Unit 39 seems to be one of the very few units that doesn't have a capped archery hunt in September. my family has a cabin in unit 39 and we have hunted there for many years. Recently my dad and I have gotten into archery hunting and we both know the area around our cabin very well and haven't spent any time in any other units hunting. The archery season is after rifle season for elk and deer both. Yes, I have harvested and will continue to do so but when the snow hits all of the elk move out from where our cabin is located to a lower elevation. When the winter migration starts we have to move as well. The area we hunt is public land around our cabin so I am not trying to capitalize on the private land. My thoughts were to move the archery bull season to September with a capped tag limit and if the problem of the season is that too many elk are harvested during rifle season can we cap that as well?
Answer:
We cannot make predictions into the future, but we currently have a muzzleloader cow season in Unit 39, cow hunts that allow one to use any weapon, and 9 days of an any weapon bull season. We use the late season archery to assist us in a depredation issue. Our bull:cow ratio is adequate only because we have elk from Unit 43, 45, 48 wintering in Unit 39. Even with those controlled hunts, our mature bull ratio is quite low, so any additional harvest on bulls is not recommended at this time. Unit 39 provides us with exceptional opportunity for a general hunt and anyone that wants to hunt elk has an opportunity. We believe that is more important at this time than capping the number of hunters and allowing an archery season for fewer hunters, especially when archery hunts are available in so many other units nearby.
Answered on:
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - 8:30 PM MST