Weapon or technology restrictions?

[elkduds]

I just got a wild idea that is sure to ruffle some feathers: earned upgrades. Think of it like creating technology tiers that a hunter could advance through, after meeting certain requirements like volunteering on wildlife or habitat projects or participating in youth mentor hunts or something like that. And no pay to play options, some kind of hands-on activity is required.

As an example:

Tier 1, no additional requirements other than purchase of standard licenses, privileges include: legal firearm of choice or recurve/compound bow, scope with maximum magnification of 9x, binoculars/spotting gear with maximum magnification of 12x, phone GPS, flashlight/headlamps. Pursuit, hunt, and retrieval must be on foot or horseback.

Tier 2, after having done a small amount of volunteering or program participation, new privileges unlocked: Rangefinders to 500 yards, rifle scope up to 12x magnification, bionoculars/spotting gear up to 24x magnification, use of 1 non-transmitting trail camera.

Tier 3, after having done a medium amount of volunteering or program participation, new privileges unlocked: Rangefinders to 1000 yards, unlimited magnification for scopes and binoculars/spotting gear, use of vehicle/ATV/SxS for game retrieval, and up to 3 non-transmitting trail cameras.

Tier 4, after having done a large amount of volunteering or program participation, new privileges unlocked: Crossbows, unlimited rangefinders, thermal optics, smart optics, transmitting trail cameras allowed, use of vehicle/ATV/SxS to travel in hunting area, and day-before-hunt use of a drone, plus some bonus LE draw points.

Obviously some fine tuning could be done here and there, but the idea is that if someone wants to put in hundreds of hours of habitat/wildlife restoration or work on other kinds of improvement projects, then they can use all their fancy gear. And I think I'd be less grumpy about trail cams on public land if I knew that person put in two full summers of mule deer habitat improvement work.

Enforcement nightmare. How about a preference point incentive for volunteering, in addition any earned in the draw.

 

[texwest44]

Enforcement nightmare. How about a preference point incentive for volunteering, in addition any earned in the draw.

Hmm, I'm not sure how it would be an enforcement nightmare, but I don't know each state's rules and systems well enough to have a firm opinion. Here in Montana, you're required to have a Base Hunting License in order to buy tags. It could say right there whether it was a Base Hunting License - Tier 1 or a Base Hunting License - Tier 2 or whatever. And game wardens are trained to check for compliance, I can't imagine taking an extra 30 seconds to look at a scope or anything would be much of a hassle. And if you're a Tier 1 on your license and he gets you driving around in a SxS on a forest road, well that's pretty cut and dry, too.

The biggest issue would be the state having to keep track of who's qualifying for what at any given time, and possibly having to update license tiers after the season has started, stuff like that.

All that aside, I would definitely support letting people earn LE/preference points for wildlife/habitat volunteer work. Even NRs, to be honest. Not everyone has a ton of money to spend, but anyone willing to put in elbow grease for the greater good is fine by me.

 

[DFS]

Hunt talk probably isn’t the best place to poll as it’s a different group of hunters. Seems like most are in agreement with limiting technology or weapons in hunting to some degree. I just don’t think we can keep issuing the same amount of tags with the technology advancements. If we want to keep opportunity high we are going to have to draw some lines in the sand. I personally would rather hunt with a less effective weapon. Thanks for the votes. I don’t think we will ever put the toothpaste back in the tube but it is something to think about.
Onx as Brockel said changed the game in our area. Technology comes in many different ways.

 

[Beignet]

I just saw on another site that Utah has some new restricted opportunities that they’re testing for mule deer.

 

[bigsky2]

How much more wildlife would be wounded/maimed with loss of scopes or rangefinders for example? Don't have to look very hard on YouTube to find lots of hunters who can barely hit an animal at 100-200 yards with a scope. Open sights aren't going to stop them from taking the same shots at 1.5 year old bucks, probably producing a higher level of wounding without recovery.

I agree with that to an extent. There’s always going to be people that push the limits and take shots they have no business taking. I also think that some of the technology that we have today gives people a false sense of confidence that they might not have if they had to use more restrictive equipment.