New Blacktail restrictions coming for Minot Peak GMU 660

[Sitka_Blacktail]

660 isn't known for having lots of big bucks or even decent buck numbers.  It does better with elk.

660 has traditionally been a good deer area and a poor elk area. There are still plenty of deer there and some fine bucks and the elk numbers have improved, but I would still call it more of a deer unit than an elk unit. Been hunting that unit since the mid 60s.

[bobcat]

660 isn't known for having lots of big bucks or even decent buck numbers.  It does better with elk.

660 has traditionally been a good deer area and a poor elk area. There are still plenty of deer there and some fine bucks and the elk numbers have improved, but I would still call it more of a deer unit than an elk unit. Been hunting that unit since the mid 60s.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Elkoholic2]

WDFW Secret Meeting Exposed ~ was Only goin to be a small, invite only meeting. Public meeting place, a public resource. We will pack the room! Mon. Oct 2 Elma Grange at 6:30

[crowinghen]

i bet it's an idea floated by timber interests to increase permit sales, if i'm not mistaken that area is almost entirely locked up in the weyco twin harbors south unit?

That's exactly what I think/though when i heard about this.

[ctwiggs1]

So... the trick on this one will be to not buy a permit for access while it's a 4pt unit.

After the 4pt min is dropped, that year will be the year to take your entire family in to hunt for an incredible harvest year. 

Ask the folks who live in GMU121

@buckcanyonlodge

[fishnfur]

  

Unfortunate for those who call this unit home.  It seems when WDFW gets a program like this in their heads, they've already decided they're going to do it.  They only ask for comment to placate those hurt by the program. 

Money talks.  If no one buys the Weyco permits for that unit, you'll likely see the program scrapped much earlier than if we continue to fill their pockets for access to a unit that essentially has a reduced opportunity for success. 

[bobcat]

Actually if the unit does become a 4 point minimum, I'd have to consider purchasing a Weyerhaeuser permit. It would be fun hunting in an area where the deer are allowed to become mature, instead of having the majority shot when they're just little spikes and 2 points. Of course there's also a huge block of state land in the GMU that is open the the public.

[ctwiggs1]

Might be fun, but it'll definitely be a killfest when the 4pt restriction is dropped.  I don't think we've ever had a trophy unit last in our state have we?

[Harbor_hunter]

While I wouldn't doubt Weyco having their hand in it to try and make more money off those permits, Aberdeen south motorized sold out and sold plenty of walk in's too.  If they just keep cranking the price up like they are doing other places, people are still going to pay in my opinion.   

[Curly]

I do wish they made it illegal to shoot spikes.  They are just fairly dumb when they are young and if all those spikes weren't taken, there would be more 4-points around.

[WSU]

It wouldn't surprise me if there is more illegal harvest there than legal harvest.

[PolarBear]

I do wish they made it illegal to shoot spikes.  They are just fairly dumb when they are young and if all those spikes weren't taken, there would be more 4-points around.

[fishnfur]

   Killing spikes is a bit like keeping an eight inch trout.  Yeah, it's legal, but it will hardly feed you, and removes the animal from the population early in it's body growth phase.

This quasi-QDM program could produce some awesome bucks when the entire deer population in an area is managed in that fashion.  The problem: QDM calls for culling bucks that are less genetically gifted in the horn department to geet them out of the breeding population.  A significant portion of the BTs, by nature, are not all genetically programmed to have massive many-pointed racks.

Much like the three point restriction program on Muleys on the dry side, eventually a program like this may select for a population of big/mature and breeding two-point bucks passing on their "inferior" genes.  By nature of the environment and the solitary nature of mature BT bucks, there will certainly be some big four and five points in the mix as well.  I guess time will tell how this all shakes out.

[LEN]

Just another one of the $$$$$$$ getters those with $$$ can hunt. I'll be dead soon so it will be up to the young guy's to do something. Like getting Weco to stop charging or start paying property tax's like the rest of us. Didn't mind supporting Weco when we could use the property for camping, hunting and fishing but now you have to buy the ticket. Soon it will be buy by the unit to hunt, wait it's almost that now.

LEN

[bighorn1]

This why a lot of hunters don,t turn in there harvest reports and Gmu that they hunt and just pay the extra ten dollars to keep there hunting area unknown. It's a lot like fishing if you give them the numbers they use it against you. Two many fish wrong kind of fish not  enough fish you give them the numbers they will find a way to use it against you.