If you want to take your chances at drawing an Arizona Mule Deer Tag, don’t wait too much longer. The deadline is June 8, 2010. You may purchase a license first or apply for one as part of the drawing. You cannot apply online for the draw.

Click HERE for the application.

Or select the States Tab for more information.

Good Luck

MULE DEER RESTORATION COMMITTEE TO MEET IN ELKO

The newly formed Mule Deer Restoration Committee is set to hold its second meeting in Elko Thursday, April 15, beginning at noon in the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) office on 60 Youth Center Road. A teleconference phone will be set up at the 1100 Valley Road Headquarters location as well.

The Mule Deer Restoration Committee, a sub-committee created by Nevada Board of Wildlife Commission (NBWC) Chairman Gerald Lent with the purpose of helping to restore mule deer numbers in the state, is chaired by NBWC vice-chairman Scott Raine. Other members of the committee include Wilde Brough, Cory Lytle, Pat Laughlin and John Carpenter. Tony Wasley, NDOW game biologist, is assigned as staff to the committee.

Raine will hold a review of the Draft Charter for Committee Operations and then review a list of possible factors affecting mule deer populations that the committee will be considering. The review will be followed by a discussion of early Nevada history by local residents Cliff Gardner, Mike Laughlin and Wasley.

The meeting will wrap up with a review of committee assignments. The assignments have been divided among committee members and include liaisons for the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association, Nevada Farm Bureau, and Wildlife Services. Committee members will also be tasked with research and findings regarding several possible factors involving mule deer numbers. These factors include energy development, shed horns, wild horses, pinyon juniper encroachment; ungulate competition; road crossings; predation; doe hunts; genetics, secondary effects of helicopters, and grazing.

The Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) protects, restores and manages fish and wildlife, and promotes fishing, hunting, and boating safety. NDOW’s wildlife and habitat conservation efforts are primarily funded by sportsmen’s license and conservation fees and a federal surcharge on hunting and fishing gear. Support wildlife and habitat conservation in Nevada by purchasing a hunting, fishing, or combination license. For more information, visit www.ndow.org.

The full fee is required up front and there is a non-refundable $27 non-resident application fee. Cost for a standard deer hunt is $270, and for a quality hunt – $355.

Click HERE to apply.

The application deadline is April 6. If you want you can apply for a preference point as your first choice and then apply for a hunt as your second choice. If you draw the hunt then you get no refund and lose your accumulated points for the hunt. If not then you pay $25 plus the application fee and keep your preference point. Or, if you like you can apply for up to five hunt choices, and if you don’t draw then you may keep (and pay) for a license and get a preference point that way. Cost for a non-resident is $329 plus or minus.

Keep applying and building up your bonus points. Maybe you will draw.

Good Luck

The Nevada application period runs from March 19 to April 19. You may use a paper application or apply online. In order to get a bonus point you must buy the license and not have it refunded if you don’t get a tag. There is a slim chance you will get drawn without any bonus points. You can list five choices.

The license costs $142. Deer tags cost $240. Application fees are $16.50 if you apply online.

Click HERE or go to the states tab for more information

Good Luck

Editor:

I’m probably going to blow my chances at getting any Wyoming Game & Fish draw licenses, but here goes.

After my graduation from the University of Wyoming in 1977, I had six months before I could get into my Army Cavalry Class at Fort Knox, Ky., in January 1978. After a Labor Day antelope hunt with some friends northwest of Rawlins, I drove to Afton, where outfitter L.D. Frome hired me on to guide for mule deer in the famous Grey’s River.

That was one of the last years for big bucks in that region. Sure, there are still some trophies but the weather, oil exploration, predators, chronic wasting disease and related factors have seriously impacted mule deer there and all over the West.

Hunting a big mule deer is challenging. Their intelligence is keen and they travel alone or in pairs. They are the sharpest game animal to hunt.

Wyoming’s G&F makes more money selling deer licenses than any animal. We only wish they would devote more time and money to solving the mule deer dilemma.

They waste thousands if not millions of dollars supporting non-game species. The black-footed ferret and the Wyoming Toad are just two examples. Wyoming Wildlife is not what it used to be.

I loved getting that publication decades ago to read about hunting adventures. While reading about other living creatures and our environment may appeal to yuppies, us hunters have stopped reading.

I will let my subscription expire and pick up the Wyoming G&F newspaper as it fills that need.

BILL PADILLA, Cheyenne

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Email submitted by Paul Baxter

This deer was shot 12 miles east of Monticello, Utah by Max Johnson in 
1968. He kept it at his home and didn’t think much about it until his 
son took it to the 2009 International Sportsman’s Expo in Utah. The 
Safari Club staff had a booth near by and asked if they could measure 
it. According to it’s method of scoring, it was 228. The Safari Club 
folks returned it and announced that it was now the Club’s new world 
record.
 
Max’s son is Keele Johnson, a good friend of mine and a former Utah 
legislator, is one of the guides on the moose hunt with me in Alaska.
 
RG