[rant]
I haven't hunted for many years, but grew up hunting with my dad and would like to put some elk meat on the table this year.
So a few days ago, I went down to the local "stuff" store and picked up the regs book. Could they make it any more complicated??? If they tried real hard??? I don't think so!
The whole state is split into hundreds of "GMUs" (Game Management Units). The lines dividing these are apparently arbitrary and not shown clearly on the map in the reg book. Each GMU apparently has a different set of rules, varying season lengths, and varying definitions of a legal elk.
As if hundreds of itsy bitsy GMUs isn't enough, some GMUs have different sets of rules operating within them ("that part of GMU 621 north and west of Jimmy Come Lately Creek...")
There are at least a dozen, maybe more, 'special tags,' 'special hunts,' 'special seasons,' etc ad infinitum. Some areas require extra permits. Some are "Firearm Restriction Areas," meaning that they are subject to extra rules about the type of gun you can use. Some regulate whether non-shooters can accompany shooters and some do not.
I seriously doubt that any one hunter, in any one year, would be able to obey all the regs listed in that book. If someone did, it would be a plain miracle.
[/rant]
pax
"The question nowadays is not what makes government work. The question is how do we make it stop." -- P. J. O'Rourke
I haven't hunted for many years, but grew up hunting with my dad and would like to put some elk meat on the table this year.
So a few days ago, I went down to the local "stuff" store and picked up the regs book. Could they make it any more complicated??? If they tried real hard??? I don't think so!
The whole state is split into hundreds of "GMUs" (Game Management Units). The lines dividing these are apparently arbitrary and not shown clearly on the map in the reg book. Each GMU apparently has a different set of rules, varying season lengths, and varying definitions of a legal elk.
As if hundreds of itsy bitsy GMUs isn't enough, some GMUs have different sets of rules operating within them ("that part of GMU 621 north and west of Jimmy Come Lately Creek...")
There are at least a dozen, maybe more, 'special tags,' 'special hunts,' 'special seasons,' etc ad infinitum. Some areas require extra permits. Some are "Firearm Restriction Areas," meaning that they are subject to extra rules about the type of gun you can use. Some regulate whether non-shooters can accompany shooters and some do not.
I seriously doubt that any one hunter, in any one year, would be able to obey all the regs listed in that book. If someone did, it would be a plain miracle.
[/rant]
pax
"The question nowadays is not what makes government work. The question is how do we make it stop." -- P. J. O'Rourke