Think about what you just said, if you don't care about how many points a bull has than you should have no problem with the spike restriction cause your just hunting an animal for meat. If you want to hunt a branch bull you can always hunt the westside. I agree about the experience of the hunt I don't have to shoot an animal to enjoy it. All I'm saying is if all mule deer hunts were a draw like colorado it would create better odds for special permits and the herd could managed more effectively. If someone wants to kill a meat buck they can always shoot a whitetail or blacktail. If there just meat hunters they could put in for doe tags too. Its kind of funny that you can drive through most units in Colorado and see 190 bucks in the fields because they have successfully managed their herd. I think this would be the best way to manage our deer herd for quality instead of quantity.
My contention is that we have too many "special permits" right now, and all that does is condition hunters that they have to jump through a hoop or two, and all that does is open the door for the WDFW to create more hoops through which to jump in order to hunt mule deer or B/A elk on the eastside.
Why should hunters here have to jump through any hoops?
It might be that hunters want quantity. That might contribute to "quality," when the definition of "quality" is coming home with a notched tag.
The 3-point mule deer restriction has quite possibly contributed to a lot of fork-horn muley bucks being shot and left in the field. What good does that do for anyone?