What's the deal with 4,5,6

[fullthrottle]

Can anyone explain or shed some light on why utah combines units 4/5/6? Seems like piss poor management to me. How can they justify such a great buck to doe ratio when over 2/3 of the unit is private. And one whole unit is basically Deseret, ensign, and skullcrack cwmu among many others. A huge chunk of this area is cwmu, or private. Of course they are going to have good buck to doe ratio's. They give out a ton of tags for such a small portion of land that the public can actually hunt, so everybody packs into a few small areas. I would really like to give the division the benefit of the doubt, but there graphing, arrogance, excuses, feeding the public a line of B.S. Is getting old. I would love to hear from someone in the division that could justify there thinking on this, not really making much sense to me, why make 30 units just to combine them?? Thoughts...

 

[smitty]

Give up on any state managing their respective herds in a logical and effective way.

You have got to lower your expectations to almost nothing. That is the only way to understand.

And then beat yourself in the head with a hammer. Repeatedly.

After having done all that, you'll still shake your head in disbelief that these "professionals" are in charge of OUR wildlife.

Oh, and then after we all b!tch and moan and go to all the RAC meetings, and do service projects and blame SFW, and blah, blah, blah, nothing will ever change, other than they will incrementally do more to destroy OUR game herds.

End of story.

That is the future of wildlife management.

 

[HuntMuch]

This unit used to be a good hunt before the Wasatch became Extended. There are still some great portions of the unit you can access and hunt but you will usually have company as most of it has roads all through the public portions. I hunted it last year and had plenty of looks at 2-3 year olds but saw 2 shooter bucks in 6 days. My main issue with the unit is the DWR flooded it with elk tags so places I could usually hike into on the front and see 2-3 other hunters on the way were packed !
I realize that the extended hunt was originally used to handle excess deer that spilled into towns and across highways but the constant pressure and boot traffic sends the majority of the good bucks off to private lands on the Wasatch back and they typically only show during the rut again where the public can get to them.

 

[fullthrottle]

Huntmunch, Couldn't disagree more, although I would like to see less people flooding the extended. Success rates on the extended are very low. Plus the extended has been going on for how long? There were still a few mature bucks around even 4 years ago. But the vast majority of the public areas of this unit have taken a obvious downturn in quality since the 30 unit split (which I am a fan of but wish they would use a little more commen sense when they set there tag numbers for units). Hunting pressure on the rifle and muzzleloader hunts in this unit has been noticeably higher since the unit split. Shooting mature bucks across ugly canyons with 1000 yard canons is taking a much bigger toll on the bucks than stick flippers hunting in thick oak brush and crunchy snow. Guaranteed. That being said my original point isn't about which weapons or hunts for that matter are doing the most damage, it's the gad damn tag numbers that are a joke. Look at a frickin map. 2/3 of the unit is private. Seriously 5&6 should be there own unit. My original question is why in the hell is the division combining all 3 units??? That makes no sense. Other than they are trying to hide tag numbers in a unit that the public portion cannot support. Why make 30 units just to combine them?

 

[HuntMuch]

LAST EDITED ON Feb-02-15 AT 11:45PM (MST)[p]I agree with you on making 5/6 one unit. The real downturn on the front came with the dedicated hunter program in conjunction with the extended. I've hunted it since the early 80's so I know and I've taken my share of 30"+ bucks off it . Most of the good bucks head towards City Creek and back onto Hardscrabble and the CWMU's between Peterson and East Canyon as soon as the pressure hits and they never come out. I''ve taken some horse back rides in mid-November on the mid-elevation Wasatch back and it would still blow your mind at the quality of deer you can find. Just not on public with the pressure.

 

[BrowningRage]

Areas of high private land have presented the same issue for a long time. Deer herd counts in those areas spread across the private land and the DWR allots that tag numbers that are acceptable for that entire deer herd; except, the public can only hunt like 20% of the unit. Its ridiculous and I couldn't agree more with you...

Don't expect it to change any time soon either.

"Therefore, wo be unto him that is at ease in Zion!" 2 Ne. 28: 24