The spike only changes happened in the 90s after they changed the Blues to spike only. The area was (346) clobbered by heavy snow and the elk migrated through to Oak Creek Feed Station. Back then you could hunt around the station and hunters caught them out in the sage flats and near the road. I think several hundred bulls were killed over a few days and something like 66% were branch bulls. The next season was spike only and it has stayed that way ever since. Back in those days there about 1500 cow tags given out each season in the 346 unit. Long gone are those days.
