They made it Official

[bearkilr]

out of curiosity, how long have you been a biologist and involved with game management on a provincial level?

how many tags are sold each year to non natives?

how many natives are indeed hunting in the area?

Since you're from Ontario, this doesn't affect you and if you're trolling for an argument, I'm not gonna bite. But to be helpful, I'll answer your second question, answer being: "all of them".

$5 trappers licence, and last year they made the coyote season year round

That applies to Open Area trapping zones only. Does not apply to RTL areas.

Under hunting regulations, the season is Aug.29-Mar.31 and the following regs:

A resident may hunt gray wolves and coyotes during the wolf and
coyote season if they possess any big game hunting licence for
the current licence year. However, if hunting in a GHA while the
area is open to deer, elk, moose, black bear or caribou hunting,
the wolf or coyote hunter must have an unused deer, elk, moose,
black bear or caribou game tag (personal or party), which is valid
for that area, species and time period. Where the deer, elk, moose,
black bear or caribou hunting seasons are closed, a resident may
hunt wolves or coyotes provided he/she is in possession of a used
or unused deer, elk, moose, black bear or caribou licence.

Bag limit is one coyote and wolf per year, except a few areas where you can shoot 2 wolves.

 

[bearkilr]

oops, double post.

 

[Big Game]

Lots of deer in MB just need to get off the road to find them!!!!!

Some areas seem to have held their own, others not so much. DNR needs to start managing on a WMU by WMU basis and not on a provincial scale. That's what's got us to the state we're in now! Just because the Russell area is overrun with deer (as an example), doesn't mean the whole province is.

 

[joe-nwt]

Lots of deer in MB just need to get off the road to find them!!!!!

Well a few years back there were plenty of deer ON the road. This would indicate that there are less Deer than in previous yoars and maybe some management is warranted, don't you think?

 

[canadian hunter312]

Since you're from Ontario, this doesn't affect you and if you're trolling for an argument, I'm not gonna bite. But to be helpful, I'll answer your second question, answer being: "all of them".

lmfao...so now people from other parts of the country aren't allowed to comment on matters occurring in other provinces? last i checked, this was Canadian Gun Nutz, not Manitoba Gun Nutz

i live 10 minutes away from a 46,000 acre reserve containing 15-20,000 natives and people have been reporting lower numbers of deer around here. i was looking for your professional opinion on the matter as you seem to know how to properly manage deer herds. i guess i was wrong

Well a few years back there were plenty of deer ON the road. This would indicate that there are less Deer than in previous yoars and maybe some management is warranted, don't you think?

most would, but apparently some don't agree.

 

[Big Game]

Oops double tap!

 

[Big Game]

I live 10 minutes away from a 46,000 acre reserve containing 15-20,000 natives and people have been reporting lower numbers of deer around here.

Most of the Native hunters around here tend to concentrate on elk and moose. The Metis hunters on the other hand grew up along with the rest of us hunting deer a lot, and Winnipeg is the largest "reserve" you've ever seen. Native and Metis harvest is not the reason opur deer herds are down, but they are a problem in recovering. Treaty rights notwithstanding, hunting practices and modern technology must be factored in if we expect our game populations to survive. Politicians and Wildlife managers need to wake up and manage our resources for all citizens not just indigenous ones! It will be interesting to see how many years it takes to recover from this. I'd be willing to wager that the moose population in WMU 26 never will, the government really dropped the ball here if they wanted to facilitate some sort of a moose recovery program.

 

[BlackLabelBrad]

I can't speak for the rest of the province, but this is probably a good thing for my GHA. I've been seeing maybe half the number of deer that I normally would have seen a few years ago.

 

[Milsparro]

We're still hitting the stupid things with cars up here (Bifrost), should have a higher bag limit near the road lol... I don't understand why the freaking rifle season is so dang short though, some of us can only get out weekends. 1 deer is 1 deer doesn't matter if you kill it the hard way or the easy way.

And yah, everyone should have the same limit... people living off the land excepted, as already is cross-canada.

 

[bearkilr]

most would, but apparently some don't agree.

You're missing the point, let's try again. Effective game management is only possible if the same game laws apply to all hunters, end of story. I did not at any time dispute the fact numbers are down in certain areas, but like with moose hunting in other areas closed to licensed hunters for decades, the recovery will be slow at best.

 

[stuckon308]

My take on it is that hunters were used to deer being in certain areas and all walking all over. But there was also a drought last year in a lot of areas. Deer don't like being away from a water source for too long. Most hunters don't like hunting in boggy/wet areas. Which is why they probably saw 40% less deer. Or whatever they claim. I hunted multiple GHA's last year and in each one I talked with reputable hunters and guides and they all said that the numbers are up. Bucks and does.

Lots of deer in MB just need to get off the road to find them!!!!!

Ding ding. For the win.

Any suggestions how to go about better game management? It's not the biologists fault, but perhaps a political/legal issue ?

If definitely is a political issue. If the NDP didn't run this province into so much debt our Natural Resources might have a budget to actually find out which GHA's have had increases/decreases that year.

the biologist have their heads out of their a--es.they are doing game management by cutting bag limit to one deer.they do their job and all the hunters start #####ing about only being allowed one deer.so hunt something else.you guys do have bears/moose/elk/grouse/yotes/wolves.start hunting some of the major predators.help your deer herd not hunt it into extinction.you also have mule deer.nova scotia only has the whitetail deer and black bears as big game that most of the hunting public can hunt.consider yourselves really lucky to have what you do.

Yes hunting something else would be a nice way of putting the issue aside and ignoring the incompetence of our government. Some of us already legally hunt everything that we can.

Some areas seem to have held their own, others not so much. DNR needs to start managing on a WMU by WMU basis and not on a provincial scale. That's what's got us to the state we're in now! Just because the Russell area is overrun with deer (as an example), doesn't mean the whole province is.

Which would be possible if the provincial government would give the province the money to do it.

We're still hitting the stupid things with cars up here (Bifrost), should have a higher bag limit near the road lol... I don't understand why the freaking rifle season is so dang short though, some of us can only get out weekends. 1 deer is 1 deer doesn't matter if you kill it the hard way or the easy way.

And yah, everyone should have the same limit... people living off the land excepted, as already is cross-canada.

There are a lot of areas where deer numbers are up. In the area where my parents live they say it is not uncommon to still see four or five dead deer on a 20km stretch every time they drive it. Judging by my trail cameras the deer didn't have that tough of a winter.

 

[rsp1761]

The area where I have hunted for 20 years has been getting progressively worse over the last 5 years. I think by and large the numbers Province wide are down and as far as I am concerned this move by DNR is long overdue...

In my hunting area I do know predator numbers are way up and there have been some tough winters (although not this past one).

 

[bwindsor]

Finally, after reading through 4 pages, someone touched on "bad winters". Winter conditions are the biggest single factor effecting our provinces deer #'s. A spin off of the winter conditions is a higher percentage of predator kills. If we get a couple more easy winters like this past one, the seasons will likely get less restrictive. I hope some people don't get offended by "management" giving the deer a break so they rebound a little quicker.

 

[blargon]

White tail deer in Manitoba you get 1 tag for all three seasons, not one tag for each season! And rifle season is 2 weeks from November 11 till November 25!

http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/wildlife/hunting/biggame/wtd/index.html

Welcome to my world for the last 25 yrs...

 

[bearkilr]

Finally, after reading through 4 pages, someone touched on "bad winters". Winter conditions are the biggest single factor effecting our provinces deer #'s. A spin off of the winter conditions is a higher percentage of predator kills. If we get a couple more easy winters like this past one, the seasons will likely get less restrictive. I hope some people don't get offended by "management" giving the deer a break so they rebound a little quicker.

Some of us would be a little less offended if everyone had to give the deer a break, that's the whole point, two sets of laws make for ineffective game management.

 

[bwindsor]

Some of us would be a little less offended if everyone had to give the deer a break, that's the whole point, two sets of laws make for ineffective game management.

Yes, I agree. It is tough to manage with wild cards in the deck.

 

[bronco_mudder]

The area where I have hunted for 20 years has been getting progressively worse over the last 5 years. I think by and large the numbers Province wide are down and as far as I am concerned this move by DNR is long overdue...

In my hunting area I do know predator numbers are way up and there have been some tough winters (although not this past one).

I've too have noticed a slow decline over the last five years in the area that I hunt. I wouldn't say it is from excess, or new no limit hunting either, although in other areas it could be a factor. I spend a lot of time hunting a half section of land that I bought a number of years ago, that is heavily bushed, and has agricultural land around it, as well as a 30-40 acre swamp in the middle of it, so there is water for the deer as well. In years past on an all day sit I could see 40-50 deer on almost any given day in muzzle and rifle season. Over the last few years the numbers have been declining slowly, and last fall an all day sit would top out at 5 deer.

Two winters ago was a brutal one for the deer population. Heavy snow fall, made it hard to get to food, and in the spring there was a rain that caused a thick crust on the snow which made it easy for the over populated coyote population to clean up on an already weak deer heard. I've also noticed an increase in bear sighting around, which can be hard on the fawns in the spring time.

I'm not at all disappointed in the decrease in the "bag limit" for deer hunting. Even with the reduced numbers of deer (just my oppinion, but I'm no biologist), there likely isn't a day that I couldn't harvest a deer. Instead, I wait for days on end, enjoying my time in the field, appreciating nature, unwinding from life, and eventually I pull the trigger on a deer to add to my freezer. I'm more about the hunt than the harvest. I don't care who shoots what, or how many, just enjoy the fact that we are lucky enough to be able to do it at all.

 

[Big Game]

I'm not at all disappointed in the decrease in the "bag limit" for deer hunting. Even with the reduced numbers of deer (just my oppinion, but I'm no biologist), there likely isn't a day that I couldn't harvest a deer. Instead, I wait for days on end, enjoying my time in the field, appreciating nature, unwinding from life, and eventually I pull the trigger on a deer to add to my freezer. I'm more about the hunt than the harvest. I don't care who shoots what, or how many, just enjoy the fact that we are lucky enough to be able to do it at all.

I feel the same way, I usually made at least one batch of "tag soup" each fall. The single tag is just going to make me a little more selective is all. I used to take a meat animal or two during the archery or muzzle season and then just hunted for big bucks over the rut. Now I'll just have to enjoy the hunt and be satisfied with whatever I place my tag on, trophy or meat animal. The one thing that the new regs have me wondering about though is how is the gov't going to replace all that lost revenue? Hope it doesn't come out of the Conservation Dept. budget!

 

[M12shooter]

I feel the same way, I usually made at least one batch of "tag soup" each fall. The single tag is just going to make me a little more selective is all. I used to take a meat animal or two during the archery or muzzle season and then just hunted for big bucks over the rut. Now I'll just have to enjoy the hunt and be satisfied with whatever I place my tag on, trophy or meat animal. The one thing that the new regs have me wondering about though is how is the gov't going to replace all that lost revenue? Hope it doesn't come out of the Conservation Dept. budget!

A valid point but loss of revenue from license sales by the Province is inconsequential when compared to all the other monies deer hunters inject into the rural economy. With less opportunity this season, less will be spent by hunters on fuel, lodging, groceries, restaurants, etc...

IMO dropping the third week of regular rifle season is a ignorant move as well. Many guys that hunt that late in the season are not interested in meat as much as putting a good solid buck down. Many wont even pull the trigger...but they would still have be out spending some cash away from the capital region.

 

[Big Game]

A valid point but loss of revenue from license sales by the Province is inconsequential when compared to all the other monies deer hunters inject into the rural economy. With less opportunity this season, less will be spent by hunters on fuel, lodging, groceries, restaurants, etc...

IMO dropping the third week of regular rifle season is a ignorant move as well. Many guys that hunt that late in the season are not interested in meat as much as putting a good solid buck down. Many wont even pull the trigger...but they would still have be out spending some cash away from the capital region.

Very true! Many rural businesses and resorts will be feeling the pinch. I don't know what area you hunt in but I mostly hunt the Whiteshell and it isn't the seasons that are affecting things there it's the big decrease in the deer herd. Lots of hunters that I've talked to that hunt that area aren't going to bother because of the lack of deer and increased hunting pressure. Oh well, I guess we'll have to wait and see what the next couple of years bring but I don't hold out much hope with all the unregulated hunting in this province.