2011 - 12 Granger WMA Postcard Hunt

[viper3853]

Any post card, the cards in the application for public draw book, or a 3X 5 index card should suffice. Let's just say I got some very creative ones last year. TREY

any bonus points for creativity(Budwieser girls or Hooters girls on postcard)??

[bioyak]

bonus points

I think that's what some of the guys had in mind last year - Derrick is a newly married man and he will be getting them - TREY

[Neano]

Is it first 80 people to send in or random drawing?

[bioyak]

draw or what?

drawing - then standby on the following monday for the spots that drawn hunters did not show up for at the mandatory orientation. Hope to get a lot of locals there - last year the folks from a long way off did not really hunt as much as I would have liked. The goal is to remove a lot of DOES. TREY

[denowt]

So there will be hunters roaming around shooting deer throughout the season before the lottery drawn hunts? Kind of reduces chances of actually getting a 13" buck if you're drawn on those hunts doesn't it?
Why not just have more drawn hunt permits?
Open it up for more youth doe drawn hunts, etc.

Being that I'm about 2.5 hours away, it seems this makes it more of a "taking care of my local buddies" type of thing.
Not ranting, just looking at it from another point of view. Helps with my decision between putting in for Chaparral or Granger for archery hunts though. Thanks for the info.

[gbeard]

How many doe were taken last year, Trey?

[Mister Bubba's bulletman]

How many doe were taken last year, Trey?

I thought Johnny said none?

[gbeard]

Wow! None?

We killed a few in pastures bordering the WMA so I guess that helps a little. Hopefully this year will go a little better for the gov. hunts.

[Mister Bubba's bulletman]

I could be wrong. If there were it wasn't many.

[bioyak]

hunts

We killed none last year - this is all about removing more doe deer. I don't see it being much different than a bunch of guys chasing hogs around the place year around. The Area gets a lot of pressure anyway. I have always tried to maximize public hunting opportunity as my highest priority. My second goal is to do the hunts as safely as possible and the third is to do all that with high regard for management of the resource. “Taking care of the locals” is not a priority; in fact I really go beyond what is necessary to make sure everyone gets a fair shake. I hope we can let everyone who applies this year go hunt. Fact is though that people who are local usually spend more time in the woods at Granger – hopefully that will translate to more deer harvested. Last year the folks who were from a long way off barely hunted – that looked good for hunter opportunity’s sake but was really lacking in the “put some does on the ground” category.

Another reason we are going this route is because we don’t have the man power to do a bunch of drawn hunts. 2 years ago when we had a youth rifle and 2 antlerless/spike rifle hunts we managed to kill 8 nubbin bucks and 6 does on those hunts (actually none were harvested on the youth hunt). We spent about 12 man-days putting on those hunts and closing the area down. Those hunts, from a biology standpoint (removing does and balancing our sex ratio), accomplished very little.

This thing is more of an art than a science and we are always trying to make things better for the hunters under the system we have to work under.

[jmaustin]

Trey, this sounds like a great opportunity to get more hunters in the woods, which is always a positive.

I do have a numbers question for you:
I see there will be up to 80 hunters, but how many hunters would make up a group?

[Bubbabowhunter]

We killed none last year - this is all about removing more doe deer. I don't see it being much different than a bunch of guys chasing hogs around the place year around. The Area gets a lot of pressure anyway. I have always tried to maximize public hunting opportunity as my highest priority. My second goal is to do the hunts as safely as possible and the third is to do all that with high regard for management of the resource. “Taking care of the locals” is not a priority; in fact I really go beyond what is necessary to make sure everyone gets a fair shake. I hope we can let everyone who applies this year go hunt. Fact is though that people who are local usually spend more time in the woods at Granger – hopefully that will translate to more deer harvested. Last year the folks who were from a long way off barely hunted – that looked good for hunter opportunity’s sake but was really lacking in the “put some does on the ground” category.

Another reason we are going this route is because we don’t have the man power to do a bunch of drawn hunts. 2 years ago when we had a youth rifle and 2 antlerless/spike rifle hunts we managed to kill 8 nubbin bucks and 6 does on those hunts (actually none were harvested on the youth hunt). We spent about 12 man-days putting on those hunts and closing the area down. Those hunts, from a biology standpoint (removing does and balancing our sex ratio), accomplished very little.

This thing is more of an art than a science and we are always trying to make things better for the hunters under the system we have to work under.

There was one doe killed by one of the guys in our group, it was the only deer brought back to headquarters that week we hunted last year.

[bioyak]

There were some does killed on the draw hunts - None on the Postcard hunts though - at least none came through the checkstation. Sorry for the confusion - TREY

[bioyak]

Trey, this sounds like a great opportunity to get more hunters in the woods, which is always a positive.

I do have a numbers question for you:
I see there will be up to 80 hunters, but how many hunters would make up a group?

I guess there will be 80 in the group - This is a season long hunt and no compartments will be assigned. You will have up to 4 names on a card - this just makes it easier for us to manage the drawing and it ensures that all the names on a card will be either drawn or not drawn. You are welcome to put 1 name on a card, but there is a chance that you or one of your buddies might not get drawn (that make sense?). TREY

[Muzzy100]

I put in I live on the lake, if I get drawn I will def be at it, best of luck to all.