Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting WY G&F 7 survey

BuzzH must have sprinted back to HuntTalk.........where he was warm and safe.

Well this one took a turn....

Any who....the writing is on the wall, 7 will more than likely go general for rifle. Maybe they go type 9 limited entry for archery.

Won't change anything, unless the outfits can bring in more hunters with the general tag, assuming point creep doesn't go crazy for its region.

Don't they already issue over 4k tags? (Guessing it's over 5k without looking it up)

I think you’re right. It’s something close to those numbers.

There was a time when I thought Area 7 being general would be the way to go. The problem will only get worse.

If you know where to go you can pull elk out there, but there’s nothing to knockdown the population to the objective level. Making it general will push those elk further into the “safe zones”.

Absolutely.

Yep way over population.
There is public access but they need access to private to help with getting numbers under control.

Thinking may be that LOs will let more folks they know hunt but tags are hard to draw for their friends and family.
Making it General means residents can buy OTC and that way LO's friends and family that are residents will have OTC tags and maybe access.
That was thinking for area 6 when they went general on it, didn't help with numbers as it is still too many elk also.

I doubt 7 will go general.

They tried it in the past and it didn't pan out.

I believe what needs to happen is to raise the objective from 5k to 10k and then try to reduce the herd by about 2K.

I think the way to do that is to attach an additional antlerless elk tag to every type 1, 2, 4, 6, and 7 issued free of charge...a 2 for 1 if you will. What 7 doesn't need is more hunters, it needs more tags in the hands of the people that already draw. Countless times I could have easily shot another cow after killing the first one.

Another option is to raise the payments that LO's receive from the HMA program to entice them to allow more access.

There's other options as well, IMO, just going general is a lazy option and will have the exact opposite effect of reducing the herd.