Commission Meeting Dec. 6

[Multidigits]

Folks, If you like your deer season like it is, you'll need to phone your Commissionor and let him know. If you don't, you'll be seeing a split season format with a week of turkey hunting in November for next year.

Check the Cyberhunters threads if you need to know who to call. Other changes will effect small game seasons in a couple of different ways.

[holedigger]

What exactly do you mean when you say split season format?

[Multidigits]

The 3rd District Commissionor which covers the Louisville area wants 2 weeks in November, then a week of turkey season. Somewhere in there you'll have a week of muzzleloader, and then you'll have 2 more weeks of rifle season.

[Basswipe]

Very interesting. I'll have to put some thought into that. Off the top of my head two separate rifle seasons seems kind of attractive. Can anyone list some pros or cons to having a split rifle season?

[Multidigits]

Less time for the bowhunter for one. The aim, according to some in the Dept. is that you'll have two opening day effects, and more does will be killed. I think the second opening day will have a much lower kill then the first, because of the deer being shook up from a month of various gun seasons going on. Most of us think there are other motives, with the main one being able to sell more out-of-state licenses for the Dept. of Tourism. The change is nessasary so that they can get the turkey season in before Thanksgiving Day. For some reason, this is important to some of the Commissionors?

[P. Beyer]

I'd like NOTHING to change, Who do I need to call? The idea of a split season is ridiculous..... This ain't Illinois, and I don't want it to be that way. I don't have enough time to hunt un-pressured whitetails now as it is.........

Again, Who do I need to call?

"It makes no difference whether I got anything; it has to do with how the day was spent"

Fred Bear

[dac]

I would rather see CWD hit the state!

[Basswipe]

Okay, I've had time to digest this for a little while. Here's my thoughts:

I do like the idea of two gun seasons but I'd like more information. What is the purpose of the second season? If, as Multi posted, the goal is to reduce the number of does, then why not make the second season doe only? I could see that working. Towards the end of the season a hunter hasn't gotten the amount of meat that they want, they can go out with a rifle and get more meat. It would take some of the pressure off of the first gun season. I could also see it helping out early season bow hunters. If a meat hunter knows that the gun season is longer and split they may not want to invest as much time in bowhunting to get their meat. I could go on and on with reasons, but I'll just leave it at IF there is a second gun season, I would like it to be doe only.

[holedigger]

As a bowhunter only, I would have to keep my comment to myself cause it wouldn't be pretty.[:(!] At least I know now what I'm gona use for my wish on my birthday.

[Hammer]

I think the gun season is too long as it is. If people are meat hunters, they shouldn't have any trouble killing a doe or small buck in the season we have now. I hunt in a 3, and I had multiple shot opportunities in gun season if I had just wanted "meat", and I'm sure that's about the same everywhere.

I see ulterior motives here, like boosting the tourism industry. Thinking out loud, you know, there's been a ton of huge bucks killed in the state this year. I enjoy thinking I have the opportunity to see and kill a big deer, but maybe all the yankees are thinking that now too. I'd hate to see the woods get like Lake Cumberland with the "Buckeye Navy"! Just a little sickening thinking about them trying to fix something that isn't broken.

[johnboy]

Hammer: just because you kill a doe quickly or have easy early shots doesnt mean the rest of us do..

the reason the dept. wants to do this, is because fall turkey tag sales are low - in other words - not enough hunters are out fall turkey hunting. i read about this in the latest edition of the ky fish and game mag..

as for you bow hunters (i am one myself) we get from sept. - january to bow hunt - we get far longer than rifle, or muzzy.

but the jury is still out on this. i'm not sure how i feel about it..
right before gun seasons is a great time to bow hunt.. late nov. and early dec. is good for bow and muzzy during the "2nd rut". i think if i had to choose i'd want it to be in late oct...

[Multidigits]

If your against these changes, and don't call your Commissionor, ypu'll only have yourself to blame. Here's how:


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Commissioner C. Tom Bennett
#1 Game Farm Road
Frankfort, KY 40601
Phone: 502-564-3400
Fax: 502-564-0506

First District
Mike Boatwright
2601 North 10th Street
Paducah, KY 42001
Phone: 270-442-6784
Counties: Ballard, Caldwell, Calloway, Carlisle, Christian, Crittenden, Fulton, Graves, Hickman, Livingston, Lyon, McCracken, Marshall, Trigg

Second District
Tom Baker
Coldwell Banker Real Estate
1711 Destiny Lane, Suite 105
Bowling Green, KY 42104
Phone: 270-781-3844
Counties: Allen, Butler, Daviess, Hancock, Henderson, Hopkins, Logan, McLean, Muhlenberg, Ohio, Simpson, Todd, Union, Warren, Webster

Third District
Allen K. Gailor
730 West Market Street
Louisville, KY 40202
Phone: 502-584-7217
Counties: Breckinridge, Bulitt, Jefferson, Meade, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer

Fourth District
Ronald R. Southall
8 Maple Lane
Elizabethtown, KY 42701
Phone: 270-737-1890
Counties: Adair, Barren, Cumberland, Edmonson, Grayson, Green, Hardin, Hart, Larue, Marion, Metcalfe, Monroe, Nelson, Taylor, Washington



Fifth District
James R. Rich, M.D.
5975 Taylor Mill Road
Covington, KY 41015
Phone: 859-356-9274
Counties: Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Carroll, Gallatin, Grant, Harrison, Henry, Kenton, Owen, Pendleton, Robertson, Trimble

Sixth District
Frank Brown
124 Lancaster Avenue
Richmond, KY 40475
Phone: 859-624-0014
Counties: Anderson, Boyle, Casey, Clark, Estill, Fayette, Franklin, Garrard, Jessamine, Lee, Lincoln, Madison, Mercer, Powell, Rockcastle, Scott, Woodford

Seventh District
Dough Hensley
P.O. Box 480
Hazard, KY 41701
Phone: 606-436-2321
Counties: Breathitt, Floyd, Johnson, Knott, Lawrence, Leslie, Letcher, Magoffin, Martin, Perry, Pike

Eighth District
Dr. Robert C. Webb
45 Webb Circle
Grayson, KY 41701
Phone: 606-474-5149
Counties: Bath, Bourbon, Boyd, Carter, Elliott, Fleming, Greenup, Lewis, Mason, Menifee, Montgomery, Morgan, Nicholas, Rowan, Wolfe

Ninth District
David Godby
P.O. Box 1277
Somerset, KY 42502
Phone: 606-677-0115
Counties: Bell, Clay, Clinton, Harlan, Jackson, Knox, Laurel, McCreary, Owsley, Pulaski, Russell, Wayne, Whitley

[Multidigits]

Basswipe--past result show that Doe only days don't draw enough hunters to the woods to get the results they want. They want LOTS of Does killed.

Fall turkey tag sales are always going to be low. This is not a popular season because the birds don't generally gobble. And a lot of people don't believe we need to kill hens.

As johnboy says bowhunters get longer seasons, but gun hunters kill what bowhunters kill on the first day of Modern Gun Season generally. This change will add another full week of gun hunting to what we have now.

As it is now, there will not be a compromise. It's as is or as they want it to be. Either way you want it, you need to call and voice your opinion.

[Hammer]

johnboy, if a hunter is truly a meat hunter, he'll shoot anything that walks out of the woods. Modern rifle season is far too easy in the first place to make it longer. I'm not saying it's easy to kill a big buck, it's not, but it's very easy to shoot a deer with a modern rifle. "Meat" hunters should have no trouble simply shooting a deer. I would say people who just want venison are few and far between, so I don't buy that argument. I also don't agree with the turkey season tag sales being low being a reason for the split season. People don't buy turkey tags because they can't hunt them with a shotgun but 5 days.

[P. Beyer]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by johnboy</i>
<br />as for you bow hunters (i am one myself) we get from sept. - january to bow hunt - we get far longer than rifle, or muzzy.

but the jury is still out on this. i'm not sure how i feel about it..
right before gun seasons is a great time to bow hunt.. late nov. and early dec. is good for bow and muzzy during the "2nd rut". i think if i had to choose i'd want it to be in late oct...

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

A gun season in October........I think I'm gonna pass out.
As for us having longer.... There is alot less deer taken during the entire bow season than the first day of rifle season I'd guess.
I think that the 16 or so days we have now is ample time, I do however think if we<i> had</i> to have another season, it should be late, and doe only.

"It makes no difference whether I got anything; it has to do with how the day was spent"

Fred Bear

[dac]

Multi would you contact the commissioner in the county were you live or the county were you hunt? Maybe it would be a good idea to start some pettitions up at some of the archery shops or sporting good stores that we frequent.

[Multidigits]

I have sent a letter to all of them. I only know of an email address for one of them. Do it by phone or letter.

The Commission works better when they don't have to please the public. That's one thing that the Cyberhunter's have accomplished in a very short time. We are informing the sportsman that are effected by the changes they make. The meeting Agendas are now being posted, but in a not very timely matter. It always leasves us with a very short time to coment on the se changes. If enough people phone their Commissionor's then these changes can be stopped.

[grouseguy]

Let's not forget our small game breathren either. Every day that a firearms deer season is extended is another day effectively taken away from small game hunters, especially those who use dogs. Personally, I feel that we are at the deer harvest saturation point, and additional days will not yield "significant" additional harvested deer. With the exception of "Trophy" bucks, it is relatively easy to harvest all of the "meat" deer that anyone can use during the current season structure.

Using myself as an example...I do not bow hunt and basically consider myself a "meat" deer hunter, although I would not pass on a trophy opportunity that came my way. We use approximately three deer per year worth of burger. This season, I killed my third deer by the seventh day of rifle season AND QUIT HUNTING. The extra six days of season (zone 1) that we got this year was a waste for me, as it only served to cost me what would normally be my first weekend of grouse season. I will be strongly opposing expanded firearms deer seasons.

[Hammer]

I just looked at the names, and I know Mr Baker. I grew up down the street with him. He has the most awesome trophy room in his house (made a big addition to display everything). Thanks for the info. My guess is he'll be in favor of the split season though as I don't think he bowhunts.

[grouseguy]

Hammer, maybe you should impress on Mr. Baker that he is not the only hunter in the 2nd district, and part of his sworn duties as a commissioner is to represent the sportsmen of his district. I just wished my commissioner, Doc Webb, still hunted and had a clue what the sportsmen of his district wanted. He's much too interested in the "big picture" politics of the Dept to care what the average sportsmen wants or needs, but he'll hear it from me anyway.

[Hammer]

Grouse, I just left him a voice mail so hopefully he'll call me back. Tom at least is definitely a hunter. I was just speculating above on his views above. I'll report back what I learn.

[Hammer]

He called me back, and I'll first say I appreciated his candor. This is an issue to be discussed in the meeting, and he said that the reason for it would be simply to keep the herd in check to kill more deer. I told him I had heard other theories and had thoughts of my own on why the season would be increased/split, but he assured me, the reason was simply numbers. He said the biologists are worried about the herd becoming too large and problems associated with that. I reported to him things u folks have said about seeing fewer deer and other concerns. They are going to implement what the biologists recommend.

Tom called me back within 20 minutes and talked with me at length. I hope all the other representatives are that forthcoming when u all call them. Thanks for posting the info, Multi, and I recommend everybody else call your reps as well and voice your views if u are not in favor of a split season and gun hunters in the woods more than they are now. Bowhunters, "let's kill more does" [:D]

[Multidigits]

Don't forget to call your commission rep. about these changes and those concerning the small game seasons. Let them know you visit this web site!!!