Caribou Gear

Wyoming reduces statewide Pronghorn and Mule deer tags by over 11k

Yup. I am doing a party app with a buddy and getting in on a general unit. Still should be a pont ahead of the curve.

I am in no man’s land on deer points anyway. May as well pick an average area and start becoming familiar with it and hope to hunt it every 3 or 4 years.
I hear ya. I'm on a likely-futile march to the promised land of Region H, though there's a decent chance I end up in the same no man's land you're referring to.

"Burn and return" is starting to seem like a good strategy in a lot of places, that is picking decent but not famous units and going more often.
 
Some weird math in those tables. My unit is up 3,000 in population, so they are adding 100 additional estimated harvest. What’s weird is they are estimating 400 additional hunters, and it’s a unit with historically 90+% success rate. Not sure how if you add 400 hunters to unit with 90% success you only expect 100 additional harvest 🤷‍♂️.

Edit: Is that called “Montana math”? 😝
The tables with the numbers are by herd units and not hunt areas, would that be the reason the numbers may not jive?

ClearCreek
 
Still issuing antope doe tags all over the state makes no sense.
Looks like they increased the quota for some of the type 6 tags that are good on or near irrigated land.
I wonder if that is due to landowner complaints?

Also, does anyone know why they continuously change the antler restrictions in Region W for deer? It seems like they get changed every year. Moving from 4 point to 3 point this year. Is that a CWD thing?
 
Looks like they increased the quota for some of the type 6 tags that are good on or near irrigated land.
I wonder if that is due to landowner complaints?

Also, does anyone know why they continuously change the antler restrictions in Region W for deer? It seems like they get changed every year. Moving from 4 point to 3 point this year. Is that a CWD thing?
They held Public meetings in February regarding herd health. They asked for attendees to fill out surveys on how they would like to see deer management to proceed with regards to CWD. Basically they asked if the public wanted to prioritize older age class bucks vs allowing more take of younger bucks with the idea of trying to curb the spread of the disease. I'm not sure on the results of the survey or if it's been published anywhere yet.

I know up in region X they have historically instituted the four pointed rule after really bad winters to help the deer herd recover and then remove the point restrictions after several years. Region W got hammered the last several winters with some significant snow fall. There were regions around Rawlins with winter kill carcasses littering the prairie. So that might be the reason as well. I'm guessing it's a combination of the two.
 
Still issuing antope doe tags all over the state makes no sense.
I am not familiar with Wyoming F&G management
but here when we are in droughts they issue doe tags to help reduce food source pressures when carrying capacity is low , it didn’t make sense to me @ 1st , but it beat a total closer like the 2010 -2012 drought
 
Antler point restrictions are about buck:doe ratios. Moving from 4 to 3 allows more harvest opportunity than 4pt, but I'm not real sure why not remove the restrictions completely for a year or a few then return to 4pt. Mule deer high grade in a few seasons under APRs. 2½ year old 3 and 4 points get shot while mature 2pts live. A year of 4pt allows lower buck harvest and an increase in buck:doe, but any thought on long term antler point restrictions doesn't improve quality in high harvest settings.
 
Antler point restrictions are about buck:doe ratios. Moving from 4 to 3 allows more harvest opportunity than 4pt, but I'm not real sure why not remove the restrictions completely for a year or a few then return to 4pt. Mule deer high grade in a few seasons under APRs. 2½ year old 3 and 4 points get shot while mature 2pts live. A year of 4pt allows lower buck harvest and an increase in buck:doe, but any thought on long term antler point restrictions doesn't improve quality in high harvest settings.
Spot on, iirc they used to remove it entirely some years in region w.
 
Are specific unit quotas updated online yet?
Yes. They have to be signed by the Commissioner and the Governor yet. But they posted online under the season dates for each species. I have not seen the Governor overrule the commission since I became a resident of Wyoming, so what is published is pretty much final. Just a formality to get the signatures at this point.
 
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I am not familiar with Wyoming F&G management
but here when we are in droughts they issue doe tags to help reduce food source pressures when carrying capacity is low , it didn’t make sense to me @ 1st , but it beat a total closer like the 2010 -2012 drought
where is “here” ?
 
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