New "Hunters Choice" area and rules

[nofishfisherman]

Can you repeat the part where you talk all about the thing?

Actually this all makes sense. The zone my group hunts in went to hunters choice for this season after being a managed zone perviously. I was talking with some of my group and we were all debating how it all works when factoring in bow hunting and also hunting different zones. This clears it all up for me. One of the group was planning to bow hunt the same zone we hunt during firearm but has since opted not to since he didn't want to be tagless in a hunters choice zone during our 4 day trip during firearm season.

[bwana_d]

To make it less confusing - In order to conquer him I have to think like an animal/DNR and whenever possible to look like one. I've got to get inside this dude's pelt and crawl around for a few days.

Thinking about it in DNR terms (now I am scared), bag limits and type of area with the overriding requirement you can only bag one buck (not including party hunting) and that your buck must go on a primary license (archery, firearms or muzzleloader) no matter what type of area. Then realize you must use a primary license for any deer shot in a one deer bag limit area.

To reach your state wide bag limit of 5:

1 deer in a hunter’s choice or lottery area on a primary tag

2 deer in bonus areas – any combination of tags

2 more deer in an intensive harvest area - any combination of tags

But now the exception to the statewide bag limit of 5, you can take an unlimited number of deer in some areas, but that is not covered under “statewide bag limits for deer” in the regulations.

[Boar]

My brain hurts.

[DTro]

it was changed the following year and you can use any combination of tags in a bonus area - 2 bonus tags for anterless deer, 1 bonus tag and 1 archery tag for anterless deer and still go hunting in a 1 deer area with a rifle tag and fill it based on what you are allowed - hunters choice - buck or anterless, lottery if you are drawn buck or anterless, lottery if not drawn - buck only - in any case you could take up to three deer between managment areas and hunters choice/lottery areas.

What a joke, this is one of the reasons why I quit deer hunting. seriously...how is anyone (especially someone just starting) supposed to understand this?

[TruthWalleyes]

It's not much different than the continuous barade of AIS regs...

[BLACKJACK]

To simplify the whole mess just hunt exclusively in a lottery area, then you know you can tag only one deer regardless of whether you're hunting with a bow, gun, or muzzleloader.

[BoxMN]

I guess I don't understand the reasoning of the "you can only take one deer in ALL hunters choice areas" using archery/rifle both. I can see only taking ONE in ONE area, but if the quotas/permits/allotments are set up for each particular area, what does it matter if a hunter takes a deer in hunters choice area in, say, the south by bow, and one deer (only one buck of course) by rifle in totally different hunters choice area in the north? IF they are DIFFERENT hunters choice areas.

But I will follow the rules, just seems like it doesn't make sense from a management POV. I am in similar situation to nofishfisherman, where I rifle hunt out west, and bow hunt by my cabin. Now both are hunters choice, so when (IF) I shoot a deer with rifle I am done with bow in a zone 200 miles away... just seems odd that these two things would be inter-related.

[TruthWalleyes]

IF they are DIFFERENT hunters choice areas.

Especially with all the managed and intensive zones disappearing, it sure would be nice if you could hunt multiple choice areas. +1

I started hunting SE MN on top of SW MN lottery areas so i can tag additional deer...Joke's on me though, as i have yet to tag 2 deer in a season...But i sure have donated a lot of bonus tags to the DNR

[Jameson]

...But now the exception to the statewide bag limit of 5, you can take an unlimited number of deer in some areas, but that is not covered under “statewide bag limits for deer” in the regulations.

It's in there somewhere. They don't count toward your 5. The 5 limit includes deer taken in Intense/Man/Lotto areas only (I think). If you are in the .2% that have to worry about this probably should ask the DNR.

[TruthWalleyes]

That's correct, CWD zones have completely different regulations.

[bwana_d]

I know the unlimited antlerlessis in there – on page 69 it states "statewide bag limit of 5" on page 70 it talks about CWD and Metro areas being unlimited. I was just pointing out the lack of clarity because the unlimited areas are a contradiction to the "statewide bag limit of 5" which precedes all of it. One deer, two dear and 5 deer areas are under the same heading as unlimited.

I agree with boar on the fact that this makes my brain hurt as well.

Personally, I like the flexibility the laws currently provide, hope that the herd comes back so there are more opportunities in the future to take a doe by bow early (for me a meat deer in one part of the state) and take a mature buck later in the season (in another part of the state), assuming there are more management areas again. I liked it back when you could take a deer by bow and a deer by firearm (still only one buck), it allowed me the most time in the woods.

The most disappointing thing on the this thread I have seen is the confusion related to the laws contributes to declining hunter retention.

That truly should cause a tear to run down lcornice's cheek in deep sadness..... .

Constantly changing the laws contributes to this, I suspect the process of publishing the laws could be improved - before they are actually printed and shared with the public for example using focus group reviews on the wording by joe public hunter, if they are already doing that, they need to revise it.

[hockeybc69]

I dont think anyone quits deer hunting because the regs drove them to that point....

[TruthWalleyes]

In college i had a professor quiz me on the regulations; basically how easily i could find the answer in the book to the question she was asking. I didn't ask too many questions, but i assumed this information was fed back to the DNR to see how "joe deer hunter" can interpret the regs. I was timed to see how long it took to find the correct answer, or, like in some cases, i couldn't determine what the correct answer was after reading the regs...That was probably 5-6 years ago. I think it's gotten quite a bit better to read in just the last few years...It did take quite a while for some clarification on the treble hook and bead, or 3 hook crawler harness situation

[bwana_d]

I took Dtro's comment at face value that it was one of the reasons he quit deer hunting....for me it would take more, I like it too much. I am sure we all have different breaking points.

On the other hand I am an avid duck hunter and watching the AIS regulations and how it is being handled with duck hunters by the DNR has me concerned. Being covered on a duck hunting thread, but the AIS regulations are going to have some unintended (or if you go to the dark side - intended) consequences and drive people away from duck hunting. I spent a lot of time picking out wildrice seeds this weekend and then found out it was not enough reading the other thread. I also needed to wash out the mud. I will find a way to adjust my hunting, maybe there will be some new inventions as well...but I supsect it will be the breaking point for a number of people, especially after getting fined.

[96trigger]

Keep in mind, for most, understanding the regulations is as easy as understanding them for your area. There is a much smaller percentage of people that hunt multiple areas, with multiple weapons. I know that many people do, but if I was only a firearm guy and I only hunted in one area, it would be relatively simple. I know that many of us on here are die hard hunters and we hunt multiple areas with multiple weapons, but many hunters in the state do not.

[nofishfisherman]

I agree the regs book is more or less a joke. If it has gotten better in recent years then I'd have hated reading the older version.

I just recently finished up my firearm saftey mumbo jumbo and part of the independant study option is a worksheet with regulation questions. You are supposed to find the answer in the regs and then write down the answer with specific page numbers listed on where you found the answer.

This was by far the hardest part of the certification. Some answers were relatively easy but others where dang near impossible. For example an answer pertaining to the tagging procedure for small game isn't located in the small game section of the regs, its under the water fowl section. Then when you do find the section talking about the correct topic you have to read between the lines to figure out what the real law likely means.

What really killed me is the fact that I poured over the regs book for hours filling in this 2 page worksheet and then when I went to hand it to the instructor with all my other paper work he handed it back to me and said I don't need this. I'll leave it at that or I'll get into a big rant about how worthless the firearm safety certification process is for adults.