Show Hunting season observations By John Dickerson Wildlife Resources Conservation Officer Now that the most popular 1975 hunts are over I 1 think it would be a good idea to review some of the problems we encountered encountered encountered en en- countered and also go over some general observations concerning the various ous hunts One of the most gratifying things about the deer hunt was that it was generally a very clean hunt hunt-by hunt hunt hunt- by clean I mean very few violations and very few illegal kills IT IS really surprising how a abuck abuck abuck buck only hunt coupled with fewer deer deel cuts down on tagging violations Not too many years ago tagging violations were the most common violation violation we encountered encountered encountered en en- countered during the year now it is not even in the top ten list of infractions We continue to have havea a problem with people carving carrying ar ing ingI nIJ IT loaded goaded oa I dd e guns guns' th their vehicles hl IC es rt l h common Actually when you analyze this practice and weigh the pros and cons carrying a loaded gun is just plain stupid No game in the world is worth taking the chance of having that gun go off and injuring or killing one of f your hunting buddies AS FAR as illegal kills are are concerned conservation officers officers of of- for this area reported six elk and 14 does shot and left in inthe inthe inthe the field These figures are of course by no means the only illegal animals shot but they do represent t kills that we verified Of co course we feel that one illegal kill is too many but we weare weare weare are making progress and one big contributing factor to this this' progress is the buck law Sportsmen are taking a a long look at deer and seeing hor horns before they shoot During the sex either-sex days Im I'm sure a lot of people would just shoot and then go over to see what it was The whole country is much more conservation minded these days a and d Utah hunters are no different They are to be commended for their efforts' efforts during the past deer season Some people may that six elk killed figure and think ith t it is mistake to l to n it W sl t H. H r p qu thi j la d big big I t i 9 9 provement over some previous previous' t years SEVERAL YEARS ago before open bull hunting I remember one year we had more elk killed illegally during the deer hunt on the Ogden River Unit I was working than were killed during the elk season That kind of thing is just plain discouraging to both the officer and to the sport sport- We had a poor track record on the elk hunt though this year Officers reported that four moose four cow elk and four buck deer were killed illegally during the hunt We used to have a limited moose hunt in Daggett County but no more and the illegal kill is the main reason why it was discontinued We had only one reported landow landowner ner complaint during the big game season and again local hunters are to be com corn mended UNFORTUNATELY we had quite a few landowners during the recent pheasant hunt Some people still think a hunting hunting license entitles them to trespass and they are dead wrong Several trespass cases have been made this year and these people are in for a big shock if convicted because minimum fine is 50 and an automatic loss of license for a year The biggest problem I 1 encountered encountered encountered en en- countered on the pheasant hunt was with our young hunters Youngsters under 16 years old are not allowed to hunt alone the law covering this is printed right on their hunting license Kids this age are just learning how to handle firearms in a hunting situation and there is abig a abig big difference between a hunter safety safely classroom with inai in- in an ai ai K l. l str to-r to v n and and a a Bunting i i nl n i sit situation ii n a he nt h has s' s j lust just jumped up from under your feet frel Our hunter safety program has brought great results but they could be even better if our laws were followed more closely TO EM W on an encouraging note even though this years year's deer hunt probably wont won't show a high success rate quite a few hunters have reported seeing lots of does and fawns and lotsof lots lotsof lotsof of twin fawns Their observations observations observations ob ob- ob- ob pretty well correlate with most of the officers We conduct season pre fawn doe ratio counts on all herd units and these ratios have been coming up the last few years One of our brightest spots is the Book Cliffs where we are finding about 70 fawns per does whereas just a few years ago Hgo it was down around 40 fawns per does |