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Show SpOrlS U n- By Ernie Milner During the recent deer hunt, many questions have come to the fore. Most of them deal with the shortage of deer this season. sea-son. Many more questions were brought up trying to find out how to rebuild the deer herds. The State Department of Wildlife Services came up with one answer; that of eliminating elim-inating all extended hunts throughout the state. Only special area hunts were allowed this year and they may be cut out next year. Some dcodIl never did see any great amount of deer on the hunt and many more saw very few. Those that were out in the field during the season and really got into the rough country, saw more deer than the average hunter. With the added pressures pres-sures of civilization encroaching en-croaching on the herd units, many deer are not in the same places that they were a few years ago. Some areas that were a haven for deer a few years ago have an over-abundance of hunters now. As all of us know, we have had to change our hunting habits because of the amount of new hunters that are in our old hunting areas. Not knowing what to expect ex-pect when you go into a new area, most of us are hesitant to really get too far from camp. This accounts for the lack of seeing deer in some cases. There are many more excuses for not seeing deer, but I won't go into too many more of them. Some hunters have suggested sug-gested that the state as a whole go for a Buck Only hunt, as was experienced ex-perienced in some areas after the opening weekend this season. Some people feel that we should eliminate elim-inate the fut of state hunters hun-ters altogether. And some prefer that the residents purchase a permit to hunt in a certain region or herd unit. Herd units could be controlled by a certain number of permits per-mits in each one and that way you could have a better control of the number num-ber of hunters in each area. We in the Southern part of the state are blessed with good hunting areas and not too many hunters. At least not too many that reside here. We would be able to protect our interests better if we were to be able to allocate al-locate the number of permits per-mits that wer e sold each season for this area. Whether this is the answer an-swer or not should be decided de-cided by people that know the true story of the size of the herd units. Most ,of us do not even venture into the hills during the year except to go on fishing trips or just for a ride, and then we do not get off of the road far enough to be in the deer's territory. Kach spring, the Division Divi-sion of Wildlife management manage-ment schedules range rides that are open to public participation. The participation has never been too heavy as far as the average hunter is concerned. Organized sportsmans clubs have done a lot in the past to help set up the type of hunts available to the sportsman. Ranchers and livestock men have informed in-formed the state about the number of deer in their areas of the state. The only way to really be able to tell for certain whether deer are in the area that you want to hunt is for you to go out prior to the hunt and see for yourself. One possibility was brought up about the lack of fawns this season. The heavy winter took its toll and the amount of coyotes and bobcats in the hills will have an effect on the number of young. , There seem to be more wildcats and coyotes now than in recent years, as witnessed by the number of tracks seen by hunters. During the past bow hunting season, evenings were enhanced by the sound of coyotes calling to each other, and that happened in nearly every area of the state. Bounties have been placed on these two preditors and anyone that wishes to hunt them can do so. Hunting proclamations pro-clamations and regulations regula-tions can be picked up at any place that sells hunting permits or you can contact the nearest Wildlife Management office. |