Unit 7, Jeff Mott, 2006, 87 3/8 SCI, 85 4/8 B&CFor those of you who don't yet know, the New Arizona Antelope and Elk Regs are out. Some observations:
1. Where are the antelope in Unit 7? G&F increased the tags to 65 this year.
2. Why does 19B still have so many tags? Around 8 different ranches located in the heart of the antleope country locked their gates this past year. I didn't contact any of the ranchers but I'd imagine the only reason they'd lock their gates is to keep hunters out, so I'd also imagine that they wouldn't let you hunt their land if you asked. Outside of these major ranches the antelope pickings are pretty slim - certainly not 40 tags worth! Maybe 10. Maybe hunters are gaining access and I just got cut out of the loop. :(
3. 19A East has a muzzleloader hunt. That allows G&F to issue 5 more tags than last year which brings the total number of tags for the South side of 19A to 95.
Funny story: G&F wanted to issue a lot more archery tags last year in 19A, but the rancher wouldn't let them. He wanted to see 19A come back and be the genetic powerhouse it once was before the transplant and the drought. I like this guy! Hopefully we'll see the Fain, at least once, the way it was.
4. 3B North archery draw odds last year were an incredible 38 percent?! Wow! You won't see that in any other unit for the rest of your life. I imagine a lot of archers are going to see that and apply for 3B North.
If anyone has any information that might help explain Unit 7 or 19B I'd love to hear it. Also, are there any big bucks in 3B? I may have to go check it out this year! ;)
Edit: I just realized that when I switched the blog over to this format that I didn't update the links to the guides or stats pages of our website. I fixed that for anyone who was wondering where it went. You can find those pages by clicking on "services".
Tally Ho.
5 comments:
Eli,
I was just looking at the regs and noticed the muzzy hunt in 19A South. That is pretty surprising.
Also, can you please explain how the rancher on the Fain dictates how many permits should be given? I understand that he does keep the ranch open to hunting, which is a good thing, but does he really have that much clout?? I agree with his idea and I am glad he is dedicated to bringing that herd back.
Did you happen to notice the success percentage in the 17B archery hunt? They only issued 5 tags. A guy I know put in for that unit with 3 other guys and they drew!! How the four of them drew that hunt on the same application is amazing to me, but they all killed.
I guess we are just going to have to keep an eye out on that 19B situation. It will be interesting to see how that hunt goes.
Keep up the good work on the blog. Talk to you later.
Blake
I like your title "antelope nut." Catchy.
Well, as far as I know, he basically told G&F that if they didn't cut the tags that he was going to fence off all the deeded sections of his land, which would landlock most of the country and make it extremely difficult to hunt, if not impossible.
Of course G&F said, you can't do that. And then rancher said, watch me. And then G&F said, um...okay, we'll reduce the tags.
Of course I'm leaving out a lot of it, but that's basically what went down for all intents. I may be wrong, but that's what I heard.
He almost shut down the hunt in 2002 after the drought - kinda wish he would have now.
Do you happen to know where your 4 buddies hunted in 17B? How good were the bucks they took?
About 19B...I have no idea how it went last year overall. I know one person who hunted it, but he hunted off I-40 because he couldn't find any open gates to get into Williamson Valley.
I was gonna rant about Unit 7 some more, but decided not to.
I'll keep writing if you guys keep reading.
What I found most alarming in looking at the regs was all of the 0% success rate for the archery hunts. I know Antelope with a bow is one of the most hardest hunts out there but I would have thought somebody would have gotten something
Yeah, the units it happened in are not heavily populated with antelope. 5A I know doesn't have squat! Haha. I don't know why no one killed anything, though. Maybe they just didn't put in the time necessary - that would be my initial guess. I just noticed that the 3B North archery hunt had 0 success...maybe that's why the odds are so good.
The new regs state that the success percentages are not final numbers. The final numbers should be out in April, so some of what we are reading may not be 100% accurate.
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