Hey, I'm booking a hunt with USO this year, and the year after and the year after................

Good for you. They will at least have one customer. How do you feel about the illegal use of aircraft for elk hunting? You can luv em all you want but I don't have to.

They didnt become the largest most well known outfitters in the country because of just on client. I havent given them that much money

No you dont have to. And I dont love them, I just have no reason to hate them.

Hey TX you need to be aware of who you support!!! USO's clientel will definatly suffer after this is all said and done!!!!! as a hunter
you must have some standards as to how low you will stoop!!!!!! or maybe not...

Today's ruling:

Judge says Arizona must revise hunt draw process immediately

The Arizona Game and Fish Commission today decided to allocate more hunt permits for bull elk and deer to satisfy a court ruling.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Robert Broomfield threw out Arizona’s 10 percent cap on nonresident hunt permits, saying it violated the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Today the judge denied the state’s request for more time to comply with his order, essentially forcing Arizona to retool the hunt draw process.

Following today’s ruling, the choice before the commission was to either throw out the results of this year’s drawing for all elk and deer and re-conduct the draw— or to issue additional permit tags, many of them to nonresidents who may have been shut-out of the first drawing.

The commission chose to allocate an additional 805 hunt permits.

“We had to follow the judge’s order,” says Deputy Director Steve Ferrell, “and we determined that allocating more permits would harm the fewest amount of people without significantly affecting wildlife, either.”

Those hunters already drawn for bull elk or drawn for antlered deer in Hunt Units 12A, 12B, 13A and 13B will receive permits as planned before the court ruling was issued.

In order to accommodate the judge’s order, an additional list of applicants will be assembled, consisting of hunters who had the lowest random numbers issued during the draw process. That list will then be sorted without using the nonresident cap, resulting in an additional 805 hunters who will receive a permit. Although most of the new permits will go to nonresidents, some Arizonans will benefit, too, because some will be for residents who applied to hunt with nonresident friends.

“Given the constraints imposed by the judge, we think this system is the best choice to benefit all Arizona hunters,” says Ferrell. “If we had to conduct the entire draw again, many hunters would not receive their permits in time to adequately plan their trip, and that would affect a lot of people who make their living in hunting-related businesses. And in terms of the effect on wildlife, because only a small number of hunt units are affected, we’ve determined that a one-time increase in permits will not significantly affect wildlife resources.”

The additional permits will affect a relatively small percentage of hunt units—only 42 of 165 elk hunt units, and 9 of 108 deer hunt units.

“Most important,” says Ferrell, “ is that every Arizona hunter who was already drawn this fall will receive a permit. We’re not taking away any permits from residents.”

The delay in the draw process will also cause a slight delay in permit mailings. Hunters selected in the original drawing can check to see whether they’ve been awarded a permit by checking the department Web site, azgfd.com, July 21. Hunters who receive the additional tags will be notified no later than Aug. 10 for hunts that begin in mid-September.

Those hunters who were successful in the original drawing will receive their permits in the mail by July 30, and those who receive one of the additional permits—resident and nonresident—will receive their permits by Aug. 30.

Meantime, the department is poised to release the names of applicants who have been drawn for species not affected by the court ruling: buffalo, bighorn sheep, turkey and antelope. Hunters who put in for those species can learn their status no later than 5 p.m. on July 20.

More than 100 hunters attended today’s commission meeting. More than 270,000 people applied for big game permits for the fall hunt.

Before the close of the meeting today, Game and Fish Director Duane Shroufe thanked his staff for working “12 to 16 hour days since this ruling came down.” He also thanked the Game and Fish Commission for its decisiveness and hunters for their support of the department. Shroufe said this ruling would affect many other states besides Arizona.

The Game and Fish Commission will discuss long-term options to address the court ruling at a meeting to be held in Flagstaff, Aug. 13-14.

Sounds like our G&F guys are doing the usual good job. I hope that this passes muster with the liberal snot suckin' judge and the beauty is that it is based on fairness of people who allready applied and does not bebefit USO with a handful of special permits. It shows that we are not opposed to non-res hunters but don't want some poacher business selling our animals. This will allow G&F to really think about how to manage around the ruling for next year. I hope they throw Taulman in jail for his airplane charges now. Thanks for your research.

Glen

Don't fault Judge Broomfield. He originally found in favor of G&F. The 9th Circuit Court overturned his ruling. Thus he is now only doing what the CC ordered him to do.

BTW, the results are psoted on the AZGFD website now.

Mine were:

DEER - Not Drawn
ANTELOPE - Not Drawn
ELK - Not Drawn
BGHRNSHP - Not Drawn (36 years worth!)
BUFFALO - Not Drawn

So there's NO big game hunting in my own state this year. Oh yeah, my first choice for deer was 12A West - the North Kaibab. Likely, several NRs received some of the EXTRA 805 permits for hunts there. -TONY

Mine was no elk, no antelope, no sheep, no deer and no buffalo. I have a raghorn tag for the reservation so at least I will be bowhunting. I also am building points. Freind got drawn for bull so maybe I will scout with him a bit. Better luck next year.

so if this case is mostly about the sale of animal parts and not allowing interstate commerce why don't they just change the regs to state that it is illegal to sell the parts?

Buck Knife,

From the earlier message I posted:


Quote:
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The decision forced the AGFD to pick one of several options available:

· Dump the nonresident cap
· Outlaw the sale of deer & elk antlers by anyone
· Raise the cost of nonresident permits high enough for a de facto cap
· Appeal the decision to the U. S. Supreme Court

The Arizona Game and Fish Commission voted unanimously last October to choose door #4 – an appeal to the Supreme Court, which will have the option to hear the case and rule or simply decline hearing it altogether.


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So yes, that is possible, but the commission will also need to weigh doing so with the downsides. For example, if I decide to sell one of my trophy mounts, I couldn't do it within the state of Arizona. Likewise for an antler collector selling to others.

So, just changing that law is not as cut and dry as it appears on the face of it because it will affect other aspects. And no doubt all the options will be on the table when the REAL discussion takes place in Aug. Then whatever change is decided on will be put in place for next year. -TONY