Major back fire or coincidence?

[Shawn]

They go to draw on otc archery hunts they will lose a lot of money. Most people end up getting a archery and rifle tag and end up throwing away at least 1 or both tags. Mandatory reporting online is the way to go. Are they willing to lose that much money?

[Dan H]

It would be interesting to see the unit numbers that archery kills are in by season. Cause it seems like southern portion there is a lot more archery success lately on mature bucks than other areas. Living in 22/23 don't see or hear of near as many archery kills as I did before they eliminated Dec archery. Another thought is maybe doe numbers are venturing closer to high populated areas not feeling threatened cause less predator pressure and basically getting immuned to human interaction. That will bring in the bucks regardless of size. Last 2 years freinds and I have had triple the usual success calling in bucks during the rut.

[shanehamblin]

I had a big long post typed up an dunno what happened but I'm not doing it again. To sum it up I agree with Gino an Devin. Would sure like to see our game n fish take some steps in the right direction an at least pretend an create an illusion that they're doing something to manage our herd numbers.

[stanley]

I don't think the real problem is the archery deer hunters success one bit. The real problem is the extra early rifle hunts they added a few years back and the extreme over saturation of rifle tags. Everyone is now starting to see this catch up with the deer and becoming harder and harder to find a quality buck. This causing a lot more guys to now go deeper and further in country they never did before. All around its been a vicious cycle to the deer quality. As far as the archery success I don't know how much more can be taken away from archery hunters considering the disadvantage they are already at. It's Just starting to get a bit ridiculous that "the problem is archery hunters are to successful"..... Just read the hunt success numbers in the regs. Almost every rifle hunt no matter the quality is going to have a much higher success rate than the archery hunters.

 

I agree that the deer seem to get hounded weekend after weekend these days with all of the rifle hunts through the fall. I had an early Dec coues tag this year down South, and I will not put in for that hunt again.

 

I'm curious though what 'disadvantage' you think archery hunters have? They generally get first crack in August in many units, and then get to hunt 30+ days OTC during the rut in many units as well. It's archery hunting! I don't see OTC tags during the rut as a disadvantage at all. If it's the fact that they are hunting with stick n string that you see as a disadvantage. I'm an archery hunter too some years, and I've never felt like I was at a disadvantage. It is the hunt and equipment that I signed-up for at that particular time. No disadvantage, IMO.

 

S.

[wildwoody]

Its all about control and money. Get it. We quit buying the tags they'll start to listen, but we wont because we love the chase, so we will adapt. I can remember 20yrs ago there weren't many archery hunters or the super equipment we have now. Well anyway this ls interesting, please continue

[johnnie blaze]

Dont forget that there is not many places for deer to hide anymore. Weather it be loss of habitat or simply more pressure. The bucks that use to be invisible have no where else to go.

[Havasuhunter]

Mandatory reporting is a no brainer I think. Success is going up because of better bows, better glass, etc, but nothing like rifle hunts.

Guys reporting their 80 yard misses sure shows a sign of the times too. Many deer killed at that distance and many deer wounded at longer distances because guys that don't practice think they can take those shots, even though they shouldn't.

I would think more big deer killed is a good sign though, obviously they are doing well, better than many think. I've been reading all the doom and gloom for years. You'd think AZ doesn't have a single big game animal left according to some posters, yet huge deer and elk continue to get killed every year.

[208muley]

Azgfd will never make any changes where they loose money, period. They have proven that time and time again, so I don't see a draw coming unless the tags # are incredibly high like the rifle hunts. There are lots more bow hunters out there and getting good at shooting 50-100+ yards only takes about a month of practice with the type of tech that is out there. Talked to a guy just this weekend that was talking about all the shoots he has taken from 70-90 yards this year alone. He said eventually he will kill a deer,and he is right! I mean how hard is it to get 100 yds to a rutting buck? Guys, there are far more guys that are " anything goes" when it come to tech than not, so i dont see this trend ending till the resource is depleated.

 

However, for this year, I think that antler growth for deer was a little better than average. So more big deer have been seen which means more big deer killed. Can't overlook the power of social media in getting the word out making it appear more critters getting killed.

[Guest 300ultramag.]

i think without manadatory reporting we will continue get these knee-jerk reactions from the department..... without actual data its all guestimations..

 

 

 

I would like to offer up to CWers only.. if you kill a big buck feel free to let me know... along with the unit/ mountain range and I will keep a tally going..

 

^^^ no charge

[Heat]

When I asked why reporting wasn't mandatory, they said that is a barrier to hunter retention and recruitment. Until science based principles are used to manage our game rather than managing people, we will continue to see issues like this. I have no problem submitting information as long as it is the same for all weapon types, but to make archery deer hunts mandatory to report but everybody else gets a pass is baffling to me. Maybe someone who understands statistics better than me can educate me on how they can assume a certain percentage of success by a segment of the data rather than the whole data set.

[AZ8]

The problem with mandatory reporting is accuracy. There are members on this website who have admittedly said they would report a no kill result even though they harvested an animal.

 

What good is mandatory reporting if hunters report false results?

[shanehamblin]

The problem with mandatory reporting is accuracy. There are members on this website who have admittedly said they would report a no kill result even though they harvested an animal.

 

What good is mandatory reporting if hunters report false results?

What good is it to not have anything at all?? Don't know why anyone would give a false report but even if you get 10 that do so an your report reads 250 deer harvests instead of 260. Where we are now they don't know whether it's 500 or 0.

[Havasuhunter]

 

The problem with mandatory reporting is accuracy. There are members on this website who have admittedly said they would report a no kill result even though they harvested an animal.

What good is mandatory reporting if hunters report false results?

What good is it to not have anything at all?? Don't know why anyone would give a false report but even if you get 10 that do so an your report reads 250 deer harvests instead of 260. Where we are now they don't know whether it's 500 or 0.

People that give false reports are poachers, period.

[naturebob]

If You lie the Deer Gods will get You. Karma Baby,,,Karma...........BOB!

[twigsnapper]

For what it's worth I glassed up twice as many nice bucks pig hunting this year then I have in the past and I hunted fewer days then I usually do. Maybe it's a combination of a better deer heard and hunters moving away from baiting and out to more open mule deer country. Interesting topic.