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Show Chief of game defends early hunting of elk Why September elk hunts? $ This is the question posed by some Utah hunters thinking tha tj weather is too warm for proper $' care of the meat. f Norm Hancock, Chief of Game Management for the De- ' partment of Fish and Game, said the important factor in fall meat spoilage is more in the way it is handled, not so much the weather. "A skinned and properly hung carcass protected pro-tected from flies will cure just as well in September as it will in November. In fact, November Novem-ber spoilage is not uncommon when the animal is left un-skinned un-skinned or in a snow bank" he said. Early fall elk hunts also provide pro-vide a more rounded harvest of the elk herd by giving a better bet-ter distribution of harvest over the entire herd range and allows al-lows for a more uniform reduction reduc-tion by sex and age classes in the herd. Elk populations are more exactly ex-actly controlled through early hunts since the hunters are not restricted by weather as they are later in the season. |