Region 6 archery moose.

[tuffcityhunter]

Looks like the moose archery hunt now is all LEH. Very low authorization numbers too I wonder what the odds will be for this. Almost thinking the odds will be lower for the general LEH I’m most zones? Any thoughts on this anyone?

[J_T]

I think it's a dangerous precedent. We're losing BOS seasons elsewhere. BC doesn't put the effort into inventory and harvest data to make sound wildlife management decisions. It's easier to manage hunters through LEH than to work toward viable wildlife populations.

[tuffcityhunter]

Yes. I also wonder how many people that hunt with crossbows will put in for this and when the new regulations come out scopes could be banned. Thank you B.C for giving these people little to no information to make informative decisions.
but On the bright side LEH is open :)

[The Donald]

I think it's a dangerous precedent. We're losing BOS seasons elsewhere. BC doesn't put the effort into inventory and harvest data to make sound wildlife management decisions. It's easier to manage hunters through LEH than to work toward viable wildlife populations.


Hhmm, been on the site just a short while but have followed it for many years. Looking at some of your previous posts, you strike me as a tradition bow guy who was kinda pushing for restrictions on xbow users, might not have worked in your favor

[two-feet]

No the outlook for moose hunters is not good. 3 total draws for bull moose in 6-04, but 18 archery draws? WTH? We have just pivoted to archery hunting as a priority?
I normally would head north for GOS but I guarantee that will be shut down by FN this year.
Majorly depressed.....
might end up as a goat hunter after all

[J_T]

Hhmm, been on the site just a short while but have followed it for many years. Looking at some of your previous posts, you strike me as a tradition bow guy who was kinda pushing for restrictions on xbow users, might not have worked in your favor
You're right. You dont know me.

[traparatus]

I am very disappointed. All the changes that I strongly opposed regarding moose hunting seasons in Region 6 have been implemented. It boggles my mind that a hunter who resides in Smithers must travel 6+ hours to be able to hunt moose during the rut. That's IF GOS in northern portion of Region 6 hasn't been shut down which it will be, if not this year than very soon. You can't have a 3 day GOS in one part of the region and 2 months+ GOS in another. It seems obvious.

Three day general open rifle season sucks. It's well past the rut. A single storm system instantly wipes out your moose 'season'. Last year I hunted 6-9 for one day and spend the other two days watching freezing rain and sleet blow parallel to the ground. Then we went home. That was the GOS.

October bow season was the only opportunity for hunters to get out there during prime rut and actually have moose talk back to them. Now bow and gun seasons are all within the same LEH system, meaning that most years you ain't getting either. Explain this to me. There are a 150 rut-time rifle LEH tickets in 6-09. There are 32 archery tickets and the season is a week shorter. I can only apply for one of them. How can I justify applying for an archery hunt? F**k, we wouldn't want more than 32 archers wandering around a land area the size of Belgium during the same 19 day period! Think of the crowds! What if the chosen 32 buck the odds and actually kill a moose?

An honest question to folks living in Region 6 that really did not want to give up scopes on their crossbows. Are you applying for archery LEH or gun LEH this year?

[Pauly]

I worked up in Smithers and hazelton... aka the asshole of the world lol the moose get pounded by the natives up there the C.Os office used to post notices in town asking people not to harvest moose in January and February apparently the unborn fetuses of cow moose are a delicacy to the natives up there. I hate to say it but for all the preaching I do in this case natives really are the hardest thing on our moose decline with logging a close second. If I were native I could have dropped 6 moose myself this year no problem.. so think about that

[S.W.A.T.]

Take note for all those who put in for 6. There isn't much for animals around, look at the restrictions that have taken place over the last couple years, down to a 3 day open season.

[limit time]

Oh well..... 5 and 6 down. Only 6 more to go !

[traparatus]

Edit

I don't get it. After double-checking 6-04 had 81 total tickets for gun LEH last year. That number has shrunk to 3. How is that possible?!

6-09 has 450 and 6-04 has 3??? There is dick all difference between the two. 6-7 has 1 ticket???

[walks with deer]

hmm some kind of pipeline trades?

in my opinion 6-4 had more moose than 6-9 last year...but moose where real low population.

[The Donald]

You're right. You dont know me.

Arrogant comes to mind

[rageous]

How many moose will fn take in region 6 this year?

[limit time]

How many moose will fn take in region 6 this year?
We shall never know...

[Ron.C]

How many moose will fn take in region 6 this year?

As many as they want and unfortunately no one can or will do anything about it.

I agree with JT. Seems like a piss poor decision with no rational reasoning.

Like someone said above, probably has SFA to do with species management and hunter opportunity and everything to do with appeasing someone else's agenda.

[IronNoggin]

I agree with JT. Seems like a piss poor decision with no rational reasoning.

Like someone said above, probably has SFA to do with species management and hunter opportunity and everything to do with appeasing someone else's agenda.

BINGO!!

No data, NO science, just acting on little whining.
Not overly difficult to determine from whom...

Nog

[Pauly]

These decisions may actually increase the risk of poaching because of lack of opportunity? Maybe I’m wrong but I can see it happening.

[Onesock]

My question is will scoped xbows be banned from bow only seasons in all of BC and we lost the bow season in region 6? Loose loose situation.

[S.W.A.T.]

Edit

I don't get it. After double-checking 6-04 had 81 total tickets for gun LEH last year. That number has shrunk to 3. How is that possible?!

6-09 has 450 and 6-04 has 3??? There is dick all difference between the two. 6-7 has 1 ticket???

Well just about all of 6-4 burnt down 2 summers ago, so there is that

[traparatus]

Well just about all of 6-4 burnt down 2 summers ago, so there is that


I guess that's possible. I've been trying to get in touch with a wildlife biologist in the area to get some clarity. A large chunk of 6-09 burnt at the same time. I've been hunting it for two years. Huge portions of 7-13 and 7-25 burnt that same summer. They have 175 authorizations between them for a two months long season. 6-7 hasn't had a fire and more than half of that area is completely inaccessible by road. What possible reason is there to have ONE total ticket for it?

I feel f**********g cheated. When that bullshit 3-day gun season was proposed for the southern portion of Region 6, the argument was that it will be accompanied by expanded LEH opportunity. Trade some quantity for some quality and get better science along the way. Well, 1st year of the 3-day gun season there were 1602 LEH moose authorizations in the Region 6-south. This year there are 959. That's a 40% decrease in LEH opportunity in two years.

Now, to add icing on top of this shit cake, the only guaranteed rut-time opportunity has been canned and replaced with a grant total of 114 Archery LEH authorizations for the entire region. That's not all. A hunter will have to chose whether to apply for gun LEH or archery LEH. We did this to protect people's right to use a scoped bow. Not a single crossbow user, who moaned about a possibility of losing a scope of his bow, is EVER going to apply for an archery LEH.

[HarryToolips]

BINGO!!

No data, NO science, just acting on little whining.
Not overly difficult to determine from whom...

Nog
It's very sad when a GOS or BOS season is lost to LEH...if we get the BC Liberals back in, what do you think the odds are we can bring this BOS season back...

[J_T]

I guess that's possible. I've been trying to get in touch with a wildlife biologist in the area to get some clarity. A large chunk of 6-09 burnt at the same time. I've been hunting it for two years. Huge portions of 7-13 and 7-25 burnt that same summer. They have 175 authorizations between them for a two months long season. 6-7 hasn't had a fire and more than half of that area is completely inaccessible by road. What possible reason is there to have ONE total ticket for it?

I feel f**********g cheated. When that bullshit 3-day gun season was proposed for the southern portion of Region 6, the argument was that it will be accompanied by expanded LEH opportunity. Trade some quantity for some quality and get better science along the way. Well, 1st year of the 3-day gun season there were 1602 LEH moose authorizations in the Region 6-south. This year there are 959. That's a 40% decrease in LEH opportunity in two years.

Now, to add icing on top of this shit cake, the only guaranteed rut-time opportunity has been canned and replaced with a grant total of 114 Archery LEH authorizations for the entire region. That's not all. A hunter will have to chose whether to apply for gun LEH or archery LEH. We did this to protect people's right to use a scoped bow. Not a single crossbow user, who moaned about a possibility of losing a scope of his bow, is EVER going to apply for an archery LEH. I agree, there was a lot of discussion on this prior to a decision. And, it is now obvious all of the effort and input by stakeholders into finding a solution was not heard or listened to at all. I'm perplexed by this result that the one LEH season (I can't really call it an archery season) is concurrent, but shorter to the rifle LEH. From the resident hunter perspective, why would anyone choose the archery LEH? Choose the rifle and have some freedom to choose your weapon. Additionally, we've always been told, from an enforcement perspective, concurrent seasons are a nightmare. This lack of understanding by decision makers leads us to assume there were forces greater than the resident hunter at work. Or, decision makers, really don't understand. And it seems so little about this decision relied on data. Population numbers, habitat, harvest numbers, hunter numbers, FN harvest. All factors that should be considered.

[S.W.A.T.]

I'm hoping the decision to reduce tags for region 6 is a direct result of some kind of study that is showing a picture relating to the number of moose in the area. Fact is numbers are way down since the 80s and I don't actually believe they are sustainable. That being said I'm only going off what I see, I'm not a biologist or a scientist. Definitely just not as many.

[two-feet]

I have heard from the folk doing the moose surveys that numbers are way down, therefor opportunity has been decreased. 6-04 in particular had poor numbers
we can hope that as these burns green up in the coming years the moose numbers will increase

[boxhitch]

It makes litle sense to reduce bull harvest opportunities by regulated hunters, that will do nothing to make more cows
If we really trust antler restrictions as being the control valve on kills, LEH is purely a people control

The reason tags are reduced to one is to keep the hunt on the page, if it goes to zero it is gone and needs to be reinstated, more bureaucratic bs

[The Donald]

I agree, there was a lot of discussion on this prior to a decision. And, it is now obvious all of the effort and input by stakeholders into finding a solution was not heard or listened to at all. I'm perplexed by this result that the one LEH season (I can't really call it an archery season) is concurrent, but shorter to the rifle LEH. From the resident hunter perspective, why would anyone choose the archery LEH? Choose the rifle and have some freedom to choose your weapon. Additionally, we've always been told, from an enforcement perspective, concurrent seasons are a nightmare. This lack of understanding by decision makers leads us to assume there were forces greater than the resident hunter at work. Or, decision makers, really don't understand. And it seems so little about this decision relied on data. Population numbers, habitat, harvest numbers, hunter numbers, FN harvest. All factors that should be considered.

Bullshit, if i can use the scope on my xbow, this is the LEH myself and my hunting buddies are applying for!!!

[Confused1]

It makes litle sense to reduce bull harvest opportunities by regulated hunters, that will do nothing to make more cows
If we really trust antler restrictions as being the control valve on kills, LEH is purely a people control

The reason tags are reduced to one is to keep the hunt on the page, if it goes to zero it is gone and needs to be reinstated, more bureaucratic bs

In some of these areas the bull to cow ratio is low, below the 30/100 threshold that the ministry uses. Not here to say it cant be below that threshold, just relaying the info.

[acal57]

FFS. Covid killed my spring plans and the ministry just killed my fall. FML!

[Pauly]

White tail deer are a problem for moose they can’t handle the brain roundworms that the deer Carry .. 100% fatal we did no group moose leh this year we all put in individual.. if covid continues no group hunting.. the regs are suggesting local hunting only at this point. A point may come when they enforce that one.

[Onesock]

Maybe there will be a bow only season when the 2020 regulations come out. Who knows

[limit time]

White tail deer are a problem for moose they can’t handle the brain roundworms that the deer Carry .. 100% fatal we did no group moose leh this year we all put in individual.. if covid continues no group hunting.. the regs are suggesting local hunting only at this point. A point may come when they enforce that one.

wow! Super cool dude...

[303savage]

I guarantee that will be shut down by FN this year. The way our Governments are kissing FNs ass we will probaby have to buy a second huntiing lic, from them to .

[tuffcityhunter]

Bullshit, if i can use the scope on my xbow, this is the LEH myself and my hunting buddies are applying for!!!
I doubt the the new regulations will be out regarding scopes on bows, before the draws have to be submitted.This is a hard call to make with no information. But my guess is they will be banning scopes with the the way things are going I’ll be shocked if they don’t especially with BCWF supporting the ban.

[The Donald]

I doubt the the new regulations will be out regarding scopes on bows, before the draws have to be submitted.This is a hard call to make with no information. But my guess is they will be banning scopes with the the way things are going I’ll be shocked if they don’t especially with BCWF supporting the ban.

I talked to service BC, they haven't heard a word from Fish and Wildlife, they told me to contact them. I sent them an email in regards to when they will release the new regs, i also said that it would be an issue releasing them late as per all the changes and discussion they put for in regards to this season. Will update if i hear anything.