Flatlander

2016 is the year AZGFD started paying Newberg. I was able to have a discussion about this with Jim on his IG account. He doesn't seem to believe there is any connection between otc archery reductions and AZGFD promoting it via social media. He wants to blame it on COVID, but the trend started before COVID so I am not sure we can play that card.

Jim is a top notch biologist and I think we are lucky to have him here. But I guess he will just have to go share a camp with Randy Newberg or those Hush guys or some other YouTube celebrity that AZGFD has pandered to.

Should be a good time. Good luck to both kiddos!

The reasoning that harvest reporting will discourage hunter participation doesn’t make sense. Dove hunting probably has more participation than any other species and harvest reporting is required federally. Heck for my migratory stamp they ask me about all kinds of species that I am pretty sure no one has ever hunted in the history of man. Still doesn’t stop anyone from going dove hunting.

Based on today’s commission meeting it seems that mandatory reporting is gaining some traction.

Ok, I should be clear, that was under Agenda Item 7) Legislative Agenda. I think there is still another enhancement to the program that will be discussed during Agenda Item #13. Hopefully I will still be sitting here when that comes up. But I do have a day job that I have to pay some attention to.

I dont know. I am watching hoping to find out.

They are running behind. Not even to the license revocations yet which are supposed to be time certain.

Here is the link to the commission meeting happening right now. It looks like this should happen sometime this afternoon. https://www.azgfd.com/agency/commission/commission-cam/

Well… let’s hear it

So are you accusing the charities of taking money for the tags? If so, do you have any examples or proof of this? Are there specific people receiving numerous highly desired tags?

I don't think 5 or 6k is all that unusual for rifles today. Have you seen the Axisworks muzzleloaders? Same thing. He always has 3-5 in the shop in various stages of build. This is quickly becoming the norm.

If you can shoot smokeless powder and use modern projectiles, there isn't much difference between this and any other rifle other than reload time.

Can we just get over the it’s legal so it’s above reproach mantra? It’s technically legal to wound a dozen animals and continue hunting but I don’t think anyone is going to argue that’s acceptable.

This hasn’t been my experience. Do you have examples you can share? We are derailing the thread a little bit but I am interested to hear about this.

You’ll never get that info from a FOIA request. Someone would have to audit the draw process and confirm if there were any irregularities, probably the auditor general. I don’t believe there has been a state audit of the Dept since 2014. At that time they didn’t audit the draw process but noted that the lack of transparency was one of the biggest risks for issues.

Did you see my suggested adjustments to the rules and guidelines? One way of reducing the impact of point guard is to change the group application rules so that a group doesn’t average points but instead receives the lowest number of points of any applicant in the party. This would reduce a lot of abuse and bonus point double dipping. This is a huge contributor to point creep.

The input I received from a WM was that they were still instructed to include ALL male pronghorn, regardless of age, in the count. I simply would like them to only count sexually mature animals. If we are targeting 15-25% of all male antelope including young of the year, that’s very different than 15-25% of sexually mature animals.

Where was this?

The other side of that argument is to say that just because something is legal doesn’t necessarily mean it’s ethical. And if we as hunters do not want the government regulating every aspect of the sport then we have at least some moral obligation to voice our concerns and self police before we are regulated. I don’t necessarily think the debate is a bad thing.

You must have listened to MeatEater this morning 😁 I’m no biologist I’m a freaking construction worker but what I would like is for AZGFD to only count mature breeding age bucks in their survey.

Go ahead and start a petition dude. Or come on here and talk more shoot to me. See which gets you further. Makes no difference to me. I’ll make the best difference I can when and where I can.

Actually, I don't shoot long range. I have never in my life dialed a turret to shoot an animal. I've also never adjusted a slider on a bow site. I would love to see the long range game adjusted. I think it's grossly overused by mostly incompetent shooters who practice far less than they should and almost never search for lost game. I think its the worst thing that has happened to hunting in the last 50 years. I just haven't been able to think of an enforceable way to change it. If you have suggestions I'd love to hear them. I am not a big government supporter. I do not like new regulation. However, when it comes to hunting we can only improve the pump for so long without improving the well before it runs dry. Time to throttle back the pump a little bit.

Can't you use a crossbow during rifle season?