Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Co Hunters Round table meeting last evening

Interesting fact came out last night. The reason that the CPW gives fishing licenses to NR who are awarded big game tags is that it's shell game. The CPW, on paper, subtracts that fishing license fee from the BG tag fee and shows it as a purchase in order to up the number tallied for fishing licenses sold. That way they get more money back from the Federal Govt in grants,etc. for all the excise taxes collected.

Mule deer decline on the western slope is very serious and the remainder of the state shows significant decline also. Expect to see reduction of tags in the future.

The attendance by the public was pathetic. About 6 sportsmen were present. CPW staff out numbered them.

Yep, I learned that yesterday when I paid for the elk draw application.

I wish I had known about the meeting last night; I could have let a few friends out there now to see if numbers could have been improved. Still, six attendees is pathetic.

The Gunnison meeting last night had over 30 sportsmen.

Well that makes me feel good.

A couple of the changes for 2015 are aimed at protecting the mule deer winter range. Can't argue with those.

Just wait until the Canadian Grey wolves get there.

L.W.

Any theories presented on the reason for the decline? Harsh winters, predators, ...?

One is competition with elk. They're doing some things to reduce elk numbers on some winter range.

In different parts of the state, there are different problems. On the western slope, some deer are starving, around Salida it is lion predation on older mature does, some areas are over hunted. Of course the standard answer is another study which the Commission just approved in January for the western slope.

How many studies were done before they came to the conclusion that they were issuing too many deer tags and went to draw only?

All of those reasons.
Also frequently mentioned are decades of unlimited licenses, severe droughts, severe winters, encroachment by whitetail, loss of habitat, CWD, and so on.
It has been an issue that has been vexing people who have been studying it for decades and seems very localized and specific to a given region.
There are still some pockets where the population is thriving.

Yea. one of them is my small piece of good grass pasture out back. Come green up, when the grass is still tender, the deer eat more of it than my mules.

Where we deer and elk hunt, it has definitely been mostly due to the lion population. Kept telling the local DPW guys we were seeing lots of very large loin tracks in the area. They didn't believe me. Pard took pic of huge track with 7mm RM round in it that looked small. They looked a little closer. Then a local rancher and his outfitter showed up with one that covered the entire hood of his truck. Now they have a clue and the local outfitters are after them. Killed several over the last 5-6 years. Problem is, new loins keep migrating into our area. They need to get serious about the loins in North and Middle parks and the adjacent areas. We also see many fewer rabbits and other small game.

I also suspect some cyclical disease has hit the herd. Not CWD, but some other more common cyclical event. Similar to the blue tongue that hit NE several years ago. We saw a few more deer out there last turkey spring than we had in the last 5 or so years. Landowners say the population there is recovering slowly. Suspect it will be the same here.

If I was retired and had the time I would definitely go after lions. So far all I have seen is tracks. Soin-in-law and Daughter #2 saw one in the Iles Grove area, pre-dawn and no tag anyway. The biologist we talked to said there is a lot of them up there and in the Oak Ridge area.

The deer numbers have been on the decline for 20 years around here, and they still issue doe tags. I have argued this point over and over with the game commission. They are hung up on buck to doe ratios still. They should actually suspend the deer hunt in certain units, but they won't even consider it.

It's all about money. The big discussion at the strategic planning meetings that are coming up is future funding.

Read the 5 year big game plan. At the very end it is about how much money can be taken in. There are some good people in the CPW, but politics rule.

I tagged along after my son (a Colorado resident) while he tried to fill an elk tag on the western slope. We were amazed at the number of deer we saw each day and a number of them were very nice bucks.

Road kills were common and I came within an arm's length of getting one with my Jeep. When I left to return home I waited until full sun up to avoid hitting deer and still had to stop twice to avoid deer on the highway. In that "pocket" mule deer were abundant. They were out at all times of the day, in people's yards and even in our motel parking lot.

We need to reduce cat numbers. The decline in deer numbers will continue regardless of winter range condition if the cat problem is not addressed.

Issuing doe tags in areas with a marked decline is the most ridiculous thing the CPW could possibly do.



Tanner

Colorado's G&F leadership must drink from the same poison water trough as ours does. Our mule deer are in severe decline and all they want to do is sell more licenses.

Where is this deer decline everybody is speaking of? in CO unit 55 where I live/hunt I see deer all the time. You gotta be careful driving the highway from gunny to crested butte in the evening, especially in winter as they are all over the place in the valley.