antlerradar
Well-known member
When I first started hunting, region 7 was broken up into many antelope units. I can not remember how many, but I hunted unit 742 so there was at least 42 of them.
742 contained the SW part of the Custer and quite a bit of the private south of the forest. 742 was not an every year draw even for residents, More like an every other year or maybe three years if you were unlucky, but when you did draw the hunting was fairly good. When the proposal two lump all of 7 in to one unit was first implemented, I was thinking "hot dam, going to get to hunt goats every year" Didn't take long to change my young mind when the season started. Now that everyone drew a tag the public had twice as many hunters. It was a F ing zoo on the public. The next few years I switched from hunting the Custer to hunting private land, but it wasn't long and those places were leased. The old easy to get tags, more opportunity, the more value to the landowner deal that skips right by many game managers.
Prime example of the management philosophy of the law of diminishing returns. The big problems with this management is you need to have good access to most of the unit for it to work. When access starts to get restricted under the law of diminishing returns it snow balls and soon hunters are just moving back and forth from one over hunted spot to another. Some hunters just quite, I am a perfect example, I have not put in for a rifle antelope tag in thirty years, bought a few 900 tags but not many. Other hunters take management into their own hands and lease private land for themselves. The current trend of more ranches leasing to resident hunters is a direct result of poor hunting on public and the law of diminishing returns management. If there is one person to be flogged at FWP it is the first person to push this management philosophy. I am sure they has long since retired. Why current management continues to manage this way is beyond me. Self destructive.
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“numbers look good”
