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Thread: Hunting season lengths

  1. #21
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    B.C CANADA
    Posts
    4,804

    Re: Hunting season lengths

    Quote Originally Posted by bownut View Post
    With the present seasons and the steady decline in wildlife, sustainability is always in question.
    Fawn recruitment, and the general condition of the herds is recognized. Habitat, Predators, Access along with Harvest play a huge role.
    Question to the opportunists:
    If Regions record a continual decline in Harvest /Success, and the Efforts continue to rise, what do you think the Bios are thinking?
    - Make the seasons longer?
    - Rethink the population counts?
    - Redefine Sustainable?
    - Carry On?
    Given their track record All of the above..... unfortunately

  2. #22
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
    Location
    North of Hope
    Posts
    2,488

    Re: Hunting season lengths

    Quote Originally Posted by bownut View Post
    With the present seasons and the steady decline in wildlife, sustainability is always in question.
    Fawn recruitment, and the general condition of the herds is recognized. Habitat, Predators, Access along with Harvest play a huge role.
    Question to the opportunists:
    If Regions record a continual decline in Harvest /Success, and the Efforts continue to rise, what do you think the Bios are thinking?
    - Make the seasons longer?
    - Rethink the population counts?
    - Redefine Sustainable?
    - Carry On?
    Shorten the season, raise the price of tags and give more of the allocation to outfitters?

  3. #23
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    N. Okanagan
    Posts
    14,182

    Re: Hunting season lengths

    Quote Originally Posted by tater View Post
    Ungulates tend to yard up in the most viable microtherms to allow optimal energy use during the winter. They need easy access to feed with minimal exposure to extreme elements (e.g. high wind speeds), as well as optimal protection from predation.
    Female ungulates will abort (re-absorb) fawns/calves under stress (including being moved from safe yarding habitat during winter months). All of the work of the rut is undone with too much predator pressure (human and four legged).
    Comparing the whitetail habitat in BC to the lower conitguous 48 states or the prairie provinces is not apples to apples. Snow load that is elevation/direction dependent, available access to feed, and winter predator populations are all factors that are not as big a concern in Georgia, Alabama, or even Saskatchewan.
    .
    Nailed it, imho. Winter range varies in size and quality year by year depending on conditions. Setting a safe date to help limit the disturbance sounds like a bmp to me.
    Also, Many BC hunting and angling regs are carefully thought out with enforcement in mind.
    Last edited by boxhitch; 12-12-2017 at 11:51 AM.
    Never say whoa in the middle of a mud hole

  4. #24
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    N/A
    Posts
    215

    Re: Hunting season lengths

    Several states have started instituting "shed hunting closures" to minimize stress on deer wintering grounds. Hunting whitetail through mule deer wintering grounds has got to be equally stressful, if not more. It's the one time of year that they really cross-over heavily. More accidentally shot mule deer, increased poaching (a shot in the woods at a mule deer is far less conspicuous when shots are also being fired at whitetail), are two other potential (and real) drawbacks aside from stress.

    Call me a fear monger, but I'd also be very concerned about whitetail deer bait piles on mule deer wintering grounds with the knowledge that CWD is passed through saliva. Heck, I'm already concerned about it during the current open season.


    Other places have more spread out seasons, yes. August to January in some cases. Don't confuse that for longer seasons or increased opportunity.

  5. #25
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Elkford B.C.
    Posts
    781

    Re: Hunting season lengths

    Why not go back to the way it was years ago , Sept. 10 to Nov. 20 , with a two day doe season in Oct.
    This was for white tails only.

  6. #26
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Posts
    8,515

    Re: Hunting season lengths

    Leave the Mule Deer Season alone, depending on the Region, I think the season is long enough.
    (what's been missing is the higher snow levels to push them all down like in in the good ol' days).

    If some don't want whitetails to spawn all over the place in some Regions, then make the season longer.
    Or, maybe leave "all the wildlife alone during the winter months", and just open white tails way earlier in the
    season??? just a thought if you want to reduce them, as hunters will want to "get out there" and this would be
    the "only species" available to hunt at that time....

    BUT, if you really feel the need to get out there right now, or haven't "filled your boots"....
    There's lots of WOLVES that need to "taken out", and with the winter snow, these dogs should be
    "closer to towns" right now...lower elevations, looking for....... "your deer"

  7. #27
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Posts
    428

    Re: Hunting season lengths

    Quote Originally Posted by Gatehouse View Post
    My understanding is that the season closes to stop pressuring animals as we set into winter.

    Now, it may be no problem to keep hunting whitetails longer but the whitetails often occupy the same areas as mule deer, so you are still pressuring the mule deer.

    That's just my thoughts, I could be wrong.

    Very good point, so many people feel that the hunting pressure alone has little effect.

  8. #28
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Posts
    428

    Re: Hunting season lengths

    Quote Originally Posted by tater View Post
    Ungulates tend to yard up in the most viable microtherms to allow optimal energy use during the winter. They need easy access to feed with minimal exposure to extreme elements (e.g. high wind speeds), as well as optimal protection from predation.
    Female ungulates will abort (re-absorb) fawns/calves under stress (including being moved from safe yarding habitat during winter months). All of the work of the rut is undone with too much predator pressure (human and four legged).
    Comparing the whitetail habitat in BC to the lower conitguous 48 states or the prairie provinces is not apples to apples. Snow load that is elevation/direction dependent, available access to feed, and winter predator populations are all factors that are not as big a concern in Georgia, Alabama, or even Saskatchewan.
    If you use many of the lower 48 models for WT management, we would have "earn a buck programs" as promoted by Dr. Valerius Geist and other ungulate specialists, as well as severe point restrictions for antlers.

    Want to extend your season? Go shoot a bobcat, a cougar, five coyotes and three wolves. If enough folks do that for the next five winters, then you may see an extended season down the road as well as have a fun winter outside.
    Right on the money Tater, so many individuals don't get it yet. Education has become such a little used tool.

    I was ask on a past thread how I felt about getting rid of the Late Mule Deer Bow Season, being a avid bowhunter I think it was directed at me to stir up something.
    My reply was "If it would work to conserving them then we should shit can the whole hunt."
    There's so much Take and very little Give lately.

  9. #29
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Posts
    428

    Re: Hunting season lengths

    Quote Originally Posted by HappyJack View Post
    Shorten the season, raise the price of tags and give more of the allocation to outfitters?
    Ya thats the answer...... Not.
    But if we keep it up LEH could be crammed down everyone throat, and then what?

  10. #30
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Nelson, BC
    Posts
    3,875

    Re: Hunting season lengths

    Some states have long seasons with liberal bag limits on deer, but unlike BC, nearly all the land is private, and much off limits to hunters, so there are refugia for ungulates.
    I won't always be young, but I can be immature forever

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