Thoughts on female harvest, specifically in Colorado

[cougarhound]

i know where i live is not like colorado,and you houndsmen can tell me to f off anytime,,our big game here in b.c. canada for the most part is managed very well,our cats are very well maintained,maybe look at something along these regs for ref, just my opinion.

[Brady Davis]

Can we form some type of committe to attend DOW meetings and have inteligent conversation?. I know when I lived in Utah guys were organized to attend the meetings...I know I'd be happy to participate any way possible...

Brady, The problem here in Colorado is, the houndsmen are so divided. I hear all the time houndsmen bitching about other houndsmen. Look on this board, there are guys that try so hard on proving that there is a difference between coonhounds and biggame hounds and stiring up so much crap.The point is we are houndsmen first and we need to stick together and fight for our hunting rights.
The Utah club worked because they came together as houndsmen.I was there in the start of the "Coonhound Club" that started the ball rolling. Alot of discussion was on how we were going to get some of the old timers out to the meeting and give there input.They were divided as far as coon houndsmen and biggame houndsmen.They got it done, But not by saying that "You are biggame hunters and we are Coonhunters and vise versa.
I guess what I am saying is they overcame this, " I have the greatest biggame dogs or the only true biggame dogs " "You are Coonhunters and We are Biggame hunters".
WE need to leave our dogs and color of dogs and wheather they are biggame hounds or coonhounds out of our discusions and come thogether as HOUNDSMEN.


Agree to disagree for the sake of our hunting rights

I agree 100%. Any solid ideas on how we start? You have some experience on this.....

Thanks

[cougarhound]

i think the first thing is for EVERYONE not just 50% or 80% but 100% of all houndsmen to stop fighting with each other and work together, i have not posted much on here in the past becauase of some of the bullshit i have seen and heard on this forum,some of you need to grow up,now that i got that off my chest.whoever makes up your hunting regs, quota,. you houndsmen need to get together right up a propasal eg:British Columbia's hunting season and quota on cats and say hey we are worried about the future of the cats this is what another country does and are having great succes managing their cats let's try it.

[cougarhound]

107 females in one state that is .......? i don't know what to say about that, after 20 are harvested here are season is done,and we rarely hit that. our season for cougars-sept 10-feb 28.5 months of cat hunting and in some other areas open till end of march

[Mr.pacojack]

Brady, Your coon clubs have already done most of the work for you. They have a membership list of currant members and members of the past. They can send out news letters. They have the funds to do this from their field trials that the biggame hunters bash so much. From this you can get houndsmen together and organize a lion commity and decide what you would like to propose to the DOW. Speakers should be nominated to speak for the whole body of houndsmen. Someone well educated (not like my dumb ass) and that presents himself very well. I have talked to Jed and Dean and my vote would be someone like them. Some that is not a hot head and going to set us back. We need to befreind the DOW not get into arguements with them.
Alot of guys bash the DOW on here over the bear hunting. The bear hunt is not the DOW's fault it is the houndsmens fault. We as houndsmen didn't show up. And if the happens with the lion, the same thing will happen agian.
If you can't see the big picture here, it is , getting houndsmen together and forming a body, just like the anti's have done. We need this. As with most laws, it is a popularty contest. The one with the most people wins.

[cougarhound]

Brady, Your coon clubs have already done most of the work for you. They have a membership list of currant members and members of the past. They can send out news letters. They have the funds to do this from their field trials that the biggame hunters bash so much. From this you can get houndsmen together and organize a lion commity and decide what you would like to propose to the DOW. Speakers should be nominated to speak for the whole body of houndsmen. Someone well educated (not like my dumb ass) and that presents himself very well. I have talked to Jed and Dean and my vote would be someone like them. Some that is not a hot head and going to set us back. We need to befreind the DOW not get into arguements with them.
Alot of guys bash the DOW on here over the bear hunting. The bear hunt is not the DOW's fault it is the houndsmens fault. We as houndsmen didn't show up. And if the happens with the lion, the same thing will happen agian.
If you can't see the big picture here, it is , getting houndsmen together and forming a body, just like the anti's have done. We need this. As with most laws, it is a popularty contest. The one with the most people wins.

i agree with you devin,in b.c. 'every cat' has to be taken to a wildlife inspector getting a certificate before it can be taken to a taxidermist without this paper ..no mount..

[B-N-Trees]

It is nice for once to listen to everyone discuss solutions rather than read stories about all the finger pointing. So now how do we get it done? Should we first try to cooperate between existing houndsmen groups? Work through our state agencies by way of phone conversations, emails, and letters? And how do we reach/educate fellow houndsmen who are not apart of houndsmen groups or who are otherwise not connected to the scope of these issues? I have already spoken with one of our local biologist. He welcomed my phone call and gave some helpful explanations to their strategies and plans for managing lion populations in this state. He also suggested for more information we could contact the state coordinator for the mountain lion and bear program (I can provide a name later if you're interested). I thought it was a positive place to start and that our conversation was encouraging.

[liontracker]

I think we should use the existing Asoc. Because of the success a few years ago in saving lion hunting by this assoc., it should carry some clout. However, new officers may be in order, or at least light a fire under them and get some movers and shakers involved. It worked last time and it will work again.

[Brady Davis]

I think we should use the existing Asoc. Because of the success a few years ago in saving lion hunting by this assoc., it should carry some clout. However, new officers may be in order, or at least light a fire under them and get some movers and shakers involved. It worked last time and it will work again.

Can someone post contact info, etc and we can all get in touch with them and get this ball rolling?...Lots of good ideas here, now lets do them....Let's not discuss labor pains, lets show them the baby

Good input guys

[Mr.pacojack]

James, I may be wrong but I still think you are going to have the best success by going thru these hound clubs.
Get together with what ever people you can get. Even if it is a small group. You can get lists together from that meeting and send out news letters and phone calls and even posts on here about future meetings. Like that old hair ad on tv. And they told 2 of their freinds and so on and so on. Before you know it you will have rabbit hunters there supporting your efforts.
Get a plan together. I don't think you will have any success having a bunch of people call and talk to them.Everyone will tell a different story and they will get very mixed results from us as houndsmen. We will look like idiots. One or two people need to represent the body of houndsmen. We need to do it just like the anti groups. Fight fire with fire. If we represent ourselves a redneck hillbilly group we will surely loose our cause.

[Brady Davis]

If we represent ourselves a redneck hillbilly group we will surely loose our cause.

+1...This has been my fear from the beginning...Let's get guys who are sharp to do the talking and we can all be foot soldiers in the effort.

I have been involved in Rodeo from High School to Professional and have been on many leadership committees where we dealt with antis and I can tell you this, the antis do plenty good enough job making them selves look like asses, we just gotta have the right guys up front and we'll be good...

[B-N-Trees]

James, I may be wrong but I still think you are going to have the best success by going thru these hound clubs.
Get together with what ever people you can get. Even if it is a small group. You can get lists together from that meeting and send out news letters and phone calls and even posts on here about future meetings. Like that old hair ad on tv. And they told 2 of their freinds and so on and so on. Before you know it you will have rabbit hunters there supporting your efforts.
Get a plan together. I don't think you will have any success having a bunch of people call and talk to them.Everyone will tell a different story and they will get very mixed results from us as houndsmen. We will look like idiots. One or two people need to represent the body of houndsmen. We need to do it just like the anti groups. Fight fire with fire. If we represent ourselves a redneck hillbilly group we will surely loose our cause.

I agree. We need to get behind our organizations to be well represented and to accomplish the best results.

[FullCryHounds]

The past few years, I've kept in close contact with my local Warden. He's been very open to suggestions and has helped me make a couple of small changes to some local GMU's. I drafted a letter to the commission and he backed my suggestions and they accepted them and made the changes this year. I think we should start with a simple letter, signed by as many guys as we can, and/or the association. As many of us could show up at one of the commission meetings for support and we could present our proposal. I think it would have to be put on the agenda before hand.
I'll throw out the first suggestion. Any of the units that are currently under the catagory of too many females being harvested should have a female quoata on them, something like 25% (or whatever % we come up with). I think I would be hesitant to include all GMU's at this time since we don't have a problem in all GMU's. It's simple enough they may accept it.
Now another problem we are going to have is that the 5 year season structure was done, I think 2 years ago. So I think that means any major changes wouldn't be able to be done for another 3 years or so. I would think a change like this would be major enough that the commission wouldn't want to entertain it right now. But I'm not sure so it's worth a try.

[B-N-Trees]

Now another problem we are going to have is that the 5 year season structure was done, I think 2 years ago. So I think that means any major changes wouldn't be able to be done for another 3 years or so. I would think a change like this would be major enough that the commission wouldn't want to entertain it right now. But I'm not sure so it's worth a try.

Yes, but this is critical time we need to come together and discuss ideas and plans just as you have already suggested. We need to work through our houndsmen groups, establish leaders and spoke persons and such to help keep up the momentum. How are we going to get this done?

[liontracker]

Dick Ray is an outfitter (Lobo Outfitters) and a houndsman who lives in Pagosa Springs. He is also a wildlife commissioner. I suggest someone start there.