Idaho 10a deer hunting

[257 Wby Mag]

Kudos to idfw...

[MountainTracker]

I've been hunting 10a for about 15 years, for over a week at a time, and I've never felt the need to have a second tag; however, that last few weeks in Nov can be busy, probably more so now.  If you don't want to see all the people get in the trees, that's where the deer are.

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[TriggerMike]

That really sucks for those guys that always hunt it over Thanksgiving but I'm all for eliminating the second tag use for at least a couple years.

[TriggerMike]

So if you have a general tag and hunt somewhere else in the state and don't fill the tag can you hunt with a whitetail only tag in 10A later in the Fall? Do you have to fill your first tag in order to not able to use a second tag or does it not matter? Anyone know the answer to this?

[meatwhack]

Second tag isn’t valid for 10a.

[idahohuntr]

My family has a cabin in Pierce that we built for hunting purposes, several in our party take the entire month of November off and hunt hard almost everyday. there is anywhere from 8-15 of us there and about half buy 2 tags. Last year of the 4 i know of for certain that had 2 tags, 1 deer was shot. This wasnt because they werent seeing deer they are just the trophy hunter type and unless its a 4-5 year old 4point or masher 3 it just isnt getting shot. My dad and his buddies have been there since the early 90s and have told me that when they first started they would see less than 10 other hunters for the 2 weeks they were there. I know there are several people on here that hunt this area and you can go behind some of the gates now and see more than that! With that being said i actually think the deer numbers have recovered quite nicely in the last few years since wolf hunting has been allowed. There are still lots of nice mature deer in the area as we have 20-30 cameras up from the time the snow lets us up to our areas thru the end of season. I can be fine with the no second tags for a few years or forever really but cutting the season down is the part i really dont care for. We have started having our Thanksgiving dinner in camp every year and mixed with the excitement of still being able to hunt has made that week awesome!

I totally agree with you.  Especially the last part. Thanksgiving won't be the same. I would be fine if it was limited to just one tag. It's the shortening of the season that I'm upset about. Plus it's going to concentrate the hunters even more.

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I too was fine with cutting the 2nd tag...but shortening season dates is only going to crowd hunters.  Most will hunt that last 7-10 days of season...where historically, some hunters would go pre Thanksgiving, during thanksgiving, or right up to Dec 1.  Stupid move by idfg imo.

[bearpaw]

The season change in 10a will have no effect on whether tags sell out. I’ll bet they sell out even earlier this year than last.

  there's more applications in every state this year due to improving economy!

[lord grizzly]

My family has a cabin in Pierce that we built for hunting purposes, several in our party take the entire month of November off and hunt hard almost everyday. there is anywhere from 8-15 of us there and about half buy 2 tags. Last year of the 4 i know of for certain that had 2 tags, 1 deer was shot. This wasnt because they werent seeing deer they are just the trophy hunter type and unless its a 4-5 year old 4point or masher 3 it just isnt getting shot. My dad and his buddies have been there since the early 90s and have told me that when they first started they would see less than 10 other hunters for the 2 weeks they were there. I know there are several people on here that hunt this area and you can go behind some of the gates now and see more than that! With that being said i actually think the deer numbers have recovered quite nicely in the last few years since wolf hunting has been allowed. There are still lots of nice mature deer in the area as we have 20-30 cameras up from the time the snow lets us up to our areas thru the end of season. I can be fine with the no second tags for a few years or forever really but cutting the season down is the part i really dont care for. We have started having our Thanksgiving dinner in camp every year and mixed with the excitement of still being able to hunt has made that week awesome!

I totally agree with you.  Especially the last part. Thanksgiving won't be the same. I would be fine if it was limited to just one tag. It's the shortening of the season that I'm upset about. Plus it's going to concentrate the hunters even more.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

I too was fine with cutting the 2nd tag...but shortening season dates is only going to crowd hunters.  Most will hunt that last 7-10 days of season...where historically, some hunters would go pre Thanksgiving, during thanksgiving, or right up to Dec 1.  Stupid move by idfg imo.

Stupid move?? Maybe you’d rather they were more like Washington F&G huh? There managing the herd for better health and future opportunities. Glad we’re not so short sided over here. I know to most your vacation is more important than management of OUR herds.

[3nails]

My family has a cabin in Pierce that we built for hunting purposes, several in our party take the entire month of November off and hunt hard almost everyday. there is anywhere from 8-15 of us there and about half buy 2 tags. Last year of the 4 i know of for certain that had 2 tags, 1 deer was shot. This wasnt because they werent seeing deer they are just the trophy hunter type and unless its a 4-5 year old 4point or masher 3 it just isnt getting shot. My dad and his buddies have been there since the early 90s and have told me that when they first started they would see less than 10 other hunters for the 2 weeks they were there. I know there are several people on here that hunt this area and you can go behind some of the gates now and see more than that! With that being said i actually think the deer numbers have recovered quite nicely in the last few years since wolf hunting has been allowed. There are still lots of nice mature deer in the area as we have 20-30 cameras up from the time the snow lets us up to our areas thru the end of season. I can be fine with the no second tags for a few years or forever really but cutting the season down is the part i really dont care for. We have started having our Thanksgiving dinner in camp every year and mixed with the excitement of still being able to hunt has made that week awesome!

I totally agree with you.  Especially the last part. Thanksgiving won't be the same. I would be fine if it was limited to just one tag. It's the shortening of the season that I'm upset about. Plus it's going to concentrate the hunters even more.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

I too was fine with cutting the 2nd tag...but shortening season dates is only going to crowd hunters.  Most will hunt that last 7-10 days of season...where historically, some hunters would go pre Thanksgiving, during thanksgiving, or right up to Dec 1.  Stupid move by idfg imo.

Stupid move?? Maybe you’d rather they were more like Washington F&G huh? There managing the herd for better health and future opportunities. Glad we’re not so short sided over here. I know to most your vacation is more important than management of OUR herds.

I think what he was getting at is that the same amount of hunters will still hunt there and harvest the same amount of deer but condensed into a tighter time frame. I would have to agree with him. IMHO, the best dates are the 14th through the 20th anyhow.

[lord grizzly]

Yeah because we all know increased pressure and earlier dates lead to higher harvest.. I think they know what there doing

[idahohuntr]

My family has a cabin in Pierce that we built for hunting purposes, several in our party take the entire month of November off and hunt hard almost everyday. there is anywhere from 8-15 of us there and about half buy 2 tags. Last year of the 4 i know of for certain that had 2 tags, 1 deer was shot. This wasnt because they werent seeing deer they are just the trophy hunter type and unless its a 4-5 year old 4point or masher 3 it just isnt getting shot. My dad and his buddies have been there since the early 90s and have told me that when they first started they would see less than 10 other hunters for the 2 weeks they were there. I know there are several people on here that hunt this area and you can go behind some of the gates now and see more than that! With that being said i actually think the deer numbers have recovered quite nicely in the last few years since wolf hunting has been allowed. There are still lots of nice mature deer in the area as we have 20-30 cameras up from the time the snow lets us up to our areas thru the end of season. I can be fine with the no second tags for a few years or forever really but cutting the season down is the part i really dont care for. We have started having our Thanksgiving dinner in camp every year and mixed with the excitement of still being able to hunt has made that week awesome!

I totally agree with you.  Especially the last part. Thanksgiving won't be the same. I would be fine if it was limited to just one tag. It's the shortening of the season that I'm upset about. Plus it's going to concentrate the hunters even more.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

I too was fine with cutting the 2nd tag...but shortening season dates is only going to crowd hunters.  Most will hunt that last 7-10 days of season...where historically, some hunters would go pre Thanksgiving, during thanksgiving, or right up to Dec 1.  Stupid move by idfg imo.

Stupid move?? Maybe you’d rather they were more like Washington F&G huh? There managing the herd for better health and future opportunities. Glad we’re not so short sided over here. I know to most your vacation is more important than management of OUR herds.

 

It's not about herd health...there are no shortage of whitetail in 10a.  It's a group clamoring for better trophy quality, but it won't happen just because they shortened the season.  It will just reduce the quality of the hunting experience by crowding people in...same number of deer will be killed.  Season still overlaps prime rutting action in that unit. 

[meatwhack]

Or maybe some of those people will go hunt a different unit because they like hunting later and then it will actually reduce pressure in 10a.

[cem3434]

Kudos to idfw...

 

[freezerfull]

I can understand both sides, however with non resident wt tags selling out anyway, I don't think there will an appreciable difference in wt hunting success, quality of bucks in the unit or whitetail population in 10a. What may make an impact is closing the season nov 20th, since probably you best chance at a mature buck is th 20th through dec 1. My guess is, if any change, this will increase kills of 1 1/2 & 2 1/2 yo bucks and less mature bucks, I've always hunted the week and half before thanksgiving and you'll rattle in and glass young bucks early in the trip and then usually Monday of thanks giving week the switch flips and the mature bucks start moving. I'm sure on the the last couple days those spikes and forkies are gonna be looking a lot better than tag soup since hunters don't have thanksgiving week to hold out for. I wasn't in 10a for 2017 but in the couple years prior there certainly was no shortage of wt

[trophyhunt]

I’ll be looking forward to the return of the thanksgiving hunt and more mature bucks in the next few years!  Plus I hope they keep it to one tag for deer after that.