let's get wfg to extend our archery season

[jdb]

Why?  Damn, how much more do you need? 

[spin05]

Where we hunt archery at(the coast), we only get 2 more days then the rifle guys!!!!!!!!! Muzzleloder guys i agree dont have the best choices, but i believe that is because they are normally the smallest group. They have cut into our seasons enough.If anything i say take away the Labor day weekend and open it on the saturday following that weekend. Hunting on labor day weekend is a joke. I gave that up years ago. I am ok with the elk season for the most part. I want my deer weekend back thou on that last weekend in sept. That is when i take my 14 year old son out,since he cant miss a week of school........Sorry for being a little off topic.

[firedog]

Amount of days is fine with me, I am exhausted after chasing elk for 10-13 days.  Being a little bit later might be ok but I wouldnt trade that for less days. I think if you get out and get after them you can find elk, just might not find bugling elk. Last year we didn't hear hardly any bugles. This year we had two bulls going at first light opening day and a couple second day then they shut up, might have been more to do with the amount of hunters though. Bull I killed last thurs. bugled once and then one more time after I cow called a few times so they were looking for cows just weren't being super loud about it in the day time. Just my 2 cents

[Machias]

All choose your weapons does is pit user groups against each other.  You don't have this conversation in other states.  Been saying it for years, this is NOTHING more than divide and conquer.  And fellas we USED to have a BUNCH more hunters in the field, why don't we have those numbers anymore, it's QUAILTY of hunt.  When you CRAM everyone into a FEW GMUs this is what you get.  If they opened the whole damn state and stopped pitting each group against the other it'd be a hell of a lot better.  And please stop with the we are the smallest land mass and most people.  Open the damn state up.  That's why I have been paying bigger bucks to hunt out of state.  I have been telling bowhunters for 14 years Choose your weapons will end up KILLING bowhunting in this state, and look at last years results, 6 days knocked off the season.  When you only have 22,000 bowhunters you no longer have a political voice, you get leftovers from the other groups, who are all clamoring for more and more.  Honestly I believe this will be the first state to outlaw bowhunting and unfortuanely it will be sooner rather than later, IMSHO!!

[SkookumHntr]

Im not a bow&Arrow guy but this thread is pretty stupid! Bow hunters get a pretty damn nice season!

[Snapshot]

Early archery elk season in 2011 will start on September 2; the day after Labor Day. ...all screwed up.
How much time do archers need?!?! If that is a valid question then why do some need a weapon that can be shot accurately ten times farther than an arrow? 

[Ray]

How much time do archers need?!?! If that is a valid question then why do some need a weapon that can be shot accurately ten times farther than an arrow? 

Yeah that kind of works both ways doesn't it?

I am ok with the current elk seasons. Would like to add 5-7 days to early archery deer season.

[bobcat]

Early archery elk season in 2011 will start on September 2; the day after Labor Day. ...all screwed up.

Where did you get that information? From what I've seen, early archery elk season will start on the 6th in 2011.

[billythekidrock]

Early archery elk season in 2011 will start on September 2; the day after Labor Day. ...all screwed up.

Labor Day is not Sept 1st.   Maybe you hit the 2 key instead of the 5 key?

[huntinkid20]

Im not a bow&Arrow guy but this thread is pretty stupid! Bow hunters get a pretty damn nice season!

For not being a bow and arrow guy you sure know alot    Of course any season you can fill your tag makes a good season. I mean it only takes 1 day to fill a tag.... But i think the issue is as bowhunters our season dates (this year at least) didnt give us the hunting edge we hope for. As hunters in general, we choose our season/weapon choice base on the kind of hunting we want to do. Rifle hunters rifle hunt because their advantage is seeing elk a few hundred yards away and being able to harvest it successfully. Archery hunters choose their season based on wanting to hunt rutting elk (bugling bulls chasing cows) giving us the advantage of being able to call elk into our range. I cant say too much for muzzy guys, just cause i dont know their season very well besides they sometimes get the end of the rut? I think  maybe shifting it a week later would help. the rut should be a little more full swing by then?? my

I should add too that im not complaining that i didnt get to see any elk, i saw 3 legal bulls and close to 40 cows the 5 days i hunted this season, but only 1 bull bugled 3 times and never heard another peep from another animal again. I was hunting silent elk  . I still had a blast tho.

[Ray]

One reason I hunt archery is because I fear for my personal safety in the muzzy and modern firearms seasons. But I concur there are different reasons for picking the options provided.

To declare a topic "pretty stupid" in an open hunting forum specifically created for discussing hunting related topics sounds... well.. about stupid as anything I have heard on this subject so far. It's usually the peanut gallery where people come out of the woodwork in order to make blanket statements like above, without much insight and experience that creates animosity.

[Houndhunter]

what sucks about the early season is here on the westside is we have alot more hunters and alot worse weather. this is currently the 4th wettest sept ever recorded and i only had one bull that i was 100% sure was an elk talk to me all season because of this rain. this seems to happen every year and out of our season that is only a few days longer than the mod elk season, we get a handful of days where they are actually talking. when your in a 3point or better unit and you have to spot and stalk them its damn near impossible to kill one. i would like to see our season extended to give us westside guys a better chance at having some decent hunting weather

[big wood]

I AGREE WITH MACHIAS OPEN THE WHOLE STATE UP. 3 PT MIN. BEFORE ALL THE WOLVES EAT OUR ELK UP I HAVE SEEN IT IN IDAHO AND MONTANA

[colockumelk]

If people are not hearing bugles it means they are not where the elk are. I called bulls in last year in 3 different GMUs from Sept 8 to October 12. My technique is simple I walk, bugle a locator, listen then repeat until I get an answer. Then based on what the elk says depends on how I work him. Some days I only walk a mile, some days I walk 8. The point is every year guys complain about the lack of rut activity and others talk about how fired up they were. If your not where the elk are there's no rut to hear.

FYI I've hunted both Muzzy and bow. Both get a piece of The rut just different pieces of it.

[Ray]

That's probably a generalization that applies in most cases but I was into some elk and got contact with one mature bull this last week. There was no bugling going on. There were elk around my campsite in the night and walks in and out of my target area. The elk were talking between each other but again, no bugles. Let me be clear and reiterate that I am not complaining about the timing of the early archery season for elk though.