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Show Big game seasons set in Utah The Utah Board of Big Game Control has established the regulations and season dates for the 1977 big game animal hunts following a week of public hearings throughout the State. Four of the five board members are serving their first term but worked long hours to become familiar with wildlife conditions and establish equitable, biologically biological-ly sound decisions. Those decisions follow. Deer One buck deer per hunter, regardless of the method of hunting, will be the statewide rule for deer hunting during the 1977 deer season. The general rifle deer season will begin at dawn on Saturday, October 22, and will last through November 1 an 11 -day season. The only exceptions to the buck only rule will be the special regulation requiring that a deer have four points or better to be harvested in the Henry Mountain unit (deer herd unit 52) and the special permit hunts established by the Board. Deer herd units three, six, seven, eight and nine (northern Utah) have a total of 1.000 hunter's choice permits designated for the regular season to control deer populations in those areas. Units two. five, six and eight have tentative schedules for 450 permits on five day notice hunts that may be called if large numbers of deer migrate into the units and create potential hazards to range and agricultural areas. The Board gave the Division of Wildlife Resources authority to call emergency hunts as needed. Field investigations revealed reveal-ed that Utah's deer populations popula-tions are responding well to buck only hunting and that the 1976 fawn crops are better than average in much of the State, due largely to mild winter conditions and favorable favor-able weather during the fawning season. The Northern, North-ern, Northeastern and Central regions have shown the most pronounced deer population increases with herds in the Southern and Southeastern regions improving, albeit somewhat slower. Archery Deer Season The 1977 archery deer season will be open from August 20 through September 5. The hunt will be buck only statewide except in herd unit 52. where the four points of better requirement, as in the genera deer season, will be in effect. One deer per hunter will apply. The Board made use of the cocking device known as "Sure-Shot" illegal during the bow hunt and also established the archery season dates for 1978 to be August 19 through September 4. The bow and arrow is a legal weapon for hunting all big game animals in Utah. Muzzleloader Deer Season Muzzleloading enthusiasts will have their own deer hunting season this year from October 1 through October 11 in the following units: Wells-ville Wells-ville (unit 4), Stansbury (unit 12). Minnie Maud (unit 27A) and Monroe Mountain (unit 48). Additional regulations will require that a muzzleloader must shoot a projectile of .40 caliber or greater, use black powder only and be equipped with iron sights. Elk The 1977 open bull elk season will be September 28 through October lb. Open bull elk permits may be purchased at any Utah Division of Wildlife Resources office, either eith-er in person or by mail July 25 through August 12. Application Applica-tion forms are also available from license agents. Special permit elk hunts, as in previous years, will vary by unit as to the type of hunt and number of permits issued. Hunters will need to examine the new proclamations carefully. careful-ly. Authorized were 1.305 hunter's choice permits, along with 535 antlerless and 130 special bull only permits. Procedures for making application ap-plication on the special elk permits was changed this year. Anyone wanting to hunt elk this season will first have to purchase an open bull elk permit (S15). Open bull elk permittees will then be eligible to make application for special elk permits which will be selected by a drawing. Successful Suc-cessful applicants will have to pay an additional $10 for the special permit. The Board also elected to allow party applications for elk hunting units where open bull hunting is not authorized. Applications will be limited to two individual permit holders' names per application. These permits will be available on the Book Cliffs. Avintaquin-White Avintaquin-White River. Goslin-Three Corners, Heaston and Indian Peaks elk units. On all units where open bull hunting is authorized, only single applications appli-cations will be accepted. One hundred twenty-five nonresident open bull elk permits were authorized by the Board. That is 25 more than last season. Archery Elk The archery elk season for 1977 will run concurrently with the archery deer season. August 20 though September 5. There will be an unlimited number of archery open bull elk permits sold. A special drawing will select 100 of these permits to be validated for hunter's choice harvest. All open bull elk units will be open to archery elk hunting. Antelope September 3 through 11 will be legal hunting dates for the 1977 antelope season. Two hundred and fifty permits have been established. The Cedar City and Hatch Point units will have no permits issued this season. Buffalo There will be ten hunter's choice buffalo permits issued again this year tor ilic Henry Mountains buffalo herd. The hunt will be November 5 though 20. Moose Two of Utah's three moose herd units will have permits available for hunting this fall. Herd unit 1. the Uinta North Slope, will have 20 bull permits, with hunting from September 10 through 25 on the entire unit. A poriton of unit 1 will be open to hunting for those who draw out on the 20 antlerless permits. The anterless hunt will be November Novem-ber 12 through December 11. Moose herd unit 2, Ogden River-Lost Creek-Cache, will be separated into two subunits for the 1977 hunt. Each unit will have five bull permits available. Moose herd unit 3. Daegett. will be closed to hunting in 1977. Bighorn Sheep A total of 25 bighorn sheep permits will be issued for the September 17 though Ociober 10 hunt. Twenty permits will be good on the portion of the south-central Utah bighorn hunting unit that lies north of highway U-95. The remaining five permits will be valid for hunting south of the same highway. Only legal rams, those of seven and one-half years of age or older and having minimum 144 modified Boone and Crockett points, may be taken. The Board also lifted the "hunter orange" clothing requirement for bighorn hunters. |