Colockum 5pt MIN???

[colockumelk]

Buck Rub posed this idea last year and I basically told him he was a moron but in a politically correct way.     But after giving it some thought it actually doesn't sound like a bad idea.  Which is instead of permit only or "True Spike" make the Colockum 5pt or 6pt minimum. 

His idea is that some places like Britich Columbia have antler restrictions on their bulls.  Which is 5pt minimum or 6pt minimum.  to manage their harvest numbers on their bulls.  I wont go into why I thought it was dumb because its not important.  I will say that Buck Rub has a pretty decent philosophy.  Here's why I think it could work and why it can't work.  I would then like people to brainstorm and just say what you think.  I'm neither for or against it.  Just saying that I'm open to new ideas and the whole purpose of this forum is to debate stuff like this.  Ill give what I think is the NEUTRAL, the NEGATIVE and the POSITIVE parts of this plan.

NEUTRAL: Probably about the same amount of bulls would be harvested under this plan as today.  Only instead of us harvesting them as "True Spikes" they would be harvested as mature 5pts or 6pts.

NEGATIVE:  Because of high road densities and the openess of the terrain it is doubtfull that there would be many trophy bulls in that unit.  A 300" bull would probably be a HUGE bull there.  Because the high harvest rates of "True Spikes" would most likely transfer over to a high harvest rate of mature bulls.  Also unless the entire East Side went to 5pt or 6pt minimum the Colockum would have WAY too many hunters in it.  But then again why not have the whole west side other than a few units go to 5pt or 6pt minimum 

POSITIVE:  The positive thing is that there would likely be more bulls under this system than there is now.  Plus people would have a better quality of a hunt going after MATURE bull elk rather than baby spikes. 

[270Shooter]

Would work if the population of WA was like montana. Just too many people IMO, Many of the mature bulls will be killed. I think permit only is better.

[vandeman17]

Would work if the population of WA was like montana. Just too many people IMO, Many of the mature bulls will be killed. I think permit only is better.

I second this. Permit only for a while to get the ratios and numbers closer to where they should be.

[chester]

why not make the whole state 3pt min? seems it would spread out the hunters and give meat hunters a shot. old bulls arent dumb. after the first few years i think it would calm down on the harvest rate. and might deter other "groups" from hammering a single heard. 

[bigpaw 77]

I would think there would be a lot of 5 points left for the coyotes. And there would be even more people in there. I think it should go to a permit only hunt. but the problem with permit only is it seems like after the game department goes to permit only in a unit it stays that way forever. 

[alanger]

Permit only, any bull, around 300 permits, maybe more or less.

Im gunna keep my thoughts simple    for now

[270Shooter]

Elk in east WA will never go to permit only because the WDFW loves the money they get from spike tags

[elkbuster]

I thought that the main reason for spike only units was to increase the mature bulls and increase the strength of the herds with better genes, thus creating higher birth rates and more cows with multiple calves, etc.   This would increase the size and resiliency of the herds and create more sporting opportunities for the hunting public. 

Explain to me how changing to 3 pt or even 5 pt minimums would help our herds reach that goal?   

[Fullabull]

 

[Tony 270]

I think if you give a 6pt minimum you'll end up with a bunch of raghorns and 5pts shot because the person rushed and didn't verify exactly how many points were there. Then just left to waste.

[YoterHunter]

sounds like a good idea . but it will just have nore bigger bulls for the tribes.

[EDT]

I think the human/hunter population of WA is too great for the WA Elk population.  I think there needs to be restrictions in place in one form or another.  I think that the entire state should be any bull permit only, then, of course, if a area somehow becomes over populated then open up cow tags.  There are just way too many hunters out there for the number of Elk and their relatively small geographic distrubution.  PERMIT ONLY!

[pwdr-brnr]

the dickey unit on the olympic penninsula used to be a 5pt permit area years ago..10 or 15 permits early rifle if i remember correctly..great area ..lot of mature bulls..never got drawed for permit but used to cat hunt the area...then the wdfw opened it up to general season..and its never been the same..just my 2cents

[elkbuster]

OK.  How about only allowing those with an eastern wa. physical address purchase east side elk tags.  Let the west siders hunt the west side and let the east siders hunt the east side.    This would cut way back on the amount of hunters in the east side elk areas, alleviate the hunting pressure on the elk and make more elk hunters successful while increasing east side herds.  Then, make a few of the units on the east side 6 pt or greater.  

[bankwalker]

i am fully behind the 5pt min.

if we are killing spikes every year none of them will grow up to be bulls, sure a few make it through every year but that doesnt get the job done obviously. why not give 5pt min a shot for 5-10 years and see how much worse/better it gets? not like anything the wdfw is doing now is working on the eastside. the more spikes living on to become branched bulls the better, and it doesnt take very long for a bull to reach a 5pt.

look how many branched bulls there are on the westside. i myself do not hunt the westside for elk. but i do hunt deer in areas where there are alot of elk. and i havent seen a lack in branched bulls thats forsure. 

no science was used in my thoughts  just simple observation