactly were they think all these bucks are in 7 that would warrant almost 900 tags for the general season plus an extra 10 during December. If anything they need to scale that unit back to allow for the deer numbers to rebound. They finally did for the elk in that unit since they have been crushing them the last several years.

[jim]

Well I will agree that the opportunity is good.But 25 tags in the right hands can do some real damage to the big bucks in certain areas. I know there will be some guys really wanting that 27 tag. These tags will put some big bucks on the ground for sure.

[elkhunter]

rob- I agree with you, through my 4 years of living in Flagstaff, I never saw too many deer in the 7 units, I do not understand how there's so many tags and very little deer in the area.

 

I'm sure many others can say the same thing, it must be rough hunting up there during the rifle hunt thats for sure!

[Tines]

Like I posted in another thread, IMO, the best thing they could implement that's being proposed is reducing MD permits in Southern Arizona.

 

33 is a gold mine for the G&F. It will be harvested to the max until they're forced to stop or slow down. They rode the "33 MD train" into the ground until they've now been forced to "stop". Well, sort of, as it's already been mentioned that the tags were potentially just shuffled around. I guess I can't complain if a few MD are saved (which I do believe is VERY important). But now we're considering more whitetail hunters in there?? So let me get this straight, we have the following hunts in 33 where a Coues deer is hunted (this is all being PROPOSED, not set in stone):

 

-August archery- OTC

-October jr's (any antlered) hunt #1- 150 permits

-October general rifle hunt- 700 permits

-November general hunt #1- 700 permits

-November mzldr (any antlered) hunt- 200 permits

-November jr's (any antlered) hunt #2- 175 permits

-Late November general rifle (10 DAYS!!)- 700 permits

-December rifle- 50 permits

 

So with this in mind, from Nov 9th-Dec 9th, a full month, Coues deer will be hunted in 33. I'm all for helping the MD population out but it seems we might be doing it at the expense of some of our healthy Coues deer herds....

 

As for having some trophy Southern Arizona rifle MD opportunity.... That would be AWESOME!!!! But they'd need to reduce some MORE of the general permits to accommodate that hunt given it's potential success rates. And based on their decision to reduce some permits already down here, I don't see that happening anytime soon. Right now our best bet is stick and string, folks...

[ZJARCHER]

I like some changes and HATE others...

[birddogg21]

Well when all the deer are killed in AZ we can burn it down and move into Mexico!!!! Many people know that scout all year that there is NO WAY AZGNF can justify all those coues tags. Its absolutely ridiculous and being a younger hunter and being able to watch the change its making year by year makes me wounder if my kids will be able to have the opportunity to hunt coues in AZ.