NM regs out

[Red Sparky]

If any of you are planning on coming to NM to hunt the dates are up on the web site. Be aware they have changed a lot. It seems like instead of having three archery elk hunts to choose from you now only have two for a unit. It seems like where I want to put in for they combined two hunts that would have 150 tags and took it down to 125 and gave the extra 25 tags to the last hunt. They still have the same amount of tags, 200 tags, but instead of 75 tags, 75 tags, 50 tags it is now 125 tags, 75 tags.

I would like to see how you all feel about it. Here are some of my thoughts about it as a resident.

So the way I see it the chances of drawing here are going to go way down. The same amount of hunters will be put into two hunts instead of three hunts so every bodies chances of drawing are going to go down. In theory there are the same amount of tags so the chances should be the same but the drawing pool will be larger so individual chances will go down. I have already lost 25 chances by having them moved to what is now the second hunt.

There will be more hunters in the field but they hopefully will be spread out over a two week period.

How many of you can come for a two week hunt instead of an eight day hunt? If you do draw how many are going to spend all two weeks here? If I get drawn I am only going to spend the two week ends and the week in-between so I will not be hunting for 5 of the fourteen days. Nine days last year were more than enough and I had opportunities during that time.

I remember the days of buying over the counter tags for deer, bear, and fall turkey combined for $10.50. Is hunting becoming an elitist sport and what can we do to keep the hunting heritage in the blood lines of our children when we can not get tags?

 

[onehandgunner]

I gave up hunting back in the late 70's , early 80's because on the changing regulations and it has only gotten worse imho. I do understand the need for more revenue, NMDFG operates on what it collects from license sales, I think, and not from the state coffers, this is what I have been lead to believe. I want to say the people at the game dept. are doing the best they can but they get their marching orders from "up above" and I don't mean GOD. Maybe, I say maybe, if RESIDENT sportsman get together and change things it could get better. There are more hunters today than in my day and I'm sure that adds to the changing regulations. To be continued.

 

[Red Sparky]

Yeah they get their marching orders from the Game Commission. You know who appoints the game commission. I have been to the meetings and put my input on the web site as others have but they still do what they want. It is not about revenue or there would be more licenses and more out of state hunters and tag fees would go up. Nothing against the field officers as I know quite a few and they are all great. Look at the commissioners that have had to resign for not following the game laws.

I am elk hunting today where my father deer hunted in the 60's. He said back then elk in that area were unheard of. Before the draw system you could go deer hunting with over the counter tags. Now I put in for units where the odds to get a tag are fairly good but the chances for taking an animal are low. I just worry about future generations being able to hunt.

That is also taking place in the schools. When I was growing up back in the 70's and 80's if I was going hunting my teachers would give me my homework before I left and I would do school work by lantern light out in the woods. A note from my parents and my absent was excused. Now my daughters have to make up all their school work when they get back and their absent is not excused. How can parents take their kids out of school for 9 days, if you were to stay out the whole hunt period, under those conditions?

So to me these regs are anti-family hunting even with all their hype about getting kids outdoors.

 

[onehandgunner]

One thing that I have noticed is a lot of TV about N.M. Elk. Good, bad, not sure. My son follows the regulations, I have not quizzed him on his feelings yet.

 

[Red Sparky]

Let me say bad. My muzzle loader hunt I use to put in for had about 500 hunters putting in for my unit. Roughly 150 hunters per choice of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and about 70 tags out of 125 total tags were drawn for first choice. Has been that way for roughly ten years and that roughly gave me a 50/50 chance to draw my first choice. After a few shows on NM elk hunting aired the hunting numbers went to over 1000 hunters with about 350-400 per choice. So my draw odds went down to below 20% chance to draw a tag. I do not put in for high demand or quality hunts as I want to have a chance to draw and go hunting. I know most of these shows are filmed with land owner tags on private ranches but it brings a lot of hunting pressure to that units public lands thru the draw.

 

[ATH]

To the question of whether hunting is becoming elitist, I'd say yes, defining that as hunting only being accessible to people with a good deal of money. In my home state of MI I know a lot of people that live paycheck to paycheck but were always out deer hunting. With recent tag increases, many of them don't have the money to anymore. And non-resident tags, forget it. MT used to be fairly reasonable for elk and it took a draw to get a NR tag, then they jacked the price to about a grand and I haven't been back, last I checked they couldn't even sell them all anymore.

Not to mention changes with access. Where I grew up I used to hunt all over, just go ask farmers and I had hundreds of acres. Now it's all leased up, 100 acres for a guy to shoot 1 buck. Since they pay so much nobody shoots does and the population is out of control as a result. And with midwestern farmland being increasingly bought up by large corporate farms who don't want to be bothered with ANYONE hunting on their land...